Qualitative Market Research: What It Is, How It Works and When to Use It

Organisations have access to more data than ever before.  Sales results, website analytics, social media metrics, and operational data can all show what people are doing.  With customer feedback and surveys, the information is often limited and conflicting.  These approaches provide us with a lot of ‘what’, but they do not explain ‘why’ people do what they are doing.

Qualitative market research answers the ‘why’ and provides the needed depth of understanding to make effective change.

Qualitative research helps organisations understand people’s motivations, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, needs, and decision-making in depth.  It explores the human context behind behaviour, helping businesses, government and organisations understand not only what customers, stakeholders or communities think, but why they think it.

When well-designed, qualitative research can uncover unmet needs, barriers to change, develop and test ideas for products and services, improve communications, find ways to refine customer experiences, and support better strategic decisions.

At Eris Strategy, we have over 30 years of experience in qualitative research that helps us move beyond surface-level findings and uncover deeper insights, which have helped organisations make better decisions, transform their organisations, and deliver better outcomes.

 

What Is Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is an approach that focuses on understanding the ‘quality’ of what we want to understand, not the ‘quantity’.  It used to explore people’s thoughts, feelings, behaviours, motivations and experiences in depth.  While ‘quantitative’ research answers how many people have certain thoughts, feelings, motivations, or have had an experience or performed a behaviour.

Qualitative research usually involves open-ended methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnography, observation, and semiotics methods.

Unlike a structured survey, in which participants choose from a fixed set of answers, qualitative research allows people to express their views in their own words. This makes it especially useful when an organisation needs to understand meaning, context, language, emotion and decision-making.

While surveys can include more open-ended questions, and analysis of this information can be qualitative, the depth is limited, and the focus is often on grouping the responses into themes and counting them, which is quantitative research.

Qualitative research helps to answer questions such as:

• • • Why are customers choosing one brand over another?
    • Why do people engage in a type of behaviour?
    • What barriers do people face in using a product or service?
    • How do people describe their needs in their own language?
    • What do customers find confusing, motivating or unconvincing about your communication?
    • How do people experience a service, website, product or communication?
    • What unmet needs exist in the market?
    • How do customers make decisions in a particular category?

In simple terms, qualitative research helps organisations understand the “why” behind human behaviour.

 

How Do Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Differ?

Qualitative and quantitative research are both valuable, but they answer different types of questions.

Qualitative research explores why people think, feel or behave in particular ways. Quantitative research measures how many people think, feel or behave in those ways.

Without qualitative research, you do not know what to measure and why you need to understand it.  Without quantitative research, you do not know how big an opportunity or issue is, or how common something is.

For example, a quantitative survey might show that 42% of customers are dissatisfied with a service.  Qualitative research can then explore why they are dissatisfied, which moments in the experience caused frustration and why, what customers actually expected, and what potential changes could improve their experience.  It is also worth noting that qualitative research uncovered what ‘satisfaction’ means and why it is important for organisations to monitor.

The two approaches are often most powerful when used together.

 

Area	Qualitative Research	Quantitative Research
Main purpose	Understand why people think or behave a certain way	Measure how many people think or behave a certain way
Typical methods	Focus groups, interviews, ethnography, online communities, observation	Surveys, polls, structured questionnaires, analytics, statistical modelling
Sample size	Smaller samples selected to maximise chances of uncovering insights	Larger samples are designed to maximise the ability to generalise results and understand their frequency
Data type	Words, stories, themes, images, observations and behaviours	Numbers
Best used for	Exploring and discovering	Determining the size, relationships and trends
Output	Themes, insights, ideas, hypotheses and strategic implications	Metrics, charts, statistical comparisons and quantified results

 

Because qualitative research does not use numbers, it is sometimes viewed as the weaker approach and less rigorous.  Qualitative research is not a weaker or less rigorous version of quantitative research.  It is designed for a different purpose.

Its value lies in depth, interpretation and context. Quantitative research can tell an organisation how widespread an issue is. Qualitative research can explain what the issue means, why it exists, and what should be done about it.

A useful way to think about the difference is:

Quantitative research measures the pattern. Qualitative research explains the pattern.

 

When Should You Use Qualitative Market Research?

Qualitative market research is especially useful when an organisation needs to explore a topic deeply before making a decision.  This can occur when first entering a new market, when there are changes or when an organisation realises they need to challenge their assumptions.

