depth interview in marketing research

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In-depth Interviews: Definition and how to conduct them

Online surveys, user review sites and focus groups can be great methods for collecting data. However, another method of gathering data that is sometimes overlooked are the in-depth interviews.

All of these methods can be used in your comprehensive customer experience management strategy, but in-depth interviews can help you collect data that can offer rich insights into your target audience’s experience and preferences from a broad sample.

In this article you will discover the main characteristics of in-depth interviews as a great tool for your qualitative research and gather better insights from your objects of study.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Research

What are in-depth interviews?

In-depth interviews are a qualitative data collection method that allows for the collection of a large amount of information about the behavior, attitude and perception of the interviewees.

LEARN ABOUT: Best Data Collection Tools

During in-depth interviews, researchers and participants have the freedom to explore additional points and change the direction of the process when necessary. It is an independent research method that can adopt multiple strategies according to the needs of the research.

Characteristics of in-depth interviews

There are many types of interviews , each with its particularities, in this case the most important characteristics of in-depth interviews are:

• Flexible structure: Although it is not very structured, it covers a few topics based on a guide, which allows the interviewer to cover areas appropriate for the interviewee.
• Interactive: The interviewer processes the material that is produced during the interview. During the interaction the interviewer poses initial questions in a positive manner, so that the respondent is encouraged to answer. The complete process is very human, and so less mundane and dull.
• Deep: Many probing techniques are used in in-depth interviews, so that results are understood through exploration and explanation. The interviewer asks follow-up questions to gain a deeper perspective and understand the participant’s viewpoint.
• Generative: Often interacting with your target audience creates new knowledge. For instance, if you are talking to your customers, you learn more about the purchase behavior. Researchers and participants present ideas for a specific topic and solutions to the problems posed.

To learn more about the characteristics of in-depth interviews, check out our blog on interview questions .

Importance of conducting in-depth interviews

As an in-depth interview is a one-on-one conversation, you get enough opportunities to get to the root causes of likes/dislikes, perceptions, or beliefs. 

Generally, questions are open-ended questions and can be customized as per the particular situation. You can use single ease questions . A single-ease question is a straightforward query that elicits a concise and uncomplicated response. The interviewer gets an opportunity to develop a rapport with the participant, thereby making them feel comfortable. Thus, they can bring out honest feedback and also note their expressions and body language. Such cues can amount to rich qualitative data.

LEARN ABOUT: Selection Bias

With surveys, there are chances that the respondents may select answers in a rush, but in case of in-depth interviews it’s hardly the worry of researchers. 

Conversations can prove to be an excellent method to collect data. In fact, people might be reluctant to answer questions in written format, but given the nature of an interview, participants might agree giving information verbally. You can also discuss with the interviewees if they want to keep their identity confidential.

In-depth interviews are aimed at uncovering the issues in order to obtain detailed results. This method allows you to gain insight into the experiences, feelings and perspectives of the interviewees.

When conducting the initial stage of a large research project, in-depth interviews prove to be useful to narrow down and focus on important research details.

When you want to have the context of a problem, in-depth interviews allow you to evaluate different solutions to manage the research process while assisting in in-depth data analysis .

LEARN ABOUT: Research Process Steps

Steps to conduct in-depth interviews

• Obtain the necessary information about the respondents and the context in which they operate.
• Make a script or a list of topics you want to cover. This will make it easy to add secondary questions.
• Schedule an interview at a time and date of the respondent’s choice.
• Ask questions confidently and let the interviewees feel comfortable, so that they too are confident and can answer difficult questions with ease.
• Set a maximum duration such that it doesn’t feel exhaustive.
• Observe and make notes on the interviewee’s body expressions and gestures.
• It is important to maintain ethics throughout the process.
• Transcribe the recordings and verify them with the interviewee.

Advantages of in-depth interviews

The benefits of conducting an in-depth interview include the following:

• They allow the researcher and participants to have a comfortable relationship to generate more in-depth responses regarding sensitive topics.
• Researchers can ask follow-up questions , obtain additional information, and return to key questions to gain a better understanding of the participants’ attitudes.
• The sampling is more accurate than other data collection methods .
• Researchers can monitor changes in tone and word choice of participants to gain a better understanding of opinions.
• Fewer participants are needed to obtain useful information. 
• In-depth interviews can be very beneficial when a detailed report on a person’s opinion and behavior is needed. In addition, it explores new ideas and contexts that give the researcher a complete picture of the phenomena that occurred.

Disadvantages 

The disadvantages of in-depth interviews are:

• They are time-consuming, as they must be transcribed, organized, analyzed in detail.
• If the interviewer is inexperienced, it affects the complete process.
• It is a costly research method compared to other methods.
• Participants must be chosen carefully to avoid bias, otherwise it can lengthen the process.
• Generally, participants decide to collaborate only when they receive an incentive in return.

LEARN ABOUT: Self-Selection Bias

What is the purpose of in-depth interviews?

The main purpose of in-depth interviews is to understand the consumer behavior and make well-informed decisions. Organizations can formulate their marketing strategies based on the information received from the respondents. They can also gain insights into the probable demand and know consumer pulse.

In the case of B2B businesses, researchers can understand the demand in more detail and can ask questions targeted for the experts. Interviews offer a chance to understand the customer’s thought process and design products that have higher chances of being accepted in the market.

LEARN ABOUT: 12 Best Tools for Researchers

Final words

An in-depth interview should follow all the steps of the process to collect meaningful data. Hope this blog helps you decide whether you should conduct a detailed interview with your target audience, keeping in mind the pros and cons of it.

If you want to get started with conducting research online, we suggest using an online survey software that offers features like designing a questionnaire , customized look and feel, distributing to your contacts and data analytics. Create an account with QuestionPro Surveys and explore the tool. If you need any help with research or data collection, feel free to connect with us.

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The Depth Interview in Marketing Research

Popular market research techniques like surveys are fantastic for generating masses of data, and they play an incredibly important part in developing meaningful marketing strategies.

However, how do you dig down a little further to generate the kind of more intense, personal insight that can often provide a “light bulb” moment with the potential to ignite a marketing campaign?

Here at Spark, one of our favourite market research techniques that has proved time and again it has the potential to inspire a campaign, and take it in new exciting directions, is the depth or in-depth interview.

A professionally moderated interview feels like a chat between friends. The trick is in knowing when to follow the tangent and when to shut it down. We have conducted thousands of in-depths with everyone from 6-year-olds to 86-year-olds. Once people are made to feel at ease they love to talk, and we love to listen actively to generate the type of insight we are renowned for.

“Good marketers see consumers as complete human beings with all the dimensions real people have.” – Jonah Sachs

What is a Depth Interview?

The depth interview (also known as the in-depth interview) is a highly focused qualitative research technique used to conduct intensive person-to-person interviews. The aim is to focus on a specific product, situation or objective, and gain a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour.

While this all sounds very serious, at Spark we like to try and inject an element of fun into just about any market research technique we use. A relaxed interviewee is usually a more forthcoming one.

Our trained interviewers are experts at delving beneath the surface of superficial responses to uncover and assign meaning to a range of complex attitudes, behaviours and experiences. The focus is on finding out what is happening and why, rather than how many times it has happened.

Variations on the Depth Interview

Depth interviews fall into 3 main formats:

• Informal conversational: A researcher carrying our observational work in a particular setting is briefed to attempt to converse with people within that setting. With good knowledge of the general aim of the exercise but no pre-set questions, the researcher uses the conversation to spontaneously formulate open-ended questions. The participant may not necessarily be informed of the purpose of the interview which allows the interviewer the ability to explore new angles as they come up.
• Semi-structured: These interviews often use topic guides and pre-set questions that remain consistent throughout a series of interviews with a number or participants. The interviewer might vary the sequence of the questions and adjust the level of probing according to the way the interview progresses. The researcher is free to explore new threads and angles as they emerge during the interview.
• Standardised, and open-ended: With a lot of planning and preparation, a series of specific open-ended questions are prepared in advance and used consistently and in the same order throughout interviews with carefully selected participants. The purpose is to identify differences in attitude and approach between the participants. Unlike a questionnaire, the open-ended questions allow the scope of the interview to expand and draw in new ideas and attitudes.

The In-Depth Interview Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantage: Budget Friendly

For the budget-conscious, depth interviews may involve fewer participants and can be made to work hard. Of course, the more specific we get in terms of participant and objectives the more impact it has on budget, but we will always spend your money as if it were our own – promise.

Advantage: Non-Verbal Communication

A significant part of what we communicate is non-verbal. Not 92% as you may have heard from a social experiment conducted donkeys ago, but it is very high, higher than you might expect. A face-to-face interview brings body language like gestures, voice tone, and facial expression back into focus. As a result, the interviewer gets a much fuller understanding of what it is the respondent is trying to convey. By the way, arms folded? They may be actually comfortable as opposed to “closed off” – context is key.

Advantage: Positive Rapport

One of the main advantages of in-depth interviews in research is that they allow the researcher to develop an informal rapport with the participant. This often means that the insight gained is richer and more varied. It allows the interviewer more scope to probe deeper into areas of particular interest and also to redirect the interview when necessary. Often, we sit down for a 60 min chat, and we end up there a lot longer – we like talking and listening to people!

Advantage: Online? No problem

Depth interviews lend themselves to being adapted so that they can be conducted remotely. Modern online communications technology like Zoom, may not present an opportunity to inspire the same levels of trust as a personal interview, but they can still produce meaningful consumer insight. And they are very handy when conducting multi-region depths so a participant in London quickly followed by one in Leeds? Done.

Disadvantage: Non-experts need not apply

For the depth interview to be a truly successful market research technique, the interviewer must have the right level of training, skills, and experience. It looks like it’s “just a chat” but the trust is there is a lot more taking place. Think about driving a car – it looks like “you’re just driving” but the reality is you have mastered the gears, speed, observation, radio – you make it look easy. Conducting an open-ended interview while at the same time maintaining a structure and sharp focus on the desired outcome, is a special skill.

Disadvantage: Objectivity

Results are based on a small sample and are not quantifiable. Analysing them is best undertaken by independent specialists like Spark . Objectivity rather than bias is the key to analysing results, examining new ideas, and producing inspired marketing strategies. For this reason, we often conduct In-depths in a project alongside or before quantitative measurement.

Work that works

Research shouldn’t be boring. We believe that fun breeds creativity, which in turn, delivers better results. And that’s why collaboration is core to Spark projects. We work in partnership with our clients, creating the insight which turns customer understanding into strategy.

Hilton Foods Ireland

Hilton Foods Ireland wanted to understand the Irish meat buyer’s journey and experiences to re-invigorate the consumer experience. Spark put together a meaty plan that included mealtime diaries to understand …

Spark  and Your Next Marketing Project

Spark is an award-winning market research company with an impressive portfolio of high-profile clients . We employ creative and innovative approaches to secure meaningful consumer insight for our clients.

Sometimes, the most productive marketing campaigns are inspired not just by mass data collection, but by getting out in the real world to meet real people in real environments. Our researchers and interviewers are highly trained and very experienced in doing just that.

We understand the complexities of depth interviews, the potential pitfalls, and how to avoid them. We understand the value of new ideas and innovative approaches, and how to collaborate with our clients to bring results that drive fruitful marketing strategies.

For more insight into how Spark can inspire your marketing strategy and help you build and develop brilliant brands, why not head on over to our blog . Watch out for new additions to this series of posts where we pull apart a different market research technique and explain the Spark way of doing it.

In-depth Interview (IDI)

Qualitative research method.

In-depth interview (IDI) is a cornerstone of qualitative research, and the original classic setting for market research of all types: detailed interviews, usually with one respondent.

This type of interview is ideal for detailed exploration of specific ideas, or evaluation of concepts and materials that require thorough focus and concentration. It can also often be the most appropriate setting for research covering more emotional topics, as the relationship between moderator and respondent is key to the outcomes and insight generated from each interview.

Dyads and triads

Dyads and triads are IDI’s with two or three respondents. This setting allows for maintenance of focus on details, and also incorporates an interactive element which can be very useful when there are polarizing or more controversial elements to explore.

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In-Depth Interview Guide

Use this template to create a plan and guidelines for conducting in-depth interviews to gain insight into a market research problem.

• Estimated time required: 2 hours
• Skills required: Interview skills

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10.2 Steps in the Marketing Research Process

Learning objective.

• Describe the basic steps in the marketing research process and the purpose of each step.

The basic steps used to conduct marketing research are shown in Figure 10.6 “Steps in the Marketing Research Process” . Next, we discuss each step.

Figure 10.6 Steps in the Marketing Research Process

Step 1: Define the Problem (or Opportunity)

There’s a saying in marketing research that a problem half defined is a problem half solved. Defining the “problem” of the research sounds simple, doesn’t it? Suppose your product is tutoring other students in a subject you’re a whiz at. You have been tutoring for a while, and people have begun to realize you’re darned good at it. Then, suddenly, your business drops off. Or it explodes, and you can’t cope with the number of students you’re being asked help. If the business has exploded, should you try to expand your services? Perhaps you should subcontract with some other “whiz” students. You would send them students to be tutored, and they would give you a cut of their pay for each student you referred to them.

Both of these scenarios would be a problem for you, wouldn’t they? They are problems insofar as they cause you headaches. But are they really the problem? Or are they the symptoms of something bigger? For example, maybe your business has dropped off because your school is experiencing financial trouble and has lowered the number of scholarships given to incoming freshmen. Consequently, there are fewer total students on campus who need your services. Conversely, if you’re swamped with people who want you to tutor them, perhaps your school awarded more scholarships than usual, so there are a greater number of students who need your services. Alternately, perhaps you ran an ad in your school’s college newspaper, and that led to the influx of students wanting you to tutor them.

Businesses are in the same boat you are as a tutor. They take a look at symptoms and try to drill down to the potential causes. If you approach a marketing research company with either scenario—either too much or too little business—the firm will seek more information from you such as the following:

• In what semester(s) did your tutoring revenues fall (or rise)?
• In what subject areas did your tutoring revenues fall (or rise)?
• In what sales channels did revenues fall (or rise): Were there fewer (or more) referrals from professors or other students? Did the ad you ran result in fewer (or more) referrals this month than in the past months?
• Among what demographic groups did your revenues fall (or rise)—women or men, people with certain majors, or first-year, second-, third-, or fourth-year students?

The key is to look at all potential causes so as to narrow the parameters of the study to the information you actually need to make a good decision about how to fix your business if revenues have dropped or whether or not to expand it if your revenues have exploded.

The next task for the researcher is to put into writing the research objective. The research objective is the goal(s) the research is supposed to accomplish. The marketing research objective for your tutoring business might read as follows:

To survey college professors who teach 100- and 200-level math courses to determine why the number of students referred for tutoring dropped in the second semester.

This is admittedly a simple example designed to help you understand the basic concept. If you take a marketing research course, you will learn that research objectives get a lot more complicated than this. The following is an example:

“To gather information from a sample representative of the U.S. population among those who are ‘very likely’ to purchase an automobile within the next 6 months, which assesses preferences (measured on a 1–5 scale ranging from ‘very likely to buy’ to ‘not likely at all to buy’) for the model diesel at three different price levels. Such data would serve as input into a forecasting model that would forecast unit sales, by geographic regions of the country, for each combination of the model’s different prices and fuel configurations (Burns & Bush, 2010).”

Now do you understand why defining the problem is complicated and half the battle? Many a marketing research effort is doomed from the start because the problem was improperly defined. Coke’s ill-fated decision to change the formula of Coca-Cola in 1985 is a case in point: Pepsi had been creeping up on Coke in terms of market share over the years as well as running a successful promotional campaign called the “Pepsi Challenge,” in which consumers were encouraged to do a blind taste test to see if they agreed that Pepsi was better. Coke spent four years researching “the problem.” Indeed, people seemed to like the taste of Pepsi better in blind taste tests. Thus, the formula for Coke was changed. But the outcry among the public was so great that the new formula didn’t last long—a matter of months—before the old formula was reinstated. Some marketing experts believe Coke incorrectly defined the problem as “How can we beat Pepsi in taste tests?” instead of “How can we gain market share against Pepsi?” (Burns & Bush, 2010)

New Coke Is It! 1985

(click to see video)

This video documents the Coca-Cola Company’s ill-fated launch of New Coke in 1985.

