Spotlight Exploring the cultural trends and issues impacting society today RESEARCH TECHNIQUES Going for gold The pandemic changed many of societys accepted norms, including the way that market research is conducted. So what exactly is the new gold standard when it comes to professional insights interviewing? Colette Doyle investigates From generating national statistics to providing informative data in person, research plays an incredibly powerful role in gold standard social surveys. This type of research was heavily disrupted by Covid-19 and a return to conducting interviews in person has proved to be complex and challenging. Kantar Public successfully completed a live pilot of a return to Covid-secure, inhome interviewing in August last year. Since then, it has delivered almost 10,000 interviews with members of the public in the UK so far this year. Ben Collins is the companys head of business excellence and, along with colleague Michelle Lewis, head of data and operations, has co-authored a presentation on the importance of in-home surveying. Collins is candid about the challenges ahead: The issues surrounding conducting in-person, especially in-home, research will continue. For some interviewers, uncertainty about what interviewing will now be like, and their personal safety, made them initially reluctant to come back. We know this is a challenge across the industry. But our interviewers, staff and clients demonstrated resilience from the onset of the pandemic and continue to do so. Collins highlights how committed Kantar is when it comes to in-person surveying: There are circumstances where research conducted by an interviewer, with that face-to-face interaction, is vital. In-person and in-home research, either alone or as part of a seamless mixed-method design, continues to play an incredibly powerful role in helping us understand people and shape public policy. Rachel Abbott, director and joint head of social change at The Behavioural Architects, believes that a mixture of in-person and remote research techniques best serves the projects on which her agency works. It certainly feels easier to read the emotional energy behind what people are saying face to face, as well as to explore their context if were meeting in their everyday environment. But, equally, remote interviewing can enable us to engage more participants in their own worlds and enhance accessibility which is so important in our industry to increase diversity and inclusion. Jaala Gallagher, client director at Barfly, a specialist consultancy that works with the global drinks industry, recalls that there were certainly benefits to using Zoom for research during the pandemic, as it allowed us to continue working, despite all the restrictions, and to do so in a cost-effective way. However, she points out that some essential cues may not be visible online. It highlighted to us the richness you get from face-to-face interviews and the subtle nuances that can be missed on a virtual call. In-person interactions are much more likely to reveal those often-elusive insights, because, sometimes, its not just what we say that reveals how we feel its how we say it. Meanwhile, Tom Woodnutt, founder of Feeling Mutual, believes it depends on the context. Ultimately, face-to-face focus groups have many advantages over groups by webcam. Its easier to build rapport, explain stimulus, manage group dynamics and develop an intuitive understanding of people. However, he cautions that there is a lot more to online qualitative research than webcam focus groups. For example, theres asynchronous online and mobile methods, which mean you get feedback from people across a few days, rather than in real time. I believe that, on balance, asynchronous online qual gives you more than face-to-face groups. Thats why we specialise in online and mobile qual, as we believe it is the gold standard for most qual research briefs. He outlines the benefits of asynchronous online and mobile methods as he sees them: They encourage more emotional disclosure and stronger validity, plus theyre much richer in colour and you get way more depth than the equivalent in face-to-face focus groups. Participants answers can be given in private, so they are not influenced by what others say. Also, they answer from the comfort of their everyday environment, rather than artificial viewing facilities. This inspires more candid emotional disclosures and reduces the risk of participants posturing in front of others. Fed up with focus groups? Focus groups have got a bad rap in recent years; Market Research Society (MRS) president Saj Arshad discussed their relevance in an interview with outgoing president Jan Gooding at the MRS conference in March. Its all too easy to default to methodologies that have been used over a long time. We owe it to ourselves to take advantage of the full panoply of newer tools and methodologies now available, he comments. There is a role for them 14 Impact ISSUE 38 2022_pp14-15_Spotlight.indd 14 24/06/2022 16:25