It is often used when the problem an organisation is facing is not yet fully understood, when customer behaviour is complex, or when an organisation needs to develop ideas before measuring them at scale.

Some examples of where qualitative research is useful, and where we have supported clients:

• • • Explore a new market, audience or customer segment
    • Understand customer needs, motivations and barriers
    • Identify why customers are choosing or rejecting a product, service or brand
    • Service design and improvement
    • Map customer journeys and decision-making processes
    • Develop and test early-stage product, service, brand or campaign ideas
    • Understand the language customers use to describe a category, their region, needs or issues they face
    • Explore reactions to advertising, messaging or creative concepts for development and refinement
    • Understand how people use a website, app or other tool
    • Explain unexpected results from quantitative research or business data

For government and public sector organisations, qualitative research can help understand community needs, stakeholder perspectives, barriers to behaviour change and responses to programs, policies or services.

For businesses, qualitative research can reduce risk before major investment decisions are made by uncovering potential issues and testing mitigation strategies with stakeholders, the community or the market.

 

What Are the Best Methods for Conducting Qualitative Market Research?

There is no single best qualitative research method.  The right method depends on the research objective, audience, topic, timing, budget and how the findings will be used.  By understanding your needs and resource restraints, and the different methods, you are better positioned to know what the best methods are for conducting qualitative research to deliver the insights you need.

The most common qualitative market research methods include focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic research, online communities, and semiotics.

While surveys can include more open-ended questions for qualitative analysis, these often lack depth and are coded to enable quantitative analysis of the themes people provide.  However, qualitative analysis remains possible when survey respondents are highly engaged and willing to provide detailed explanations.  For example, employee surveys are conducted after a restructuring, and clients of complex services provide feedback on service failures.

 

 

Focus Groups

Focus groups involve a moderated discussion with a small group of participants. Participants are usually selected because they share relevant characteristics, behaviours, or experiences within each group but differ across groups to ensure you get the required insights.

The number of people in a focus group can vary.  Standard focus groups have between five and eight people.  Mini-focus groups and triad groups have 3 to 4 people, while maxi-focus groups can have up to 50 people.  These larger groups are often done as a community panel discussion and are often split into smaller breakout and working groups at different stages to allow more focused discussions.

Focus groups are useful because they allow researchers to hear how people discuss a topic together. Participants can respond to each other’s ideas, challenge assumptions, build on comments and reveal the language they naturally use.

They are also often cost-efficient by allowing many people to be involved at the same time.

Focus groups are often used for:

• • • Exploring customer attitudes and perceptions
    • Testing advertising, campaign or communication concepts
    • Understanding brand positioning
    • Exploring category language and decision-making
    • Comparing reactions to product, service or policy ideas
    • Codesigning and generating new ideas and exploring opportunity areas

Focus groups work particularly well when the research topic benefits from discussion and interaction. They can be less suitable for highly sensitive topics, complex individual decision-making, or situations where people may not feel comfortable expressing their views in a group.

 

In-Depth Interviews

In-depth interviews are one-on-one conversations between a researcher and participant. They allow for detailed exploration of individual experiences, attitudes, motivations and decision-making.

Occasionally, in-depth interviews can involve pairs or people, like partners, when there is joint decision-making.  However, once you have three or more people, you are having a group discussion, a focus group.

Interviews are especially useful when the topic is personal, sensitive, complex or requires detailed probing.  They are also effective when the people you need are geographically dispersed or they are not available at the same time.

In-depth interviews are often used for:

• • • Understanding detailed individual customer journeys
    • Exploring sensitive or personal experiences
    • Researching senior stakeholders or professional audiences
    • Understanding B2B decision-making
    • Exploring high-value or specialist markets
    • Investigating complex service experiences
    • Exploring topics with strong social or cultural norms
    • Understanding why people make complex choices

Because there is no group influence, interviews can provide a more private and reflective environment and allow more time to dig deeper into an issue.  This can help participants speak openly about barriers, concerns, frustrations or motivations they may not share in a group setting.

 

Ethnographic Research and Observation

Ethnographic research involves observing people in real-life settings, and at times, asking them about their behaviour.  This may include research conducted in homes, workplaces, stores, service environments, community settings or digital environments.  For example, in digital ethnography, you may need to understand how people search and engage.

