International qual: train, plane or screen?

First, let me tell you one success story. Once upon a time, the Gucci Group hired Robert Polet, a former head of the frozen food category at Unilever, as its new CEO. Of course, it caused general bewilderment. One of the headlines of a popular glossy magazine at the time sounded like: “What do frozen fish and ice cream have in common with an $8K crocodile leather bag?”

Shortly about the results - in 5-6 years of work at Gucci Group, Robert Polet doubled the company's revenue and tripled its profit. You can find more details about this case in Internet, but I will only tell you how this story began

By deliberately starting in the summer, when most of the company's employees were vacationing at the best world resorts, Robert had precious time for the most important thing at the start - a good, deep, complete diagnosis of the business, brands, team, etc. The only thing Robert did during his first six months in the new role was traveling the world and personal communication with the teams, studying the history of the company's brands and conducting relevant research... He analyzed what exactly made Gucci brands what they are, for business and for the target customers… Himself, personally, without delegating this extremely important working stage to anyone, but just closely cooperating with partners

How to distinguish a good brand manager from a bad one? A bad brand manager comes to a new job and immediately starts changing something. A good brand specialist first conducts a deep Diagnostics, then determines the Strategy, and only then moves on to Tactical actions

If you are asked for ready answers and actions from the first working day at a new job, you can always say: “I don’t know. I will find it out as soon as possible, then we will develop the most effective strategy, and only then we will start acting”. This works the same way always, even in our crazy and changing reality

So, Diagnosis - Strategy - Tactics. And the very first stage of diagnosis is always qualitative research

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In this article, I’ll share a fundamental insight about the essence of international (and local either) qualitative research

The golden rule of truly good qualitative research: one in-person meeting holds more value than ten online conversations. One field trip reveals more than a year of online analysis

A different market means different people, a unique history shaping the category, firmly rooted habits and stereotypes, a distinct competitive landscape, varied interpretations of verbal and visual symbols, etc.

At the same time, we are all human beings and, despite the significant differences between us, our mentality, history, level of well-being, etc., we have much more in common than it might seem

It might seem like I'm contradicting myself. In fact, not at all. It's just that people are very complex creatures, and marketing is a very difficult profession on the border of science and creativity. And when it comes to international marketing, the complexity increases many times over

One of my clients and teachers once said:

When I arrive in any country, every member of the local team tries to tell me how specific, special, different their market is from all the others. And when I return from a business trip from 4-5 countries, having spent as much time as possible communicating with colleagues and our target customers, I understand what unites the markets where we work, despite all the differences that really exist. The very understanding of what unites is the greatest value for me as a global brand manager. But until I personally meet my colleagues, our customers and feel the difference, I will never be able to draw the right conclusions about what the commonalities are

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Over the past 15 years, I have conducted research in 20 countries around the world, the most distant from Ukraine being Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco. And most of the international research I have conducted was offline, when we travelled with clients to observe the fieldwork organized by our local partners

Joint business trips are very valuable because they provide the opportunity for really close communication with both the target customers and clients; and an opportunity not only to listen to people, but also to feel the atmosphere they live in, at least a bit

Each fieldwork trip is not only a joint observation of focus groups, but also joint visits to respondents' homes, to retail outlets, joint walks, reviewing advertising, observing and talking to people anywhere, with continuous discussions, hypotheses, ideas, etc. All this is simply a treasure trove of information for a marketer!

On joint business trips, we have the opportunity for closer communication with clients than usual. And the more we communicate, the better we understand each other, the deeper I, as a researcher, can delve into the specifics of the client's business, the better I can explain what, why and how we do at each stage of the project. And with each joint business trip, we get to know each other better, our cooperation becomes more comfortable, and often develops into friendship, not just business

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Long before the war and COVID-19, before Zoom and other online platforms became widely used, there appeared tools like Focus Vision that allowed marketers from head offices to no longer 'live' in business trips, but communicate with colleagues and watch their target customers through a computer screen from a comfortable office

The faster remote work evolved, the more noticeably the effectiveness of our collaboration with clients began to decline

Firstly, this concerned, to a greater extent, international projects. And then - local ones too

Initially, we began to lose touch with clients as they had less and less time to gather, reflect, and discuss. Most of our meetings moved online, where team interaction and engagement significantly weakened. Meeting durations became very limited—within half an hour, every team member was already off to their next meeting. Only a few individuals attended focus groups, with some skipping them altogether. Others tuned in online, but often separately, from their own locations, half-listening while preparing dinner and forming conclusions based on fragmented excerpts

Gradually, we also started to lose connection with target audiences. Qualitative research became increasingly rare - the objectives of five previous projects were now condensed into one. Regular brand studies, which once allowed us to track shifts in perception and attitudes, dwindled. And much of the research transitioned online, further diluting its depth and effectiveness

You can monitor social networks as much as you want, conduct online surveys, create synthetic respondents and moderators, etc. But the opportunity to be present here and now maintains priceless!

Planning a qualitative study? Meet with the researcher, together with your team. Invite him/her to your office, for coffee, wherever you like, but meet together, in person, please!

In turn, I am always glad to see you at my Human & Sound Insight Home and talk over a cup of tea or coffee

Want to understand your target audience deeper? Go offline, and be present throughout the entire fieldwork. Get out of your home or office, turn off your phone and laptop, and just listen to people, observe them, think…

Planning a research on another market? Even more so! Without a doubt, choose offline, and be sure to travel with the researcher to the field locations! Yes, it is more expensive than online or "omnipotent" AI. Yes, it takes much longer. But, in terms of effectiveness, it is always worth it!

Plan not only groups, but also home visits, visits to retail outlets, with and without respondents. Go shopping with the researcher and local moderator, take the opportunity to talk to shoppers there. Travel to different neighborhoods, maybe even regions; feel the atmosphere, observe, think, discuss everything with your professional research partner

Experience it for yourself - understand and feel what qualitative research truly is. Let’s dive in together! 😊