Qualitative Market Research Articles

The psychological processes that culminate in audience loyalty to a South African soap opera

A model for the psychological processes that culminate in positive viewing experiences and audience loyalty to a soap opera is presented. The research was based on a secondary analysis of a qualitative market research study conducted for the SABC on the soap opera Isidingo. The analysis was conducted within a hermeneutic phenomenological interpretive framework. The model illustrates how viewers use soap-world knowledge and real-world knowledge to interpret the characters and storylines of soap operas, and that the degree of enjoyment the viewer experiences from viewing is dependent on the quality of the mental models formed of these respective components. The role that transportation, realism, social influences and timeslot play in the engagement process is also defined.

The fuzzy line between needs, coverage, and excess in the Mexican Formulary List: an example of qualitative market width analysis

To assess the rationality of the Mexican Formulary List (MEX-LIST). MEX-LIST was compared with the World Health Organization Essential Medicines List (WHO-LIST) to identify drugs classified as unmet needs. For the MEX-LIST rationality evaluation, the assessment of a non-sponsored, systematic and unbiased source (Prescrire Journal) was used for medicines not listed in WHO-LIST. The rating scale of Prescrire classifies medicines as Bravo, Real Advance, Offers an Advance, Possibly Helpful, Nothing New (NN), Judgment Reserved (JR), or Not Acceptable (NA) depending on their comparative therapeutic value. The NN, JR, and NA categories of medicines are further classified as non-added value. The MEX-LIST contains 771 medicines, which is 2.4-fold more than the WHO-LIST (n = 321). Up to 236 medicines in the MEX-LIST perfectly match the WHO-LIST medicines, 40 could be considered as reasonable substitutes, but 45 (14.0 %) present in the WHO-LIST are not present in the MEX-LIST, including an oversupply of 495 medicines. Rationality level could be analyzed for 353 of these: 43.1 % (n = 152) were classified as NN, 12.2 % (n = 43) as NA, and 6.2 % (n = 22) as JR due to limited available information. In summary, 61.5 % of the evaluated medicines present in the MEX-LIST but not included in the WHO-LIST (n = 217) can be considered drugs that do not add substantial therapeutic benefits, this accounts for 28.1 % of the medicines in the MEX-LIST. MEX-LIST is characterized by a twofold irrationality in that essential medicines to treat prevalent diseases are missing and medicines without any rational added value are in oversupply. This type of study can be easily applied to other countries with the aim of providing a forum for further discussion and improvement of the medicines offered by their national formularies.

Consumer Reality: How Brands are Constructed

It is an implicit tenet of qualitative market research that it is possible to find out what the consumer ‘really thinks’. Our research language reflects this - we talk about ‘depth’, ‘probing’ and ‘getting under the surface’ of otherwise superficial consumer responses. This underlying assumption has a questionable intellectual pedigree, however. As qualitative researchers, we should, in contrast, be more concerned with understanding the processes and structures that determine how consumers think. If we understand these processes and structures we will be more able to identify how brands are constructed by consumers and how the meanings of brands are created.

"Qualitative Marketing Research Regarding The Impact Of The Romanian Legal Framework On The Activity Of Leasing Companies "

In the context of a diversified financial market, companies have identifiedseveral opportunities, including the leasing, which offers the possibility of using goods andequipments, from the most modern ones, without charging the financial management with theweight of a purchase that an accelerated scientifical and technical progress would turn it intoa useless task. The leasing technique hasn‘t left indifferent the judicial and monetaryauthorities, the parties involved losing quickly the freedom of organizing the relations on theirown. This situation was a result of the fact that, showing interest for various sectorsof national economy, leasing became the subject of distinctive regulations. In this context,during October-November 2011, there was designed a qualitative marketing research, whichhad as the main objective the analysis of the attitudes and opinions of the managers of leasingcompanies from Brasov City, regarding the impact of the relevant legislation on their activity.The research results highlighted, on one hand, the problems they had to face because of thenumerous specific inaccuracies in the Romanian legal framework and, on the other hand, thechanges they could bring to the legislation in force. These results provided valuableinformation to the management of the leasing companies, also representing a reference pointin designing a future quantitative marketing research, which is of descriptive nature.

