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As it’s self-evident to any marketer, the macro environment has always been changing,which pose constant challenges to all businesses struggling to survive and trying to gain an upper hand amongst the fierce competition. A thorough and insightful understanding of target consumers is essential to the success of all marketing plans. Therefore, the study of consumer behavior is closely related to the formulation of marketing strategies.
In practice, the four key factors (product, price, promotion and place) composing a marketing plan all move around target consumers. Without a meticulous understanding of them, marketing strategies are doomed to fail. To be more specific, target consumers are in the center of every aspect of marketing planning.
Product : the product benefit(s) should satisfy the unmet needs of target consumers;
Price : the “sweet spot” that matches target consumers’ value perception;
Promotion : the appropriate ways to deliver marketing messages, thus driving and triggering consumption behaviors;
Place : the selected channel(s) that should be accessible, preferable and most effective to target consumers.
Figure 1-1 Illustrates the relationship between the 4Ps of marketing mix and their target consumers
In other words, marketing and the study of consumer behavior are the two sides of the same coin: consumers are the main body of the market, any marketing strategies need to answer questions like: What are consumers’ needs? How and what would they choose to satisfy these needs? When and where would they purchase? How would they evaluate the experience with the chosen products and services? What would they do to dispose the used products? Without definite answers to these questions, effective marketing strategies would not be possible.
Furthermore, the market is ever changing, so the study of consumer behavior is a constantly on-going process. Just like the lead-in case, COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed most people’s lives. For most businesses, the market landscape can never be the same. In the category of retail groceries, consumers’ lifestyle is one of the key variables to their consumption behavior. This new normal has prompted retailers to react quickly and adapt to consumers’ new purchasing preferences and habits. Otherwise, sales slumps or even bankruptcies might be unavoidable.
To obtain an overall understanding of this subject, this chapter tries to find answers to the following questions, which constitute its key structure:
(1) What is consumer behavior? The key definition of this field.
(2) Who are we going to study? The necessity to divide consumers into different groups and the methods to do it.
(3) Why do consumers make their purchase decision the way they are? The internal and external factors that have an impact on consumer behavior.
(4) How consumer research is conducted? The basic methodology and measures used to collect information from consumers.
With the awareness of the importance of studying consumer behavior, we now need to focus on the meaning of the term.
Consumer behavior refers to a series of consumption activities of choosing, buying, using, evaluating and disposing of the products and services to fulfill the needs of individuals or organizations.
It can be inferred that this concept encompasses several aspects:
●There are different stages of such activities;
●Consumer behavior is a cycle;
●Consumers and their decision-making processes are influenced by internal and external factors;
●Such a characteristic determines the interdisciplinary nature of the study of this field.
消费者行为： 指的是个体或组织为满足需求而进行的一系列挑选、购买、使用、评价和处置的消费活动。
Every one of us is a consumer, engaging in various consumption activities in our daily lives. So think of yourself and reflect on the way you buy things, ranging from a soft drink you pick in a convenient store, your favorite shirt or dress flattering your silhouette, to the laptop you use to accomplish different tasks... The process can be divided into three stages.
Pre-purchase stage : Consumers are immersed in an environment full of marketing messages, some of which they are more or less aware of. For different types of purchases,they either merely have a vague idea about what they need or/and go a step further to get to know more and thus shortlist several options.
Purchase : Consumers concentrate on selecting the suitable products or services to meet their demands. The time and effort devoted to the decision-making depend on the different levels of involvement of the purchase.
Post-purchase stage : Consumers start to use and experience the chosen products/services, judging with their own criteria whether purposes have been served. This step has the biggest impact on the future: whether there’ll be repeat purchases, whether consumers are satisfied or not and the corresponding reactions like complaining or recommending.
To consume in its literal sense means to buy and use over a period of time. This process would happen again after a certain interval. The three stages in the consumption process go on over and over as long as we live. The end of the last stage signifies the beginning of the first stage, maybe not immediately, but eventually. It is its repetitive characteristic that makes consumer behavior researchable and predictable.
