Question

After September 11, 2001, U.S. consumers showed a desire to tone down their consumer activities. They ordered simpler foods in restaurants and spent more time at home. Therefore, a lot of marketing campaigns began emphasizing down-home themes. At some point after a disaster, it is time to get back to business. But, major catastrophic events are likely to leave permanent changes on consumers and employees in those areas. Suppose you are approached by the owner of several delicatessens and full-service wine stores in the Gulf Coast area. It is January 2006, and they want to get back to business. But they are uncertain about whether they should simply maintain the same positioning they had previous to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. They would like to have a report from you within eighty days

1. How might each orientation for qualitative research be used to do the exploratory research needed?
2. What qualitative tool seems most useful in trying to define what “eating out” constitutes in the U.S. and in continental Europe?
3. Check out social media sites for some of Darden’s top brands. Do you think anything in the Tweets or posts might constitute qualitative data relevant to the decision issue?

Answer 1

How might each orientation for qualitative research be used to do the exploratory research needed?

Qualitative research is the development of concepts that help us to understand social phenomena in natural methods rather than going through experimental methods. It emphasizes the meaning, experiences, and views of the participants.

So the dimensions of the qualitative method are-

• Understanding context- How economic, political, cultural, environmental factors are going to influence the business.
• Understanding people- How people make sense of their experiences.
• Understanding interaction- How the different factors interact with each other.

We need to collect the information about the product we are going to launch and the market we are going to launch. We have to look at whether the market is ready for the product or not. We also need to collect data based on economic, political, cultural, environmental factors are going to influence the business. The raw material status in the production area, and finally the legal issues related to business.

There are about 5 types of qualitative research methods that can be used here-

• Ethnography or Anthropology- This is where a particular race or ethnicity is selected which would closely identify with the product.
• Grounded theory- This is more of a deductive approach based on key concepts or hypotheses which is gathered by open-ended questionnaires or interviews with people.
• Narrative method- This requires in-depth interviews done with just one or two individuals and the entire story is mapped out including documents and issues faced.
• Action research or Phenomenological- As the name suggests, it involves entire research such as visiting places, talking to effected people, going through related documents, and conducting multiple interviews.
• Case study- An actual real-life scenario is created to understand the effects of the process from start to finish.

What qualitative tool seems most useful in trying to define what “eating out” constitutes in the U.S. and in continental Europe?

Even if a ground theory or action research option is used, a lot of related data collection and analysis for the same will be done but the practical feelings of consumers would be missing. On the other hand, the narrative and ethnography method can be used to understand the reactions of only a particular group of people which will not give a clear picture needed to make a long term strategy.

A case study on the other hand helps to recreate a similar situation for a group of people that would involve all the diverse groups to have a better picture. Thus, a live demo will be there to analyze the reaction of people with respect to disaster and timeline, and similarly how the group would react to a positioning strategy can be obtained from such a study.