1985 Pepsi Commercial—“They Changed My Coke”

This video shows how Pepsi tried to capitalize on the blunder.

Step 2: Design the Research

The next step in the marketing research process is to do a research design. The research design is your “plan of attack.” It outlines what data you are going to gather and from whom, how and when you will collect the data, and how you will analyze it once it’s been obtained. Let’s look at the data you’re going to gather first.

There are two basic types of data you can gather. The first is primary data. Primary data is information you collect yourself, using hands-on tools such as interviews or surveys, specifically for the research project you’re conducting. Secondary data is data that has already been collected by someone else, or data you have already collected for another purpose. Collecting primary data is more time consuming, work intensive, and expensive than collecting secondary data. Consequently, you should always try to collect secondary data first to solve your research problem, if you can. A great deal of research on a wide variety of topics already exists. If this research contains the answer to your question, there is no need for you to replicate it. Why reinvent the wheel?

Sources of Secondary Data

Your company’s internal records are a source of secondary data. So are any data you collect as part of your marketing intelligence gathering efforts. You can also purchase syndicated research. Syndicated research is primary data that marketing research firms collect on a regular basis and sell to other companies. J.D. Power & Associates is a provider of syndicated research. The company conducts independent, unbiased surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for various industries. The company is best known for its research in the automobile sector. One of the best-known sellers of syndicated research is the Nielsen Company, which produces the Nielsen ratings. The Nielsen ratings measure the size of television, radio, and newspaper audiences in various markets. You have probably read or heard about TV shows that get the highest (Nielsen) ratings. (Arbitron does the same thing for radio ratings.) Nielsen, along with its main competitor, Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), also sells businesses scanner-based research . Scanner-based research is information collected by scanners at checkout stands in stores. Each week Nielsen and IRI collect information on the millions of purchases made at stores. The companies then compile the information and sell it to firms in various industries that subscribe to their services. The Nielsen Company has also recently teamed up with Facebook to collect marketing research information. Via Facebook, users will see surveys in some of the spaces in which they used to see online ads (Rappeport, Gelles, 2009).

By contrast, MarketResearch.com is an example of a marketing research aggregator. A marketing research aggregator is a marketing research company that doesn’t conduct its own research and sell it. Instead, it buys research reports from other marketing research companies and then sells the reports in their entirety or in pieces to other firms. Check out MarketResearch.com’s Web site. As you will see there are a huge number of studies in every category imaginable that you can buy for relatively small amounts of money.

Figure 10.7

Market research aggregators buy research reports from other marketing research companies and then resell them in part or in whole to other companies so they don’t have to gather primary data.

Source: http://www.marketresearch.com .

Your local library is a good place to gather free secondary data. It has searchable databases as well as handbooks, dictionaries, and books, some of which you can access online. Government agencies also collect and report information on demographics, economic and employment data, health information, and balance-of-trade statistics, among a lot of other information. The U.S. Census Bureau collects census data every ten years to gather information about who lives where. Basic demographic information about sex, age, race, and types of housing in which people live in each U.S. state, metropolitan area, and rural area is gathered so that population shifts can be tracked for various purposes, including determining the number of legislators each state should have in the U.S. House of Representatives. For the U.S. government, this is primary data. For marketing managers it is an important source of secondary data.

The Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan also conducts periodic surveys and publishes information about trends in the United States. One research study the center continually conducts is called the “Changing Lives of American Families” ( http://www.isr.umich.edu/home/news/research-update/2007-01.pdf ). This is important research data for marketing managers monitoring consumer trends in the marketplace. The World Bank and the United Nations are two international organizations that collect a great deal of information. Their Web sites contain many free research studies and data related to global markets. Table 10.1 “Examples of Primary Data Sources versus Secondary Data Sources” shows some examples of primary versus secondary data sources.

Table 10.1 Examples of Primary Data Sources versus Secondary Data Sources

Gauging the Quality of Secondary Data

When you are gathering secondary information, it’s always good to be a little skeptical of it. Sometimes studies are commissioned to produce the result a client wants to hear—or wants the public to hear. For example, throughout the twentieth century, numerous studies found that smoking was good for people’s health. The problem was the studies were commissioned by the tobacco industry. Web research can also pose certain hazards. There are many biased sites that try to fool people that they are providing good data. Often the data is favorable to the products they are trying to sell. Beware of product reviews as well. Unscrupulous sellers sometimes get online and create bogus ratings for products. See below for questions you can ask to help gauge the credibility of secondary information.

Gauging the Credibility of Secondary Data: Questions to Ask

• Who gathered this information?
• For what purpose?
• What does the person or organization that gathered the information have to gain by doing so?
• Was the information gathered and reported in a systematic manner?
• Is the source of the information accepted as an authority by other experts in the field?
• Does the article provide objective evidence to support the position presented?

Types of Research Design

Now let’s look specifically at the types of research designs that are utilized. By understanding different types of research designs, a researcher can solve a client’s problems more quickly and efficiently without jumping through more hoops than necessary. Research designs fall into one of the following three categories:

• Exploratory research design
• Descriptive research design
• Causal research design (experiments)

An exploratory research design is useful when you are initially investigating a problem but you haven’t defined it well enough to do an in-depth study of it. Perhaps via your regular market intelligence, you have spotted what appears to be a new opportunity in the marketplace. You would then do exploratory research to investigate it further and “get your feet wet,” as the saying goes. Exploratory research is less structured than other types of research, and secondary data is often utilized.

One form of exploratory research is qualitative research. Qualitative research is any form of research that includes gathering data that is not quantitative, and often involves exploring questions such as why as much as what or how much . Different forms, such as depth interviews and focus group interviews, are common in marketing research.

The depth interview —engaging in detailed, one-on-one, question-and-answer sessions with potential buyers—is an exploratory research technique. However, unlike surveys, the people being interviewed aren’t asked a series of standard questions. Instead the interviewer is armed with some general topics and asks questions that are open ended, meaning that they allow the interviewee to elaborate. “How did you feel about the product after you purchased it?” is an example of a question that might be asked. A depth interview also allows a researcher to ask logical follow-up questions such as “Can you tell me what you mean when you say you felt uncomfortable using the service?” or “Can you give me some examples?” to help dig further and shed additional light on the research problem. Depth interviews can be conducted in person or over the phone. The interviewer either takes notes or records the interview.

Focus groups and case studies are often utilized for exploratory research as well. A focus group is a group of potential buyers who are brought together to discuss a marketing research topic with one another. A moderator is used to focus the discussion, the sessions are recorded, and the main points of consensus are later summarized by the market researcher. Textbook publishers often gather groups of professors at educational conferences to participate in focus groups. However, focus groups can also be conducted on the telephone, in online chat rooms, or both, using meeting software like WebEx. The basic steps of conducting a focus group are outlined below.

The Basic Steps of Conducting a Focus Group

• Establish the objectives of the focus group. What is its purpose?
• Identify the people who will participate in the focus group. What makes them qualified to participate? How many of them will you need and what they will be paid?
• Obtain contact information for the participants and send out invitations (usually e-mails are most efficient).
• Develop a list of questions.
• Choose a facilitator.
• Choose a location in which to hold the focus group and the method by which it will be recorded.
• Conduct the focus group. If the focus group is not conducted electronically, include name tags for the participants, pens and notepads, any materials the participants need to see, and refreshments. Record participants’ responses.
• Summarize the notes from the focus group and write a report for management.

A case study looks at how another company solved the problem that’s being researched. Sometimes multiple cases, or companies, are used in a study. Case studies nonetheless have a mixed reputation. Some researchers believe it’s hard to generalize, or apply, the results of a case study to other companies. Nonetheless, collecting information about companies that encountered the same problems your firm is facing can give you a certain amount of insight about what direction you should take. In fact, one way to begin a research project is to carefully study a successful product or service.

Two other types of qualitative data used for exploratory research are ethnographies and projective techniques. In an ethnography , researchers interview, observe, and often videotape people while they work, live, shop, and play. The Walt Disney Company has recently begun using ethnographers to uncover the likes and dislikes of boys aged six to fourteen, a financially attractive market segment for Disney, but one in which the company has been losing market share. The ethnographers visit the homes of boys, observe the things they have in their rooms to get a sense of their hobbies, and accompany them and their mothers when they shop to see where they go, what the boys are interested in, and what they ultimately buy. (The children get seventy-five dollars out of the deal, incidentally.) (Barnes, 2009)

Projective techniques are used to reveal information research respondents might not reveal by being asked directly. Asking a person to complete sentences such as the following is one technique:

People who buy Coach handbags __________.

(Will he or she reply with “are cool,” “are affluent,” or “are pretentious,” for example?)

KFC’s grilled chicken is ______.

Or the person might be asked to finish a story that presents a certain scenario. Word associations are also used to discern people’s underlying attitudes toward goods and services. Using a word-association technique, a market researcher asks a person to say or write the first word that comes to his or her mind in response to another word. If the initial word is “fast food,” what word does the person associate it with or respond with? Is it “McDonald’s”? If many people reply that way, and you’re conducting research for Burger King, that could indicate Burger King has a problem. However, if the research is being conducted for Wendy’s, which recently began running an advertising campaign to the effect that Wendy’s offerings are “better than fast food,” it could indicate that the campaign is working.

Completing cartoons is yet another type of projective technique. It’s similar to finishing a sentence or story, only with the pictures. People are asked to look at a cartoon such as the one shown in Figure 10.8 “Example of a Cartoon-Completion Projective Technique” . One of the characters in the picture will have made a statement, and the person is asked to fill in the empty cartoon “bubble” with how they think the second character will respond.

Figure 10.8 Example of a Cartoon-Completion Projective Technique

In some cases, your research might end with exploratory research. Perhaps you have discovered your organization lacks the resources needed to produce the product. In other cases, you might decide you need more in-depth, quantitative research such as descriptive research or causal research, which are discussed next. Most marketing research professionals advise using both types of research, if it’s feasible. On the one hand, the qualitative-type research used in exploratory research is often considered too “lightweight.” Remember earlier in the chapter when we discussed telephone answering machines and the hit TV sitcom Seinfeld ? Both product ideas were initially rejected by focus groups. On the other hand, relying solely on quantitative information often results in market research that lacks ideas.

The Stone Wheel—What One Focus Group Said

Watch the video to see a funny spoof on the usefulness—or lack of usefulness—of focus groups.

Descriptive Research

Anything that can be observed and counted falls into the category of descriptive research design. A study using a descriptive research design involves gathering hard numbers, often via surveys, to describe or measure a phenomenon so as to answer the questions of who , what , where , when , and how . “On a scale of 1–5, how satisfied were you with your service?” is a question that illustrates the information a descriptive research design is supposed to capture.

Physiological measurements also fall into the category of descriptive design. Physiological measurements measure people’s involuntary physical responses to marketing stimuli, such as an advertisement. Elsewhere, we explained that researchers have gone so far as to scan the brains of consumers to see what they really think about products versus what they say about them. Eye tracking is another cutting-edge type of physiological measurement. It involves recording the movements of a person’s eyes when they look at some sort of stimulus, such as a banner ad or a Web page. The Walt Disney Company has a research facility in Austin, Texas, that it uses to take physical measurements of viewers when they see Disney programs and advertisements. The facility measures three types of responses: people’s heart rates, skin changes, and eye movements (eye tracking) (Spangler, 2009).

Figure 10.9

A woman shows off her headgear for an eye-tracking study. The gear’s not exactly a fashion statement but . . .

lawrencegs – Google Glass – CC BY 2.0.

A strictly descriptive research design instrument—a survey, for example—can tell you how satisfied your customers are. It can’t, however, tell you why. Nor can an eye-tracking study tell you why people’s eyes tend to dwell on certain types of banner ads—only that they do. To answer “why” questions an exploratory research design or causal research design is needed (Wagner, 2007).

Causal Research

Causal research design examines cause-and-effect relationships. Using a causal research design allows researchers to answer “what if” types of questions. In other words, if a firm changes X (say, a product’s price, design, placement, or advertising), what will happen to Y (say, sales or customer loyalty)? To conduct causal research, the researcher designs an experiment that “controls,” or holds constant, all of a product’s marketing elements except one (or using advanced techniques of research, a few elements can be studied at the same time). The one variable is changed, and the effect is then measured. Sometimes the experiments are conducted in a laboratory using a simulated setting designed to replicate the conditions buyers would experience. Or the experiments may be conducted in a virtual computer setting.

You might think setting up an experiment in a virtual world such as the online game Second Life would be a viable way to conduct controlled marketing research. Some companies have tried to use Second Life for this purpose, but the results have been somewhat mixed as to whether or not it is a good medium for marketing research. The German marketing research firm Komjuniti was one of the first “real-world” companies to set up an “island” in Second Life upon which it could conduct marketing research. However, with so many other attractive fantasy islands in which to play, the company found it difficult to get Second Life residents, or players, to voluntarily visit the island and stay long enough so meaningful research could be conducted. (Plus, the “residents,” or players, in Second Life have been known to protest corporations invading their world. When the German firm Komjuniti created an island in Second Life to conduct marketing research, the residents showed up waving signs and threatening to boycott the island.) (Wagner, 2007)

Why is being able to control the setting so important? Let’s say you are an American flag manufacturer and you are working with Walmart to conduct an experiment to see where in its stores American flags should be placed so as to increase their sales. Then the terrorist attacks of 9/11 occur. In the days afterward, sales skyrocketed—people bought flags no matter where they were displayed. Obviously, the terrorist attacks in the United States would have skewed the experiment’s data.

An experiment conducted in a natural setting such as a store is referred to as a field experiment . Companies sometimes do field experiments either because it is more convenient or because they want to see if buyers will behave the same way in the “real world” as in a laboratory or on a computer. The place the experiment is conducted or the demographic group of people the experiment is administered to is considered the test market . Before a large company rolls out a product to the entire marketplace, it will often place the offering in a test market to see how well it will be received. For example, to compete with MillerCoors’ sixty-four-calorie beer MGD 64, Anheuser-Busch recently began testing its Select 55 beer in certain cities around the country (McWilliams, 2009).

Figure 10.10

Select 55 beer: Coming soon to a test market near you? (If you’re on a diet, you have to hope so!)

Martine – Le champagne – CC BY-NC 2.0.

Many companies use experiments to test all of their marketing communications. For example, the online discount retailer O.co (formerly called Overstock.com) carefully tests all of its marketing offers and tracks the results of each one. One study the company conducted combined twenty-six different variables related to offers e-mailed to several thousand customers. The study resulted in a decision to send a group of e-mails to different segments. The company then tracked the results of the sales generated to see if they were in line with the earlier experiment it had conducted that led it to make the offer.

Step 3: Design the Data-Collection Forms

If the behavior of buyers is being formally observed, and a number of different researchers are conducting observations, the data obviously need to be recorded on a standardized data-collection form that’s either paper or electronic. Otherwise, the data collected will not be comparable. The items on the form could include a shopper’s sex; his or her approximate age; whether the person seemed hurried, moderately hurried, or unhurried; and whether or not he or she read the label on products, used coupons, and so forth.

The same is true when it comes to surveying people with questionnaires. Surveying people is one of the most commonly used techniques to collect quantitative data. Surveys are popular because they can be easily administered to large numbers of people fairly quickly. However, to produce the best results, the questionnaire for the survey needs to be carefully designed.

Questionnaire Design

Most questionnaires follow a similar format: They begin with an introduction describing what the study is for, followed by instructions for completing the questionnaire and, if necessary, returning it to the market researcher. The first few questions that appear on the questionnaire are usually basic, warm-up type of questions the respondent can readily answer, such as the respondent’s age, level of education, place of residence, and so forth. The warm-up questions are then followed by a logical progression of more detailed, in-depth questions that get to the heart of the question being researched. Lastly, the questionnaire wraps up with a statement that thanks the respondent for participating in the survey and information and explains when and how they will be paid for participating. To see some examples of questionnaires and how they are laid out, click on the following link: http://cas.uah.edu/wrenb/mkt343/Project/Sample%20Questionnaires.htm .