User experience (UX) research often employs ethnographic and observational methods.

The strength of ethnographic research is that it captures what people actually do, not only what they say they do.

This matters because people are not always fully aware of their own habits, routines or decision-making processes. They may forget details, rationalise behaviour, or describe what they think they should do rather than what they actually do.

Ethnographic research and observation are useful for:

• • • Understanding real-world behaviour
    • Identifying friction points in customer experience
    • Studying how products are used in context
    • Understanding service and retailer environments
    • Understanding how people navigate and use websites and apps
    • Observing customer routines, habits and workarounds
    • Identifying needs that customers may not be able to articulate

This method can be particularly valuable for service design, product development and customer experience improvement.

 

Online Qualitative Communities

Online qualitative communities involve participants completing research tasks, discussions, diaries or feedback activities over several days or weeks.

They are useful when researchers want to understand behaviour, engagement, attitudes, or experiences over time, allowing more detailed exploration and showing how changes unfold over time, not in a single session.

Online communities can include:

• • • Discussion boards
    • Video responses
    • Photo uploads
    • Diary tasks
    • Decision process and journeys
    • Evaluation of experiences
    • Reactions to concepts, messages or stimulus materials

Online qualitative communities are useful for:

• • • Reaching geographically dispersed participants
    • Understanding routines and behaviours over time
    • Giving participants time to reflect before responding
    • Collecting visual examples from participants’ lives
    • Exploring customer journeys in more detail
    • Understanding ongoing experiences rather than one-off reactions

They can be especially useful when the research needs to understand how people think or behave in their own environment.   An example is an online community study we conducted, which recruited participants to buy and try a new healthcare product.  The project lasted two weeks, and in addition to having people complete the task and post videos of their experiences.

 

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of symbolic meaning.  Semiotics is both a qualitative research method and a framework for investigating the meanings of symbols, images, gestures, and objects.

While qualitative research using semiotics is often conducted through focus groups or in-depth interviews, it also draws on secondary research and expert interviews to explore meaning. This is because consumers are not always conscious of the symbolism of things they see in their day-to-day lives.

Often used in packaging, advertising, and design research, semiotic research helps understand how consumers interpret, or even misinterpret, nonverbal information.

Semiotics in qualitative research is useful for:

• • • Understanding the interpretation of packaging and logo design
    • Exploring how consumers understand advertising and media
    • Investigating culture trends
    • Researching differences between cultures and subcultures

They can be especially useful when the research needs to understand how people think or behave in their own environment.  An example of semiotics was a study we conducted on baby cleaning products.  To support packaging development, the research investigated how different brands communicated product qualities and cultural ideas about parenting.  The symbols investigated included colour, typography, visual and tactile symbols.

 

What Are the Benefits of Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research provides many important benefits for organisations.  We list five key benefits that organisations gain from this type of research.

 

1. It Explains the “Why” Behind Behaviour

Quantitative data can show what is happening, but qualitative research can explain why.  Explaining the ‘why’ beyond superficial explanations is the major benefit of using this type of research.

For example, a banking client wanted to understand why many customers were not completing their new account applications.  Our qualitative research revealed that changes to the identity verification process were confusing and that documentation was poorly explained, leading to confusion about what was actually required and a lack of trust.

This depth of understanding helps organisations address the real problem rather than only the visible symptom.

 

2. It Uncovers Unmet Needs

Customers may not always be able to clearly state what they need.  However, through careful questioning, observation, and analysis, qualitative research can reveal where customers feel solutions are not fully meeting their needs, or where they are frustrated with the solutions provided.

These unmet needs can inform:

• • • Product innovation
    • Service design
    • Customer experience improvement
    • Brand positioning
    • Communications strategy
    • Policy or program development

Unmet needs are often where the strongest opportunities for differentiation and improvement lie.

 

3. It Captures Customer Language

Qualitative research helps organisations understand how people describe their needs, problems and decisions in their own words.

Organisations can mistakenly use their own marketing or management language when communicating with customers, which is alienating or confusing.

Customer language can improve:

• • • Advertising copy
    • Website content
    • Product descriptions
    • Value propositions
    • Customer service scripts
    • Public communications

When organisations use language that reflects how customers think and speak, communication becomes clearer and more compelling.

