Especially developped software
Systematically dealing with intuition.
How do we deal with this vast amount of information that we get from consumers in interviews and group sessions? How do we find the answers to a client's questions in all the different stories that the interviewees tell us?
In the past, Censydiam has been working with so-called structuralisations: papers in which the information from interviews was organised according to different criteria so that it became more accessible for the researcher. Now, Censydiam has developed a new instrument, a computer program that replaces the structuralisations and makes the answers of respondents more accessible by offering many different entrances to this information.
This new software is a useful tool that can help the qualitative researcher make analyses. It is not the solution for a research problem; it is an instrument to find a solution and to put into words the most correct, complete, and refined diagnosis possible.
Benefits for the client:
How do we deal with this vast amount of information that we get from consumers in interviews and group sessions? How do we find the answers to a client's questions in all the different stories that the interviewees tell us?
In the past, Censydiam has been working with so-called structuralisations: papers in which the information from interviews was organised according to different criteria so that it became more accessible for the researcher. Now, Censydiam has developed a new instrument, a computer program that replaces the structuralisations and makes the answers of respondents more accessible by offering many different entrances to this information.
This new software is a useful tool that can help the qualitative researcher make analyses. It is not the solution for a research problem; it is an instrument to find a solution and to put into words the most correct, complete, and refined diagnosis possible.
Benefits for the client:
- More detailed reports, containing more verbatim quotes
- More stable results
- Better cross-cultural analyses
- More detailed analyses per brand, per recruitment-standard, ... Excellent tool to obtain more quotes for metric analyses
Diagnostic Market Research
Differences Between Classical Market Research and Diagnostic Market Research
It is our purpose to gain insight into the perception the consumer has of products and brands; insight we need to intervene actively in the market. The stream of descriptive information classical market research offers is only too often limited to factual pieces of information that do not answer the question 'why?' which is not sufficient to intervene actively in the market. Describing the behaviour and indexing verbal expressions is in itself incapable of giving insight. Indeed, the consumer does not act as rationally and unequivocally as the research results had been suggesting - and this has nothing to do with any unwillingness of the consumer.
Motivational dynamics - the field of inner feelings, perceptions, and forces - demands full attention directed towards the inner being, demands empathy with other people, and the ability to interpret dynamics. It is a holistic approach, aiming at understanding 'the human being' and the action we are interested in, as a (small) part of a whole. The positivist-inspired methods, devised from the point of view of studying the 'outside world', are unsuitable when it comes to studying man's inner world. The dynamics of the market, however, proceed from the inner world in which the motivations originate. Only when marketing strategies and solutions harmoniously connect with the motivational structure that lies at the base of the product/brand, may we succeed to market that product/brand in a way that spans a bridge of recognition between the consumer's problem (his/her motivation) and its solution (the commercial product).
The explications we have to find are:
When carrying this out, however, researchers are confronted with several problems that impede the necessary insight. People are defensive and do not really want to expose themselves. We can say that people are verbally restricted. Language and vocabulary are means of communication controlled by reason, by intelligence. For factual expression, our vocabulary is adequate. However, it becomes more difficult when we want to express feelings.
Lastly, we should point out that people are fully or partly unconscious of certain influences/reasons, because they do not want to recognise them formally. Making clear the 'connection' between things is a problem. Consequently, direct questioning is not the solution. One will get an answer, but whether the answer will reflect the real, deep-down perception of the consumer is rather doubtful.
The methods that will give us the necessary insight must fulfill the following conditions:
It is our purpose to gain insight into the perception the consumer has of products and brands; insight we need to intervene actively in the market. The stream of descriptive information classical market research offers is only too often limited to factual pieces of information that do not answer the question 'why?' which is not sufficient to intervene actively in the market. Describing the behaviour and indexing verbal expressions is in itself incapable of giving insight. Indeed, the consumer does not act as rationally and unequivocally as the research results had been suggesting - and this has nothing to do with any unwillingness of the consumer.
Motivational dynamics - the field of inner feelings, perceptions, and forces - demands full attention directed towards the inner being, demands empathy with other people, and the ability to interpret dynamics. It is a holistic approach, aiming at understanding 'the human being' and the action we are interested in, as a (small) part of a whole. The positivist-inspired methods, devised from the point of view of studying the 'outside world', are unsuitable when it comes to studying man's inner world. The dynamics of the market, however, proceed from the inner world in which the motivations originate. Only when marketing strategies and solutions harmoniously connect with the motivational structure that lies at the base of the product/brand, may we succeed to market that product/brand in a way that spans a bridge of recognition between the consumer's problem (his/her motivation) and its solution (the commercial product).
The explications we have to find are:
- An explanation proceeding from elements in which we can intervene; not an interpretation through socio-demographic characteristics, but interpretations of behaviour, opinions and attitudes, images and representations, and feelings.
- Global and profound insight, not interpretations limited to the function of the product, to its rational explanations. Here the emotional dimension is very important as well. As for his/her identity, the individual acts as a whole, which we must interpret globally in a structured explanation of the difference, i.e. a typology. Not all individuals behave in the same way, nor do they have the same personality. In order to position our brand/product or develop other marketing activities, we must have insight into different motivational segments.
When carrying this out, however, researchers are confronted with several problems that impede the necessary insight. People are defensive and do not really want to expose themselves. We can say that people are verbally restricted. Language and vocabulary are means of communication controlled by reason, by intelligence. For factual expression, our vocabulary is adequate. However, it becomes more difficult when we want to express feelings.
Lastly, we should point out that people are fully or partly unconscious of certain influences/reasons, because they do not want to recognise them formally. Making clear the 'connection' between things is a problem. Consequently, direct questioning is not the solution. One will get an answer, but whether the answer will reflect the real, deep-down perception of the consumer is rather doubtful.
The methods that will give us the necessary insight must fulfill the following conditions:
- Being directed at gaining insight into consumer behaviour, at understanding the consumer.
- Being methodologically adapted to the reality of 'human' behaviour, to the irrational, illogical aspects of behaviour.
- Addressing the consumer's incapability of consciously putting his/her behaviour into words.
- Not being based on the dogma of numerical and positivist science, but on a realistic recognition of the 'human nature' of consumer behaviour.
- Distinguishing themselves from descriptive research methods, qualitatively as well as quantitatively.