Can effective qual exist without marketing expertise?

Oksana Pleskova
Jan 1, 2025
6 min read

Updated: Jan 4

“Focus groups don’t work”, “we already know everything that people might say,” “people lie, so there’s no point in asking them,” “people don’t know if they need it until they try it,” “qual is not representative, so I don't trust it” etc. – if you are involved in marketing, at least several statements like these you have heard or said them yourself

Where do so many prejudices and stereotypes about qualitative research come from?

ORIGINS OF THE STEREOTYPES

Firstly, qualitative research method in the marketing discipline is given too little attention and is assigned a modest role as an “appendage” to quantitative research

Although, based on my nearly 30-year experience working with clients who have very different theoretical and practical experience in marketing, I have a strong impression that the value of qualitative research has not been told to the general business public on purpose, so that only a limited circle could use "sacred" knowledge 😊

Secondly, the overall competency level of many new-generation 'specialists' tends to be low

One of the key reasons for the decline in service quality in our field is the lack of accumulation and transfer of experience (those rare, almost 'sacred' skills and knowledge) because qualitative 'veterans' are often dismissed as conservatives whose expertise is deemed irrelevant in modern reality

In fact, you can learn to conduct qualitative research that is effective for business only by working for at least a few years side by side with mature expert

No training, seminars, books, methodologies, techniques will make you a true specialist until you’ve spent countless hours observing and listening to professional groups and interviews; allowed this information to pass through the prism of your own understanding; asked millions of questions; and started practicing alongside those who will correct your mistakes, guide your actions, challenge you at every stage of the process, and, most importantly, engage with you in analyzing results, which in true qual is exceptionally complex

Professional development in qualitative research can be compared to becoming a musician. Imagine that you wanted to become a violinist, read and listened to the theory, and suddenly decided that you can play. Give it a try 😊. And even if you've already started playing, your skills can only improve with time and practice. You may be a very talented kid, but you won't be playing at the level of Giuliano Carminola, Stefano Grappelli or Regina Carter at the age of 15. There are things that only come with maturity... or not at all

Thirdly, qualitative research is not a panacea or a magic pill, but rather supplementary knowledge that, when handled with a fundamental understanding, consistent application, and thoughtful analysis, significantly increases the chances of making effective marketing decisions

Qualitative research cannot provide you with a single, definitive answer. Statements like “We listened to consumers and did what they said,” “We changed the design to the one that won in focus groups,” or “We chose the name our target audience liked best” are a primitive nonsense, not using research results for business benefit

Every year, the number of ignorant demands placed on researchers is growing, which are not affected even by reasoned explanations of their absurdity. More and more superficial and indifferent clients appear, showing no interest in what happens to the brand of the company that pays their salaries. There is a clear reluctance to delve into the essence of research and understand its value, which leads to the inability to implement results effectively in practice. All of this results in significant problems for brands, which clients themselves are forced to acknowledge a few years after the implementation of obviously failed initiatives

HOW TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVENESS?

My experience working with clients and researchers from around the world shows that effective results in qualitative research are achieved, first of all, by skilled marketing professionals

Ideally, both the Client and the researcher should have a deep understanding of marketing, supported by both theoretical knowledge and practical experience

First and foremost, the Client must be able to clearly define the task for the researcher, and the researcher must deeply understand it

Statements like “We don’t know anything about our consumers, so we need to talk to them” are not clearly defined tasks. While “We need a definitive answer on which design to proceed with” is a clear, but utopian task...

To properly brief a qual researcher, the Client needs to understand:

The purpose of the research and how the results will be used. Focus groups contain the word 'focus' for a reason: they are discussions centered on a specific topic or objective, not a broad conversation about everything and everyone
The target audience. If you provide an unrealistic TA profile to a researcher, the whole project will be useless. The sample for qualitative research should be sourced from a long-term brand strategy or a short-term product strategy, the definition of which is not the competence of the researcher. Alternatively, if you are lucky to have a researcher & consultant, who possesses the necessary expertise to assist you in developing your brand & product strategy, this will require additional resources and can cost more than the research itself

The investigated brand & product positioning (unless the research is specifically aimed at finding a foundation for positioning development). Without clear brand & product positioning, the researcher cannot accurately analyze results or provide effective recommendations. For instance, communication materials will only be tested on a “like/dislike” level, rather than on a “works / doesn’t work” criteria
Communication objectives. For example, are we testing comms concepts for brand-building (long-term goals, emotional focus, broad target audience, etc.) or for sales activations (short-term goals, product focus, specific customer segment, etc.)?

And so on

To achieve effective for the Client's business results, the researcher, in turn, must deeply understand not only the research tasks, but also the Client's marketing objectives, which is often impossible without professional marketing education

Secondly, the Client and the researcher must work closely together throughout the project

Even with the best brief, the researcher will never understand or feel your business as deeply as you do. At the same time, no matter how long you’ve worked with researchers, you will never understand and feel the people on the other side of the mirror/screen as deeply as those who regularly engage with various target audiences, not just yours

Therefore, from practice - the closer the partnership cooperation, the higher the chances of obtaining effective results of qualitative research

Thirdly, to obtain an effective result, both the researcher and the Client must be able to both abstract from their own vision of things and make professional decisions independently

On the one hand, it is important to perceive information from the target audience without imposing our own ideological and professional stereotypes. As soon as we become marketers, we stop being typical consumers, not only of our own, but of any other product

On the other hand, neither the Client nor the researcher should take what is heard from respondents as a directive for action, but only as information for further analysis in the context of the business. Moreover, the Client should always think independently and not blindly rely on the researcher’s recommendations. 'We did it the way the researcher told us' is simply a marketer’s attempt to shift responsibility

MY CLIENTS

Understanding that qualitative research cannot be effective without competent marketers in a team, and as a result-oriented person myself, I've focused on two sorts of clients with whom we may do qualitative studies that lead to effective business outcomes:

Clients with a good marketing (sometimes also research) background, with whom we develop a partnership, where each complements the expertise of the other
Clients who acknowledge their lack of marketing and/or research expertise and are willing to work with me as both a researcher and consultant; ready to listen, think, discuss, learn, and grow

And I also really appreciate the clients with whom we have worked closely for years, because this way we manage to get more and more effective results every time

The longer a qualitative professional works with your business, products and brands, the better he or she understands the trends and cause-and-effect relationships of changes in people's perceptions, attitudes and behavior, and, therefore, can provide more effective recommendations

Close cooperation allows both parties to develop, understand and feel each other more deeply

TO SUM UP...

Qualitative research is an effective and helpful marketing tool, but it only works with competent specialists on both sides