1. FEATURE
Time for new school -
market research encounters of the third kind
Adam Joseph argues that the ‘old school’ distinctions between quantitative and
qualitative research are largely out of date – and that it’s possible to generate
qualitative insights from quantitative surveys.
F
or decades most of us have believed there are two basic types For starters, you don’t have to come into contact with any
of research – qualitative and quantitative. Occasionally these of those weird researcher-types. You also get to choose the
are known by their more colloquially terms: ‘fun but fluffy’ most convenient time and place to do a survey. But most
for qual and ‘boring but important’ for quant. importantly, with online research you can answer in relative
But the textbooks have got it wrong. The industry anonymity with more time to consider your answers, without
definitions are now outdated. The hardwiring of your brain a researcher staring at you or pulling faces over the phone.
needs fixing (apologies for the inconvenience). It is my firm belief that online surveys encourage much
I call it ‘Quali-quant’ - a new hybrid kind of market more of an air of ‘confession’ – and as every sinner knows,
research that has emerged from the massive growth of confession is good for the soul.
online research over the past decade. This confessional nature is often evident in the way
If qualitative research suffers from numerical dyspraxia, respondents seemingly love to rant and rave about things in
it is generally assumed that this works the other way too – an online survey, often in highly personal terms.
that quantitative research can’t adequately give you the ‘why’ I’ve been running online reader panels for several years
factor, that quality of understanding that is associated with and it never ceases to amaze me how rich the commentary
qualitative research. is from some respondents when you give them an open-
And maybe in the past this was true. ended question and the utterly irresistible temptation of a
With traditional quantitative research methods like free-text box.
telephone and face-to-face surveys, the consumer’s clock The visual space in a free-text box seems to signify to
was always ticking. Surveys were an interruption and few respondents a pause to allow for a deep intake of virtual
people would ponder their answers to specific questions for breath, before letting rip with their opinions on the matter
minutes at a time. And even if they did, there was not really any on-screen.
adequate way for the interviewer to record and report on it.
But online research has enabled the canny questioner to Quali-quant
get qualitative-type insights from a quantitative survey. As an example of what I mean by quali-quant, I’d like to talk
Online research has taken off massively in Australia in about some recent insights I gleaned from the Herald Sun
recent years. It is currently estimated that around a third of all newspaper’s online reader panel.
quantitative research in Australia is now done online – way ahead I recently asked our readers to type in why they read the
of the proportions in the United States and United Kingdom. newspaper.
There are many benefits to being a respondent in an online As I did so, I’m sure I heard The Gods of Qual laughing
survey compared to a more traditional paper, telephone or at me and my futile attempts to gather qual insights from a
face-to-face one. quant survey.
12 Research News July 2009

2. Predictably, some respondents did simply type in ‘news’
or ‘information’ as their answer to why they read the paper Both John Kearon and
every day (nine per cent of them actually, so stick that Gods colleague Orlando Wood
of Qual!) from UK-based online
But the majority of panellists typed in detailed insights agency BrainJuicer
explanations. will be presenting at this year’s John
A 55-year old metro woman said ‘I find the Herald Sun to be AMSRS national conference. Kearon
informative enough for me without the highbrow crap. I like the Ernst & Young’s ‘Emerging
homely, local feel, and the down to earth approach, that you do Entrepreneur of the Year’ in
not get from The Age. I do not like the air of pretentiousness 2005, Kearon started his career
this paper has’. more than 20 years ago at Unilever
If I saw that comment transcribed as part of a slide deck and became a senior marketer at Elida Gibbs
in a qualitative research brief, it would resonate with me as a before moving into advertising. In his plenary session, Kearon will discuss
genuine nugget of insight; the kind of insight that would have how client-side research teams can maintain the strength of the ‘consumer’s
been vacuumed from a respondent in ‘Dementor’-like fashion voice’ in the innovation process using a new approach to concept screening
from a seasoned moderator. called ‘Predictive Markets’, which ensures that the right concepts are
My point is that this is not what you’d usually expect to get prioritised early in the innovation funnel. This approach has its origins in
back from a piece of quant research. You would associate this the theories of James Surowiecki, outlined in his book The Wisdom of
level of understanding with qual. Crowds, and breaks the mould for concept testing. Its departure
Now please don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting for a from the norm is characterised by:
nanosecond that online quant will ever replace offline qual. I’m • Recruitment of untargeted sample – a crowd –
just suggesting that the ‘why’ factor can often become apparent rather than a targeted sample
through online research, through the use of carefully-worded • Invitation to make a judgment on how successful the ideas will be in
and expertly-ordered free-text questions. market rather than asking respondents to say how much the ideas
Despite all this, online quant is still not a two-way research appeal to them personally
process – you can’t read a typed-in reply and then ask the • Assessment of multiple concepts in a comparative context
respondent ‘why do you say that?’ However, this is possible In a session during the consumer insights stream, Wood
with the emerging field of online qual, but I’ll have to save that will deliver a paper titled ‘Why consumer insights are like a
story for another issue! refrigerator: opening up the consumer to make the light go on’.
With reference to specific examples and a large database of insight test
So where to now? results – around 2,500 across more than a dozen categories – Wood will
There are strong undercurrents of innovation taking place in share what it takes to get a successful consumer insight and how insights
the traditional market research world. I’d like to mention here are best structured for maximum effectiveness. It will show how, through
the work of a UK-founded company called BrainJuicer. quantitative testing, BrainJuicer client Philips was able to optimise
John Kearon, the founder and CEO of BrainJuicer Group the consumer insights used for a number of successful product
(although he prefers to be called the Chief Juicer) published launches.
an ESOMAR paper last year entitled ‘The Paradox of Success’. Wood, who is innovation director at BrainJuicer
In this he discusses a ‘research techniques revolution’ led by and developed its multi award-winning technique
internet pioneers. He writes: for measuring emotion, has previously won the
‘The new techniques I see emerging seek to capture the ESOMAR Best Methodology Paper and the ISBA
insight, inspiration and richness of qualitative research but on Advertising Effectiveness Awards.
a scale large enough to provide a quantitative robustness to the
output. In effect, these “quali-quant” techniques massively raise
the bar, delivering insightful, robust research solutions that are
cheaper, faster and better than existing techniques.’
John firmly believes that the next decade could be a really
exciting time for the market research industry, just as long
as we’re prepared to take some risks, innovate and challenge
research dogma. As he told me recently:
‘My issue with traditional quantitative research is that it acts
more like an insurance industry than an insights industry. For Adam Joseph is marketing insights
the past 10 years we’ve been trying to demonstrate online’s manager at the Herald Sun in
potential to add rich, insightful qual diagnostics to every quant Melbourne, Australia’s biggest-selling
project, through our automated qual tools like FaceTrace and daily newspaper. He has over 10 years
MindReader.’ marketing and research experience
I think the time has come to rewrite the textbooks, update and is a pioneer in the field of online
the industry websites and amend the lecture notes. reader panels. He is a Victorian
There are no longer only two types of market and social Councillor of the Australian Marketing
research – there are now three. I hope you have some great Institute and a regular marketing
adventures in the future with quali-quant. Adam Joseph columnist for B&T magazine.
Research News July 2009 13