Page 199 - Marketing the Basics 2nd

Market research 191
that the research concluded that Canadians wanted, contrary to the quantitative research, products that got their clothes ‘just as white’, were better for the environment, but cost no more! This is entirely unfair but there you have the explanation why they were not buying the green products. Why did quantitative research not catch this? Because people wanted to please the nice interviewer at their door or on the phone and because it would be politically incorrect to say the truth of the matter.
Unfortunately, finding a good source is difficult. Not all goods have trend and taste setters who lead the way. Successful interviews also require having good interviewers. Listening, believe it or not, is a difficult skill because it entails trying to understand what the other person is really saying and then adjusting the manner in which the questions are asked to mirror the other person’s manner of thinking. Barbara Walters of ABC is one of the few journalists who can do such a thing. If you watch enough of her interviews, you will notice that within the first five minutes of an interview, she is asking probing questions that sound as if she’s agreeing with the interviewee, but in reality she is maintaining her distance and objectivity. It is a remarkable skill. And as we all know what is remarkable is difficult to replicate. Finding another Barbara Walters is not easy, and also, not cheap.
associaTion TecHniques
Association techniques are used to determine a person’s beliefs or attitudes towards an issue or product. The difference here is that projective techniques attempt to disguise the purpose of the research by telling the subject the study is studying a different phenomenon. It is also used with children who may have not have the verbal skills to do an interview and for topics where people’s thoughts are not very well formed, but the researcher wants to explore their feelings and thinking below the surface about a product. The idea is that the subject will then give answers that they do believe rather than what researchers want to hear, which can happen in interviews and focus group settings. Subjects are asked to participate in such activities as word association games, complete an unfinished sentence, role- play, or complete a Rorschach test. Marketers like using association