How the questions themselves are worded is extremely important. It’s human nature for respondents to want to provide the “correct” answers to the person administering the survey, so as to seem agreeable. Therefore, there is always a hazard that people will try to tell you what you want to hear on a survey. Consequently, care needs to be taken that the survey questions are written in an unbiased, neutral way. In other words, they shouldn’t lead a person taking the questionnaire to answer a question one way or another by virtue of the way you have worded it. The following is an example of a leading question.

Don’t you agree that teachers should be paid more ?

The questions also need to be clear and unambiguous. Consider the following question:

Which brand of toothpaste do you use ?

The question sounds clear enough, but is it really? What if the respondent recently switched brands? What if she uses Crest at home, but while away from home or traveling, she uses Colgate’s Wisp portable toothpaste-and-brush product? How will the respondent answer the question? Rewording the question as follows so it’s more specific will help make the question clearer:

Which brand of toothpaste have you used at home in the past six months? If you have used more than one brand, please list each of them 1 .

Sensitive questions have to be asked carefully. For example, asking a respondent, “Do you consider yourself a light, moderate, or heavy drinker?” can be tricky. Few people want to admit to being heavy drinkers. You can “soften” the question by including a range of answers, as the following example shows:

How many alcoholic beverages do you consume in a week ?

• __0–5 alcoholic beverages
• __5–10 alcoholic beverages
• __10–15 alcoholic beverages

Many people don’t like to answer questions about their income levels. Asking them to specify income ranges rather than divulge their actual incomes can help.

Other research question “don’ts” include using jargon and acronyms that could confuse people. “How often do you IM?” is an example. Also, don’t muddy the waters by asking two questions in the same question, something researchers refer to as a double-barreled question . “Do you think parents should spend more time with their children and/or their teachers?” is an example of a double-barreled question.

Open-ended questions , or questions that ask respondents to elaborate, can be included. However, they are harder to tabulate than closed-ended questions , or questions that limit a respondent’s answers. Multiple-choice and yes-and-no questions are examples of closed-ended questions.

Testing the Questionnaire

You have probably heard the phrase “garbage in, garbage out.” If the questions are bad, the information gathered will be bad, too. One way to make sure you don’t end up with garbage is to test the questionnaire before sending it out to find out if there are any problems with it. Is there enough space for people to elaborate on open-ended questions? Is the font readable? To test the questionnaire, marketing research professionals first administer it to a number of respondents face to face. This gives the respondents the chance to ask the researcher about questions or instructions that are unclear or don’t make sense to them. The researcher then administers the questionnaire to a small subset of respondents in the actual way the survey is going to be disseminated, whether it’s delivered via phone, in person, by mail, or online.

Getting people to participate and complete questionnaires can be difficult. If the questionnaire is too long or hard to read, many people won’t complete it. So, by all means, eliminate any questions that aren’t necessary. Of course, including some sort of monetary incentive for completing the survey can increase the number of completed questionnaires a market researcher will receive.

Step 4: Specify the Sample

Once you have created your questionnaire or other marketing study, how do you figure out who should participate in it? Obviously, you can’t survey or observe all potential buyers in the marketplace. Instead, you must choose a sample. A sample is a subset of potential buyers that are representative of your entire target market, or population being studied. Sometimes market researchers refer to the population as the universe to reflect the fact that it includes the entire target market, whether it consists of a million people, a hundred thousand, a few hundred, or a dozen. “All unmarried people over the age of eighteen who purchased Dirt Devil steam cleaners in the United States during 2011” is an example of a population that has been defined.

Obviously, the population has to be defined correctly. Otherwise, you will be studying the wrong group of people. Not defining the population correctly can result in flawed research, or sampling error. A sampling error is any type of marketing research mistake that results because a sample was utilized. One criticism of Internet surveys is that the people who take these surveys don’t really represent the overall population. On average, Internet survey takers tend to be more educated and tech savvy. Consequently, if they solely constitute your population, even if you screen them for certain criteria, the data you collect could end up being skewed.

The next step is to put together the sampling frame , which is the list from which the sample is drawn. The sampling frame can be put together using a directory, customer list, or membership roster (Wrenn et. al., 2007). Keep in mind that the sampling frame won’t perfectly match the population. Some people will be included on the list who shouldn’t be. Other people who should be included will be inadvertently omitted. It’s no different than if you were to conduct a survey of, say, 25 percent of your friends, using friends’ names you have in your cell phone. Most of your friends’ names are likely to be programmed into your phone, but not all of them. As a result, a certain degree of sampling error always occurs.

There are two main categories of samples in terms of how they are drawn: probability samples and nonprobability samples. A probability sample is one in which each would-be participant has a known and equal chance of being selected. The chance is known because the total number of people in the sampling frame is known. For example, if every other person from the sampling frame were chosen, each person would have a 50 percent chance of being selected.

A nonprobability sample is any type of sample that’s not drawn in a systematic way. So the chances of each would-be participant being selected can’t be known. A convenience sample is one type of nonprobability sample. It is a sample a researcher draws because it’s readily available and convenient to do so. Surveying people on the street as they pass by is an example of a convenience sample. The question is, are these people representative of the target market?

For example, suppose a grocery store needed to quickly conduct some research on shoppers to get ready for an upcoming promotion. Now suppose that the researcher assigned to the project showed up between the hours of 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on a weekday and surveyed as many shoppers as possible. The problem is that the shoppers wouldn’t be representative of the store’s entire target market. What about commuters who stop at the store before and after work? Their views wouldn’t be represented. Neither would people who work the night shift or shop at odd hours. As a result, there would be a lot of room for sampling error in this study. For this reason, studies that use nonprobability samples aren’t considered as accurate as studies that use probability samples. Nonprobability samples are more often used in exploratory research.

Lastly, the size of the sample has an effect on the amount of sampling error. Larger samples generally produce more accurate results. The larger your sample is, the more data you will have, which will give you a more complete picture of what you’re studying. However, the more people surveyed or studied, the more costly the research becomes.

Statistics can be used to determine a sample’s optimal size. If you take a marketing research or statistics class, you will learn more about how to determine the optimal size.

Of course, if you hire a marketing research company, much of this work will be taken care of for you. Many marketing research companies, like ResearchNow, maintain panels of prescreened people they draw upon for samples. In addition, the marketing research firm will be responsible for collecting the data or contracting with a company that specializes in data collection. Data collection is discussed next.

Step 5: Collect the Data

As we have explained, primary marketing research data can be gathered in a number of ways. Surveys, taking physical measurements, and observing people are just three of the ways we discussed. If you’re observing customers as part of gathering the data, keep in mind that if shoppers are aware of the fact, it can have an effect on their behavior. For example, if a customer shopping for feminine hygiene products in a supermarket aisle realizes she is being watched, she could become embarrassed and leave the aisle, which would adversely affect your data. To get around problems such as these, some companies set up cameras or two-way mirrors to observe customers. Organizations also hire mystery shoppers to work around the problem. A mystery shopper is someone who is paid to shop at a firm’s establishment or one of its competitors to observe the level of service, cleanliness of the facility, and so forth, and report his or her findings to the firm.

Make Extra Money as a Mystery Shopper

Watch the YouTube video to get an idea of how mystery shopping works.

Survey data can be collected in many different ways and combinations of ways. The following are the basic methods used:

• Face-to-face (can be computer aided)
• Telephone (can be computer aided or completely automated)
• Mail and hand delivery
• E-mail and the Web

A face-to-face survey is, of course, administered by a person. The surveys are conducted in public places such as in shopping malls, on the street, or in people’s homes if they have agreed to it. In years past, it was common for researchers in the United States to knock on people’s doors to gather survey data. However, randomly collected door-to-door interviews are less common today, partly because people are afraid of crime and are reluctant to give information to strangers (McDaniel & Gates, 1998).

Nonetheless, “beating the streets” is still a legitimate way questionnaire data is collected. When the U.S. Census Bureau collects data on the nation’s population, it hand delivers questionnaires to rural households that do not have street-name and house-number addresses. And Census Bureau workers personally survey the homeless to collect information about their numbers. Face-to-face surveys are also commonly used in third world countries to collect information from people who cannot read or lack phones and computers.

A plus of face-to-face surveys is that they allow researchers to ask lengthier, more complex questions because the people being surveyed can see and read the questionnaires. The same is true when a computer is utilized. For example, the researcher might ask the respondent to look at a list of ten retail stores and rank the stores from best to worst. The same question wouldn’t work so well over the telephone because the person couldn’t see the list. The question would have to be rewritten. Another drawback with telephone surveys is that even though federal and state “do not call” laws generally don’t prohibit companies from gathering survey information over the phone, people often screen such calls using answering machines and caller ID.

Probably the biggest drawback of both surveys conducted face-to-face and administered over the phone by a person is that they are labor intensive and therefore costly. Mailing out questionnaires is costly, too, and the response rates can be rather low. Think about why that might be so: if you receive a questionnaire in the mail, it is easy to throw it in the trash; it’s harder to tell a market researcher who approaches you on the street that you don’t want to be interviewed.

By contrast, gathering survey data collected by a computer, either over the telephone or on the Internet, can be very cost-effective and in some cases free. SurveyMonkey and Zoomerang are two Web sites that will allow you to create online questionnaires, e-mail them to up to one hundred people for free, and view the responses in real time as they come in. For larger surveys, you have to pay a subscription price of a few hundred dollars. But that still can be extremely cost-effective. The two Web sites also have a host of other features such as online-survey templates you can use to create your questionnaire, a way to set up automatic reminders sent to people who haven’t yet completed their surveys, and tools you can use to create graphics to put in your final research report. To see how easy it is to put together a survey in SurveyMonkey, click on the following link: http://help.surveymonkey.com/app/tutorials/detail/a_id/423 .

Like a face-to-face survey, an Internet survey can enable you to show buyers different visuals such as ads, pictures, and videos of products and their packaging. Web surveys are also fast, which is a major plus. Whereas face-to-face and mailed surveys often take weeks to collect, you can conduct a Web survey in a matter of days or even hours. And, of course, because the information is electronically gathered it can be automatically tabulated. You can also potentially reach a broader geographic group than you could if you had to personally interview people. The Zoomerang Web site allows you to create surveys in forty different languages.

Another plus for Web and computer surveys (and electronic phone surveys) is that there is less room for human error because the surveys are administered electronically. For instance, there’s no risk that the interviewer will ask a question wrong or use a tone of voice that could mislead the respondents. Respondents are also likely to feel more comfortable inputting the information into a computer if a question is sensitive than they would divulging the information to another person face-to-face or over the phone. Given all of these advantages, it’s not surprising that the Internet is quickly becoming the top way to collect primary data. However, like mail surveys, surveys sent to people over the Internet are easy to ignore.

Lastly, before the data collection process begins, the surveyors and observers need to be trained to look for the same things, ask questions the same way, and so forth. If they are using rankings or rating scales, they need to be “on the same page,” so to speak, as to what constitutes a high ranking or a low ranking. As an analogy, you have probably had some teachers grade your college papers harder than others. The goal of training is to avoid a wide disparity between how different observers and interviewers record the data.

Figure 10.11

Training people so they know what constitutes different ratings when they are collecting data will improve the quality of the information gathered in a marketing research study.

Ricardo Rodriquez – Satisfaction survey – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

For example, if an observation form asks the observers to describe whether a shopper’s behavior is hurried, moderately hurried, or unhurried, they should be given an idea of what defines each rating. Does it depend on how much time the person spends in the store or in the individual aisles? How fast they walk? In other words, the criteria and ratings need to be spelled out.

Collecting International Marketing Research Data

Gathering marketing research data in foreign countries poses special challenges. However, that doesn’t stop firms from doing so. Marketing research companies are located all across the globe, in fact. Eight of the ten largest marketing research companies in the world are headquartered in the United States. However, five of these eight firms earn more of their revenues abroad than they do in the United States. There’s a reason for this: many U.S. markets were saturated, or tapped out, long ago in terms of the amount that they can grow. Coke is an example. As you learned earlier in the book, most of the Coca-Cola Company’s revenues are earned in markets abroad. To be sure, the United States is still a huge market when it comes to the revenues marketing research firms generate by conducting research in the country: in terms of their spending, American consumers fuel the world’s economic engine. Still, emerging countries with growing middle classes, such as China, India, and Brazil, are hot new markets companies want to tap.

What kind of challenges do firms face when trying to conduct marketing research abroad? As we explained, face-to-face surveys are commonly used in third world countries to collect information from people who cannot read or lack phones and computers. However, face-to-face surveys are also common in Europe, despite the fact that phones and computers are readily available. In-home surveys are also common in parts of Europe. By contrast, in some countries, including many Asian countries, it’s considered taboo or rude to try to gather information from strangers either face-to-face or over the phone. In many Muslim countries, women are forbidden to talk to strangers.

And how do you figure out whom to research in foreign countries? That in itself is a problem. In the United States, researchers often ask if they can talk to the heads of households to conduct marketing research. But in countries in which domestic servants or employees are common, the heads of households aren’t necessarily the principal shoppers; their domestic employees are (Malhotra).

Translating surveys is also an issue. Have you ever watched the TV comedians Jay Leno and David Letterman make fun of the English translations found on ethnic menus and products? Research tools such as surveys can suffer from the same problem. Hiring someone who is bilingual to translate a survey into another language can be a disaster if the person isn’t a native speaker of the language to which the survey is being translated.

One way companies try to deal with translation problems is by using back translation. When back translation is used, a native speaker translates the survey into the foreign language and then translates it back again to the original language to determine if there were gaps in meaning—that is, if anything was lost in translation. And it’s not just the language that’s an issue. If the research involves any visual images, they, too, could be a point of confusion. Certain colors, shapes, and symbols can have negative connotations in other countries. For example, the color white represents purity in many Western cultures, but in China, it is the color of death and mourning (Zouhali-Worrall, 2008). Also, look back at the cartoon-completion exercise in Figure 10.8 “Example of a Cartoon-Completion Projective Technique” . What would women in Muslim countries who aren’t allowed to converse with male sellers think of it? Chances are, the cartoon wouldn’t provide you with the information you’re seeking if Muslim women in some countries were asked to complete it.

One way marketing research companies are dealing with the complexities of global research is by merging with or acquiring marketing research companies abroad. The Nielsen Company is the largest marketing research company in the world. The firm operates in more than a hundred countries and employs more than forty thousand people. Many of its expansions have been the result of acquisitions and mergers.

Step 6: Analyze the Data

Step 6 involves analyzing the data to ensure it’s as accurate as possible. If the research is collected by hand using a pen and pencil, it’s entered into a computer. Or respondents might have already entered the information directly into a computer. For example, when Toyota goes to an event such as a car show, the automaker’s marketing personnel ask would-be buyers to complete questionnaires directly on computers. Companies are also beginning to experiment with software that can be used to collect data using mobile phones.

Once all the data is collected, the researchers begin the data cleaning , which is the process of removing data that have accidentally been duplicated (entered twice into the computer) or correcting data that have obviously been recorded wrong. A program such as Microsoft Excel or a statistical program such as Predictive Analytics Software (PASW, which was formerly known as SPSS) is then used to tabulate, or calculate, the basic results of the research, such as the total number of participants and how collectively they answered various questions. The programs can also be used to calculate averages, such as the average age of respondents, their average satisfaction, and so forth. The same can done for percentages, and other values you learned about, or will learn about, in a statistics course, such as the standard deviation, mean, and median for each question.

The information generated by the programs can be used to draw conclusions, such as what all customers might like or not like about an offering based on what the sample group liked or did not like. The information can also be used to spot differences among groups of people. For example, the research might show that people in one area of the country like the product better than people in another area. Trends to predict what might happen in the future can also be spotted.

If there are any open-ended questions respondents have elaborated upon—for example, “Explain why you like the current brand you use better than any other brand”—the answers to each are pasted together, one on top of another, so researchers can compare and summarize the information. As we have explained, qualitative information such as this can give you a fuller picture of the results of the research.

Part of analyzing the data is to see if it seems sound. Does the way in which the research was conducted seem sound? Was the sample size large enough? Are the conclusions that become apparent from it reasonable?

The two most commonly used criteria used to test the soundness of a study are (1) validity and (2) reliability. A study is valid if it actually tested what it was designed to test. For example, did the experiment you ran in Second Life test what it was designed to test? Did it reflect what could really happen in the real world? If not, the research isn’t valid. If you were to repeat the study, and get the same results (or nearly the same results), the research is said to be reliable . If you get a drastically different result if you repeat the study, it’s not reliable. The data collected, or at least some it, can also be compared to, or reconciled with, similar data from other sources either gathered by your firm or by another organization to see if the information seems on target.