Most of our daily necessities, such as clothes, food, beverages, shoes, etc., share this same feature. For example, when shampoo is used up, a new bottle is to be bought because the need of washing hair still exists. Therefore, the study in this field has a lot to deal with the consumption patterns of Consumer Goods.
The experience of the last purchase affects how decisions are made in the next round. So it’s the marketers and the manufacturers’ responsibility to optimize and maximize consumers’ favorable feelings during the whole process, otherwise they’ll lose customers.
Almost all human beings living in the modern society need to exchange resources for survival and gratification. Consumers are, in the first place, human beings. What goes on in the consumers’ mind determines their actions. How they perceive the world, what different motivations consumers have, how and why consumers of different personalities have various purchase habits, what marketing message they’d pay attention to and remember,how they interpret such information, why some messages work while others don’t… These are the key questions that are essential to the psychological aspects of consumer behavior.Namely, consumers’ sensation and perception, learning and memory, motivation, personality,emotions and attitudes are the internal factors that play a critical role in the consumers’decision-making process.
On the other hand, human beings are not isolated. The environment consumers live in shapes their self-concept and lifestyle, which are the two determinants on how they behave in terms of consumption activities. The external factors include: culture and subculture,demographics, social status, reference group and family. These sources have direct or/and indirect connections with consumers, and thus impose overt or covert influences on every aspect of their lives, including how consumers utilize all sorts of resources to maintain life and achieve different goals.
These subjective and objective aspects work collaboratively to dominate the doings of each individual. It is the combined actions of these influences that lead to the making of every purchase decision. As a result, these key influences constitute the main knowledge structure of this subject. The multi-disciplinary characteristic of the subject determines the research scope involve marketing, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, etc.
Throughout this course, we’ll learn chapter by chapter the content of each influential factor to uncover the nature of consumer behavior. Chapter One introduces what the field of consumer behavior encompasses; Chapter Two showcases the social influences on consumers, specifically, the impacts of reference groups, brand community, key opinion leaders and family on their decision-making; Chapter Three talks about how cultures,subcultures and cultural values play a part in consumption behavior. Chapter Four to Chapter Eight have to do with the psychological aspects of consumers as individuals: Chapter Four gives details about consumers’ sensation and perception, Chapter Five presents how consumers learn about and remember consumption-related information, Chapter Six concerns the motivating elements and mechanisms for consumers’ behaviors and the ways to measure them, Chapter Seven involves the formation and transformation of consumers’attitudes; Chapter Eight demonstrates how consumers’ personalities vary and the critical roles of lifestyles. With the understanding of the internal and external perspectives, Chapter Nine will take a closer look at how consumers make their purchase decisions. Finally in Chapter Ten, the effects of marketing activities and the commercial environment on consumers will be explained and summarized.
Figure 1-2 The internal and external influences on consumer behavior
市场细分： 将消费者分成具备共同需求或特征的组别的行为。
There are various kinds of consumers, whose thinking and doings can vary tremendously. It is strategic for businesses to select a certain group of consumers to be the target, and come up with a set of relevant strategies aiming at them. Market segmentation is the practice to divide the market into groups of consumers possessing common needs or features. The picture below demonstrates how consumers of cold medicine can be classified as four different types based on two dimensions: horizontally their attitudes towards cold, some are proactive in treating the cold, and some tend not to react until the cold gets to them; vertically their requirements for the effects of the cold medicine, some want the medicine to maintain performance even with a cold, and some others expect the treatment should not harm the body.This way of segmentation has created four segments: Balance, Performance, Harmony and Reassurance. The descriptions of each segment are like a typical consumer’s monologue when talking about what cold medicine they would like and how they expect the body to be treated. With a detailed understanding like this, corresponding ways of communications can be much more effective in driving sales.
