Leomoo.com

Carefully executing several phases of research can help you understand your internal audience (your team), your external audience (your customers) and your competition.

Qualitative research requires conversations with customers that go beyond survey questionnaires.
(Bigstockphoto.com photo – BIGSTOCKPHOTO.COM PHOTO)
It’s best to start with an internal marketing audit, in which you talk to your staff and management team about their attitudes toward the brand and business goals. But afterward, it’s even more critical to talk to your external audience. This second part should be done through qualitative and quantitative research conducted by a third party.

Qualitative research involves either in-depth interviews, also known as IDIs, or focus groups. Both IDIs and focus groups allow you to have in-depth conversations with customers, gaining a deep understanding of what drives their decisions, vetting processes and even the emotional factors involved in their relationship with brands and products.

There are many different tactics that research directors and moderators use to get the best results from these conversations with the target audience. But when conducting both IDIs and focus groups, preparing discussion guides and pre-screening respondents are imperative.

Focus groups can be used for many different reasons; for example, to gain general insights about your brand and your competition or, more specifically, to test advertising

We recommend you visit the following site for more complete information and related topics. Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-small-business/post/the-small-business-benefits-of-focus-groups-customer-interviews-and-qualitative-research/2012/08/22/b98d6578-ec9c-11e1-aca7-272630dfd152_blog.html