Editor’s note: John Williamson is CEO and founder of Qualvu, a Lakewood, Colo., research firm.
The Internet has revolutionized scores of industries and businesses, given birth to new ones (see: eBay, Facebook) and forever changed others (see newspapers, travel agents). Because a generation or two have grown up on the Internet and because it is so commonplace, we often don’t realize just how profound its changes have been and how profound they continue to be. One of the great paradoxes of fundamental change is that the people least aware of it are the ones most involved in it. And while it is always risky to say that the Internet has transformed one industry more than others, it is also becoming clearer and clearer that because of the Internet, qualitative research will never be the same.
Before the Internet, qualitative research was constricted by geography - essentially, researchers either had to travel to conduct their research or have their subjects travel to them. Either way was expensive and time-consuming. Now, researchers can reach across the globe without stepping away from their desks. From the kitchen of a busy suburban household to a tranquil village in India, the Internet is penetrating virtually every corner of the world through computers, and increasingly, mobile phones.
Before the Internet, even the fastest research methods took weeks from recruiting subjects to reporting results. Today, information “slow in coming” is information weak in value. Now, researchers can get answers they need in hours or days.
Before the Internet, qualitative research meant lots of logistics - and took an expert to get all the parts aligned - from recruiting the right participants and coordinating the right mix of markets and facilities to ordering dinner for attendees. Now, it’s as simple as an online wizard (think of what it took to arrange a vacation through a travel agent back in the day vs. going to Expedia today).
Before the Internet, qualitative research was a big-ticket item that was restricted to bigger companies. Smaller businesses had to rely on guesswork, or the always-popular “sample of one,” as in, “My brother thinks we should change our packaging.” Now, its costs have gone down and availability has gone up.
But what makes the potential for online qualitative research to replace a significant share of traditional offline methods (such as focus groups) - that is, what will truly make those methods obsolete in most cases - is when the feedback (the data) is simply better.
I believe that time has arrived. And things will never be the same. The feedback via the Web is better because now mobile video devices allow participants to talk about products or experiences in the moment - when they’re using the products or when they’re reacting to an ad naturally or when they’re shopping. These moments of truth are the Holy Grail of great qualitative research and the Internet can now deliver them in rich, candid and uninhibited video.
Innate human curiosity
Maybe you’ve heard that great segment on public radio that attempted to answer the question: What power would you rather have - the ability to fly or the ability to make yourself invisible? Some people choose flying. Interestingly enough, most people choose invisibility. Why? I think it’s because of the innate human curiosity to be around people when they don’t know you’re there, to listen to them when they aren’t sensitive to what you might hear, to experience how they act outside of your presence.
And why would we think that important? Because we know that if you really want to know what people think of you or how they really act, you have to find some way to be around them when they don’t know you’re there. That’s the motivation behind eavesdropping, isn’t it? Or why we wish we’d have been that proverbial fly on the wall at this moment or that. While this concept can seem rather creepy to the average person, in fact it is the marketer’s Holy Grail. Because it’s this true behavior and thinking upon which great products, messaging, campaigns and brands are ostensibly built.
It’s about the truth. Marketers and researchers want to know what people say about their products and how they act when no one is around, because they know it is inherently more truthful than when someone else is there watching. It’s not because people are deceptive (although some certainly are); it’s because they are sensitive to our feelings so they moderate their behavior and language. They want to please, or avoid an argument, or not hurt feelings. They want to make themselves look good. They don’t want to tell us that our pants make our butts look big, that we really do look our age or that our driving scares them to death. That politeness is good for sustaining harmonious human-to-human interactions but it’s not good if you’re a researcher trying to find out what consumers really think about your product or service.
And that’s the beauty and value of online video-based qualitative research. For the qualitative researcher, whose goal is always to know the unadorned truth of what consumers really think and feel, mobile video devices such as handheld cameras, Flip cams and mobile phones allow you to be that fly on the wall. They allow spontaneity to trump contrivance, depth to replace brevity, speed to eclipse delay and non-verbal communication to triumph over words on paper. Companies can get closer to their customers, with fewer intermediaries - human or otherwise. Researchers can be there, with the consumer, at the very moment he or she is using a product or judging its quality, without actually being there. Virtually invisible.
As a researcher, does that mean you can’t get to the truth without online video-based methods? Certainly not. However, these new Internet solutions allow you a level of access that you can’t as easily reach in person. One key reason is peer pressure. Most discussions of peer pressure have to do with the other research participants in the room during a focus group or other group interaction. That presence of fellow participants - all of them strangers - is certainly an element that can inflict bias and self-consciousness. However what many people don’t consider is the impact the researchers themselves play in creating a unnatural dynamic for the participant. People tend to act and talk differently around other people - and particularly around a stranger. Does that mean that great researchers can’t put even the most guarded participants at ease and get valuable insights? Of course not. But the point is that online video-based methods can create optimal low-pressure environments every time.
Paying attention to their smartphones
Mobile communication devices have quickly become everyone’s most commonly used tool. Watch a group of young people in a coffee shop; they’re sitting together but paying attention to their smartphones. Watch fans at a baseball game; they’re as interested as what’s on their screen as what’s on the field.
These mobile devices enable qualitative research to deliver information that has simply not been available before. Insights come from on-site. Respondents, uninhibited by some artificial time line or some agenda-driven moderator, take the time to ruminate on-camera about a product or service - when it’s convenient for them and where it’s most pertinent, be that in the middle of a store or in the privacy of a powder room. Their responses to researchers’ questions can be longer, more detailed, more revealing. In turn, that candid, in-the-moment, expansive response translates into more opportunities for the client and can result in fewer chances of making a mistake. Any marketing decision, any business decision, is only as good at the information it’s based on.
And instead of considered, written or edited responses, answers to questions and volunteered insights can be spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness reactions. Researchers benefit from being able to see non-verbal communication. A shrug of the shoulders, a roll of the eyes, a shake of the head, a smile ... all communicate more than words on paper or a disembodied voice.
Researchers get to the “why” of opinions and actions. Why do you like this packaging better than the competitor’s? Why don’t you like the taste? Why would you choose this paper towel over the cheaper one? Why do you feel better shaving with the razor that has the rubber handle than the plastic one?
We’ve learned that through video-based research, consumers actually like going into details such as those. They see themselves as valued partners with their products and they want companies to know why they react to a product the way they do. They feel more important because they are more important. They know that if a company wants to see and hear them talking about a product, the company must be deeply interested in what they think, and they respond honestly, fully and helpfully.
Transform the category
So will the Internet and mobile video technologies finally transform the qualitative research category with the same order of magnitude it has changed other industries? Bet on it - seeing is believing.