As you can see in the example above, segmentation is not just about simple divisions of consumers according to the most obvious features like age and gender. It’s more about getting to know what consumers’ temperament and mindsets are. Demographics and psychographics are the two major ways for segmentation. Demographics are the measurable and descriptive characteristics of a population, including age, gender, income, educational level, etc. It can serve as the foundation for any segmentation because: (1) demographics are the easiest and most logical ways to divide consumers; (2) it is cost effective to reach and locate demographic segments; (3) changes in the population’s age composition,income distribution and geographic features can yield business opportunities;(4) demographic characteristics are strongly linked to consumption behaviors,attitudes and media exposure.
人口统计特征： 人口中可测量及可描述的特征，包括年龄、性别、收入和教育程度等。
Psychographics is the way to classify people according to their lifestyle,personality, and attitudes. It has to do with how the objective world gets into people’s subjective experience. It’s often the case consumers with the same demographic characteristics vary in a lot of ways like personality, interests,and opinions. With the use of psychological, sociological and anthropological factors, the market is segmented into groups according to their tendency to make a particular decision about a product, person, ideology, or otherwise hold an attitude or use a medium. Just like the example of cold medicine segmentation shows, the four types of consumers, Balance, Performance,Harmony and Reassurance can have common demographical features,like they are probably at the same age range, with a similar income and educational background, but with very different mindsets in terms of choosing cold medicine. That’s why psychographics and demographics are usually integrated in defining and describing segment profiles.
心理统计特征： 根据消费者的生活方式、个性和态度将其分类的方法。
Other segmentation criteria can be about product usage (like dividing consumers into users, non-users, light users and heavy users, etc.), benefits sought (like anti-hair loss, anti-dandruff, color-protection, restoration, antisplit-ends, smoothness, etc. in the hair care category), and geography (like the lifestyles in the south and north of China can be vastly different).
After understanding why it is important to study consumers and what this field involves, this part mainly deals with how to explore, collect and analyze information regarding consumer behavior.
In companies or corporations that have well-established market research mechanisms, there is generally an in-house department or sector dealing with consumer knowledge. In the recruitment page of the world’s most famous consumer goods corporation Proctor & Gamble, the introduction of their Consumer & Market Knowledge (CMK) sector says “You observe behavior and listen to consumers to uncover the objective truths that power our most critical business decisions. In every meeting, on every call, in every presentation to leadership, you represent the most important person in the room: the consumer.” Such description manifests the significance of consumer research. These research operations are usually outsourced to independent research agencies. Both sides cooperate closely to accomplish shared goals. Therefore, it is critical for them to communicate adequately and develop common understanding, to avoid and eliminate future mistakes caused by misunderstanding. Figure 1-3 illustrates the necessary procedure of consumer research.
Figure 1-3 The consumer research process
Once the company/corporation approaches the agencies to express their research needs, both sides would discuss and clarify the challenges the client is facing, what needs to be achieved and how things are done. It is the research agency’s task to draw up a research proposal to describe the background information, key objectives, research design,deliverables (usually a report and related research records), timetable, and costs.
●Background understanding: Before actually contacting target consumers, it is important to have a preliminary understanding of the project. Most of the market research projects have specific and practical marketing questions to answer. Research background includes where the company stands in the market, how the brand is doing in the category, who its major competitors are, and consumers’ basic attitude towards the brand. Experienced marketers and/or researchers would be able to identify the challenges and difficulties the company faces, and the usage habits and struggling points on the consumers’ side.Without clear knowledge of what issues need to be addressed, it’s impossible to conduct research properly or obtain desirable results.
●Objective establishment: After knowing the basic conditions of the project, particular research objectives should be summarized and articulated based on the situation. In this way, the marketing team and corresponding agency would have a consensus on what needs to achieve throughout the whole process. To allocate resources more efficiently,the research scope should not be too broad or too narrow.
