Qualitative Research in Segmentation

Qualitative Why you need it & how to get value Presented by: Susan Abbott Abbott Research & Consulting www.abbottresearch.com

Wouldn’t you love a business like this?

1% of owners buy pet health insurance
Why do only 1% buy insurance?
Was this market lying dormant for decades? Or did something change?
An estimated 1,300 companies, including Viacom, Ford Motor Co. offer pet insurance to their employees. STARTRIBUNE.COM | 9.11.06

Is Curves Right for Me?

How do you get this without qualitative?

Standard Chartered Segmentation
Developing Loyals I
Share of customers 9%
Share of profits 44%
Highest asset balance across segments
25% of segment has high bank assets
Liabilities low
Now what?

What are your goals?

Where are we going?
When to use
Designing the study:
scope
parameters
Interpreting and using the insights
Emerging trends in qualitative
Hybrid quali-quant research techniques

When to use: before you design a model
Develop hypotheses
A priori segmentation ideas
Formulate ideas about how you would use segmentation based on understanding of customers
Get organized to build model Deepen Learning Build Model Use

When to use: after you build the model
To understand each segment better
Test different communication strategies with segments
Feedback on concepts from segments
All your research should incorporate segment knowledge

When to use: during ??
Recruit respondents from the quantitative survey
You may now know what segment they are in
Instantly have a group for follow-up qualitative research

Designing the Study Scope & Parameters

Who do you want to talk to?
Be exact
Customers or non-customers? Users or non-users?
Recent experience
Widest possible profile

Scope: Cost vs. Payoff
What is the total investment in the segmentation project?
10:1 rule of thumb

Quali-Quant Methods
Adding quantitative data gathering to a qualitative method
Good idea when you can’t get a large sample
E.g. CEO interviews – unlikely to get sample of 300
Content analysis methods can be revealing
E.g. word cloud diagrams

How to interpret findings You are paying for insight, not methodology

What you want insight about Language used, metaphors Usage, context, occasions & sequence Motivations & desires Goals & alternative solutions Problems Experiences & stories Influencers Emotions and feelings

How to look for patterns “ pattern recognition begins with variation recognition” Cultural anthropologist Grant McCracken

Teens and technology project  First off - I am constantly left on. Sometimes even overnight. She leaves me in her purse all day. It's stuffy in that tiny pocket shared with all of her other items! I feel like my battery is being charged everyother day from all of the use I get. Luckily, I haven't been dropped, scratched thrown or anything else, so I am in top condition. I've seen her other friend's cellphones and I consider myself very lucky. i got the cell for two reasons one privacy i can't count the number of times my mom picked up the phone when it was for me i'd say "don't pick it up but she would and start trying to have a conversation with them.the second reason is my friends always wants to know where am at so we could get together and chill  

Methods New and emerging

Interviews & Dyads
In-person or on phone
Can add web-meeting for audio-visual
Can add web-cam if needed
When interaction can hurt the analysis
Where group influence is feared
Where you need to cover more ground
Where they’ll never come to a group (e.g. lapsed users)

Focus Groups & Roundtables
When discussion and interaction aids understanding
When you can get people in a room together

Text Chat: Online Focus Group Whiteboard Respond here The Discussion

Online Discussion Forum / Bulletin Board

Ethnography

Games, customer workshops
Develop hypotheses
Develop action plan

Emerging – Instant Messaging 1

Emerging – Webcam 2

Blogs, communities, virtual worlds
Blogs and electronic journals/diaries
Online communities
What’s next
Virtual worlds
3

Qualitative inside the organization
Facilitated workshop to develop a plan
Interviews and focus groups to gather input from all stakeholders
Understand how groups are handling segments today
E.g. relationship strategy, sales strategy
Develop buy-in for new approach

Best Practices

Collaborate
Bring the researcher in early to assist in scoping and design
Particularly important if you do not have in-house research staff
Involve as many company insiders as you can
Insight in planning
Buy-in to execution
Variety of perspectives
Watching is more compelling than reading a report
Participating is more compelling than watching

Before, During and After
Plan for when you can get the best use of the qualitative

Keep researching…
Some things don’t change
How our brains are hardwired
Our need for sustenance
Our desire for safety, security, self-confidence, etc.
How we age
How taste-buds work
The stages of child development
People tend to form some kind of family or social group
Some things change constantly
How we respond to the culture around us
Our ways of meeting our needs and desires
Our expectations and aspirations
Our roles within the social groups and families

Remember … We are not our customers. The more you understand your customer segments, the more competitive you can become.

Thank you! Questions? Susan Abbott Web: www.abbottresearch.com E-mail: [email_address] Blog: www.arc.typepad.com/customercrossroads Phone: 416-481-7409 or 888-244-0285

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Qualitative Research in Segmentation

by Susan Abbott on Mar 04, 2008

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Qualitative Research in Segmentation — Presentation Transcript