 

4. It is Flexible for Improving Discovery

Qualitative research is flexible and can change during a study.  Unlike quantitative research, which requires measurement to remain fixed for reliability.

With qualitative research, the researcher can adapt their questions to explore differences in experiences and opinions.  Researchers can learn from past interviews, adjust interview focus, or even test concepts and communication that have evolved based on earlier interviews.

Flexibility in design can improve:

• • • Uncovering areas not initially considered
    • Adapt to different personal contexts and people’s backgrounds
    • Build on previous insights to focus on new areas
    • Incorporate new or changed stimulus materials
    • Respond to changing context
    • Assisting people to reflect on their behaviour or views

Flexibility in how people are interviewed allows clients to get deeper insights and understanding.

 

5. It Provides Contextual Understanding

Qualitative research can explore the broader context around a behaviour, decision or perspective.

To understand more fully why consumers behave the way they do, qualitative research interviews can explore what happened before or other factors that may affect them.

Contextual understanding can include:

• • • Path to purchase
    • Influence of others on a decision
    • Post-decision events and outcomes
    • Impact of cultural and social factors
    • Influence of economic or situational issues

Context provides deeper meaning and can help uncover insights into what drives changes in behaviour that a person may not be aware of themselves.

 

What Are the Limitations of Qualitative Research?

Qualitative research is powerful, but it has limitations. Understanding these limitations helps ensure the method is used appropriately.

 

1. Qualitative Research Is Not Statistically Representative

Qualitative research typically involves smaller samples. The goal is to explore depth, meaning and variation, not to measure the exact size of a market or the percentage of people who hold a particular view.

This means qualitative findings should usually be treated as directional rather than statistically representative.  Interviews are often conducted with those whose views are more likely to provide insight, so there is also a risk that the research may not reflect the broader market.  For example, interviews among regular users about new products will not include the views of infrequent and lapsed customers.

If an organisation needs to know how common a behaviour, attitude or preference is across a larger population, quantitative research may be required.

 

2. The Quality of Moderation Matters

Qualitative research depends heavily on skilled moderation.

A good moderator can create trust, ask effective follow-up questions, manage group dynamics, probe beneath surface-level responses and avoid leading participants.

Poor moderation can produce shallow or biased findings or miss exploring important areas that could have emerged in the interviews.

 

3. Group Settings Can Influence Responses

A benefit of focus groups is the discussion between participants; however, this can also become a limitation.   In focus groups, participants may be influenced by others.  Some people may dominate the conversation, while others may hold back.  Participants may also avoid expressing views they feel are critical, unpopular or socially sensitive.

This risk does not mean focus groups are ineffective.  It means you need the right design and questioning framework, the right participants, and a skilled, experienced moderator to minimise risks and maximise benefits.

For sensitive, personal or complex topics, in-depth interviews are often more appropriate.

 

4. People May Not Accurately Describe Their Own Behaviour

People do not always know why they behave the way they do.  Introspection is not easy and people do not always know why they do things.  Participants may forget details, simplify their decision-making, or describe what they think sounds reasonable.

This is why strong qualitative research does not rely only on what people say.  It also looks for patterns, contradictions, context and behaviour to give clues and help verify what is being said.

Using advanced qualitative techniques that are beyond just asking questions, like the use of metaphor elicitation, projections, concept mapping, and value laddering help get to the truth.  While methods such as observation, ethnography, and diary studies can help when actual behaviour is especially important.

 

5. Analysis Requires Skill

Qualitative research produces rich data, but that data needs careful interpretation.

Strong analysis does more than summarise comments.  It goes beyond just identifying themes to understand patterns, relationships, tensions, motivations, barriers and their implications.

The useful qualitative research connects evidence to action.  It explains what the findings mean for strategy, communication, customer experience, policy or product development.

 

 

What Are the Advantages of Focus Groups in Market Research?

Focus groups remain one of the most widely used qualitative market research methods because they provide a rich understanding of how people discuss products, services, brands, categories, and ideas, and they are often a cost-effective way to uncover those insights across a wide group of people in a timely manner.

Their value comes from the interaction between participants, the depth of discussion and the ability to explore reactions in real time.

   

 

1. Focus Groups Reveal How People Talk About a Topic

One of the major advantages of focus groups is that they reveal the language people naturally use.  Often, marketers and people in policy or strategy roles use language that people outside their professions and industry don’t use or understand.