Stage 7: Write the Research Report and Present Its Findings

If you end up becoming a marketing professional and conducting a research study after you graduate, hopefully you will do a great job putting the study together. You will have defined the problem correctly, chosen the right sample, collected the data accurately, analyzed it, and your findings will be sound. At that point, you will be required to write the research report and perhaps present it to an audience of decision makers. You will do so via a written report and, in some cases, a slide or PowerPoint presentation based on your written report.

The six basic elements of a research report are as follows.

• Title Page . The title page explains what the report is about, when it was conducted and by whom, and who requested it.
• Table of Contents . The table of contents outlines the major parts of the report, as well as any graphs and charts, and the page numbers on which they can be found.
• Executive Summary . The executive summary summarizes all the details in the report in a very quick way. Many people who receive the report—both executives and nonexecutives—won’t have time to read the entire report. Instead, they will rely on the executive summary to quickly get an idea of the study’s results and what to do about those results.

Methodology and Limitations . The methodology section of the report explains the technical details of how the research was designed and conducted. The section explains, for example, how the data was collected and by whom, the size of the sample, how it was chosen, and whom or what it consisted of (e.g., the number of women versus men or children versus adults). It also includes information about the statistical techniques used to analyze the data.

Every study has errors—sampling errors, interviewer errors, and so forth. The methodology section should explain these details, so decision makers can consider their overall impact. The margin of error is the overall tendency of the study to be off kilter—that is, how far it could have gone wrong in either direction. Remember how newscasters present the presidential polls before an election? They always say, “This candidate is ahead 48 to 44 percent, plus or minus 2 percent.” That “plus or minus” is the margin of error. The larger the margin of error is, the less likely the results of the study are accurate. The margin of error needs to be included in the methodology section.

• Findings . The findings section is a longer, fleshed-out version of the executive summary that goes into more detail about the statistics uncovered by the research that bolster the study’s findings. If you have related research or secondary data on hand that back up the findings, it can be included to help show the study did what it was designed to do.
• Recommendations . The recommendations section should outline the course of action you think should be taken based on the findings of the research and the purpose of the project. For example, if you conducted a global market research study to identify new locations for stores, make a recommendation for the locations (Mersdorf, 2009).

As we have said, these are the basic sections of a marketing research report. However, additional sections can be added as needed. For example, you might need to add a section on the competition and each firm’s market share. If you’re trying to decide on different supply chain options, you will need to include a section on that topic.

As you write the research report, keep your audience in mind. Don’t use technical jargon decision makers and other people reading the report won’t understand. If technical terms must be used, explain them. Also, proofread the document to ferret out any grammatical errors and typos, and ask a couple of other people to proofread behind you to catch any mistakes you might have missed. If your research report is riddled with errors, its credibility will be undermined, even if the findings and recommendations you make are extremely accurate.

Many research reports are presented via PowerPoint. If you’re asked to create a slideshow presentation from the report, don’t try to include every detail in the report on the slides. The information will be too long and tedious for people attending the presentation to read through. And if they do go to the trouble of reading all the information, they probably won’t be listening to the speaker who is making the presentation.

Instead of including all the information from the study in the slides, boil each section of the report down to key points and add some “talking points” only the presenter will see. After or during the presentation, you can give the attendees the longer, paper version of the report so they can read the details at a convenient time, if they choose to.

Key Takeaway

Step 1 in the marketing research process is to define the problem. Businesses take a look at what they believe are symptoms and try to drill down to the potential causes so as to precisely define the problem. The next task for the researcher is to put into writing the research objective, or goal, the research is supposed to accomplish. Step 2 in the process is to design the research. The research design is the “plan of attack.” It outlines what data you are going to gather, from whom, how, and when, and how you’re going to analyze it once it has been obtained. Step 3 is to design the data-collection forms, which need to be standardized so the information gathered on each is comparable. Surveys are a popular way to gather data because they can be easily administered to large numbers of people fairly quickly. However, to produce the best results, survey questionnaires need to be carefully designed and pretested before they are used. Step 4 is drawing the sample, or a subset of potential buyers who are representative of your entire target market. If the sample is not correctly selected, the research will be flawed. Step 5 is to actually collect the data, whether it’s collected by a person face-to-face, over the phone, or with the help of computers or the Internet. The data-collection process is often different in foreign countries. Step 6 is to analyze the data collected for any obvious errors, tabulate the data, and then draw conclusions from it based on the results. The last step in the process, Step 7, is writing the research report and presenting the findings to decision makers.

Review Questions

• Explain why it’s important to carefully define the problem or opportunity a marketing research study is designed to investigate.
• Describe the different types of problems that can occur when marketing research professionals develop questions for surveys.
• How does a probability sample differ from a nonprobability sample?
• What makes a marketing research study valid? What makes a marketing research study reliable?
• What sections should be included in a marketing research report? What is each section designed to do?

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Mersdorf, S., “How to Organize Your Next Survey Report,” Cvent , August 24, 2009, http://survey.cvent.com/blog/cvent-survey/0/0/how-to-organize-your-next-survey-report (accessed December 14, 2009).

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Wagner, J., “Marketing in Second Life Doesn’t Work…Here Is Why!” GigaOM , April 4, 2007, http://gigaom.com/2007/04/04/3-reasons-why-marketing-in-second-life-doesnt-work (accessed December 14, 2009).

Wrenn, B., Robert E. Stevens, and David L. Loudon, Marketing Research: Text and Cases , 2nd ed. (Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, 2007), 180.

Zouhali-Worrall, M., “Found in Translation: Avoiding Multilingual Gaffes,” CNNMoney.com , July 14, 2008, http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/07/smallbusiness/language_translation.fsb/index.htm (accessed December 14, 2009).

Principles of Marketing Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Table of Content

In-depth interviews and their use in consumer research.

Read on to learn about in-depth interviews and how they can be a powerful addition to your research methods today.

Introduction

Imagine this scenario: You're working for a leading brand, gearing up to update a new product packaging. Quantitative research will give you statistical insights for data-driven decisions. But to understand how the market is going to respond, you need to delve deeper into the consumer’s mind for a more well-rounded understanding. 

This is where in-depth interviews come into play - a qualitative research method involving one-on-one conversations to get the real opinions of consumers and uncover detailed, nuanced information.

What is an In Depth Interview?

An in-depth interview is a qualitative research method where a researcher engages in a detailed one-on-one conversation with an interviewee. The objective is to explore and understand their perspectives, experiences, and opinions on a particular topic. This method allows for a deep exploration of the participant's thoughts and feelings, often providing rich and detailed insights into the subject under investigation.

Why go deep when you can stay on the surface? Because that's where the gold lies. We all know the importance of understanding your audience's preferences, behaviors, and needs for delivering products or services that resonate. In-depth interviews dig beneath the obvious, unraveling deep-seated consumer perspectives and behavior and providing insights that surveys alone often miss.

Understanding In Depth Interviews

Characteristics and features of in-depth interview.

With several types of interviews used in market research, let us look at the most important characteristics of in-depth interviews: 

• Flexible: Covering a few topics as a reference, an indepth interview has a flexible structure, and the interviewer adapts to the flow of the dialogue.
• Interactive: There is a comfortable flow of conversation between the interviewer and the interviewee. There is a back-and-forth, which ensures the conversation is lively and not dull.
• Deep: Getting deep insights is not an easy task. It involves the interviewer asking a series of deep-probing questions followed by follow-up questions to gain a deep perspective and understanding of users.

Types of In-Depth Interviews

Structured: This kind of depth interview involves a guided conversation with a pre-decided list of questions. Usually, uniformity is maintained without a lot of scope for open dialogue.

Semi-Structured: This is a blend of structured and unstructured. This allows for spontaneity and probing of the respondents while maintaining a basic focus.

Unstructured: Here, based on the subject in mind, the interviewer aims to collect as much data as possible. This leads to an open, free-flowing dialogue that can capture unexpected, deep insights.

The Role of In-Depth Interviews in Consumer Research

Gathering Qualitative Data: While quantitative data helps in making data-driven decisions, numbers are only one part of the story. In depth interview quantitative data offers a deeper understanding of the "why" behind the numbers.

Exploring Consumer Behavior: In-depth interviews in qualitative research unravel the truth behind consumer choices. They delve into the subconscious, revealing the motivations for purchasing decisions, likes, and dislikes.

Insights for Innovation: The information you get from in depth interviews can be invaluable. They unearth gems of hidden information, providing a holistic view of your consumer landscape. They also identify gaps in consumer expectations and provide opportunities for businesses to innovate and make consumer journeys more seamless.

Identifying Consumer Preferences: You don’t have to go to work with unclear insights, as depth interviews remove and guesswork and provide you with the exact pain points. Knowing your consumer's wishlist and tailoring products or services that align with their preferences has never been easier.

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Steps to Conduct a Successful In-Depth Interview

Planning and Preparation: Before conducting your research, make sure you know the roadmap. Define objectives, identify the target audience, and craft interview guides that ensure you navigate the conversation with a purpose.

Recruiting Suitable Participants: There is no research data without its participants. Ensure they are chosen wisely to ensure their experiences and opinions represent the diversity of your consumer base. 

Developing Interview Guides: You know what you are looking for through your objectives. The questions should be appropriately crafted, and the narratives should be developed in a way that elicits meaningful responses. There should be a balance between structure and flexibility to ensure the right conversation flow.

Conducting Interviews: The role of the interviewer is crucial in an in-depth interview. They should create a comfortable environment, establish rapport, and let the conversation unfold naturally with the participants. Active listening is the key to getting deep insights here.

Analyzing Data: The raw data from these interviews is the gold mine researchers have to dig through. Transform these narratives into actionable insights, identifying patterns and trends that inform your business strategy.

Technologies in In-Depth Interviews

  Virtual Interviews : In-person interviews can be an in-depth interview example. But it is a thing of the past. We only see virtual interviews today where geographical barriers do not exist, and new-age technologies are being leveraged for more efficient data collection and analysis.

Tools and Platforms: From Zoho to Zoom, there are multiple tools for virtual interviews. These can today be integrated with AI technologies like Facial Coding , Eye Tracking, and Voice AI for superior data collection.

Disadvantages of In-Depth Interviews

Just like any powerful tool, in-depth interviews have their drawbacks. Understanding these challenges is crucial for a holistic perspective on this research method.

Time-Consuming Nature: In-depth interviews demand time- time to recruit participants, conduct interviews, and meticulously analyze the data. In a fast-paced business environment, this can be perceived as a limitation, especially when quicker insights may be needed.

Cost Implications: Quality comes at a price. Conducting in-depth interviews can be resource-intensive, from compensating participants to hiring skilled interviewers. The costs associated with this method might not align with every budget, making it less accessible for smaller enterprises.

Small Sample Size Concerns: In the world of statistics, a larger sample size often translates to more robust findings. In-depth interviews, being one-on-one interactions, may not provide the breadth of data that quantitative methods can offer. This limited sample size can raise questions about the validity and relevance of the insights.

Potential for Interviewer Bias: The person conducting the interview plays a pivotal role. Their demeanor, tone, and even unintentional cues can influence participant responses. This inherent bias introduces an element of subjectivity, which, if not managed carefully, may compromise the objectivity of the findings.

Challenges in In-depth Interviews

  Participant Bias: For an interview to be successful and relevant, honesty is key. You should try to negate participant and social desirability bias by fostering an open and comfortable environment. Participants should be encouraged to share both positive and negative experiences to ensure the authenticity of insights.

  Data Reliability: Ensure your findings are reliable by maintaining consistency in your approach. Use well-crafted interview guides, in-depth research and train interviewers to minimize variations in the interview process.

  Handling Sensitive Topics: Navigating sensitive topics is an art for researchers. Approach these discussions with empathy and tact to establish trust with participants. This ensures that even the most delicate subjects are explored in a respectful and insightful manner.

Best Practices for Effective In-Depth Interviews

Building Rapport: Establish a connection with your interviewee from the beginning, showing genuine interest and empathy. A comfortable participant is always more likely to share valuable insights.

Active Listening : Know which responses are important and which responses you can probe into further. A simple nod can turn into a narrative with rich insights if you play your cards right. Understand how active listening works, and you can uncover the depths of a consumer story.

Maintaining Objectivity: Bias comes in not just from the interviewee’s point of view but also from the interviewer. It is important to remain true to the objective and not form opinions leading to a biased interpretation of data.

Future Trends in In-Depth Interviews

Technology as an Ally: The future is here, where technology is bridging gaps in research. Advancements in AI and machine learning may offer solutions to time-consuming tasks, making in-depth interviews more scalable and cost-effective.

Innovations in Methodology: Researchers are continuously refining methodologies. Stay abreast of emerging techniques that address the limitations of traditional in-depth interviews, potentially unlocking new possibilities for more efficient and impactful research.

 There is no dearth of consumer research methods in today’s fast-paced world. In-depth interviews are one of the oldest and most commonly used research methods and remain very much relevant now. Technologies of today are also able to complement interview methods- making it easier than ever to capture a consumer’s needs and preferences.

 The information gathered in in-depth interviews is the building blocks of informed decision-making. It encourages businesses to embrace this methodology and unlocks authentic consumer insights that drive successful businesses.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. how long are in depth interviews.

In-depth interviews can vary in duration, but they typically last between 30 minutes to 2 hours. The length depends on the complexity of the topic, the depth of information, and the comfort level of the interviewee.

2. What is an in-depth interview and semi-structured interview?

In-Depth Interview (IDI): An in-depth interview is a qualitative research method where a researcher engages in a one-on-one conversation with a participant to explore and understand their experiences, opinions, and perspectives in detail. It is an open-ended, flexible approach that allows for a deep exploration of the participant's thoughts.

Semi-Structured Interview: A semi-structured interview combines aspects of both structured and unstructured interviews. While it follows a set of predetermined questions, it allows flexibility for the interviewer to explore relevant topics in more detail based on the participant's responses. This format maintains some standardization while allowing for a deeper understanding of the participant's viewpoint.

3: What is the difference between in-depth interviews and questionnaires?

In-depth Interviews (IDI): In-depth interviews involve direct interaction between the interviewer and participant. The conversation is open-ended, allowing for a detailed exploration of the participant's experiences, opinions, and emotions. It is a qualitative method, providing rich and nuanced data.

‍ Questionnaires: Questionnaires are a quantitative research method where participants respond to a set of predetermined questions in a written or electronic format. This method is more structured and standardized, making it suitable for collecting data from a large number of participants. It provides quantitative data that can be analyzed statistically. {{cta-button}}

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When conducting market research, you need to choose the right method to gain valuable information from your target market. There are various ways to collect data from spreading questionnaires to carrying out an in-depth interview. For those of you who don't have experience in conducting an in-depth interview, you can use this in-depth interview guide. 

What is an In-Depth Interview?

Basically, an in-depth interview is a type of qualitative data collection where you can obtain more in-depth information from each respondent. While a questionnaire focuses on collecting a large number of data, an in-depth interview has advantages in collecting deeper information. The reason is that an in-depth interview involves direct and one-on-one engagement between interviewer and participant so the question can be expanded as you want. 

What is the Purpose of an In-Depth Interview?

Like being mention previously, in-depth interviews don’t stop at superficial answers. Its purpose is to collect detailed information that you can’t get only by using a survey or questionnaire. There are 3 characteristics of an in-depth interview. 

1. Flexible 

There is a general guide to keep the interview on track. However differ from a questionnaire, you can ask additional questions or dig deeper into each question in the middle of the interview. 

2. Interactive

An in-depth interview can encourage the respondents to answer each question honestly and completely rather than formally like on the other data collection methods. 

3. Generative

An in-depth interview not only gives you answers to your problems but also other information about your customers or target audiences that surely would be useful for your business in general. 

Types of In-Depth Interviews

1. Structured Interview

If you are conducting a structured interview, you need to create predetermined questions that you would ask during the interview. While it can help you finish the interview in a short time, it may limit the answers of the respondents.  

2. Unstructured Interview

On the other hand, unstructured interviews don’t follow the pre-determined question. Rather than an interview, it is more similar to casual conversations between interviewer and respondents. 

