As well as quantitative research, many marketers rely just as heavily on qualitative data. Psychodynamic motivational research, for instance, attempts to factor in subconscious stimuli as well as rational behavior. It looks at factors such as financial status, religious beliefs, frustrations and desires, and even who subjects associate with. Qualitative diagnostic research, meanwhile, attempts to glean insights into the behavior and motivation of consumer – the values and meanings they assign to brands and advertising, for example. Sana Sabbah, qualitative research manager at the Pan Arab Research Centre (PARC) UAE, explains how these methods differ from traditional data gathering.

With regards to accuracy, we are dealing with text and the behaviors of people, not numbers. Respondents won’t necessarily be completely honest, so we don’t use direct questioning; we usually use projective techniques.  Maybe 20 percent won’t be accurate, but 80 percent of the gathered data will be accurate.

For example if we’re talking about smoking – a sensitive topic people might get defensive about – we won’t ask respondents how much they smoke right away. Instead, we’ll ask them to “describe smoking in a few words.” We look for their personality type, then their answers reflect their behavior.

When we use psychodynamic motivational research, we work on the why, and the motives behind any of the respondents’ behavior. Our focus groups include 6 to 8 respondents, depending on the topics we discuss. We try to have a harmony within the group of respondents, so we choose them of the same gender, nationality, age group; the social demographics have to be the same within one group.

Moderators and researchers have backgrounds in journalism, psychology or sociology, so they know how to deal with people and how to get answers. The clients decide who their target is.

When the data is accumulated – and usually it is audio- and video-taped – we do the transcription, and enter the transcripts into software that gives us the advantage of tracing every respondent from beginning to end.