(Primary) Research methods

What are research methods determined by?

• Type of data needed

• Amount of money available

• Ethical and legal considerationa

Computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI)

• face-to-face interviews carried out by interviewers using hand-held mobile technology.

• The questions are held in a software programme and the data is entered directly into the system.

How does CAPI allow for more complicated techniques than pen and paper in the past?

Because of the technology, stimulus materials can be shown

Computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI)

 An interviewer conducting an interview (via telephone) and entering responses into the programme.

Why does CATI make telephone research more reliable?

1. The interviewer follows a standardised script and procedure, so this can help to reduce interviewer error.

2. The researcher or supervisor is also helped by being able to listen in to interviews and to keep a very close track on the number of interviews which have been completed.

3. Short lead times and fast response rates mean that telephone surveys can take place immediately after topical events, which is important in advertising tracking and opinion polling.

Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI)

• an online research technique in which participants answer research questions provided on a website.

• allows for supporting images, visual and audio materials to be displayed to assist participants in completing research in an informed manner. 

• tends to be self-routing enabling participants to navigate through the research depending on answers provided.

Electronic capture

Most supermarkets and other large retailers now use tills linked to systems such as EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale) or EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point Of Sale, where customers pay by debit card).

These systems allow the retailer to track the movement of products by reading bar codes and recording the data contained in the code.

Face-to-face interviews:

• What are field force & what is their role?

• What doe f2f interviews involve

• Trained interviewers

• select the participants, invite them to participate in an interview, and to complete the questionnaire.

• This is done using either paper copies or a hand-held computer or tablet (CAPI(computer-assisted personal interviewing)).

Face-to-face interviews: qual

• the interviewer’s role is to draw out information from the participant using prompts and themes.

Face-to-face interviews: quant

• interviewers ask participants a series of set questions and record responses.

Face-to-face interviews: advantages

• the element of personal contact can encourage participants to take part

• the presence of the interviewer can make sure that the questions are answered appropriately and in the correct order.

• Can be done in store

• May be preferred by older customers

Face-to-face interviews: disadvantages

• most expensive option and time-consuming - interviewers have to be briefed and may have to travel great distances to carry out the interviews.

What is the purpose of the Interviewer Quality Control Scheme (IQCS) developed by leading research companies, in association with MRS?

• to improve the quality of interviewing in quantitative research in the UK,

Online surveys

• Self-completion surveys are often sent to potential participants using online survey software.

Advantages of online surveys over other self-completion methods

• they can be sent easily and quickly to large numbers of people (fastest option);

• response rates can be tracked easily;

• the online completion means that results can be tracked as they arrive.

• Cheapest option

Disadvantages of online surveys

Difficult to guarantee response rates and significant time may be spent in sending reminders to potential respondents. 

Postal

• Self-completion questionnaires returned to the research team by post

Postal: advantages

• Help the researcher reach a large sample of respondents relatively cheaply, and appeal to particular groups of respondents who are used to communicating by post

Postal: disadvantages

• Response rates to postal questionnaires are notoriously low

• the savings made in contacting people by post may be used up in the design and printing of the questionnaire itself and in providing respondents with incentives for completing and returning the questionnaire.

• Slowest option

Telephone data collection:

• What is it?

• Role of interviewer?

• The interviewer invites the participants to complete the questionnaire, lead them through the questions, and record their responses.

• In large-scale interviewing, potential participants are selected by a computer system and calls placed automatically.

• Usually, this will be done using a computer-based questionnaire. This technique is known as CATI (computer-assisted telephone interviewing).

• interviewer asking questions (see CATI) or automatic questionnaires.

• also used for qualitative interviews.

Telephone data collection: advantages

1. more efficient and cost-effective than face-to-face methods because interviewers can be briefed and work from a central location instead of moving from location to location.

2. Telephone samples can provide access to places where interviewers may find inaccessible (e.g. owing to distances needed to travel).

Telephone data collection: disadvantages

1. Interviewers cannot use visual material or test products on the respondents.

2. Respondents in telephone surveys tend to spend less time answering questions than those in face-to-face interviews.

3. In the UK, more and more people are opting out of telephone-based market research surveys.

4. Customers may be weary of answering on the phone & data protection

Access panel

• a sample database of potential participants who have agreed to co-operate, if selected, in future data collection exercises for research purposes.

Interviewer-administered questionnaires

interviewer asking the participants the questions in the questionnaire, and recording the answers.

Point-of-contact questionnaire: advantages

Can be done in-store with customers

Can be done in places where a lot of customers may be

Point-of-contact questionnaire: disadvantages

• Expensive to design and print

• May not get required sample - relies on target group coming to shop or distribution centres

• People approached may not want to participate

Computer Assisted Interviewing (CAI) 

self completion online survey.

responses are keyed directly into a computer.

administration of interviews is managed by a specifically designed research programme.