What can phenomenology offer the consumer?

PurposeConsumer discourse is a narrative of generically (in)formed, goal‐directed activity. If research interprets such practice, it is often deemed to draw upon phenomenology. Returning to the philosophers (Gadamer, Heidegger, Merleau‐Ponty and Ricoeur) who shaped phenomenology, the purpose of this paper is to argue that consumer studies should further cultivate their important insight – that action (particularly perceiving) is structured temporally as always already realising our pre‐given meaning. Entities areprima facieexperienced as “ready‐to‐hand” “equipment” enabling “potentiality‐for‐being”. Hermeneutic phenomenology is thus a philosophical resource offering appropriate spatio‐temporal images for people responding to media marketing's branded life‐styles.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon authoritative academic resources, the paper proceeds from philosophical definition to resulting analytical methods in marketing research, using a brief Malaysian case study as an example. Philosophically, phenomenology's core perception is of persons as located in a life‐world of socially shared concepts whose employment/ emplotment is said to “fore‐structure” (Heidegger) their understanding, shaping their “projections” (Gadamer) or expectation of events. Phenomenology posits one engages in a “hermeneutic circle of understanding” – aiming at resolving contradiction between such “fore‐sight” and our subsequent perceptions of events. Consumers thematise “pre‐understood” experience in articulating their storied accounts.FindingsDrawing on phenomenology's account of perceiving, the paper suggests qualitative marketing research unpacks consumers' generic expectation of branding narrative as equipment enabling potentiality‐for‐being, regarding narrative as addressing assumed audience expectation.Originality/valueThe paper provides a conceptual route through phenomenology's application to marketing communication research practice.

Based on the Method of Fuzzy Clustering Analysis of the Smartphone Product Market

With an increasingly competitive market and the homogenization of products, the cultivation and building of the competitiveness of enterprises depends largely on the obtaining information in the business marketing, in order to respond to changes of the environment of market.Firstly, this paper describes the basic principles of fuzzy clustering analysis.Secondly, it describes the general steps and related concepts. At last, it classifies five smartphone brands effectively through the use of fuzzy clustering analysis method to combine quantitative and qualitative market for smartphones. By the results, we obtain more realistic market conditions

Conceptual model of strategic positioning of a poultry brand

The food industry operates in an explicitly dynamic environment which demands constant adjustments and responses. The purpose of this paper is to identify important elements of brand positioning by reviewing literature and research into successful poultry brands in Slovenia. A investigation into leading Slovenian poultry brands was used to illustrate the importance of certain elements in repositioning brands in competitive markets. The analysis of competitors in the food market in Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland, the analysis of the branding, the results of primary qualitative market research, and the development and testing of possible concepts all offer a basic starting-point for new market positioning. The method used for the implementation of the primary research and for the subsequent testing of the concept was via focus groups. The presented conceptual model for strategic positioning of a brand in a competitive market of high-volume products can enable the definition of various concepts for the new positioning in markets.

Commentaar

Reply Reply This contribution is a reply on the article ‘Methoden en technieken in kwalitatief onderzoek’, written by Judith van Male. Andriessen recognises the practise driven reality of the qualitative market researcher in which applicability of results is leading. In addition he suggests a way to incorporate science based knowledge into practice driven qualitative research.

Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven. Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. Pp. ix+283. $29.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsDaryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven. Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. Pp. ix+283. $29.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper).Shahidur R. KhandkerShahidur R. KhandkerWorld Bank Search for more articles by this author World BankPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 59, Number 2January 2011 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/657131 Views: 41Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref © 2011 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Hayyan Alia, Arvind Ashta, Zaka Ratsimalahelo A modified household economic portfolio model for assessing impact of microfinance using diaries, Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal 20, no.11 (Jan 2017): 2–27.https://doi.org/10.1108/QMR-06-2016-0054

Product range optimization – case study

The paper presents the optimizing procedure of the product range manufactured by a company which operates in the area of production and sales of the milling and bakery products. The paper authors have taken this company as an example since the products it manufactures and commercializes address to population and are required to meet both qualitative and quantitative market requirements. After a brief overview of the company, one analyses its production capacity, staff structure and distribution as well as the concern of the company for the employees’ training in its activity field, so as to fulfill all the necessary and required conditions for developing a qualitative activity. The analysis continues with: the cost of the product before optimization, software presentation and computerized optimization procedure, the selection of the products to be optimized, data collection, the optimization procedure, results obtaining and analysis, choosing the optimal solution for the analyzed products analysis and for the future competitiveness of the company.