In execution, the market research process is primarily project-based. In the spirit of obtaining firsthand information and economical allocation of resources, each project is tailor-made to cater to the specific marketing needs at the moment. Consumer research runs through the whole marketing process: before, during and after product launch. Table 1-1 shows some of the typical research focuses that can be developed into more detailed research objectives.
●Research design: To put it simply, consumer research is like a tool box for marketers to employ at any step of marketing planning to solve specific problems to move further.The two major research approaches, qualitative and quantitative, are the essential ways to explore, describe and present research results. The usage of either type or the combination of the two should be selected and designed to serve different purposes.
Qualitative research is about getting insights from consumers. What matters is NOT how many respondents are for or against the idea, but rather the reasons behind their choices. For example, many consumers use fabric softener in their laundry process, but for different reasons: some wants their clothes straightened without ironing due to lack of time; some desire the anti-static feature of the product to avoid unpleasant feelings in winter. These insightful yields are obtained through detailed investigations into consumers’lives.
Qualitative research is conducted in a semi-structured fashion, with a lot of openended questions being asked, depending on the expertise of experienced researchers commonly known as moderators. The role of a qualitative researcher involves writing a discussion guide before the interviews, encouraging respondents to express their opinions,directing the discussion towards the designated goals and probing where necessary, and finally summarizing, analyzing and reporting the findings after fieldwork. A well-trained and skillful moderator should be able to create a relaxing atmosphere for discussion, induce the respondents to share their personal experience and express their true thoughts in a natural but efficient way, filter and extract insightful and valuable information and transform them into business opportunities.
Typically, qualitative research takes the form of focus groups, in-depth interviews,in-home visits, ethnographic immersions, and shop-along. Each method has its own characteristics and different functions. To obtain optimal results, sometimes multiple methods would be adopted.
●Focus groups: Typically consisting of 6−8 respondents with similar features and lasting for 2−2.5 hours, focus groups enjoy the benefit of getting the opinions of several people at one time. It is hosted by a moderator, who is a professional researcher with a thorough understanding of the project, the product and the client. The group dynamics can stimulate consumers’ thoughts, and abundant learning can be drawn through the interaction between the moderator and respondents.
●In-depth interviews: It is also called one-on-one interviews, which is usually suitable for topics that to some extent require privacy . For instance, industry professionals (such as doctors or real estate traders) are usually recruited to provide insiders’ knowledge and perspectives. Information like this is somewhat sensitive, which they won’t talk freely if other people are around. In-depth interviews are also more effective for special products or special respondents, which either require privacy or special attention. Like the usage of condoms, interviews are likely to be done one by one. As for the elderly, in-depth interviews can help them concentrate and follow the interviewer’s directions easily, so as to achieve desirable outcomes.
●In-home visits & ethnographic immersions: This research method is more or less like an in-depth interview, but it happens at the consumer’s home. Researchers and the clients can actually immerse in the consumer’s living environment to get to know how the product is actually used in an authentic setting, and how the consumer’s lifestyle affects their decision-making. Instead of listening to the consumers talking about the products in a research facility, researchers have the opportunity to observe the consumer’s life to get a fuller picture and notice some crucial details that otherwise might be neglected. For products like pet foods, in-home visits could be a suitable way to gain more and better results due to the special role division of the purchaser (the pet owner) and the user (the pet). An in-home visit usually lasts for 0.5−1.5 hours, while ethnographic immersions,which adopts an anthropological field study approach, might last for up to four hours.
●Shop-along : This form usually follows an in-home visit. By going to the store the consumer usually frequents to buy the product in question, researchers can see how purchase decisions are made in the store.
Discussion guide : Below is an example of what a discussion guide looks like for focus groups of skin care products. As it can be seen, the discussion would be divided into several sections, starting from how consumers perceive the product category, new trends in the market, and their purchase behavior; then the discussion is moved onto a brand-specific section, including users’ impressions of the brand, their feedback on the TV commercials to be launched, and their comments on the products and prices.
