Editor’s note: Sharon Seidler is senior vice president of Chicago-based C&R Research’s InVision qualitative group.
Envision this: You’re in a supermarket and want to buy some cereal. After looking over the choices, you decide on Cheerios and Frosted Flakes. Then, in the personal care aisle, you pick up Dove Shower Gel and Pond’s Moisturizer. You finish your shopping and go to buy a gift for a college student, finding what you want at The Gap. Now, you’re ready to grab something quick for lunch. Nearby choices include McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. On your way home you pick up a movie at Blockbuster.
So what? Big deal. Well, the wrinkle is that you could be in London, or Edinburgh or Sao Paulo, Paris, Milan or Frankfurt. Today, if you take a vacation “across the pond” or due south, you will have to actively seek out towns that haven’t been Americanized with brands from the States.
The globalization of brands is now a fixture in many companies’ marketing plans. And this often involves implementation of global research, qualitative and quantitative.
What follows are guidelines regarding global research for qualitative studies.
Understand and respect local practices
You will work with a local qualitative researcher who is, of course, fluent in the local language and knowledgeable about culture and customs. You will also need to engage a simultaneous translator if the spoken language is other than English.
Do not impose your practices on the local moderator, but be alert to his/her customs. You can turn over the U.S. discussion guide to be translated and used, but ask the local person to read it and make suggestions for changes. An exercise that works here might not work there.
In the U.S., for example, eight women talking for 90 minutes about a topic fills the bill; in Sao Paulo the custom calls for a two-and-a-half-hour group with considerable upfront time spent just getting to know one another. So leave room for the local researcher to do things her way.
Get early buy-in from the global team
The more globally involved the company is with its products, the more likely the corporate culture will reflect this. In some companies I have wondered if I haven’t walked into a meeting at the United Nations. People are bi- and tri-lingual, and multicultural as well. They are often citizens of the world.
At the start of your qualitative project, arrange for one or more meetings via phone or in-person. These meetings will ensure that everyone starts out on the same page in the hymnbook...and you’ll also have the opportunity to pick their brains. Encourage the team, especially those intimate with the non-U.S. regions, to give you an education on the history of the markets. Also, encourage them to formulate hypotheses about what might occur in the research and what alternative scenarios and findings might emerge.
Cohesion and team-building early in the process will pay off later in good attitude and also in quicker implementation of next steps.
Be sensitive to the pitfalls of translations
If you are working with new product concepts or communications, they will, of course, need to be translated. Often, idioms are included and these don’t translate well. A slight change in the translation can drastically alter the meaning...and the ultimate response.
If you are fortunate enough to travel to non-U.S. markets for the research, be sensitive to the translations and how they are affecting responses. Build in sufficient time between group interviews to make changes to the materials to more closely reflect the intention of the original concept or communications. The local researcher, simultaneous translator and local members of the client organization should be included in meetings between interviews to make sure the translations are optimal.
Understand the context
If you travel to the foreign region, do not simply attend the groups and leave. Soak up the culture as much as possible. If you are working on a supermarket CPG product, visit a market or two. Do mini ethnographies and just observe people at the section. Take note of where your client’s product is shelved and what surrounds it.
Arrange for a bilingual speaker to accompany you. Ask her to engage a shopper and ask questions about the purchase decision without divulging the brand in which you are most interested. A debriefing with your companion will provide you with a modest education of the marketplace and local consumers.
Weave, don’t glue
You are now ready to write the global report. Your local non-U.S. researcher should be writing the document that pertains to that region. You are responsible for the global report.
It is tempting to simply incorporate the two documents in such a way that shows how the two (or more) regions responded, structuring a document along this line: U.S. findings/Latin American findings.
Avoid this sort of “paste-and-glue” report because it is not as useful as it might be to your client. Your job is not to glue, but to weave. As a weaver, you should digest all of the findings and begin the report with common themes that were reflected in all regions. Areas of common ground are most useful, so at least begin with the threads of analysis that link respondents across the globe.
First, think globally...then act locally
The mandate to think globally and act locally is a good one and it applies particularly well to qualitative research. While it’s important to weave the multiple reports together and look for common themes, it is equally important to be sensitive to differences among the regions.
Thus, for a communications study for a CPG product, it would be ideal to be able to identify a consumer insight that resonates in the U.S. and beyond - some basic truth that applies to consumers in Atlanta and Sao Paulo and Frankfurt.
However, when it’s time to address the nitty gritty of product formulation or packaging, for example, local differences and preferences must be acknowledged. No product or service is completely portable and ready for export as is.
Wonderful opportunity
Globalization of companies and products necessarily involves global research. Qualitative global research represents a wonderful opportunity to provide guidance to correctly launch a new product in multiple and disparate regions. The suggestions outlined can help the global qualitative research process work smoothly and enhance your overall contribution.