I spy with my little eye

PurposeThe paper arose from an experienced qualitative market researcher's desire to challenge her working methodologies in analysing and interpreting data for commercial clients. Faced with tight deadlines, and working largely on her own, the researcher wished to consider if alternative working practices might be worth the necessary time investment and if outputs could actually be enhanced.Design/methodology/approachThis paper compares the results of projective techniques of qualitative data collection analysed manually with computer‐aided analysis of the same data. Four focus groups were set up. Various creative and projective techniques were incorporated into the groups in order to explore and test the boundaries of both the manual and computer‐based analysis data to the full.FindingsThe organisation of data was aided by the use of CAQDAS file management structure, but a general overview of the results was somewhat lost to the researcher. Moreover, visual rather than textual data do not lend itself to computer‐aided analysis, minimising their utility in analysing results from a wide range of projective techniques.Research limitations/implicationsWhile the objectivity of this introspective, reflective approach may be questionable, using a separate researcher to undertake different methods was neither deemed to enable a direct comparison of the process nor the experience, as seen reflectively through the eyes of the same researcher.Practical implicationsInsights can benefit other commercial market researchers who may be considering using CAQDAS.Originality/valueThe paper explores the analysis of data gathered using projective techniques – a recognised gap in the literature.

Wal‐Mart is coming to Guelph: hedonic to utilitarian shoppers' perceptions

PurposeTo date few research studies exist on consumers' responses to the adoption of Wal‐Mart into towns and cities. This paper seeks to examine the expected impact of a Wal‐Mart store in a community before its arrival.Design/methodology/approachMedia reviews, participant observations and in‐depth interviews were applied. Positive and negative articles relating to Wal‐Mart as exhibited in the newspapers – the Guelph Tribune and the Guelph Mercury – were reviewed. Participant observations were conducted in three different shopping areas of Guelph: the Downtown area, the Stone Road mall area and the Willow West mall area. A total of 13 participants from these shopping areas were interviewed.FindingsOverall, this study found that the participants were receptive to the notion of Wal‐Mart coming to Guelph despite the negative publicity and strong opposition Wal‐Mart had faced in the media. Additionally, this study offered insights for this marketplace based on the consumption context of hedonic and utilitarian shoppers. The intensity of these shoppers' perceptions and beliefs were found to be different for different contexts such as retail shopping, businesses and social.Research limitations/implicationsThis study demonstrates the importance of wider contextual comprehension when trying to understand what values consumers hold for retailers in the marketplace. However, these findings are restricted by the limited range of opinions captured. A fully holistic view is only possible when taking into account the perspectives of local business owners, future Wal‐Mart employees and managers, activists, or politicians – all of whom have an impact on the situation of Wal‐Mart in Guelph.Practical implicationsInsights from this study can assist management personnel for their future expansion plans.Originality/valueThis study extends the application of consumers' value dimensions by focusing not only on consumers' hedonic and utilitarian values but also by incorporating the community context. Furthermore, it offers a multi‐method qualitative market research approach for discovering insights that would not have emerged from utilizing just one method of data collection. This is also the first study to assess consumer responses before a store's construction.

A discourse analytical approach to qualitative marketing research

PurposeThis paper aims to introduce to marketing a discourse analytical framework on which future qualitative marketing research can draw.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is to utilize Michel Foucault's works and the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe.FindingsA discourse analytical framework for qualitative marketing research consisting of six central concepts – turning points, problematizations, articulations, nodal points, hegemony and deconstruction – is outlined.Originality/valueThe discourse analytical framework outlined can be used in future qualitative marketing research. It is mainly of value to marketing researchers.