●Moderator explains roles, general purposes of the study, no right/wrong answers, etc.
●Respondent introduction—name, people in household, employment, hobbies.
I. (a) Talk about the overall skincare market and your thoughts about that
●What’s new about skincare in town (type, texture, packaging, style, smell, usage,etc.)? How do you know that?
●Did you notice any change/ trend in terms of skincare category? How is it relevant to you? Why?
●What’s your favorite skincare brand now and 3 years ago? (Write on paper) Anything different? Why?
(b)Talk about your skincare shopping /buying/consuming behavior
●Where do you purchase skin care products? (Write the store name on paper)
●Usually where would you go to find your products in the store? (probe counter or planogram or promotion stack)
●When do you purchase? How often?
●How much do you spend per month? (Write the amount on paper)
●What product do you purchase most often? Which brand? Which series? (Write on paper) Why?
●How do you use them? Tell me the typical daily routine. What occasions? (morning/night/ office/at home...)
II. Brand sorting exercise
●Show all brands (products) on table, ask them to have a short discussion on the sorting criteria; then start to categorize the brands according to their own criteria.
●Why do you categorize the brand in this way? Why is brand X placed here? (Probe if anything related to positioning and pricing)
I. Tell me something about brand X
●What does the brand tell you? How do you feel about it?
●If brand X were a person, how would you describe him/her? Why? (age? gender?What does he/she wear? What is his/her nationality/occupation/personality/ shopping habit?)
Are you interested in him/her? What’s his/her relationship with you? Why?
●How did you come about knowing this brand?
●What are the key drivers for trial and purchase?
●Are you a frequent buyer? How often?
●Do you use it together with other brands? What are the other brands? Why?
●What do you like about this brand?
●What do you dislike about this brand?
II. Let’s focus on communications of brand X
(Rotate TVC: group 1 TVC A & TVC B / group 2 TVC A & TVC C)
●[Unaided] Do you recall any brand X communications? If no, probe TVCs and print ads.
- Can you describe it? What are the messages? Do you like it? Why or why not?
●[Aided] Show TVCs and print ads: Did you see these? (count)
- What did you see? (let them talk freely)
- What is the core message brand X wants to tell you?
- Do you like them? Why or why not?
- Do you think these are reliable? Why or why not?
- Do you think these are relevant to you? Why or why not?
- Do you think these are relevant to the brand? Why or why not?
●How do you get new things and stay updated on skincare products? What is the most credible / influential / frequent channel/media you use? Why?
●If brand X is planning to use a celebrity, who do you think would match the brand to enhance the brand image and your liking to the brand?
●If brand X used these celebrities (show them the board), who do you think would match the brand most? Why?
III. Then let’s talk about brand X products
●Do you know how many product series brand X has?
●How many and which products out of the current portfolio are you using? Why or why not?
●Do you think it is effective?
●How do you use it? Tell me your typical daily routine. What occasions? (morning/night/office/ at home)
●Any new product ideas for brand X? What is lacking in the product range?
●Here is our new product. Do you feel interested? Why or why not? (check the interest/involvement level)
Please try a bit on your hand, how do you feel? Good or not? Why?
IV. Tell me what you think on prices?
●Do you know how much are the products of brand X? Are these reasonable?
●Are you aware of any price promotion on brand X? What are the prices?
●Did you see these bonus packs? Are these attractive? Why or why not?
●See if any additional questions from the brand X team;
●If no, thank the respondents and end the discussion.
Recruitment screener : Since qualitative research relies heavily on the expertise of the researchers and what the consumers say, it is essential to recruit authentic, qualified and articulate respondents. The clients and the research team would work collaboratively to set criteria for the recruitment to ensure valuable findings can be obtained. One of the necessary steps in the recruitment process is to draw up a screener to find the right people. Below is an example of a screener for the focus group discussions on beef and lamb consumption.
Note: At least beef or lamb must be bought at least once every 2 weeks fortnightly. (check quotas)
Q13. Please share with us details about the premium protein meat you bought.