Understanding and using the right language is critical in both communication and customer experience.  Qualitative research can also be used to understand language use across different cultures and subcultures.

It is also important to know when not to use language from a culture and subculture, or how to use it correctly.  Organisations that use culture or subcultural language incorrectly will come across as inauthentic and not credible, undermining trust.  Language used in subcultures can also change quickly and leave your campaigns feeling dated if you do not update the language used.

The words customers use are often different from the words organisations use internally.  For example, a business might describe a service using technical or operational language, while customers may describe it in terms of convenience, trust, frustration, confidence or value.

Understanding customer language can help organisations communicate more clearly and persuasively.

 

2. Focus Groups Allow Ideas to Build Through Discussion

In a focus group, participants can respond to each other’s comments.  This can reveal themes, tensions and perspectives that may not emerge in a one-on-one interview or in a survey.

One participant’s comment may remind another participant of an experience.  A disagreement may reveal different segments or mindsets.  A shared reaction may show that a message, concept or concern has broader resonance.

In focus groups, expressing differences is encouraged rather than seeking agreements or consensus.

This group interaction can make focus groups especially useful for exploring attitudes, expectations, language and social norms.

 

3. Focus Groups Are Useful for Testing Concepts and Messages

Focus groups can quickly show how people respond to new ideas.

They can help answer questions such as:

• • • What is the initial reaction to a new product or service idea?
    • Is the idea easy to understand?
    • Is the message relevant?
    • What elements are the most appealing?
    • What feels confusing or unconvincing?
    • What would make the idea stronger?
    • How does this compare with competitors or other solutions?

This makes focus groups useful for advertising development, product innovation, brand positioning and communication strategy.

 

4. Focus Groups Can Reveal Emotional and Social Drivers

Customer decisions are not purely rational, from your perspective.  Customers’ decisions are influenced by trust, identity, habit, perceived risks, social expectations, perceptions about their abilities, confidence, expectations and prior experiences.

Focus groups can help uncover these emotional and social drivers.

For example, people may reject a service not because they do not need it, but because they do not trust the provider.  They may choose a brand not only because of price or features, but because it feels familiar, safe or reflects the identity they want to portray.

These deeper drivers are often difficult to capture through quantitative questions alone because they require introspection, and sometimes people find it hard to acknowledge these influences on their choices.

 

5. Focus Groups Help Identify Barriers and Objections

Focus groups are valuable for understanding what stops people from acting.

Participants can explain what feels unclear, irrelevant, difficult, risky, expensive, inconvenient or unappealing.

This can help organisations identify barriers such as:

• • • Concerns about the provider’s ability to deliver on promises
    • Low trust
    • Confusing language
    • Weak perceived value
    • Unclear benefits
    • Negative previous experiences
    • Social stigma or embarrassment
    • Practical difficulties in accessing a service

Understanding these barriers can help organisations improve products, services, campaigns and customer experiences.

 

6. Focus Groups Provide Rich Insight for Strategy

Focus groups do more than collect opinions.  When designed and analysed well, they help organisations understand what customers value, what influences their choices, and what needs to change.

The output should not simply be a list of quotes.  Strong qualitative analysis identifies patterns, relationships, causes, tensions, motivations and implications for strategy.

For this reason, focus groups are often useful at key decision points, such as developing a new campaign, repositioning a brand, redesigning a service, entering a new market, or understanding communities’ views on issues and potential changes.

 

How Is Qualitative Research Used in Market Research?

Qualitative research can be used across many areas of market research, customer insight and strategy.

 

 

Brand Strategy

Qualitative research can help organisations understand how their brand is perceived, what associations people hold, how they describe the category, and what would make the brand more relevant or distinctive.

Qualitative research in brand strategy development is used to understand where a brand stands in consumers’ minds, where it needs to be positioned to drive change and if proposed strategies are likely to succeed.

It can explore:

• • • Brand perceptions
    • How brands are positioned and what determines these positions
    • Category understanding and structure
    • Competitor strengths and weaknesses
    • Brand trust and credibility
    • Emotional drivers of choice
    • Reactions to brand ideas and messages

Using qualitative research for brand strategy helps organisations develop strategies that are grounded in customer understanding and insights.

You can find out more about using qualitative research for building brand strategy with our articles on Brand Positioning and Development, Reputation Analysis, and Decision Risk Profiling.

