Qualitative Methods
C+R has a particularly rich history in qualitative research. Our founder, Dr. Saul ben Zeev, is credited with taking the group interview approach out of an academic setting, and applying it to marketing research in the 1950s. His innovative thinking and willingness to push the boundaries is at the heart of how we approach research today. C+R’s team of qualitative moderators employ a variety of in-person and digital approaches designed to uncover stories that matter around consumer perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.
Our moderating team works closely with our quantitative research analysts to integrate multi-modal research into a seamless story, providing you with incredibly rich insights and business building recommendations.
To further enrich the research, we also have an incredibly talented team of storyologists, comprised of multimedia and creative staff who are skilled at turning raw video footage into a video story that highlights our learnings in an engaging and compelling way. These video stories are a perfect way to engage your broader audience in the findings.
Quantitative Methods
Innovative designs. Awesome analytics. Inspirational reports.
Over the years, we've earned a reputation for tackling difficult survey projects by applying expert, creative design to problems where standard approaches fell short. Whether we're doing a simple or complex survey, a concept test or a segmentation, our custom approach to quantitative research delivers dependable metrics and powerful insights that will drive your important business decisions.
Whatever the issue, you can count on C+R's talented analysts to design the right research so that you can make your business decisions quickly and confidently.
You can learn more about our Quantitative Agile Market Research Methods here.
Communities and Panels
Consumers are already talking about your brand. C+R's InTouch Communities and Panels help you join the conversation.
With extensive experience, we are pioneers in the online panel space with twelve years building, sustaining, and utilizing panels and communities. We are vested - we manage panels and communities on behalf of clients, but we also invest in our own. We manage B2B and B2C communities, and we're pros at delivering focused insightful results.
We offer both custom interactive communities and online access panels. Our Communities provide a hub in which projects take place and your target audience can interact with each other, offering a more intimate glimpse into their worlds. Our Panels are a profiled databased of pre-recruited individuals that can be utilized for ready access for any research needs.
Our team uses a range of mobile and PC-based tools and technologies, including but not limited to online discussions, chat sessions, mark-up tools, co-creation tools, webcam IDI's, qualitative and quantitative surveys, photo and video uploads, and more!
Mobile Methods
The adoption of mobile in recent years has changed the way people not only communicate and interact with one another, but also with companies and brands. Mobile provides marketers and researchers with exciting opportunities, and C+R is at the forefront, taking a thoughtful approach to mobile research.
We keep pace with the ever-evolving world of mobile technology through our own mobile app, mobile communities and lots of research on research. While we offer mobile friendly surveys (online surveys adapted to mobile devices), our approach and philosophy goes beyond just making the current survey tool available on mobile devices. It's about changing how we ask questions and interact with consumers and shoppers in the context of what they're doing and in a way that is consistent with how they're interacting with their devices.
Online Discussions
As consumers have adopted new ways of communicating online, C+R has evolved its methodologies to keep pace. We've mastered the intricacies of creating online communities around our clients' products and services.
Through these online communities, we harvest all the posts, comments, photos and video to become immersed in customers' lives as they're living them -- whether they're at home or on the go.
We leverage mobile technology to stay in tune with people's behaviors in the moment. We integrate qualitative discussions with surveys in innovative ways to dive deeply into the data and extract the "whys".
C+R has conducted online discussions among a wide array of audiences, covering everything from early-stage creative development, consumer profiling/brand champion exploratory, product usage, concept evaluations/optimizations, inundation and deprivation, barriers research, path to purchase, and more.
Discussion Boards
C+R’s online discussions are what some may refer to as online bulletin boards. We recruit participants from across the country to interact with each other and discuss various topics over several consecutive days. Our moderators post questions or activities throughout the discussion and are there to probe and dig deeper as responses – written or via video - are entered. Your team can observe the conversation to build empathy with your consumers wherever they are.
Pop-up Communities
Our clients love the flexibility and agility of long-term online communities. However, sometimes a 6-12 month time frame is not needed. Our Pop-Up Communities are perfect when you have one specific research objective that needs to be addressed over a few months or you have multiple related questions for one targeted audience. Our community managers provide you with the flexibility and tools to conduct any combination of qualitative and/or quantitative research among as few as 50 or as many as thousands of participants.