Note: SH recruit high end protein meat price >159 RMB/500g; CD >89 RMB/500g.
Continued
Quantitative research focuses on numbers and statistics . In contrast with the semistructured interviews with open-ended questions of qualitative researches (QUAL),quantitative approaches (QUAN) follow relatively fixed structures with procedures with strict guidelines. The essential steps like research design, sampling, data collection and execution can critically affect the results of a QUAN study. Observation, experimentation, survey are the three major forms of quantitative research.
Observation : One of the challenges in consumer studies is that consumers might not behave the same as what they claim. It is not uncommon that a new product receives positive responses in preliminary researches but fails in the market. Consumers might favor the idea of this new product in an interview but make different choices in the real setting,taking into consideration a lot of circumstantial factors. How do we know how consumers truly behave in the retail outlets? Observation can provide an objective perspective on consumer behavior.
Most observations are done in actual stores. Trained researchers would take notes about the consumer flows at different time during the day, the composition of these flows (age,gender, shopping units, etc.), the things they buy, and the things they pick up but haven’t bought. Inventory audit can also be quite informative in figuring out merchandise sales. By counting what’s left in stock, the products sold can be calculated. These statistics can be broken down by brand or/and by category, which can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of different sales and marketing plans. Electronic means like Physiological observation can use monitoring devices to track consumers’ eye movement when they see or read an advertisement.
Experimentation : In contrast with the actual setting where observations take place,experimentation is conducted in a relatively controlled environment. This can be illustrated by the simulative supermarkets built by major retail giants to investigate how purchase decisions are made in a store. Target consumers are invited to shop in these places. Surveillance devices like CCTV have been installed to record the whole process (consent and confidentiality agreement would be signed beforehand), mock-up shelves with products of major brands have been arranged to create an authentic atmosphere. Salesrelated tests can be done: the stopping power of different package designs on shelves, the closing power of different sales promotion strategies, how shoppers compare and choose among various brands, etc.
P&G coined the term FMOT (First Moment of Truth) in 2005 to refer to the 3 to 5 seconds when a shopper notices an item in a retail environment (invariably due to the packaging interrupting the shoppers’ attention to prompt brand recognition) and makes a decision as to whether or not they purchase the item. The model comprises of three points of contact that are key to maintaining that brand or product preference in that moment.The first contact point is a stimulus such as a TV commercial; a mention on a radio station;a magazine Lift-Out; an online video; an email; a banner ad, etc. The second involves the consumer visiting the store or searching the web to locate the product or service. The third is the moment the consumer locates the product either in the store or online. Regardless of whether there is only one brand or a range of brands, the consumer faces the FMOT.The buying decision that they make will be influenced by their in-store or online experience.Based on the research, consumers spend seven seconds in front of the shelf before they decide which brand to buy. Therefore, it’s really important to gain the consumer’s attention at this critical moment.
(A consumer is wearing eye movement tracking goggles connected to a monitoring device that can be observed and recorded by researchers.)
Survey : Probably considered as the most typical way of quantitative research, surveys are systematic ways to collect information from a large amount of people. Three aspects need to be determined when it comes to survey design: 1. sample size, sampling criteria and corresponding method; 2. the way to reach and interview respondents; 3. what and how questions should be asked (questionnaire formulation). There are four types of surveys: face-to-face, telephone, mail, and online, each one of which has its advantages and disadvantages.
Face-to-face surveys : Roadside or mall intercepts are typically the most effective ways for interviewers to reach designated respondents. The response rate is relatively higher than other approaches since it’s hard to turn down a request proposed in person. This approach also enjoys the strengths of being able to ask open-ended questions and probe.The completion rates are higher as well. However, its weaknesses lie in the high costs of interviewers and incentives, the limited locations to reach dispersed targets, and the biased results caused when respondents feel obliged to provide polite or socially desirable answers.