3. Semi-Structured Interview

In this type of interview, the researcher still creates initial questions and several themes, but the interview would be more flexible as respondents’ answers can change the flow of the interview. 

In-Depth Interview Advantages

1. Insightful Result

In the in-depth interview, the atmosphere is more intimate and comfortable so it is easier for the participant to answer a question about sensitive topics. 

2. Body Language Observation

Similar to Focus Group Discussion, an in-depth interview allows you to gain information from the change of tone, word choice, and body gestures which may be more valid rather than what the participant said. 

3. Fewer Participants

While doing in-depth interview require times and efforts, you can gain more information from a fewer sample (if you implement the right in-depth interview guide) compared to other data collection methods. 

In-Depth Interview Disadvantages

1. Time-Consuming

To gain valuable insight, you may need to hold a minimum of 1-hour interview per participant. After that, you need to transcribe, organize, summarize, and analyze the result. While in-depth interviews give many advantages regarding the quality of data, it is not easy to be conducted. 

2. Strict Selection

In the Questionnaire method, you can gather data from 100 – 1000 participants in a short time. Focus Group Discussion allows you to gain insights from 8-15 participants in less than 2 hours. On the other hand, you need to prepare around 1 hour to conduct an in-depth interview. It is important to choose participants that can give you an objective and valuable answer. 

3. Choose the Interviewer

An interviewer can determine the quality of your interview and data. A great interviewer should have adequate knowledge about the topic, years of experience as an interviewer, and able to create a comfortable setup for the participant. 

In-Depth Interview Guide for Your Research

1. What are your aims?

Imagine going to the middle of the mountain without a compass or anyone to lead direction. It would surely be a disaster. The same thing also applies when you conduct an in-depth interview. It is important to understand the objective behind your interview when crafting your question. 

For example, If you want to know people’s thought about your website landing page, you may prepare open-ended questions like “What do you think about the newest design of our website?”, “How did you find navigating our website”, etc. 

When you have identified your goals, it will be easier to create various questions without going to stray from the main topics. 

2. Determine the scope

Before conducting an interview, remember to define the scope or size of the sample. In an interview, it is hard to have a large sample. Quality is more important than quantity. Rather than interviewing 100 people for 5 minutes per each interview, it is better to interview 10 people for 1 hour to get comprehensive insights. 

3. Stick to the time limit

Even if you have a lot of time on your plate, you should be mindful of the respondents’ time. People can only focus for a limited time. A maximum of 1-hour interview can ensure the answer quality of the respondents. 

4. A mix of questions 

A good question can provoke a good answer, and that means high-quality data for your research. There are 3 types of questions that you can prepare. 

• General Question By asking light-hearted questions to the respondents, you can make them more comfortable and answer your question with ease. 
• Detail-Oriented Question Afterward, you can start asking general questions that are related to your research topic.
• Insight-Based Question As the respondents get used to the interview, you can ask more specific questions that require in-depth answers. 

5. Avoid leading questions

In an interview, you should avoid leading questions that may influence the respondents’ answers. This way, you can obtain objective data to support your research. 

For example, rather than asking “Can you tell me what do you like about our application?”, you can ask more neutral questions like “What do you think about our application?”

And that is all about in-depth interviews, including an in-depth interview guide that you can use for your research. If you have any follow up questions or would love our help to do one for you, we're just a contact us page away!

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Marketing Strategy: Best practices for in-depth interviews

Discover the best practices for conducting in-depth interviews as part of your marketing strategy.

In the ever-evolving world of marketing strategy, in-depth interviews have become an essential tool for gaining valuable insights into the minds of consumers. By conducting these interviews, marketing professionals can gather rich data on consumer habits, preferences, and behaviors to inform their strategic decisions. However, executing successful in-depth interviews requires careful planning and execution. In this article, we will explore the best practices for conducting in-depth interviews that yield valuable insights for your marketing strategy.

Understanding the Importance of In-depth Interviews in Marketing Strategy

When it comes to understanding consumer behavior, in-depth interviews have been found to be one of the most effective methods. These interviews can provide detailed insight into consumer preferences, which is particularly useful for refining product development, marketing messaging, and overall strategy. By taking the time to conduct these interviews, marketers can obtain unique insights that other forms of research simply cannot provide.

The Role of In-depth Interviews in Market Research

In-depth interviews have a crucial role to play in the field of market research. They are a type of qualitative research that explores an individual’s perspective on a particular topic, such as their behaviors and attitudes towards a given product or service. In-depth interviews are designed to help marketers uncover complex consumer motivations, perceptions, and needs.

For example, a marketer may conduct an in-depth interview with a consumer to understand why they prefer a particular brand of shampoo over others. During the interview, the marketer may ask questions about the consumer's hair type, their daily routine, and their preferences for scent and texture. By understanding these factors, the marketer can develop a better understanding of the consumer's needs and preferences, and use this information to develop a more effective marketing strategy.

In-depth interviews can also be used to explore consumer perceptions of a brand or product. For example, a marketer may conduct an in-depth interview with a consumer who has recently purchased a new car to understand their overall satisfaction with the product. During the interview, the marketer may ask questions about the consumer's experience with the car, including its performance, features, and overall value. By understanding these factors, the marketer can identify areas where the product may need improvement and develop a more effective marketing strategy.

Benefits of In-depth Interviews for Marketing Strategy Development

The benefits of conducting in-depth interviews as part of marketing research and strategy development are numerous. These interviews can help identify new opportunities, refine messaging and positioning, and develop better-targeted campaigns. They provide valuable insights into the minds of consumers, thereby reducing the risk of failure for new products or services.

For example, a marketer may conduct in-depth interviews with consumers to identify new opportunities for product development. By understanding consumer needs and preferences, the marketer can identify gaps in the market and develop new products to fill those gaps. In-depth interviews can also be used to refine messaging and positioning for existing products. By understanding how consumers perceive a product, the marketer can develop messaging that resonates with their target audience.

Overall, in-depth interviews are an essential tool for marketers looking to develop effective marketing strategies. By taking the time to understand consumer behavior and preferences, marketers can develop more targeted and effective campaigns, reduce the risk of failure for new products or services, and ultimately drive business growth.

Preparing for In-depth Interviews

Conducting successful in-depth interviews requires thorough preparation. This section will outline some key considerations to keep in mind as you prepare for your interviews.

Defining Your Research Objectives

Before conducting any in-depth interviews, it’s important to have clearly defined research objectives. You should have a clear idea of what you want to learn from the interviews, what topics you want to explore, and what types of feedback you're seeking. This will help you design effective questions and ensure you're gathering the information you need.

For example, if you're conducting interviews for a new product launch, your research objectives might include understanding the target audience's needs and preferences, identifying potential pain points or barriers to adoption, and gathering feedback on the product's features and functionality.

Selecting the Right Participants

Another consideration when preparing for in-depth interviews is selecting the right participants. You want to select individuals who are representative of your target audience and who have the potential to provide unique insights. Sampling from a diverse group of people can help to ensure that you get a range of perspectives.

Consider factors such as age, gender, occupation, income, and geographic location when selecting participants. It's also important to ensure that the participants are willing and able to participate in the interview process.

Designing Effective Interview Questions

The quality of your interview questions will greatly impact the value of the insights you gather. Design your questions in a way that encourages open and honest answers and avoids leading questions. Start with more general questions and move to more specific ones to get a better sense of the participants’ perspectives.

It's important to consider the language and tone of your questions as well. Avoid using technical jargon or language that might be confusing to the participant. Use a conversational tone and avoid sounding confrontational or judgmental.

For example, instead of asking "Do you think our product is too expensive?", you might ask "What factors do you consider when evaluating the price of a product like ours?" This allows the participant to share their thoughts and opinions without feeling like they're being put on the spot.

By taking the time to define your research objectives, select the right participants, and design effective interview questions, you can ensure that your in-depth interviews provide valuable insights that can inform your business decisions.

Conducting In-depth Interviews

Now that you’ve done your preparatory work, it’s time to conduct the in-depth interviews. This section will explore best practices for conducting effective in-depth interviews.

Establishing Rapport with Participants

Building a rapport with your participants is critical to ensure you receive open and honest feedback. Start by establishing common ground before moving on to more serious topics. This can be done by asking about their interests or hobbies, or by finding out more about their professional background. By showing a genuine interest in your participants, you can create a comfortable and relaxed environment that encourages them to open up.

It's also important to be aware of your body language when establishing rapport. Make sure you are facing your participant directly, maintaining eye contact, and using open gestures such as uncrossed arms and legs. This will help to convey a sense of openness and approachability, which can help your participants feel more at ease.

Remember to thank your participants for their time and feedback at the beginning and end of the interview. This shows that you value their input and can help to build a positive relationship.

Utilizing Active Listening Techniques

When conducting in-depth interviews, it's important to be an active listener. This means paying close attention to what your participant is saying and responding appropriately. Avoid interrupting your participants and ask for clarification when necessary. By doing this, you can ensure that you fully understand their perspective and can respond in a way that is appropriate and helpful.

Active listening also involves using non-verbal cues such as nodding and maintaining eye contact to show that you are engaged and interested in what your participant is saying. This can help to build trust and encourage your participants to open up more.

Encouraging Open and Honest Responses

Encouraging open and honest responses is key to getting the information you need. To do this, avoid leading questions or those that suggest a particular answer. Instead, ask open-ended questions that allow participants to answer as they see fit. This can help to uncover unexpected insights and perspectives that may not have been considered otherwise.

It's also important to create a safe and non-judgmental environment that encourages participants to share their thoughts and opinions. This can be done by acknowledging their perspective, even if you don't agree with it, and avoiding criticism or judgement.

By following these best practices for conducting in-depth interviews, you can ensure that you receive valuable and honest feedback from your participants. This can help to inform your research and lead to better outcomes.

Analyzing and Interpreting Interview Data

After conducting your in-depth interviews, it's time to begin analyzing and interpreting the data you've collected. Here are some best practices to make the most of your data.

Organizing and Transcribing Interview Data

When analyzing in-depth interviews, begin by organizing and transcribing the data. This involves creating a transcript of each interview, including the questions and responses. This will make it easier to identify trends and patterns in the data.

It's important to note that transcribing interview data can be a time-consuming process. However, it's a crucial step in the analysis process, as it allows you to review the data in a more comprehensive and organized way. Consider using transcription software or outsourcing this task to a professional transcriber to save time.

Identifying Key Themes and Patterns

Once you have transcribed your data, it's time to identify key themes and patterns. This will help you identify trends and insights that emerge across all the interviews. Look for common points of agreement or disagreement, repeated sentiments, or any surprising responses.

One useful technique for identifying key themes and patterns is to use a coding system. This involves assigning codes to different responses or sections of the interview transcript based on their content. For example, you might use a code like "customer satisfaction" to identify responses related to this topic. This can help you quickly identify patterns and trends in your data.

Drawing Insights and Conclusions for Marketing Strategy

Finally, use the insights you've gathered from your in-depth interviews to develop your marketing strategy. Be sure to focus on insights that are actionable and relevant to your business or organization. Use these insights to refine your messaging, adjust your positioning, or develop more targeted campaigns and product offerings.

It's important to note that the insights you gain from your in-depth interviews should be considered alongside other sources of data, such as surveys, focus groups, and market research. By combining these different sources of data, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of your target audience and develop a more effective marketing strategy.

Overall, analyzing and interpreting interview data is a crucial step in developing a successful marketing strategy. By following best practices for organizing and transcribing your data, identifying key themes and patterns, and drawing actionable insights, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target audience and develop more effective marketing campaigns.

In-depth interviews are a valuable tool for gaining unique and detailed insights into consumer behavior. By following the best practices outlined in this article, you can conduct in-depth interviews that yield valuable insights for your marketing strategy. Remember to prepare carefully, conduct the interviews carefully, and analyze and interpret your data in a way that yields actionable insights. By doing so, you can stay ahead of the competition and stay attuned to the latest trends and market forces.

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• Using In-Depth Interviews and Focus Groups for Your Market Research

• Introduction to Market Research: What It Is and Why You Need It
• Introduction to Market Research: When and How to Start
• Conducting a Situation Analysis: The SWOT Analysis
• Using Your SWOT Analysis to Drive Your Market Research
• Conducting Competitor Research 
• Resource List for Secondary Market Research
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• Creating a Killer Market Research Survey
• Best Practices for Moderating and Analyzing Interviews and Focus Groups
• Conducting Observational Research for Your Business

In the last section, we tackled the market research survey —that fixed set of questions you send out to a segment of your market for feedback on some aspect of your business. While surveys do pose qualitative (open-ended) questions, they’re used primarily for quantitative research. That is, they’re great for arriving at a consensus through loads of consumer data… but they won’t necessarily get you the deepest of insights.

Because let’s be honest: No one pours their heart out in a survey—no matter how many lines you offer them to fill in.

Enter the in-depth interview and the focus group for that information. Both market research techniques give you the opportunity to be in two-way communication with consumers—in a form unrestricted by question limits—and to establish a rapport with them. That sets the stage for deep and rewarding insights.

The Advantages of Direct Communication in Primary Market Research

“Direct contact” can mean many things, including conversations mediated by telephone, video conferencing , and chat platforms . Indeed, two great advantages of using these technologies for your market research are their expediency and their cost-effectiveness: You can cover a broad geographic area without anyone having to travel anywhere; and consecutive interviews can be conducted from the comfort of your own office. If you’re working within a budget, telephone interviews can be as insightful as in-person interviews… and the recommendations we offer below are just as applicable to that form of primary research.

Of course, in-person interviews and focus groups have their distinct advantages. In the first place, once you’ve got someone in a room, they can’t “hang up” on you: Both (or all) parties have signaled their commitment by arriving. What’s more, because you’re looking them directly in the eye, you’ll know your interviewees aren’t distracted by anything… and fully present participants are naturally going to give you the most sincere insights.

In the second place, when you get someone from your target market in a room, you have access to additional sources of information: body language, facial expressions, gestures, and so on. These non-verbal cues can sometimes reveal more about interviewees’ sentiments than they’d be willing to admit (or than they can even acknowledge to themselves ).

When the interviewer is adept at reading such non-verbal cues and putting interviewees at ease, these conversations lead to honest insights about emotions, opinions, and attitudes: Why did they really leave your business? How do they really use your product? What were they actually feeling when they moved through your purchasing funnel? What were the real psychic/emotional barriers?

As you can imagine, if you can get past the costs (travel, compensation, venue, moderator payment) and logistics of getting two or more people in a room for an hour or more, it’ll be well worth it. Not only will you get terrific qualitative insights to pair with your quantitative data; you’ll also gain a richer understanding of your customer personas , their journeys, motivations, and the language they use. (Of course, you’ll be looking out for “sticky” messages that you can use for future website or ad copy).

In-depth interviews and focus groups will fill in the emotional context for the numbers your surveys and secondary research give you. But remember that these are supplements —not substitutes —for those more quantitative research methods. While they’ll give you rich insights into unique individuals, be careful about generalizing from the information you get from these conversations. Your interviewees are representative of your target population, but they’re too small a sample size to draw statistical conclusions about your larger target market from. That’s what quantitative research is for.

But for now ? We’re talking quality over quantity.

In-Depth Interviews vs. Focus Groups: Which to Use?

In-depth interviews are often described as “focus groups of one,” and focus groups as “large-scale interviews.” In some ways, these are fair comparisons: Both methodologies revolve around semi-structured discussions whose core questions are designed to go deep , to help the business understand some problem. In both cases, respondents are respectfully treated as “experts” who can “teach” the business about its market’s feelings, perceptions, opinions, and hesitations.

But to state the obvious, dynamics change the moment a party of two becomes a party of three or more: Suddenly there are new interpersonal negotiations, sociocultural categorizings, hierarchies, and contentions. From a business perspective, you’ll have cost, time, and possibly location to account for. These may very well be factors in your decision, but so should the following:

When to use in-depth interviews

In-depth, one-on-one interviews can happen just about anywhere: at your business, at their home, or at a neutral location such as a rented venue. They can happen on the street while people are exiting a physical space—on their way out of a retail establishment, for example. They can happen in “captive audience” situations—during a conference, a workshop, or a public event.

