Since 2004, the Globalpark Annual Market Research Software Survey has predicted the Web to be the fastest growing methodology year over year. In 2010, however, the survey predicted for the first time a change in directions for the industry: the Web would not be the fastest growing methodology in 2011, but rather self-directed interviews using mobile devices.   With over 70 percent of the world using some sort of mobile device today, the above findings are not that surprising. Today’s population is more mobilized than Read more »

Obsessions come and go. Pogs; pet rocks; chia pets; popped collars; scrunchies; beanie babies. They come into our lives, become our new obsessions, and then slowly fade away as the next big thing comes to market. Marketing in many ways is no different. It is an ever evolving industry that changes with the times. And as of late, marketing has developed a new obsession, one that may be here to stay: the customer. While marketing has always been targeted at the customer, it’s really been Read more »

Right out of the gate:  I’ll likely get heat for this blog post.  So as a pre-emptive measure, here’s some background.   Over the past couple of summers at Qualvu we’ve sourced some very talented and motivated college-level interns.  We’re a great gig for them to gain experience in a high growth start-up that blends Internet technology with the qualitative research industry – and who can beat summertime near the Rocky Mountains.  When the interns arrive I’m always anxious to give them cool projects that Read more »

Have you imagined what you would do if you were ever on camera? Would you become camera shy? Or ham it up? While we don’t really know what we would do until the lights come on, Qualvu has found that participants are anything but shy when asked to share their experiences on camera – even introverts who wouldn’t speak up in a focus group.   In a recent study, when asked to document themselves answering research-driven questions via mobile video, participants were surprisingly forthcoming with Read more »

It’s a fact: Google has changed our lives forever – from the way we search for information to how we find our way around town. But a recent study conducted by Columbia University Psychologist Betsy Sparrow has revealed that Google’s implications in our lives are even deeper than we thought. Sparrow and her team found that Google has rewired our brains and changed how we remember things. As Albert Einstein once said, “Never memorize something that you can look up.” And Google has enabled us Read more »

As consumers, we know what we like and don’t like, and no one can change that.  Or can they?   We like to believe that we are immune to outside influences, but studies find that our surroundings play a key role in the decisions we make.  One of the most telling studies done on peer pressure was conducted in the 1950s by Social Psychologist Solomon Asch.  In the experiment, participants were shown a line and then asked to choose which line (out of three) matched Read more »

Your marketing strategy depends on insights that help you understand consumers’ deepest thoughts, values, and motivators. Lots of barriers stand between what brand managers need to know to make decisions and how consumers behave and think – consciously and subconsciously. But mobile video opens a new world of opportunity in how you connect with consumers’ external and internal worlds. If you are wondering how mobile video can help you gain insight into your customers’ emotional drivers and values, you can’t miss this webinar. Join us Read more »

(If you aren’t, it could be fatal to your product) “Know thy customer” is commandment of business that all profess to follow, but few follow far enough.  Do a survey or two, have the Marketing people come up with some statistics, throw in an assumption, ask your spouse, watch some customers from behind a two-way mirror in a focus group, and in no time, you can convince yourself that you know all you need to know about your customers.   Then along come companies like Read more »

The Internet has revolutionized scores of industries and businesses, given birth to new ones (see eBay, Facebook) and written the obituary for others (see newspapers, travel agents). Because a generation or two have grown up on the Internet, and because it is so commonplace, we often don’t realize just how profound its changes have been and how profound they continue to be. One of the great paradoxes of fundamental change is that the people least aware of it are the ones most involved in it. And while it is always risky to say that the Internet has transformed one industry more than others, it is also becoming clearer and clearer that because of the Internet, qualitative research will never be the same.

The proverbial wisdom is that if you eavesdrop on people who are talking about you, chances are that you will hear them say unfavorable things about you. The implication is that you should not eavesdrop.   That centuries-old idiom is pertinent to market researchers today, because it underscores the phenomenon that people are more critical of you – and more honest with others – if they think you aren’t in the room.  That’s one of the great weaknesses of focus groups:  People asked to talk Read more »

There’s no time like the present The fourth pillar of great qualitative research is momentous.  Or, as we like to say, “in the moment.”   When you collect insights is directly related to the quality of research you get.  Focus groups, which often ask consumers to remember something about a product or service, are legendary for flushing-out false memories – somebody swearing that they remember something that never happened.  It’s not that people prevaricate; it’s that memories are fallible.  Same with methodologies that require texted Read more »

When it’s good to be anti-social Human beings are the quintessential social animal.  From our earliest days, we’re inculcated to please, to act prescribed ways, to say correct things, to “play well with others.”  We go along to get along.   But one instance where being a social animal is detrimental is when you’re asked your opinion, or asked for feedback.  At that point, subconscious filters kick in, and to some extent or another, the mere fact that you’re with other humans influences your response.  Read more »

New technologies, combined with newly empowered consumers who share insights from their private settings, are changing the way brands connect with their most important audiences. Importantly, these interactions are forming the basis for new level of depth in qualitative research, and are taking research out of the focus group and into the living room. Qualvu has worked with many of the world’s leading brands, such as Procter & Gamble, eBay, Yahoo!, Chrysler, Kellogg’s, and Disney, who are leveraging the company’s unique and innovative asynchronous video Read more »

The image of a consumer as a reluctant source of feedback for companies is far from the reality. The truth is that consumers feel empowered and respected when they know that a company is vitally interested in what they think, how they react to a product, or how they evaluate choices in the market. The problem has always been how to get consumers to volunteer the kind of candid, expansive information that’s essential to a company’s strategy – information gleaned from customers not in a Read more »

Zoologists don’t base their knowledge of animals on what they observe at the zoo. When they study animal behavior, they choose to observe animals in the wild.  The fact is that in captivity, animals modify their behavior and adapt to the circumstances in which they are placed.   Humans also behave differently in their natural environments than in contrived environments where they know they’re being observed and where they have to follow artificial rules.   Lions don’t walk back and forth in the wild. They Read more »