Focus Insite

Recruiting qualified candidates to participate in a market research study is arguably the most important component of any study. Without the right participants you won’t gather the right feedback. A successful market study asks the right questions to the right people. It doesn’t matter of which research methodology you use, whether it’s focus groups, in-depth interviews, or mobile ethnographies, when it comes to market research, recruiting is the common denominator.     Understand your Target Audience Before designing the components of a market study, qualitative research consultant  first identify who the target audience is. There are a lot of factors that come into play, such as, is the study objective to gather insights across a broad customer base, or are is it to get feedback from a targeted segment of the market. The better you can define who the target audience is, the better the insights will be. After you’ve settled on who the target audience is to p...

For any researcher or moderator with experience designing qualitative research consultant , the one goal you want to achieve is randomization. Randomization reduces bias in participant selection by giving all participants an equal chance at participating in the study. Randomization is important for large, quantitative studies, because it assumes that attitudes, opinions, or whatever is being studied, will be distributed across a population. Recruiting a randomized sample for quantitative studies is considered a sufficient substitute for surveying the population at large.     While randomization is an ideal for quantitative studies, it is not an ideal when recruiting for qualitative studies. The reason being is that insite research (the go-to qualitative methodology) seek to understand, to provide insights, and to determine the drivers behind consumer choices. Quantitative studies, on the other hand, seek to find patterns, make predictions, test causal relationsh...

Qualitative market research includes tried-and-true methodologies such as focus groups and in-depth interviews. In between the topic to be explored in the market study and the study itself is recruiting. Finding qualified participants who can take part in the study is the beating heart of any study. Recruiting for market research studies can be tedious and time-consuming and, which is why qualitative research consultants often rely on market research recruitment agencies .     Why you should work with a market research recruiting agency Market researchers and moderators partner with professional recruiting firms because of the efficiency and focus recruiters can give to all aspects of recruiting—from finding the right candidates through incentive payments. Working with a nationwide recruitment agency allows researchers more time to devote to study design, screening guides, moderator or discussion guides, moderating, transcribing and analyzing results, and delive...

It requires minimal awareness to realize that there has been a cultural shift in gender norms. We no longer live in a binary world of he/her, man/woman, mom/dad, etc. While some companies are resistant to adopting more neutral or inclusive terms, others are realizing that inclusivity and awareness are not only good for employee morale, but also the bottom line. When it comes to market research recruiting agencies , it is important to include individuals who don’t conform to binary restrictions. We are starting to get requests from clients to recruit clients who identify as non-binary, trans, or prefer gender-neutral pronouns. Such requests aren’t limited to consumer studies, but to medical surveys for cash as well. Recruiting a diversity of participants for market research studies goes beyond typical demographic and psychographic groupings. Including insights from gender non-conforming individuals ensures that your study includes the opinions, insights, frustrations, and...

It seems that anything related to artificial intelligence (AI) gets a lot of attention, and market research recruiting agencies is no exception. There are a number of market research recruiting agencies that specialize in AI-assisted recruitment. While there is certainly a role for technology in recruitment, we’ve heard from moderators and researchers that have used AI-recruiting agencies that the quality of the candidates recruited to participate in market research studies is no match for humans leading recruitment efforts.   Market research is a social science, and it is all about the people. When you turn over a critical aspect of a study over to technology, you’re more likely to end up with participants that may meet the minimum criteria, but that doesn’t always make for a good recruit.  So much of what our team of recruiters do is engage with potential participants and get a feel for how honest they are in their answers, how familiar they are with the subjec...

With COVID-19 shutdowns mostly a thing of the past (for now), we thought we’d see a rush back to in-person focus groups. The reality is a bit murkier. It seems that a lot of market researchers saw how advantageous online qualitative studies could be, and are moving forward with in-person and online studies. I guess you can say that market research very much mirrors the hybrid work model—there is some face-to-face time, and some work-from-home time.      Qualitative research scholarly articles such as in-depth interviews and focus groups are easy to do virtually, and we’ll share some tips so you get the most out of your next online market research study. Market researchers and moderators have a number of online platforms available to host a qualitative study, but many researchers use Zoom since so many people are familiar and comfortable using this platform. Tip #1: marketing recruitment consultants to ensure they have adequate connectivity and can operat...

It wasn’t too long ago that when we needed to stock our pantries or fridges, we’d head out to a grocery store and select our items. Nowadays, more people are shopping online, skipping the grocery store altogether. This is but one example of how most of what we consume nowadays is done online. The past few years of living under Covid-19 conditions has only accelerated the online phenomenon.  Any retailer with an online presence knows how important UX design is to the bottom line. A poorly designed webpage will frustrate users, likely sending them to seek out easier-to-use alternatives. Given the ubiquity of online sales, we are seeing a steep increase in companies conducting usability tests. Usability tests are great at uncovering problems with the design; discovering opportunities to improve the design, and, learning about user behavior and preference when interacting with the design. There are similarities for market researchers when designing a usability study and f...