 

Customer Experience

Qualitative research is highly valuable for understanding customer experience because it explores the customer journey and what people go through at each stage of that journey.

It can identify:

• • • Key moments
    • Pain points in service experiences
    • Moments of confusion
    • Gain points that deliver delight and outcomes
    • Sources of frustration
    • Gaps between expectations and delivery
    • Moments that build or reduce trust
    • Opportunities to improve satisfaction and loyalty

This is particularly useful for organisations seeking to improve service delivery, reduce drop-off, increase engagement or design more customer-centred experiences.

 

Product and Service Development

Qualitative research can support product and service development by identifying customer needs, testing ideas and refining concepts.

It can help answer:

• • • What problem does this product or service solve?
    • Is the product or service seen as effectively solving the problem compared to other solutions?
    • What features or benefits matter most?
    • What feels unnecessary or confusing?
    • Who is it most relevant for?
    • What would make the idea more appealing?
    • What barriers might prevent adoption?

By involving customers early, organisations can develop products and services that better reflect real needs.

 

Advertising and Communications

Qualitative research is often used to test advertising, messaging and communications before launch.

It can explore whether a message is:

• • • Clear
    • Relevant
    • Credible
    • Motivating
    • Distinctive
    • Gains attention
    • Emotionally engaging
    • Easy to understand
    • Memorable

It can also identify which specific words, claims, images or ideas resonate or fail to resonate.

This is valuable because communication often fails not because the underlying offer is weak, but because the message is unclear, generic, not engaging or not framed around what the audience actually values.

 

Segmentation and Audience Understanding

Quantitative research is often used to create customer segments and to bring those segments to life.

You can find out more about the role of segmentation and how to avoid common mistakes with these resources.

It can help explain:

• • • What different audiences care about
    • How decision-making is different across different segments
    • What are the different motives each segment
    • What re the different barriers they face
    • How different segments will respond to different messages or offers

Using quantitative research makes segmentation more practical and useful for strategy, marketing, communications, and service design.

 

Customer Journey Research

Customer journey research explores the steps, decisions, emotions, barriers, and touchpoints people experience throughout the stages of choosing, using, or leaving.

It is often used to improve customer experience and identify opportunities for service improvement.  In product research, customer journey research is more focused on the path to purchase and how experiences and decision-making affect outcomes.

Customer journey research can help organisations understand:

• • • How people first become aware of a product or service
    • What information do they seek before making a decision
    • Which touchpoints influence choice
    • Where confusion, frustration or drop-off occurs
    • What moments matter most in the experience
    • Which changes would improve satisfaction, trust or conversion

Customer journey research often combines several qualitative methods, such as interviews, diaries, observation and journey mapping.

 

Concept, Product and Message Testing

Qualitative research is often used to test early-stage ideas before an organisation invests in development, launch or campaign execution.

This type of research can help identify whether an idea is clear, relevant, credible, distinctive and motivating for refining and before testing in quantitative research to estimate impact or uptake, or launching.

Qualitative testing can include testing:

• • • Product concepts
    • Service ideas
    • Advertising and campaign concepts
    • Website copy
    • Value propositions
    • Policy or program communications
    • Packaging or design ideas

Testing can also reveal what needs improvement.  For example, participants may like the overall idea but find the language confusing.  They may understand the message but not believe the claim.  They may find the product appealing but feel the price, channel or positioning does not fit their needs.

Qualitative concept testing is particularly valuable in the early stages because it helps organisations improve ideas before they are measured quantitatively or launched in the market.

 

Public Sector, Community and Stakeholder Research

Qualitative research is also valuable for government, community and not-for-profit organisations.

It can be used to understand:

• • • Community needs
    • Stakeholder perspectives
    • Barriers to service access
    • Potential risks
    • Attitudes toward policy or program changes
    • Experiences of public services
    • Behaviour change challenges
    • Trust, awareness and communication issues

For public sector organisations, qualitative research can help ensure programs, services and communications are designed around the needs and experiences of the people they are intended to support.

 

B2B Research

In business-to-business markets, decision-making is often complex.  Multiple stakeholders may influence a purchase, and decisions may involve technical, financial, operational and strategic considerations.

