Alternatives to focus groups, in-depth interviews, in-home testing?

Need to conduct face-to-face research?

Are your plans for focus-groups, possibly in-depth interviews or in-person in-home testing having to be temporarily suspended?

If so, what alternatives are open to you?

(Independent quallie? Read this first…)

Alternatives to physically being there

It’s the same issue faced by businesses, large and small, around the world, right now, as the coronavirus forces us to change our ways of working.

Zoom, Google Hangouts, Skype, GoToMeeting, Webex, Loopup… all are video conferencing solutions that aim to solve the issue we currently have around meeting up.

(There’s a good list of video conferencing solutions here if you’re looking.)

And the same approach, the same solution, can be applied to your situation.

Doing your consumer research via video gives you a viable, often rapid alternative to focus groups and in-person in-home testing.

Sure. In some cases, it is not an ideal replacement for being there in person.

What is Consumer Closeness?

Arguably most anything you do when researching consumers is about getting closer to them. But as with the colour grey, there are varying shades. Consumers aren’t numbers. Consumers have nuances. Consumers do things, think things that can’t be caught by traditional surveys or vox pops, which are just lines read-out-line. The closest you can get to a consumer is probably to live with them for a bit. Failing that, ask them to take videos of the real lives…

But on other occasions, and quite probably unexpectedly, it will bring you insights into consumer behaviour that may never have been expecting.

Quite probably it will show you things you otherwise would not have seen if you’d been there in their home. Or had a bunch of folks sat around a table.

Video-based remote qualitative research

Video-based qualitative research, done remotely, can solve your current issues. It can provide a viable alternative to focus groups, in-depth interviews and in-home in-person testing.

It can also be used in place of:

• Accompanied shops
• In-person ethnographies
• Co-creation concept development sessions
• In-person prototype testing
• Lab testing of new products with the consumer

It can even deliver a solid alternative to meet the consumer programmes that would involve face-to-face sessions in-office or in-home.

The reality is, qualitative research, for a period at least, has moved entirely to digital.

Specialized, proofed, time tested

Watch Me Think has, for almost the last 10 years, specialized in video research, mobile ethnography and observing customer behaviour using video methodologies.

If you want to find out more, by phone or by email, we have qualitative research experts on hand to explain the possibilities and methodologies.

These are people who have cut their teeth on the front lines of market research and have years of experience in the field of video research. They can talk you through the scenarios and solutions to the project in front of you now.

Use the form below to get in touch or contact your local Watch Me Think office directly.