This locational flexibility is one of the reasons in-depth interviews are among the most prevalent forms of primary research. Here are some of the reasons why you’d choose one over a focus group:

• When you’re gathering sensitive feedback . “Sensitive” might mean anything from disclosing personal information (finances or health issues) to more generally uncomfortable topics (birth control or personal hygiene products). If your research concerns topics that people might not feel comfortable discussing in a group, in-depth interviews should be your choice. (What’s more, if you’re looking for critique in a culture that tends to be more “polite” or less prone to debate, you might get more honest responses in a one-on-one inquiry.)
• When participants are competitors . Can you imagine hosting a focus group made up of competitors who are reluctant to share information for fear of losing whatever competitive advantage they might have? Unsurprisingly, these sorts of environments don’t foster open communication. You want participants who are willing to disclose information; so if they’re from the same vertical industry, you’d do best to meet with them separately.
• When you’re concerned about group hierarchy . Any time a focus group might present an inherent imbalance of power (bringing both workers and their supervisors into the same room, for example) you risk making some participants feel less at ease about sharing their views. Choose the one-on-one strategy for these situations.
• When you want feedback on isolated user experiences . Knowing how users perform individual activities, or what their individual experiences with products are, doesn’t require groupthink. Indeed, anytime you want to know anything about individual user experience (usability testing, decision processes, personal responses to ad campaigns, how much progress a client has made toward a goal, etc), one-on-one interviews are your best bet. They’ll get you honest, insightful feedback untainted by other participants’ responses.

When to use focus groups

There are plenty of advantages to getting a number of people (typically 6-10) together in a room so they can discuss a topic relevant to your business. More minds means more insight, information, and ideas. Memories get jogged; comments from one end of the table trigger ideas on the other end; solutions get fully developed through energetic collaboration. And since no one is required to answer every question, participants jump into the conversation spontaneously, when they have something insightful to say on that topic.

Here are some circumstances in which it makes sense to choose a focus group:

• When you need to brainstorm ideas . Focus groups are a terrific strategy for broad, exploratory topics, such as imagining new product features or working through ideas for your next ad campaign. Anytime you’re early on in the exploratory phase of a concept or topic (the what if…? phase), choose a focus group to assist with idea-generation and discovery.
• When you’re about to go live . This might mean just before you launch that ad campaign, or before that concept goes to market, or before you turn that prototype into The Real Deal and release it into the world. This is especially the case if you relied on secondary research to create that ad, concept, or prototype. The numbers might back you up… but you also want subjective, affective “data” describing why those numbers work. Refine before you release.
• When you want multiple perspectives, or to explore disparate views . You might be at a point in your decision-making process where two very different options seem feasible, and you want to hear representatives from your target market debate the pros and cons of each. Let your market generate the arguments for you. They might make a case for something you’d never considered before.
• When you want to better understand the complexities of your target market . While a single interviewee might give you great insights, they won’t be representative of your target market. Granted, focus groups won’t be either … but they will offer a broader range of representation. Collectively, the group can also help you understand the motivations behind more complex behaviors. Did your market say they wanted a product—but now they’re not buying? Focus groups can help you explore the apparent disconnect between declared desire and action.
• When you want to know more about your brand perception . Focus groups are great for brand insights. After all, it’s consumers who create your brand perception through shared experience (what they imagine about your business and how they speak about it); it’s not something your business makes . So go directly to the source for this intelligence.
• When you want to evaluate reactions . Have a new campaign ad to run by consumers? A new food product to test? These aren’t the “isolated user experiences” we discussed above; and the feedback is best collected through group discussion.

If you’re still unsure which method is best for your market research question, ask yourself: “How (or what ) will group dynamics contribute to my findings?”

Preparing for Your In-Depth Interview or Focus Group

Whichever method you choose, the event will take some pre-planning. Here’s what to consider:

Clarify your goal and structure

Never go into market research without a clear idea of your question, and what its answer will mean for your business. A SWOT analysis can help you home in on your business’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so you can narrow down your research to a single topic. Remember: You’re going for depth—not breadth—here. What’s the problem you’re gathering information on? The clearer your answer, the more useful your questions will ultimately be.

Your goal will also help you decide whether a structured or unstructured interview will be more effective. Granted, if you’re hosting a focus group, your “interviewer” will be more a moderator than anything: They’re there to get participants discussing amongst themselves, rather than to adhere to a predefined list of questions. Focus groups are, by nature, more unstructured.

With in-depth interviews, however, you’ll make a conscious choice between these two types. In unstructured interviews, the interviewer arrives with a series of well-thought-out issues to address; but the questions take shape during the conversation. Structured interviews, on the other hand, are a bit like verbal surveys. Standardizing the Q&A in this way—asking the same questions in the same order, every time—ensures more consistent data between interviews.

Choose an appropriate location and time

You’ve got a nearly unlimited range of possibilities (including online “locations”) here. Consider your needs: A facility with access to cameras so you can record the interview? One-way mirrors for observers? The location you choose should be easy to get to, easy to park near, and the room should feel intimate and provide as few distractions as possible. If you’re hosting a focus group, all participants should be able to sit facing each other.

Then consider your participants. If you’re a B2B company, you might hold your focus group at a downtown location during work hours, setting the space up board-room style. If you’re hosting consumers, evening may work best, you may choose a more suburban venue, and the setup might look less formal. If your demographic involves consumers of a lower socio-economic status, consider a venue along public transportation routes. Consider religious holidays. You get the point. You know your personas better than we do. Imagine the venue they’d want.

Plan your documentation strategy

Tape recording? Video recording? Note-taking by the moderator or a third-party observer? Each of these strategies will affect the dynamics of the conversation differently, and will give you access to different information after the fact. (For instance, a tape recording won’t help you recall who said what, or what their facial expression was when they said it. But it will get you a full transcript.) Of course, you’ll need all participants’ permission before hitting a “Record” button of any kind.

While we’d recommend digital recording, note-taking is a useful backup plan in case of malfunction, dead batteries, or static on the recording. If your interviewer is your note-taker, ensure that they can take notes and listen simultaneously, and record in a low-key manner. Participants who see moderators jumping to the notebook and writing furiously might be influenced to answer subsequent questions similarly (or very differently!)

Select your interviewer or moderator

Of course, anyone in theory could take on this role: the business owner, an associate, or someone else in your organization. But remember that the best interviewer is an unbiased one; and the more that’s at stake for your interviewer in the outcome, the less impartial they’re likely to be. This will affect group dynamics, and it won’t get you the data you need. The same goes for a moderator who knows the participants: Where there’s an established relationship, participants are less likely to be critical.

That said, you might decide to hire an experienced moderator—for example, someone trained in psychology who can better observe and understand complex behaviors. Trained moderators can quickly create a permissive and nurturing environment and keep an active conversation going for the time allotted (typically 30 minutes to an hour for an in-depth interview, and 1-2 hours for a focus group), with the study’s objectives always at the forefront. Which isn’t quite as easy as it sounds.

Well-seasoned moderators can monitor the conversation and change course on the fly. They can recognize when participants are speaking out of a psychological pressure to respond in a particular way. They’re trained in drawing quieter participants out of their shells, giving time to slower thinkers, tamping down heated discussions, and tactfully curbing participants who are monopolizing the conversation. They can visualize how key pieces of information fit together, clearly identify when a topic has been sufficiently covered, and know when to skip questions that earlier comments have suggested are irrelevant to the person or group at hand. They can interpret body language, gestures, hesitations, and facial expressions. And they can do all this without being an expert on the subject.

If you have this person in your organization, that’s remarkable: Use them ! If not, you can find trained moderators through an online search, referrals, or by posting a query in an industry forum.

Select your participants

Your sample size will be a matter of how clear a picture you want of your target market. Naturally, the more participants you have, the stronger your sense of the segment will be. You’ll probably want to conduct more than one in-depth interview, and you may also want to hold more than one focus group to ensure consistency across gatherings. At some point, you’ll see common themes emerging in responses. That’s when you’ll know you’re moving toward sounder conclusions.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the participants you select should be in a position to answer all of your questions. Remember, they’re the “experts”: maybe because they fit a persona with particular buying habits, or because they have relevant experience with a product (“new mothers in their ’30s who live in Western Massachusetts” or “males between the ages of 18-25 who play at least 15 hours of video games a week”).

Due to their commonality of experience, your focus groups will necessarily have some degree of homogeneity. That said, consider that first example: If you’re looking to target all new mothers, maybe you’d split your groups by income (new mothers who make less than and more than $100k), education (new mothers with and without a college degree), or relationship status (single mothers versus partnered mothers). Different demographics may provide different responses. If you foresee this, split your groups along these lines.

Participants may already be your customers or followers, in which case you can contact them through your CRM or by putting a call out on social media platforms. You can also find them through Facebook groups, advertisements, social events that your target audience attends, or market research companies who can find focus groups that match the target demographic you want to reach.

If you want to ensure that these prospects really do meet your criteria, set up a screening process before you officially invite them as an interviewee or focus group member. Try to ensure that participants aren’t familiar with each other. (Familiarity affects group dynamics.) Finally, recruit more participants than you need: You’ll almost inevitably get “no-shows.”

Standardize your proceedings

There are a few other things you’ll want to determine early on to ensure uniformity across interviews. Decide whether participants will be told who’s sponsoring the study, what the purpose of the interview or focus group is, and how the data will be used to make decisions after the fact. Choosing to offer this information to one group or participant and not to another may lead to different responses and variations in data.

You’ll should also create a guide—or at least a list of questions—that the interviewer or moderator will use to guide the discussion and ensure all topics are covered. (We’ve got some recommendations on the questions and the structure of the interview or focus group in the next section.) If you’re hosting a focus group, establish clear session guidelines in writing. You’ll share these with participants so they know what’s expected of them.

And before The Big Day, you might even consider running a pilot test to ensure your guide is a viable support.

You’ve got your interviewee or focus group in the room… now what? In the next section, we cover best practices for these forms of primary research to follow on the day itself.

Lauren Shufran

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How to do in-depth interviews in B2B market research projects

February 15, 2024

In-depth interviews are one of the main qualitative research methods. They tend to be a more practical methodology for B2B market research than focus groups. Recent advances in technology have made in-depth interviewing even more efficient.

In-depth interviews

When you have information gaps about your customers, in-depth interviews are one of the best ways to bridge them.

An in-depth interview is a one-on-one conversation where you thoroughly explore the respondent’s thoughts and experiences related to your product, service, or industry. Instead of multiple-choice answers, as per online surveys in quantitative research, you get rich detail explaining why part of your target market thinks or acts a certain way.

These conversations help you understand not just what B2B buyers choose, but the motivations and decision-making processes behind that choice.

As one of the main methods of qualitative research, in-depth interviews are well suited to new product concept research and getting a better understanding of the buying process.

In combination with quantitative research, you can use in-depth interviews for several other project types too:

Benefits of an in-depth interview include:

• Getting detailed information from every respondent
• Building a relationship, which often leads to more information being shared
• Having more flexibility over the types of questions you can ask

Advantages over other B2B qualitative research methods

Advances in technology for in-depth interviews

How to do an in-depth interview process

Confidentiality

The future of in-depth interviews in B2B market research

In-depth interview case study

Best practices for conducting in-depth interviews in B2B

The three main methods of conducting qualitative research are:

• In-depth interview: Usually conducted via telephone or videoconference
• Group discussion: Focus groups or online communities
• Observation exercise: Run in-person or remotely using an app

In consumer research, all three are viable options.

But in B2B, one-on-one interviews via telephone or videoconference are the most common method. In short, the root of all the challenges of using focus groups in B2B is that senior decision-makers don’t have time for them.

If their time costs $100 an hour (or more), they’re only likely to consider it if you offer $200 an hour. Since focus groups usually need two hours and up to eight respondents, that adds up quickly.

Moreover, the right people to invite are spread out geographically and it’s difficult to schedule a time when they can all do it. They won’t want to discuss potentially sensitive information in front of competitors either.

Holding focus groups online solves some of these problems, but creates new ones too. It’s difficult to engage an online group, hold their undivided attention, and analyze their body language.

For similar reasons, observation exercises are rarely appropriate for your senior B2B clients either.

In-depth interviewing is more insightful and cost-effective for B2B market research compared to focus groups.

You learn much more from eight individual 15-minute video call interviews versus a two-hour focus group with eight respondents. Both interviewer and respondent can use those 15 minutes more effectively, having a more targeted conversation and exploring topics in more specific detail.

Your research needs to be efficient and make the most of customers’ time. They may take part if you can schedule a short interview during their lunch break, or in the morning before their commute, for example.

In recent years, technology has made a typical in-depth interview even more efficient and insightful as a B2B research methodology than before.

Researchers used to do in-depth interviewing via office landline telephones. Fast forward to the post-pandemic years and now online calls, with or without video, are the norm.

Research participants are very comfortable with this overall. Even before COVID-19, tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet were replacing the phone as the best option for a work call.

Telephone interviewing gets the job done but has its limitations. It’s harder to discuss research materials and transcribe the call afterward, for example.

In comparison, online calls have several advantages:

• Quicker to arrange
• Easier to reach respondents if they are hybrid or remote-working
• Option for a video call, replicating a face-to-face interview, making it easier to build rapport and pick up on their body language and non-verbal cues
• Easier to review materials mid-interview e.g. to analyze a website
• Quicker and easier to get an interview write-up (using automated transcribing) 

The last point is a key one – there used to be a post-fieldwork delay to transcribe interviews. 

But now researchers can get a basic AI write-up almost instantly, while they wait for a more accurate human transcription.

Here’s the process for running in-depth interviews:

Write a discussion guide for structured interviews that includes the right questions to answer your research objectives. As an example, for a buying process research project, aim to establish every step of the process and explore each one in detail. 

The duration for an in-depth interview tends to range between 15 minutes and an hour. It depends on factors such as the complexity of the research objectives and how much time senior decision-makers are willing to spare.

We recommend including an initial section to establish context – with questions about the respondent’s business, goals, challenges, pain points, and so on. This ‘warms up’ the interviewee, but the answers here will also help contextualize insights they reveal later.

It’s crucial to use experienced, independent interviewers for B2B projects. They need to be familiar with your sector, understand the terminology that the respondent uses, and know which follow-up questions to ask at the right time.

Also – include a list of detailed probes in the discussion guide, so that the interviewer can ensure the respondent covers your key themes in depth.

To analyze qualitative data:

• Transcribe the interviews
• Identify initial themes
• Brainstorm the findings
• Review the themes and revise
• Storyboard the findings

Take an iterative approach – if you find information gaps during your analysis, spend more time looking through the transcripts or if necessary, conduct some follow-up interviews.

With qualitative reporting, it’s crucial to use visualization techniques to bring the findings to life.

Qualitative insights can provide rich detail and valuable reasons why customers think or act a certain way. But you’ll struggle to communicate this around a business via lengthy Word reports.

Use illustrative models to explain complex information quickly and clearly. If you’re doing a product development market research project, visually highlight parts of the concept that do or don’t resonate with respondents, for example.

With the respondent’s permission, also consider using vox pops – a powerful alternative to written quotes that let stakeholders hear the insights directly from customers or prospects.

Want to know if your research objectives need in-depth interviews?

As with a focus group, you can ask respondents to sign an NDA beforehand too, ensuring the confidentiality of any sensitive materials you share during the interview.

Moreover, in contrast to a focus group, respondents don’t need to worry about sharing sensitive information in front of competitors. They can request anonymity if needed too.

At the start of the call, the interviewer stresses that the results of the discussion are only for the client, who won’t share these with third parties without the respondent’s consent.

The interviewer should also restate the pre-agreed incentive amount and confirm how the respondent will receive it. Always think carefully about how to incentivize in B2B market research .

Before the interview begins, the interviewer must also ask for permission to record it, to get a write-up afterward. Respondents are almost always comfortable with this – if not, then the interviewer needs to take notes to collect data during the call.

Some clients still prefer a B2B focus group to an in-depth interview. However, over time, the popularity of in-depth interviews will likely keep increasing at the expense of focus groups.

The widespread use of video calling technology, since the pandemic enforced remote working for many staff, has made it simple to replicate a focus group’s more visual elements.

For example – you can show respondents product concepts or marketing materials with screen-sharing features. Alternatively, you can share these using one-time links which they cannot access again after the interview.