Telephone surveys : This approach is more cost-efficient than in-person surveys, since interviewers can make phone calls randomly from a call center. Computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) are a well-established way to conduct telephone surveys. The response rate is higher than mail surveys thanks to the personal contact. To some extent, probing and open-ended questions can be asked, but visual aids can’t be used. The results obtained from telephone interviews might be relatively simple.
Online surveys : It’s getting more and more popular and has become the mainstream of quantitative research due to its cost-effectiveness and ability to reach a wide range of dispersed respondents. With considerable incentives (cash or coupons) and the easy access to online questionnaires, consumers are more likely to click on and finish the survey. The downside is without the presence and assistance of interviewers, consumers are likely to get impatient if the questionnaire is too long or there are too many open-ended questions, or the answers they type in might not be up to standard, resulting in a higher percentage of waste. Hence, the design of the questionnaire is of vital importance.
Mail surveys : The use of mails is diminishing resulting from the widespread popularization of communication technology. Less and less people would respond to such surveys. They are further discouraged because the paper questionnaire needs to be mailed back to the sender, which is quite outdated.
The function of a questionnaire in quantitative research is quite different from that of a screener for qualitative research. The former is meant to draw out meaningful information from a sizable audience; whereas the latter serves to select the right kind of people to participate in discussion. As a result, a carefully drafted questionnaire is crucial to the quality of research data. When compiling questions, several principles should be followed:1. No leading questions; 2. Don’t ask two questions in one; 3. Ask clear questions; 4. Use consumers’ language; 5. Respondents must be able and willing to answer the questions. A well-written questionnaire should have a reasonable structure with a logical flow.
The roles of QUAL and QUAN studies can be complementary : QUAL can dig out some useful insights or opinions but is somewhat subjective; QUAN is supposed to be objective, so it can support and verify these results with data. If a soft drinks company intends to launch a new flavor, with a few candidates at hand: watermelon, cherry, passionfruit,lemon, etc., a QUAL test can be done to identify and elaborate consumers’ preference,followed by a QUAN test for them to “vote” for their favorite flavor. In this way, a holistic picture can be drawn to have a thorough understanding. Another usage of the mixed method is that a QUAL test should be conducted to revise the questions and determine the options in the questionnaire in a QUAN study. Without a QUAL test beforehand, the questionnaire might not be optimal, which will have an impact on the final results. It is important to keep in mind each one of the approaches serves their specific purposes, so either one of them will not stand alone in a comprehensive study.
The data collected in either QUAL or QUAN projects need to be analyzed after fieldwork, but in different ways. In a QUAL project, the data are collected in the forms of respondent profiles, diary, audio recordings, videos, transcripts and most importantly the researchers’ notes. It relies on the researcher’s professional skills and experience to analyze and summarize the research findings and propose recommendations. On the other hand, the QUAN data collected in a survey would go through the processing stage,including coding the responses and quantifying (e.g. converting respondents’ answers into numerical scores), then tabulating and analyzing with the use of sophisticated analytical programs.
Research reports are typically divided into four sections: 1. The introduction of basic information like the research background and research design (methodology, recruitment criteria, respondent profile); 2. Major conclusions: summaries should be outlined concisely and to-the-point, so that the clients are able to grasp the most important learning of the project at one glance; 3. Research findings: key findings are to be presented in a way that is condensed and pertinent, and then detailed findings would further display what has been obtained in the research; 4. Recommendations: the quality of this part depends on the researcher’s familiarization of the category and the brand, their perceptions and understanding of target consumers and their ability to transform fieldwork learning into valuable commercial opportunities.
The creation of a research report routinely takes two weeks. After it has been crafted and submitted, there might be feedback from the clients’ side, so back-and-forth revisions are to be expected. Once the report has been finalized and approved, some clients would request a presentation, which involves higher levels of executives to be informed about the latest market trends in consumer behavior. Researchers are supposed to walk them through the whole research process and deliver insightful results with business implications.