Qualitative research is useful for understanding B2B:

• • • Buying processes
    • Decision criteria
    • Stakeholder roles
    • Barriers to adoption
    • Perceptions of suppliers
    • Sources of trust and risk
    • Customer needs across the relationship
    • Experiences with providers and account teams

In-depth interviews are often particularly useful in B2B research because they allow senior or specialist participants to discuss complex issues in detail.

 

Examples of Qualitative Research Questions

Qualitative research can be used to explore a wide range of strategic questions.  This article has provided many examples.  Below is a summary of some of these research questions.

Examples include:

• • • Why are customers choosing competitors instead of our brand?
    • What do customers value most in this category?
    • What unmet needs exist among our target audience?
    • How do people describe the problem we are trying to solve?
    • What language should we use to communicate our offer?
    • What barriers stop people from using our product or service?
    • How do customers experience our website, store, service or application process?
    • What do people find confusing or unconvincing in our communications?
    • How do customers respond to a new product, service or campaign idea?
    • What role does trust play in customer decision-making?
    • How do different stakeholders view this issue?
    • What would make our service easier, more relevant or more valuable?

These questions are difficult to answer through numbers alone. They require depth, explanation and interpretation.

 

How to Choose the Right Qualitative Research Method

The best qualitative method depends on the decision the researcher needs to support.

Research objective	Recommended qualitative method
Explore early-stage ideas	Focus groups, interviews or online communities
Understand sensitive personal experiences	In-depth interviews, ethnography, and semiotics
Understand complex individual decision-making	In-depth interviews
Observe real-world behaviour	Ethnography or observation
Map a customer journey	Focus groups, interviews, and ethnography
Test advertising or messaging	Focus groups or interviews
Understand B2B decision-making	In-depth interviews
Explore behaviour over time	Online communities or diary studies
Identify service pain points	Focus groups, interviews or online communities
Understand group language and social norms	Focus groups, interviews, semiotics
Develop hypotheses for testing with a survey, experiments or other research	Focus groups, interviews or exploratory qualitative research

 

A good research design may combine more than one method.

For example, interviews may be used to explore individual decision-making in depth, while focus groups may be used to test reactions to messages or concepts. An online community may be used to understand behaviour over time, while a quantitative survey may later measure how common the findings are across the broader market.

The method should always follow the research objective.

 

What Makes Qualitative Research Rigorous?

Qualitative research is sometimes misunderstood as informal or subjective.  In reality, good qualitative research is structured, systematic and carefully designed.

Rigorous qualitative research starts with a well-written research brief.  You can find out how to create a market research brief with examples and a template on our site to download.

A rigorous qualitative research study requires:

• • • Clear research objectives
    • A well-defined target audience
    • Appropriate participant recruitment
    • A carefully designed discussion guide
    • Questions and analysis frameworks anchored in behavioural science, psychology and economics
    • Skilled moderation or interviewing
    • Ethical and respectful engagement with participants
    • Systematic analysis of themes and patterns
    • Consideration of context, contradictions and nuance
    • Clear links between evidence, interpretation and recommendations

The quality of qualitative research depends not only on the conversations conducted, but on the thinking that goes into research design and analysis.

Strong qualitative research should answer three questions:

1. 1. 1. What did we hear or observe?
      2. What does it mean?
      3. What should the organisation do as a result?

The third question is where research becomes strategic insight.

 

How AI Is Changing Qualitative Research

AI tools are increasingly being used to support qualitative research.  They can assist with tasks such as organising transcripts, identifying recurring themes, summarising large volumes of text and speeding up parts of the analysis process.

AI provides tools to improve workflow efficiency, and does not replace skilled qualitative researchers or should be used to generate synthetic responses; responses not directly sourced from participants.

Human interpretation is still essential for understanding context, detecting nuance, recognising contradictions, interpreting emotion and translating findings into strategy.

For example, AI may identify that “trust” appears frequently in customer interviews.  A skilled researcher needs to understand what trust means in that context, why it matters, what drives it, what undermines it, and how the organisation can respond.

AI can help process qualitative data more efficiently, but the value of qualitative research still depends on strong research design, thoughtful questioning, careful interpretation and strategic judgement.

Eris Strategy has an AI Usage Policy that is aligned with The Research Society guidelines to ensure clients are aware of when and how AI is used in their projects, and that generative AI is not used to generate data or critical interpretations and recommendations.