And in B2B research, there are several practical advantages to using an in-depth interview instead of a focus group. As mentioned, you can get more detailed information from each respondent, build a stronger relationship with them, and ask a greater range of questions.

Moreover, you save costs on focus group venue hire. Also, you may be able to pay relatively lower incentives since the interview times are shorter.

Here is an example showing the impact of in-depth interviews on a client’s business objectives:

How building buyer personas helped a Web3 start-up grow

• Background: They wanted to do a segmentation initially, but didn’t have the cultural, financial, or technological readiness to implement one effectively. Instead, we recommended developing qualitative buyer personas as a more practical alternative. 
• Objective: They wanted to gather market insights to inform product and web development to get a better understanding of the audience they were building for. 
• Methodology: We conducted 30 in-depth interviews with the target audience of developers and founders.
• Findings: The target audience differed in two main ways: 1) why they’d joined the Web3 industry; and 2) why they chose our client over alternatives. Combining these insights, we identified six personas with different messaging and product needs.
• Outcomes: They prioritized three personas, and then developed web pages as well as propositions for each. Most of the client’s business growth has come directly from using these personas.

#1 Interview relevant internal stakeholders too

Your client-facing staff in particular will know a lot about your target audience. Consider running a semi-structured interview with each of them at the outset of your research process, or a virtual workshop .

It’s a good way to make sure that the rest of the project will build on a foundation of existing internal knowledge. Therefore, it avoids the risk that the analysis will focus on things that key staff already know.

Moreover, these semi-structured interviews should give stakeholders the time to share hypotheses to test during the research.

#2 Take the time to recruit relevant and genuine B2B respondents

One of the biggest challenges in B2B research is finding senior decision-makers to take part in interviews.

They tend to be short on time and participating in research is not a priority. Knowing how to recruit decision-makers for B2B market research is a specialist skill.

However, there are several tools experienced researchers use to recruit business decision-makers for B2B market research projects.

It’s rare to find genuine, senior B2B decision-makers on market research panels. Use a short screening interview to make sure respondents a) are who they claim to be and b) have the relevant expertise to take part in the subsequent 15-60 minute detailed interview.

#3 Use different interviewing techniques to unlock hidden insights

Keep in mind that if you ask someone a question, in any life scenario, you may not get the right answer. Your customers may not always know or be able to accurately articulate why they make certain decisions.

They have subconscious thought processes, with emotions often affecting B2B buying behavior rather than solely rational or functional factors. But there are ways to explore these emotional, subconscious thoughts in market research and we use several interviewing techniques to do this.

Many of these are a type of projective qualitative research technique. Examples include analogies and personification, hypothetical scenarios, inversion exercises, and image sorting.

For less senior customers, more observational-style interviews may be possible as a stand-alone research method. There’s ‘in the moment’ data capture (e.g. asking them to film themselves using a product) and neuroscientific data collection methods e.g. eye-tracking and facial expression analysis.

These tools can help take respondent bias out of the analysis, revealing hidden insights that a more traditional interview could miss.

Looking to run some B2B market research with in-depth interviews?

Benefits of an in-depth interview include: getting detailed information from every respondent; building a relationship, often leading to more information being shared; and having more flexibility over the types of questions you can ask.

In-depth interviewing is more insightful and cost-effective for B2B market research compared to focus groups. Both interviewer and respondent can use time more effectively, having a more targeted conversation and exploring topics in more specific detail.

Researchers used to do in-depth interviewing via telephone but now online calls, with or without video, are the norm. These are: quicker to arrange; easier for reaching respondents: easier for building a rapport; easier for reviewing materials mid-interview; and quicker for getting an interview write-up, using automated transcribing.

Write a discussion guide for structured interviews. Include a list of detailed probes in the discussion guide, so that the interviewer can ensure the respondent covers your key themes in depth.

To analyze qualitative data: transcribe the interviews; identify initial themes; brainstorm the findings; review the themes and revise; and storyboard the findings. With qualitative reporting, it’s crucial to use visualization techniques to bring the findings to life.

As with a focus group, you can ask respondents to sign an NDA beforehand too, ensuring the confidentiality of any sensitive materials you share during the interview. Keep ethical considerations in mind too: the interviewer should also restate the pre-agreed incentive amount, confirming how the respondent will receive it; and before the interview begins, the interviewer must also ask for permission to record it.

Over time, the popularity of in-depth interviews will likely keep increasing at the expense of B2B focus groups. Video calling technology has made it simple to replicate a focus group’s more visual elements and pick up on body language. Moreover, you save costs on focus group venue hire and respondent incentives since the interview times are shorter.

We recommend that you: interview relevant internal stakeholders too; take the time to recruit relevant and genuine B2B respondents; and use different interviewing techniques to unlock hidden insights.

Chris Wells

Chris Wells is a B2B marketing researcher and strategist. He was previously on the management team at B2B research specialist Circle Research, winners of the Best Research Agency at the 2016 MRS Awards. Chris has helped to deliver hundreds of research and strategy projects for B2B organizations.

Got a B2B market research project you’d like to discuss?

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What is an in-depth interview?

• Home > What We Do > Research Methods > FAQ > What is an in-depth interview?

An in depth interview is a loosely structured interview. It allows freedom for both the interviewer and the interviewee to explore additional points and change direction, if necessary.

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Explanation of depth interviews

A qualitative data collection method, in-depth interviews offer the opportunity to capture rich, descriptive data about how people think and behave, and unfolding complex processes. They can be used as a standalone research method or as part of a multi method design, depending on the needs of the research.

How is an in depth interview carried out?

In depth interviews are normally carried out face to face so that a rapport can be created with respondents. Body language is also used to add a high level of understanding to the answers. Telephones can also be used by a skilled researcher with little loss of data and at a tenth of the cost.

The style of the interview depends on the interviewer. Successful in-depth interviewers listen rather than talk. They have a clear line of questioning and use body language to build rapport. The interview is more of a guided conversation than a staccato question and answer session.

The interview is conducted using a discussion guide which facilitates the flushing out of the respondent’s views through open ended questioning. Projective techniques can be incorporated into the interview too.

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Using In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) to Understand Consumers

Market research is a complicated beast. Modern market research strategies tend to focus on bringing in as much data as possible for analysis then analyzing, re-analyzing, and spitting out conclusions based on the crude information available. While we are huge fans of measurement and quantitative methodologies , different research tools are better for different forms of analysis and seeing the humanity behind the behaviors of your customers and business partners requires something more.

This is where in-depth interviews come into play. Also known as IDIs, these methods of market research involve in-person interviews where an interviewer/moderator can have time to gather both hard information and more subtle impressions from the interviewee. Here is a high level overview of IDIs and how they can help businesses better understand how their brand is perceived in the marketplace.

What are In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) Exactly?

In-depth interviews are market research tools which entail a one-on-one interview, conducted by a trusted moderator. IDIs focus on finding qualitative data over quantitative. In other words, IDIs are great for understanding how a group of individual perceives a certain brand or product rather than gathering hard data on usage, market size, and so forth. A properly conducted in-depth interview will not only result in the respondent’s answers, but also the moderator’s notes on the respondent’s body language, energy, and general affect. 

In-depth interviews rely heavily on the skill of the interviewer. The entire process is more intimate than many market research scenarios, and therefore require a more personal touch. Interviewees who are comfortable tend to answer more fully and honestly. If this can be achieved, IDIs offer extremely valuable qualitative insights into how your brand is perceived.

In-Depth Interviews for B2B Market Research

Business to businesses transactions , more frequently shortened to simply B2B, benefit greatly from in-depth interviews. While IDIs can certainly be used for B2C business market research, B2B businesses often have long-term, personal relationships with their business partners rather than with numerous, faceless end customers. This makes B2B in-depth interview research particularly useful.

Here are some examples of valuable information points which can be revealed through a B2B in-depth interview:

• Why the other business chose to work with your company. What was the decision making process and which factors carried the most weight?
• Who were the decision makers in this process? Was the CEO the only opinion in the room? Were department heads involved? Were shareholders asked for their input?
• Were there any doubts before choosing to work with your organization? 
• How could those doubts have been erased?
• Is your business partner happy with the goods and/or services you are providing? 
• How can your existing business relationship be improved?
• If this interviewee has chosen not to work with your company, what might have changed their mind?

These are merely examples of potential interview questions. Again, it is important to remember that IDIs are not just used to get direct answers, but also to get a feel for how the respondent views your brand and your business on a more personal level.

The Unique Benefits of IDIs

In-depth interviews allow for extremely detailed information gathering

The primary benefit of an in-depth interview is perhaps the level of detail into which an interview can go with their interviewee. If a series of questions reveals a unique concern from a consumer or business partner, the interviewer can continue asking questions about that topic to gain greater insight. All the time, highly skilled interviewers will be reading the body language, word choice, etc. of the respondent to get a personal understanding of their position.

IDIs provide a personal touch in an increasingly impersonal business world

Something we have yet to touch on is that many businesses and consumer groups appreciate being asked to participate in an in-depth interview. This is a way for them to express what they love, what they don’t love, and any concerns they might have about your brand or product. While IDIs are certainly serious business, they can also be relaxed and informal. Creating a sense of comfort in a one-on-one interview can allow for detailed and powerful insights.

In-depth interviews provide more “bang for their buck”

As we mentioned in the introduction, so much of marketing these days is focused on sheer volume. How many data points can we cram into this analysis report? In-depth interviews for businesses go the opposite route. IDIs focus on fewer subjects, but higher quality data gathering. A strong marketing strategy should consider using both quantitative and qualitative research. When it comes to qualitative research, IDIs are tough to beat.

Clock Tower Insight Helps Conduct and Analyze IDIs for Market Research

Clock Tower Insight is proud to work with a wide range of B2C and B2B industries, including retail, CPG, food service, and advertising organizations. We believe in using powerful, cutting edge research to offer brand-specific insights. With this insight, we work with brands to turn the data into actionable information, and eventually into business growth. Our services include brand positioning , customer experience management, and much more. We believe in the power of personal relationships, and in-depth interviews are just a small part of that commitment. Learn more about how Clock Tower Insight can help your business today!

Focus Groups vs. Interviews: How to Perform Successful Market Research

Rev › Blog › Marketing › Focus Groups vs. Interviews: How to Perform Successful Market Research

There are various methods you can use to conduct qualitative market research. Experienced market researchers understand that there are advantages and disadvantages to each method.

Two of the most common methodologies are focus groups and in-depth interviews. Yet, knowing the differences between focus groups and interviews, and deciding which one to utilize for your specific needs, would depend on a few factors.

Focus Groups for Market Research

Focus groups involve bringing a group of people together to provide feedback on a product. A moderator guides the session and interacts with the focus group participants, asking them questions about the product. The goal is to prompt an open and candid group discussion. Questions are pre-determined and used to get detailed responses from the group participants.

Focus groups help market researchers collect valuable data. For example, a focus group would be a good way to decide which features customers want on a new smartphone. Focus group sessions usually include about 10 participants and last for about 90 minutes.

Advantages of Focus Groups

• The diversity of focus groups ensures that multiple perspectives, backgrounds, and opinions are represented.
• Online focus groups are usually more affordable than in-depth interviews.
• This research method is also easiest to organize in a B2C setting.
• Focus groups are the best way to understand the role that group dynamics play in purchasing decisions.
• It is easy to conduct focus groups and generate results quickly. Light analysis of answers needs no coding – only the use of transcription services such as Rev.

Disadvantages of Focus Groups

• Focus group participants’ contributions may be disproportionate if there is an outspoken group member.
• There is also a lower average speaking time for each of the group members.
• Focus groups are difficult to organize for B2B settings.
• The participants may influence each other, which can affect answers.
• There is a strong possibility that a moderator’s bias can affect results.

In-Depth Interviews for Market Research

Another qualitative data collection technique is in-depth interviews. Researchers ask the recruited respondents questions and encourage them to provide insightful responses. In-depth interviews generally consist of open-ended questions, making them ideal for collecting meaningful data about a product or service.

For example, an in-depth interview would be a good way for the smartphone manufacturer to learn how a user finds the phone interface. These face-to-face interviews last anywhere between 45- 60 minutes. Unlike focus groups, where 90 minutes are allocated for up to 10 people to speak, the interviewee is actively participating the entire time.

Advantages of In-Depth Interviews

• Recruited respondents have a longer speaking time.
• In-depth interviews offer more detailed feedback for better data collection.
• Researchers can generate results using statistical data analysis.
• There is less chance for moderator bias than in focus group settings.
• Insights gathered from this feedback are usually more useful for the quantitative phase.

Disadvantages of In-Depth Interviews

• In-depth interviews are more difficult and complicated to organize.
• This research method is also generally more expensive .
• The data is more complex to interpret and usually needs special software or coding.
• Writing interview guides can be quite time-consuming; especially for an individual interview.
• This type of qualitative research is challenging to organize in B2B settings.

Which Research Method to Choose

Both focus groups and in-depth interviews can be useful for your research project, and each method deserves a place within the research process.

• Focus groups tend to be more useful in the initial stages of research. Group dynamics provide a powerful way to understand broader topics and generate new ideas.
• In-depth interviews are more suitable for the later stages of research. Interviews allow for a deeper dialogue between the participant and the researcher.

Your choice should be based on your budget, stage in the process, business settings, and overall requirements.

Both methods can greatly benefit from transcription services, like those provided by Rev. Transcripts allow you to analyze everything said in your focus groups or in-depth interviews, with fully searchable text. Try Rev’s 99% accurate human transcription services or our more affordable AI-generated transcripts if you’re on a budget.

Download Our Free Focus Group Interview Checklist

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In-Depth Interviews, Dyads, and Triads in Market Research

• March 26, 2021

By InterQ Intern, Rhea Chawla

There are a variety of approaches to conducting a qualitative research study , each with their own purposes and benefits. Market researchers understand that selecting the appropriate method is imperative in capturing meaningful insight that is specific to your research objective.

Though in-depth interviews and focus groups are the most widely known methods, there are alternatives that might be better suited for your study.

What are in-depth interviews?

An in-depth interview is a one-on-one conversation between a moderator and a study participant. The moderator is able to focus their attention to an individual participant in order to delve deeply into a topic; this allows the moderator to dedicate more time on specific topics and follow-up with probing questions which can garner more detailed insights. This method is ideal for a detailed exploration of ideas that may require individualized focus.  It is also often most appropriate for studies covering more sensitive topics that may be harder to discuss in group settings.

What are dyads and triads in market research?

Dyads and triads maintain the attention to detail afforded by an in-depth interview, but add an interactive element to the discussion.

Dyads involve two participants, but can be structured in different ways. The first is to recruit Known Pairs which are two participants who may know each other. This could be a couple, parent and child, two friends or two coworkers. It is often the go-to when working with younger participants. The second structure is to pair two strangers who have been screened and either share similar attitudes and behaviors OR hold opposing views, referred to as a conflict pair. Conflict pairs are used to reveal and emphasize polarizing beliefs between the participants.

Triads involve three participants, which allows the advantages of both a focus group and an in-depth interview at the same time. The moderator is still able to hone- in on topics while having diverse opinions through a group setting. Like dyads, this method is useful when there are controversial elements to explore or to create conversations where respondents can bounce ideas off one another. This can be used to test the influence of group dynamics on consumer behaviors. Additionally, triangulation between the participants may expose new perspectives for companies to consider when creating marketing plans.

When initiating a qualitative research project, working with a professional third-party company is best, as experienced market researchers can identify which methodology is most suitable for the study being commissioned.

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In-Depth Interviews: The Answer To ‘None of The Above’

When it comes to B2B market research, there is no better tool than In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) for gathering insight.

In-Depth Interviews: The Answer To ‘None of The Above’

This article is based on an episode of the B2B Market Research Podcast. The audio version is available here.

Surveys have long been a popular tool for corporate research, but they have a significant limitation: they can only reinforce or dispel assumptions you already have.

In-depth interviews   can uncover context you weren’t even aware of. As such, IDIs are key to qualitative B2B research. They are even essential for building effective surveys, as they illuminate the best questions to ask.

In-Depth Interviews are great for understanding how B2B buying works. For example, IDIs can reveal:

• The decision-making process for selecting a product or service.
• The stakeholders involved in the B2B buying decision.
• The factors considered before making the purchase.
• What could have changed the decision.
• Whether the customer or company is happy with the product or service they chose.

