Market Research Participant Recruitment Agency
The old adage goes: ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ and nowhere is this more relevant than in the case of qualitative market research. Unlike quantitative research, with qualitative research, the devil is in the detail. All qual projects - whether they’re classic focus groups, one on one interviews, online forums or ethnographic studies – drill down to the particular and the specific with a highly targeted sample. Subjects are explored in minute detail, such as the decision process surrounding the purchase of an electric vehicle, why people choose one brand of cleaning product over another, or perceptions of the gin market, consumption patterns and behaviour.
Getting the perfect participant
Target audiences for qualitative research are increasingly tightly-defined – and with good reason. If you’re looking to understand how and why a consumer chooses an electric car, you really do need to speak to people who have actually gone through this process relatively recently. In the course of an interview lasting an hour, a research participant who hasn’t done so is going to run out of things to say rather quickly, and it’s going to be embarrassing for them and a waste of time for the market researcher, who will have (Covid times apart) travelled some distance to get to the interview.
Detail matters in every methodology
The problem is even worse at a focus group discussion, where not only the researcher is involved, but also potentially a group of clients who may have travelled some distance to view the research at first hand – perhaps even come from another country. The stakes are really high; large sums of money and time have been invested in the research, and if the research participants really don’t know much about the gin category or eco-friendly cleaning products, then their answers aren’t going to lead to the insights researcher and client are both looking for. There’s really no hiding place in such situations – there’s nothing more obvious to a seasoned researcher if someone is coming up with pat answers or saying things they think you want to hear; or just agreeing with what others have said so they don’t have to respond to a question to which they don’t know the answer because they don’t buy the brands they’ve said they buy, or hold the attitudes they’ve said they hold.
Don’t settle for poor quality
It’s surprising then - given how a qualitative project can stand or fall on the quality of participant recruitment - that clients pay so little attention to it, and sometimes it feels as though qualitative research recruitment is at the very bottom of the food chain. How often do buyers of qualitative research question how their participant recruitment is done, I wonder?
High quality recruitment for qualitative research is much more of an art than a science, and in this it differs from quantitative recruitment. It’s not just about finding people who meet the sample specification in broad terms – and we certainly know of examples in the UK where those parameters have been somewhat stretched. Even once the demographics, brand or product usage and attitudinal criteria have been met, the job of a top-notch qualitative recruiter is far from complete. A bit like being a fine wine taster, it’s a question of having a ‘nose’ for the kind of person who’ll fit into a group on dark chocolate, white goods or alcoholic drinks.
How it’s done
So how do we ensure that the people we have in our qualitative projects are not just any bums on seats, but the right bums? First and foremost, it’s about having a large enough group to choose from. If you’re starting from a low base, inevitably you’re going to try to fit square pegs in round holes. If you have hundreds to choose from, then that pressure isn’t there any more and you can really look for people who are the closest match to what the client is looking for.
Secondly, it’s having a good understanding of what the research is about and intelligently applying that knowledge to selection of research participants. A top-flight project manager will take the time to gain this understanding - which pays dividends when you’re asking people to participate in an online community for a fortnight about bottled water or coffee: hint – recruit participants who meet soft criteria like a genuine interest in the category – as well as the hard criteria of usership or demographics! This is best done through sensitive one to one screening via phone with an experienced project manager who can sift out the ‘right’ people for a given project.
How do I get some of this quality recruitment?
It’s not rocket science and it does take time, it’s not a quick fix; but isn’t it worth making the effort? If you’d like some advice on how to get the best recruitment for your qualitative project, then please get in touch with Shelley Hodgson : shelley@sarosresearch.com or call her direct on 0203 481 7167.