 

Our Approach to Qualitative Research

At Eris Strategy, we have over 30 years of experience in qualitative research that is designed to produce practical insight, not just interesting observations.

We use qualitative methods to understand customer needs, motivations, barriers and decision-making, then translate those findings into clear implications for strategy, communications, customer experience, product development and service improvement.

Our approach focuses on:

• • • Understanding the decision, the research needs to support
    • Selecting the right method for the audience and research question
    • Designing discussion guides that go beyond surface-level responses
    • Creating the conditions for honest and thoughtful participant feedback
    • Analysing patterns, tensions and underlying drivers
    • Identifying what the findings mean for strategy and action
    • Delivering recommendations that help organisations make better decisions

The most valuable qualitative research does not simply report what people said.  It explains what those findings mean and how they should be used.

Our rigorous and innovative approach to qualitative research has led Eris Strategy to work with many leading organisations in private, government and not-for-profit sectors in projects covering strategy, brand, product, service and community needs across diverse market segments.

 

Conclusion

Qualitative research helps organisations understand the human reasons behind customer behaviour.  It reveals the motivations, barriers, emotions, language and experiences that cannot always be captured through numbers alone.

While quantitative research is valuable for measurement, qualitative research is valuable for meaning.  It helps organisations understand why people think and behave the way they do, and what can be done to better meet their needs.

For businesses, qualitative research can guide brand strategy, customer experience, product development, communications and innovation.  For government and community organisations, it can support better service design, stakeholder engagement, tourism and economic strategy, policy development and community understanding.

When well designed and analysed, qualitative market research provides more than just findings.  It provides insight that can be translated into better decisions.

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Qualitative Research

 

What is qualitative research in simple terms?

Qualitative research is a way of understanding people’s attitudes, motivations, behaviours and experiences in depth.  It uses open-ended methods such as interviews, focus groups and observation to explore why people think or act in certain ways.

 

How does qualitative research differ from quantitative research?

Qualitative research explains why people think or behave a certain way.  Quantitative research measures how many people think or behave that way.  Qualitative research uses words, stories, themes, and observations, while quantitative research measures frequency and relationships.  Both Qualitative and quantitative research are often used together to improve their designs and outcomes for clients.

 

What are the main types of qualitative market research?

The main types of qualitative market research include focus groups, in-depth interviews, ethnographic research, observation, online communities, and semiotics.  Within each of these approaches are a wide range of techniques and tools used to understand how people think, feel and act.  Some of these tools include projective techniques, diary, narrative analysis, metaphor elicitation and journey mapping.

 

What is the best qualitative research method?

The best qualitative research method depends on the research objective.  Focus groups are useful for exploring reactions, language and group discussion.  In-depth interviews are better for sensitive topics or complex individual decision-making.  Observation is useful when actual behaviour is more important than claimed behaviour.  Semiotics is better for understanding symbolism in communication.

 

Why are focus groups useful in market research?

Focus groups are useful because they allow researchers to hear how people discuss products, services, brands or ideas in their own words.  They can reveal customer language, emotional reactions, barriers, objections and opportunities to improve strategy or communication.  Focus groups are useful because they allow discussions among participants to better understand issues and provide a way to efficiently interview multiple people in a short time.

 

Can qualitative research be statistically representative?

Qualitative research is not statistically representative because it uses smaller samples and recruits participants based on their experience, identity, and differences.  Its purpose is to provide depth and understanding rather than numerical measurement.  If an organisation needs to measure the prevalence of a finding, quantitative research is required.

 

When should qualitative and quantitative research be used together?

Qualitative and quantitative research should be used together when an organisation needs an in-depth understanding of how many.  Qualitative research can explore motivations, needs and themes, while quantitative research can measure how widespread those findings are across a larger audience, and the magnitude of impact of activities.

 

How many people are needed for qualitative research?

The number of participants depends on the research objective, audience and method.  Qualitative research usually uses smaller, carefully selected samples rather than large statistically representative samples.  The aim is to include enough participants to explore patterns, differences, depth of understanding, and to avoid reliance on a few people from any one group.

 

What makes qualitative research valuable?

Qualitative research is valuable because it helps organisations understand why people think, feel and behave the way they do.  It provides context, language, emotion and explanation, which can help organisations make better decisions about strategy, products, services, communications and customer experience.