Estimating and benchmarking Less-than-Truckload market rates

In this paper, we present a regression-based methodology that can estimate the Less-than-Truckload (LTL) market rates with high reliability using an extensive database of historical shipments from continental United States. Our model successfully combines the quantitative data with qualitative market knowledge to produce better LTL market rate estimates which can be used in benchmarking studies allowing carriers and shippers to identify cost saving opportunities. We identify the main drivers of LTL pricing and reveal the effects of certain industry practices on the final market rates.

Naturalistic group interviewing in China

PurposeThis paper and accompanying film demonstrate the techniques of using scenarios, breaching expectations, and using naturalistic groups as being especially appropriate for conducting qualitative marketing research in China.Design/methodology/approachThis study is used to investigate the social construction of brands in China and to demonstrate how to create naturalistic group interviews in China, and why it is beneficial to do so. A film footage of the various groups discussing the scenarios presented to them is presented so the viewer can observe the interactions between the group members.FindingsIn this paper, it is argued that only certain qualitative methods are appropriate in a Chinese context, due to various aspects of Chinese culture which de‐emphasize expressing one's thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and values openly. In the accompanying film, it is demonstrated how: presenting Chinese consumers with scenarios that they can relate to stimulates meaningful discussion; breaching people's expecations is what allows people to articulate underlying meaning systems; and conducting interviews in existing, naturally formed social groups, all lead to naturalistic discussions.Originality/valueAs marketing and consumer research becomes more global, the field of qualitative research needs to take a critical approach to the effectiveness of varying methodologies in varying cultural contexts. A first step in this direction is taken by outlining how and why particular qualitative methods are effective in China. Naturalistic group interviews can also be used in a wide variety of countries and cultural contexts when the construct of interest is the social dynamics of a consumption activity.

Bridging Industrial Segmentation Theory and Practice

Purpose: Segmentation is seen today as a core concept within mainstream marketing. While industrial segmentation has received considerable attention within academic literature, there have been many reports on companies having problems using, applying, and implementing the principles of segmentation. Authors criticize the literature on segmentation for giving too little attention to implementation, providing marketers little help and guidance on how to make segmentation work in a practical environment. This article addresses some of these problems. Methodology/Approach: The objective of this article is to design a process with methods and activities for segmentation by building on action research case study data from a large Danish industrial company. Findings: Along with important considerations, this article presents the process of segmentation using a build-up approach based on qualitative market data. The process is practical and easily approachable for companies. The purpose behind segmentation is strategic—identify target segments and facilitate the planning of future product offers. It is argued that segmentation should be dedicated to the purpose and context of the company. This case illustrates how the company adapted segmentation theory to their particular needs.

Results of a Qualitative Market Research Study Evaluating the Quality of Medical Letters

A qualitative and consecutive market research study was conducted to evaluate the quality of medical letters provided by the Medical Information Department at Lilly Deutschland GmbH. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with health care professionals (n = 38) from three different therapeutic areas (diabetology, oncology, and pain) in order to identify customer-relevant criteria regarding the content, format, and language of medical letters. The results have shown that medical letters should be prepared according to the level of urgency of the inquiry. Letters answering specific questions should provide customized answers with specific recommendations for action. Letters containing general information should provide a personalized cover letter and a comprehensive response that meets scientific standards. A summary of the content on one page of the letter is important to customers. Also relevant is a well-structured layout of the letter, which should be written in the local language.

GLOBAL MEAT MARKET

The paper deals with regional - comparative analysis of major world meat market and trade indices, as extremely important, inevitable and indispensable food product group in the human diet. It specially analyses trends, concerning regional differences in the volume, dynamics and structures of production and trade of beef and buffalo meat, pork, poultry meat and sheep and goat meat. Regions, i.e. countries, the largest producers and largest exporters and importers of these products have been defined. Pursuant to the above - mentioned, it was found that there are very significant regional differences due to numerous natural, economic and social factors. In the analysis of relations and the degree of influence of aforementioned factors on changes and development directions of the observed phenomenon, quantitative and qualitative market research methods were used.

Accounting for practice in commercial qualitative market research

Accounting for practice in commercial qualitative market research

The devil is in the detail: reflexive accounting in qualitative market research

The devil is in the detail: reflexive accounting in qualitative market research