What I wish I had known...
Editor’s note: Mary Gadbois is president of Gadbois & Associates, a Grand Rapids, Mich., research firm.
Although it may seem like the old saying “hindsight is 20/20” applies mainly to the stock market these days, I have found that it also can apply to marketing research. I worked on the client side of marketing research for several years before becoming a research consultant. Although being an expert on qualitative research was part of my job description, now that I work as a moderator and research consultant, I realize that there were many things that I didn’t fully understand about the intricacies of qualitative research when I was a client researcher.
So, based on my experience on both the client and supplier sides of the table, I have a few suggestions and tips for clients throughout all stages of a qualitative project.
Familiarize yourself with a range of moderating styles
Not to stereotype, but in my experience, I have found there to be two broad styles of moderating. On one end of the spectrum are “Type A” moderators who are active in their moderating style, keep the pace going during the groups, ask a lot of probing questions, and actively get respondents back on track when they go off on tangents. On the other end of the spectrum are those who are more laid-back in their style, are very patient and comfortable with silence, take time to phrase their questions precisely, and are willing to give respondents a longer leash than other moderators. Although most moderators fall somewhere between these two extremes, their style tends to veer in one direction or the other.
The key thing is that you can get excellent results with both styles of moderating. It just depends on what style you personally are comfortable with and that fits with the needs of your internal client. Certain clients aren’t patient and trusting enough to work optimally with a more relaxed moderator, while others have concerns that Type A moderators may be “leading” in their interviewing technique. Given these different needs, I recommend that client researchers gain experience and learn to feel comfortable with both styles of moderating so that they can choose the best moderator for a given project.
When choosing a moderator, reputation isn’t everything
When looking for new moderators to add to your pool, word-of-mouth or a personal referral is always a good way to screen potential names. However, it is important not to base your entire decision on a consultant’s reputation alone, as there are other factors that are equally important in finding the right consultant for a project. These factors include providing good customer service, giving your project the time and attention it deserves, and providing an excellent report/presentation when one is needed. And it isn’t always the consultant with the most experience or the most well-known name that provides these outcomes.
I learned this lesson the hard way. When I was a client, I hired a very renowned moderator for a project and witnessed the most poorly moderated groups of my research career. It was obvious that she was ill-prepared, that someone else at her company had prepared the screener and discussion guide, and that she had not internalized any information about the background of the project or key issues. Needless to say, I spread the word and no one at my company ever used her again!
Strong analytical skills are critical for a good moderator
At my old company, we almost always wrote our own qualitative reports, so I never made the decision of whether to use a moderator based on their analytical skills. However, I now realize that having strong analytical skills and being a good moderator go hand in hand. During a group, a good moderator is continually asking themselves whether they understand what the respondent is saying, how it ties back to what was said earlier, and whether they understand enough about the topic to move on, or if they should probe further. A moderator who is able to constantly analyze and synthesize the information that is being provided by respondents will have a better grasp on the issues in which to delve deeper, and will know when its best to go off the guide and ask unplanned yet relevant questions.
Get input from the moderator on methodology
As a client researcher, it’s easy to think that since you are more familiar with the industry and issue at hand, you know exactly what type of research is required. In my old job, I would often contact my favorite moderator and, rather than explaining the issue and desired outcome of the research, I would tell her we needed to do x number of groups among this target sample in these locations. Since she was the consummate professional, we typically generated the information we needed from the groups. However, I now know that by approaching it the way I did, I missed taking advantage of her wealth of knowledge. Clients often get used to doing research their “corporate way” and could sometimes benefit from a fresh approach or a different perspective.
Make sure the moderator is fully briefed well in advance
As a client, I unknowingly made life very difficult for the moderators I worked with, as I assumed that I could just send them my internal research request and not talk to them again until we met an hour before the groups. Although the groups usually turned out fine because we worked with excellent moderators, I realize now that the results could have been even better if I had spent more time in the days or weeks before the groups providing the moderator with more detail on the reasons for the research, other research related to the issue, client hot buttons, etc.
Also, although stimulus for the groups is often not completed until hours (or even minutes) before the groups, I think it’s extremely helpful to provide the moderator with at least a rough idea of what the stimulus is going to look like well in advance, as this will help them in optimizing their discussion questions and exercises.
Don’t underestimate the importance of a good screener
I think many clients fail to realize just how critical a good screener is to the success of a qualitative project. No matter how good the discussion guide is and how great the moderating goes, if you’re getting information from the wrong group of people then it’s all in vain. A good moderator will take the time to ensure that the screening questions recruit the intended sample but may not always utilize the same approach or same questions that you, as the client researcher, had in mind. You should always review and approve a screener that the moderator has prepared prior to the groups, and talk through any questions you may have with the moderator so that both of you are on board with the respondent profile.
Don’t data dump the discussion guide
These days, marketers are under pressure to do more for less, and this mindset has impacted how many clients approach research. Many clients try to cram as many issues as possible into one research project and seem surprised when you tell them that a 20-page discussion guide won’t work for a two-hour group! It is extremely important that clients sit back and think through exactly what they want to accomplish with a given qualitative project, and prioritize those areas that are need-to-know vs. nice-to-know. In qualitative research, we are really looking for depth of information, and if we try to cover too much, we’ll end up skimming the surface on a variety of topics, without fully understanding the whys behind the whats.
I recently had a very positive experience with a client in regard to this issue. After I had prepared the discussion guide based on his issues, I mentioned that I would do my best to cover everything but timing would be tight. He sat right down and prioritized issues and cut out one whole section of the discussion guide. The resulting groups were extremely fruitful, as we were able to delve deeply into the issues and were even able to add insight into the area that we didn’t cover through our understanding of respondents’ underlying motivations.
Communicate with the moderator/consultant on report format
Although many clients don’t require research reports after every qualitative project, it is still nice to know that when you do need a report, the moderator/consultant you use will provide a report that fits your needs. However, it is up to the client to communicate with the consultant to let them know exactly the type of report they desire. Every client favors a particular style of report (Word vs. PowerPoint, narrative vs. bullet-pointed, etc.), and a moderator can’t read your mind to know exactly what you want. It is also helpful to talk about the type of report you want early on in the process, as you might be able to gain some savings if your favored report style is more top-line, less verbatim-heavy.
Make sure you are comfortable with the moderator’s involvement in the report process
A growing practice is having note takers or analysts in the back room taking notes and recording insights during the focus groups. Although this practice is invaluable to busy moderators, my concern it that this wonderful development can get exploited if moderators allow the note takers or analysts to write the report without the moderator being involved in the process. Clients typically pay top dollar for qualitative projects from experienced moderators/consultants and should expect that this payment will include the moderator’s expertise on the final report or presentation. As a client, I would just ask the moderator/consultant what their process is for writing reports and make sure that you are comfortable with their protocol.
This issue was highlighted for me recently when I had a discussion with a prospective client who had used a very well-known moderator for a recent project. This client was delighted with how things went during the groups but was very disappointed with the final report. Given this consultant’s reputation, she was appalled at the poor writing style and low level of insights that the report included. Although I didn’t say anything to her, my guess is that a junior staff person actually wrote the report without much supervision from the moderator.
Given their workloads, client researchers need as much help and support as they can get
In these days of corporate restructurings and cost cutting, client-side market research professionals are responsible for a wide variety of research areas including primary and secondary, qualitative and quantitative, brand and category information, etc. Given this wide-ranging responsibility, it is difficult for client researchers, particularly entry-level professionals, to be experts in all of these areas. My goal with this article was to shed some light on issues underlying qualitative research to help ease the burden for client researchers at least in this one area.