Qualitative Research
Focus Groups: Increasingly focus groups are conducted by phone in teleweb sessions and we have highly tuned and effective techniques for moderating these sessions and engaging participants. When the requirements of the job dictate in-person groups, our skilled moderators operate throughout the world. For either approach, we recruit respondents meeting stringent screening criteria and match these with RONIN staff who are both skilled in focus group moderation and the technical/marketing issues of the product or service being researched. It is this latter ability which is unique. During a focus group, issues can arise which are outside the prepared topic guide but which are relevant to the business decisions that will be made from the research. Our consulting staff who moderate these groups have the expertise to probe and even re-direct the discussion to hone in on these issues. Skilled moderators without the Technology sector expertise are unable to do this.
In-depth Interviews: Our Project Management and Consulting staff use their skills and expertise to undertake in-depth interviews in-person or by telephone. Recruitment of the respondents is undertaken by our Call Center using screeners developed in conjunction with the client. The appropriate people from our professional staff then undertake interviews. When the subject can be reduced to a semi-structured interview, we use multi-lingual senior researchers.
Clinics: The Clinic methodology is a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. In a typical study, 40 respondents are screened and recruited to participate in a teleweb session. Concepts are presented and discussed, with the moderator tightly controlling the discussion. Interspersed throughout the discussion is a Web survey that captures quantitative results and makes them available in real-time reports to both the moderator for drill-down questioning as well to the clients who are listening in. The result is a set of quantitative data from the participating respondents, and qualitative insight from the discussion. The process can be undertaken quickly across multiple countries and the results made available within a few weeks.