In-Depth Interviews for B2B Market Research: The Basics

IDIs are typically 30-60 minute   conversations with a business stakeholder.

In-Person Vs. Remote

Historically, IDIs, especially in B2C studies, were usually conducted face-to-face. These days, telephone IDIs are very common.

At Cascade Insights, we prefer telephone interviews because they tend to allow for more time with the respondent. It’s much easier to grab time on someone’s calendar if you’re just asking for a phone call rather than something that requires the logistics of a face-to-face meeting.

Respondents

To uncover powerful insight, you can’t just talk to anyone. Effective studies require talking to very specific people.

Interview respondents need to be able to provide insight into complex B2B business decisions. Often, studies will require respondents with a certain job title or highly specialized knowledge.

To ensure a response from the right people, it’s common practice to offer an incentive. Our incentives usually range from $100-200 in value.

Finding good interview subjects can be done in a variety of ways. We frequently turn to LinkedIn, industry forums, and social media networks to identify knowledgeable respondents to reach out to.

The Interview

Discussions guides form the foundation of the interviews. These guides are not just a list of questions that are recited verbatim. A typical guide includes key focus areas and specific drill-down questions. However, it’s important to leave room for discovery and investigation during each conversation.

Clients may even influence the course of each discussion by communicating via a back channel with the researcher who is conducting the interview. As the researcher conducts the interview, the client may be in contact with the researcher through an instant messaging platform like Slack, Skype, or Google Talk.

Why In-Depth Interviews?

IDIs are useful because they are uniquely able to get at the heart of customers’ decision-making process. For B2B technology companies, business decisions tend to be complex and involve many different stakeholders .

To illustrate how useful IDIs are for market research, here are some examples from our work at Cascade Insights.

The Upstart Competitor

Our client was focused on selling directly to the enterprise. They had enjoyed being relatively unchallenged in that market for a period of time.

However, a competitor was moving away from selling to small and medium businesses (SMBs) and started targeting enterprise-sized companies. Back when the competitor had focused on SMBs, they had posed no threat to our client even though their technology was somewhat superior. As the competitor started moving upmarket, they became a much greater threat.

Our client needed to know two key things:

• Was this competitor truly in a position to sell to the enterprise?
• If so, could the competitor be stopped?

To complete this project, we conducted in-depth interviews with:

• Many of the competitor’s customers within enterprise organizations.
• Former members of the competitor’s sales team .
• Partners who would be in a position to sell enterprise-sized deals for the competitor.

Each one was able to provide a unique perspective.

What We Learned From B2B IDIs

Customers were able to tell us how the product was being tailored to meet enterprise needs. They could also shed light on how well the competitor’s sales team was able to engage with enterprise-sized organizations.

The competitor’s former sales reps were able to tell us how much of a push there was to target enterprise accounts. They could also clarify which tactics were most often used when targeting enterprise accounts. Importantly, they could also tell us how often they were competing with our client for enterprise deals.

Talking to partners was beneficial because they were able to describe how much of the competitor’s business was pivoting towards the enterprise. Typically, partners have a unique perspective on the markets that their vendor partner is targeting. If your competitor is attempting to move upmarket, that will probably be reflected in requests to their partners to reshape their sales and marketing efforts. An ambitious competitor may even reward partners who have been successful at changing their strategies to attract enterprise deals.

Key Buying Criteria and In-Depth Interviews

IDIs are also incredibly useful for understanding growing industry segments such as the cybersecurity market .

For example, lately, we’ve had a lot of work researching solutions that protect organizations from viruses, malware, and the like. We’ve spent a lot of time interviewing cybersecurity professionals about the features that matter most in endpoint protection programs.

In such a crowded marketplace, knowing exactly which features cybersecurity professionals want, which ones they aren’t interested in paying for, and which features will matter five years from now are all critically important.

In researching these issues for our clients, we conducted IDIs with network security specialists, network security architects, and cybersecurity thought leaders. We reached the people that could personally answer these questions with the authority of having worked with the solutions in question day in and day out.

Uncensored Customer Feedback

Another big advantage of IDIs is that significant client engagement is possible. All throughout the research effort, clients get to listen in on the interviews and hear how the research process is progressing.

There’s nothing like hearing the voice of your competitor’s customers as they tout the virtues of your opponent’s products. Imagine the insight from a B2B buyer laying out 10 reasons why they believe they made a smart decision in choosing your rival.

It’s often the case that companies’ tribal knowledge of their brand’s image is very different from how they are currently perceived. There is nothing like a direct quote from a lost customer when it comes to battling the bias within your own company about the competition.

Meeting Stakeholder Needs with In-Depth Interviews

IDIs don’t just bring hard truths to light. They can also help various stakeholder teams accomplish their goals more effectively.

Sales leaders often commission win-loss studies. Win-loss studies provide insights on what sales teams are doing most effectively, what they need to stop doing, and what the competitor does better.

Win-loss studies can also help identify the types of buyers that your sales team struggles to engage with and those they excel at selling to.

These studies frequently involve 15-60 minute IDIs with the client’s current customers and with their competitors’ customers.

Sales leaders also appreciate key buying criteria research . This type of research is typically based on IDIs with current customers, competitor customers, and partners.

B2B Marketing

IDIs can also bring insight key to the strategic development of content marketing assets. There are so many “how to do content marketing” resources out there and a plethora of blogs, articles, podcasts, video streams, social campaigns and more from your competitors and partners. With so much out there, it’s hard to know which type of content marketing to invest in.

To create content that has a real impact, you need to conduct real-world research. Certainly, you can look at statistics from your website, blog, and social media efforts, but it’s also important to actually ask current and potential customers what type of content drives them to buy.

For example, one very well-known tech company asked us to study which content drove developers to engage with their cloud service and which content helped educate them on the service’s features. Armed with the knowledge of which content initiatives were resonating the most with customers, our client was able to strategically concentrate their marketing efforts to drive even more engagement with their product.

In-Depth Interviews are also key to building great buyer personas .

One of our clients hired us to give them a greater understanding of the buyers of advanced analytics. The aim of this project was to determine B2B buyer archetypes from business leaders to tech specialists.

For this project, we conducted roughly 10 IDIs with each type of buyer. Through the IDIs, we learned what motivated each archetype to buy, the type of relationship they preferred with suppliers, their key buying criteria, and many other factors in their decision to purchase advanced analytics solutions. Obviously, all of this insight greatly improved our client’s marketing and sales efforts.

Product Development

IDIs with customers, potential customers, competitors’ customers and aspirational customers can reveal information that is critical to product development. You may learn:

• Which features customers wish you had.
• Which features drove customers to buy a solution; yours or your competitors’.
• Why customers use a particular feature.

Today, most companies have a lot of data on what their customers are using but they don’t always understand the context around that use. IDIs can clear that up.

IDIs are also great for digging into how customers rate companies on the “itys” of tech: security, manageability, reliability, scalability, interoperability, etc.

Challenges with In-Depth Interviews

Now that we’ve talked at length about the benefits of IDIs, I’ll acknowledge some of the risks of using this methodology.

Mistaken Stakeholders

Stakeholders sometimes push for quantitative measures when the research demands qualitative data.

Many stakeholders know that they can obtain a quantitative view of their own customer base quite easily. With direct access to their customer base, they often assume it will be easy to get a good-sized sample.

However, things change when you need to hear from competitors’ customers. Finding enough of these folks to have a meaningful quant study of their views is less likely, definitely not easy, and most likely expensive. A better first step is to go with a qualitative research effort that includes IDIs with competitor customers.

Needlessly Infinite In-Depth Interviews

Another related challenge is that stakeholders often want more IDIs than are necessary. You actually don’t need that many IDIs to have an effective study.

If you think about a study that focuses on an average B2B sales process, the sample you need to target is already pretty darn small. Just some basic criteria shrinks the pool down a lot: customers who bought a certain solution from a particular competitive landscape (example: 4-6 vendors) for the purpose of completing a specific job, for instance.

Further, clients typically commission a study to understand a certain type of buyer persona such as a technical or business leader.

Once a study is dialed in this tightly, it’s usually better to conduct a set of 10 -20 IDIs with stellar respondents than to launch an enormous (and expensive!) quantitative B2B survey.

Stakeholders also sometimes fail to recognize the difficulty that exists in targeting the customer base of small startup companies with a quant survey. For example, at least 10 times a year, clients call on us to research a company with a customer base that only numbers in the hundreds. For studies like these, it would be unwise to go with a quant survey. With such a small customer base, and factoring in typical response rates, you won’t be able to get meaningful insights about a startup’s customer base with the number of surveys that would actually get completed.

Luckily, 10-20 IDIs can give you a ton of insight about a customer base that numbers in the 100s.

Recalcitrant Respondents

Interviewees, particularly for B2B studies, often need to be pushed.

For B2B tech market research, we’re not asking people about sensitive medical conditions, their kids, or their failed dreams. We’re just talking to them about business and technical issues. Hence, it’s fine to push for a meaningful answer that has a strong industry context.

For example, if someone tells one of our analysts that they decided to go with a competitor solely based on price, we are not just going to drop it there. We will ask them to justify that response, maybe even a couple of times, because business decisions are rarely that easy. In B2B tech, there are multiple stakeholders that interact as part of a very complex decision tree. It’s important to get at those secondary and additional factors that drove the decision. Perhaps price played into the decision, but it was really a particular integration or support offering that landed the competitor the deal.

Interviewers That Don’t Get the Business or Tech Jargon

For effective IDIs, the interviewer needs to be nearly as knowledgeable as the research participant.

How often have you been at a party and struggled to explain your day job to someone who isn’t in the same line of work? Instantly, you start dumbing things down so that they can understand what you do day to day. In casual conversation, that’s just fine. However, for B2B market research, the respondent dumbing things down is the last thing you want. Ideally, the respondent should speak to the interviewer as though they were speaking to a colleague. Only then do you know you’re getting in-depth answers that have real industry context.

The Drive-Thru Interview

Another challenge with IDIs is that you can’t control the interviewee’s environment. If the interviewee is ordering a cheeseburger, they aren’t really paying attention. The same is true if they’re focused on their email as much as they are the phone call you’re having with them.

A skilled interviewer versed in the technical and business aspects of the industry tends to solve this problem as well. As soon as interviewees realize that the person interviewing them really gets the challenges in their industry, they tend to quickly focus on the phone conversation. The interviewer just has to be knowledgeable and personable enough to be more interesting than the subject’s email or cheeseburger.

Why Do In-Depth Interviews For B2B Research?

There is just no better way to solve the puzzle of B2B business decisions and find out what customers really, really want.

This article is brought to you by  Cascade Insights . We specialize in market research and marketing services for the B2B tech sector. 

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Methodologies

Consumer In-depth Interviews

For research questions that require more than “yes” or “no” answers, we use In-Depth Interviews.

In-person, virtual, or occasionally, phone interviews are a way to gain insights to the nuanced perspectives of your target consumer. Because of the high-intensity level of time and depth required, market research firms will conduct a handful of interviews as an aggregate to more extensive methodologies (e.g., surveys, focus groups). However, interviews allow for a targeted approach to specific characteristics of your consumer demographics.

For example, a [wellness service company] may want to understand the reasoning of a potential client when deciding on which holistic approaches to consider, and how to convert incomplete consumers to full cycle clients. The in-depth interview process can create a narrative case study that can be extrapolated out to create a target profile. Interviews can also set the groundwork for larger scale data collection, providing direction for surveys or diary studies.

At Stitch Marketing Research, we work with your team to generate a structure for any discussion-based research method. We expect your feedback and want to ensure we are asking the right questions that will dictate your actionable insights.

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In-depth interviews in market research

Surveys are one of the most popular market research methods. On the basis of generating a large amount of data, it plays an important part in the development of marketing strategies for businesses.

In the survey process, digging deep to find useful, valuable, and personal information is a very necessary step. And an in-depth interview is the top technique to get such information.

What is an in-depth interview (IDI)?

In-depth interviewing is a highly focused qualitative research method used to conduct person-to-person interviews. The goal is to focus on a specific product, situation, or goal to gain insight into consumer behavior. A comfortable interviewee is usually someone who is open to sharing information.

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Three main types

Informal conversational: This is usually a conversation between two people. The key to this form is comfort, openness, and familiarity. The researcher uses conversation to spontaneously form open-ended questions. Participants are not necessarily informed about the purpose of the interview. This gives interviewers the ability to explore new angles as they form their opinions.

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Semi-structured: These interviews are usually based on topics related to the survey’s scope. The questions were consistent throughout the interview process. The interviewer can change the order of the questions and adjust the level of exploration as the story progresses. The researcher is free to explore new topics and angles as they emerge during the interview.

Standardized, and open-ended: This format typically uses a series of specific open-ended questions that are prepared in advance and used in the same order throughout the interview with the participants. The aim was to identify differences in attitudes and approaches among the interviewees. Unlike questionnaires, open-ended questions help broaden the scope of the interview and attract new perspectives.

Advantages of in-depth interviews

Low budget: In-depth interviews don’t cost too much. However, specifying the number of participants and goals will have an impact on the budget issue.

Non-verbal communication: The focus of a face-to-face interview includes body language, gestures, tone of voice, and facial expressions. Through this, the interviewer can more fully understand what the respondent wants to convey.

Positive relationships: One of the main advantages of in-depth interviews in research is that they allow the researcher to develop an intimate relationship with the participant. This gives more insight, richness, and variety. It gives the interviewer wide scope to dig deeper into the areas and redirect the interview as needed.

Remote chat: Modern technology, and the proliferation of social networking platforms make communication easier and more convenient. Online chat also dissolves all geographical distances, and sometimes helps interviewees feel their most confident and comfortable selves.

Disadvantages of in-depth interviews

It requires someone with good expertise: For in-depth interviews to be a successful way of conducting market research, interviewers must have the right level of training, skills, and experience. Not simply just a conversation, everything needs to be run professionally. Conducting an open-ended interview while maintaining structure and an intense focus on the desired outcome is an exceptional skill.

Objectivity: The results of in-depth interviews are often based on a small sample and cannot be quantified. Their analysis should be carried out by independent experts to ensure objectivity. In-depth interviews should be done at the same time as or before the quantitative survey.

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How Inclusive Brands Fuel Growth

• Omar Rodríguez-Vilá,
• Dionne Nickerson,
• Sundar Bharadwaj

Years before the Barbie movie phenomenon, leaders at Mattel became concerned that consumer perceptions of the famous doll were out of sync with demographic trends. The company conducted in-depth research to understand how customers felt about Barbie and to determine whether more-inclusive versions presented a strong market opportunity. The findings led to a new inclusion strategy that affected all areas of the brand—product design, distribution, and commercial activities—and coincided with a period of significant growth. Barbie revenues increased 63% from 2015 to 2022—before the boost from the film.

Research shows that in most industries the perception of inclusion can materially change customers’ likelihood to purchase and willingness to recommend products and services.

This article presents a framework for increasing marketplace inclusion in three areas: seeing the market, which is about market definition, market intelligence, and strategies for growth; serving the market, which involves developing products, packaging, and other commercial practices; and being in the market, which looks at advocacy and the customer experience.

They unlock new sources of value by meeting the needs of underrecognized customers.

Idea in Brief

The opportunity.

Research shows that the perception of inclusion can materially change customers’ likelihood to purchase and willingness to recommend products and services.

The Problem

Despite the many business and societal benefits of marketplace inclusion, there is a systematic lack of it across industries.

The Approach

Greta Gerwig’s Barbie grossed more than $1 billion at the box office in about two weeks. Only 53 films have ever hit that mark (adjusted for inflation). The 2023 movie, which features themes of women’s empowerment, multiculturalism, and inclusiveness, was a divergence from the narrow social and demographic representation of the original tall, thin, white doll that Mattel introduced in 1959.

• OR Omar Rodríguez-Vilá is a professor of marketing practice at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and the academic director of education at its Business & Society Institute.
• DN Dionne Nickerson is an assistant professor of marketing at the Goizueta Business School.
• SB Sundar Bharadwaj is the Coca-Cola Company Chair of Marketing at the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business. LinkedIn: Sundar Bharadwaj

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