Question

Naresh Ltd is involved in the marketing of swimwear to the Trinidad and Tobago market. However, the CEO Mr. Naresh is considering extending the company’s line and introduce a designer to stretch jeans to the market. You have been asked to carry out exploratory research to determine if there is an opportunity for Naresh to extend its business and market these jeans to the Trinidad market.

As exploratory research is primarily qualitative research:

1.  Define qualitative research and state why you are using this type of research and not quantitative research.

2. You have decided to use focus groups in your research. Discuss the role of focus groups versus depth interviews in helping Naresh Ltd determine whether he should market the designer stretch jeans to the Trinidad market.

Answer 1

1). Qualitative research means understanding how an individual think, feel or behave in particular situation. Qualitative research focuses on non-monetary aspect. It is carried out by various methodologies like in-depth interview, focus group, observation, open questionnaire, etc.

Quantitative research was dominant in economy for years , but in recent years a boom has been seen in qualitative research. Now economists consider mixed strategy to carry out research i,e mix of qualitative and quantitative research.

In Naresh's case qualitative research is carried out. Quantitative research emphasizes on cause and effect relationship. Qualitative research start with specific research and move towards the general. It collect data from individuals and organize them to analyse the emerging pattern. This process is more personal , filed based and interactive.

Naresh is considering to expand his business and launch new product i.e jeans to the Trinidad market. It is important to know the choices and behavior of residents of this area. They will be the customers and knowing  their thinking, opinions, attitude and choices will help Naresh in deciding whether to launch new product or not. Hence here Naresh is carrying Qualitative research instead of Quantitative research.

2).Qualitative research uses various methods to understand the choice, behavior, attitude, opinions and beliefs of people.

In-depth interview is where researcher interact with individual customer, one at a time. In focus groups , individuals and moderators are brought together to interact on specific topic. Focus group help client understand multiple perspective and unfiltered feedback from group. The participants gets open and feel free to put their point and get ideas and share their experience on particular topic. In- depth interview are recommended in situations where client want to understand individual decision. Here client can understand detailed perception , opinions, , beliefs and attitude of customer.

In case of Naresh, as the audience is very larger conducting in-depth interview very difficult. Though in-depth interview can help him understand the choice and preference of every potential customer . But to practically conduct it is very difficult and time consuming. While focus group can help understand the behavior, attitude and choices of target customer easily. It also welcomes the ideas and experience shared by participant which can help him in making changes accordingly if required. Also this process will less time consuming.