Qualitative Research in the 21st Century
Quick & relevant
Flexible research to improve decision making
Dirk Engel
Abstract
In everyday life of a marketing department decisions must be made fast, even if important information is missing. To fill this lack of information it is often useful to accomplish ad-hoc studies. But the structure in market research departments and research agencies are often not flexible enough to make decisions in short time. Clients and provider need to change thinking and should consider the following:
- Think problem driven, not project driven
- Involve the real marketing decision makers and not only the decision preparers, the research experts
- Use simple studies and tools that help to find a decision
- Combine the advantages of qualitative and quantitative research instead of insisting on high methodical standards
- Make sure that the results of the ad-hoc studies can be combined with the big representative surveys
- Keep cost efficiency and time to market in mind
- Ensure a flexible but trustful cooperation between client and research agency
If all that is kept in mind we can deliver research on which better and quicker decisions can be based. That kind of research is not “quick and dirty” but “quick and relevant”.
Dirk Engel
Universal McCann, Germany
Dirk Engel (born 1969) is Head of Research at Universal McCann Germany. He works for the international network as Research Manager in Frankfurt and London for ten years. Before he joined UM, he was working for a local daily newspaper in Germany. He published frequently in German trade press about media and advertising topics and is co-author of a textbook on media planning & media research. Dirk Engel is lecturer on German colleges and universities, member of the German Society of Communication Research (DGPuK) and a frequent speaker on business events in Germany.
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