Flashqual
To expediate any Online Qualitative needs, C+R recommends using our FlashQual®methodology which allows us to capture quick, quality feedback in as little as a few days to a maximum of 2 weeks. While this method is fast, we still take every step to ensure the research is not “scrappy” or “quick and dirty”. Rather, we use methods that allow us to adhere to our best practices and provide deep, quality insights – just in less time.
Webcam Idis
When you need to talk with consumers from around the country, or when travel isn’t an option, C+R’s one-on-one in-depth interviews can be executed via webcam. Despite being in a remote location, webcams allow us to connect with consumer in their home to provide you with an intimate glimpse into your customers' motivations, behaviors and needs.
We can also conduct interviews at the store, or anywhere via mobile phone.
Digital Ethnographies
Our toolset allows us to capture and observe natural behaviors, reactions, and emotions in-the-moment vs being recalled by study participants. C+R’s Digital Ethnography tools allow consumers to capture their experiences with pictures and videos as they happen and gives them the power to tell us the story, in the specific context of each occasion or use.
User Experience/Website/App Navigation
Online qualitative research can also be used to optimize website navigation and see consumers’ reaction via mobile devices by having them use mobile markup tools.using
It can be a challenge to have a website that works well on a computer, tablet, and smartphone. But in today's world, it is an absolute necessity. Our mobile qual research methods can help you determine what actions need to be taken to improve your website across various devices.
Strategy Workshops
C+R offers a range of tools to amplify our research. These facilitated workshops push the insights from the research into the next step – whether it is to develop actionable strategies, generate new product ideas, design an experience map, or craft brand positionings.
Ideation
Transforming consumer insights into ideas is the key to fueling brand growth.
We approach ideation as a collaboration where we guide clients and push their thinking to develop original, groundbreaking ideas for new products, services, retail concepts, or marketing communications.
We conduct workshops involving both clients and creative-minded consumers (in person or online) to draw from the unique synergy between clients' category expertise and consumers' vision and points of view. Our team facilitate rounds of imaginative exercises designed to inspire creativity, stimulate different modes of thinking, and look at the consumer insights in new ways to produce fresh ideas.
Activation Workshops
Activation Workshops allow our clients to internalize the research and translate insights into business strategies.
Each session is custom-designed to be a hands-on facilitated workshop that allows participants to truly empathize with the target consumers and their needs. Strategies and ideas are then generated, sparked by research insights. This allows the research to live on and become more valuable to your organization.
In-Person
How many times have you heard the statement, “most communication is non-verbal”? We know that non-verbal behavior is a crucial aspect of communication. Oftentimes body language and facial expressions convey emotions and ideas more accurately than words. This is why nothing offers more depth of understanding than connecting with your target customer through face-to-face research.
Focus Groups
Sometimes the best approach is to simply get a group of consumers in a room and have them start talking – to hear their stories, debate their points of view, or have them see, hold, or taste test products. Focus groups are an ideal methodology if you are seeking an agile solution for complex topics because we can be flexible, nimble, and adapt our approach as we learn in the field.
In-depth Interviews
One-on-one, in-depth interviews allow us to connect more deeply with a consumer at a facility, in their home, at the store, online; really anywhere, to provide you with an intimate glimpse into your customers' motivations, behaviors and needs.
Ethnographies
Ethnographic research allows us to deeply explore consumer behavior by joining them in their worlds. We immerse ourselves in consumers’ lives to observe and interview them in context to see things from their perspective, and with a holistic understanding. This leads to greater empathy to help our clients put the consumer at the forefront of their minds as they make business decisions.
A consumer's home environment and decor can provide a look into their lifestyle and values, providing context behind their motivations and behaviors. We can learn what brands they have on hand and explore the role each plays in their routines and rituals. We can see them use key products of interest, to identify their processes and workarounds - the frustrations and pain points that can help you pinpoint opportunities for innovation or improvement.
Whether that means spending time with teenagers celebrating at a Quinceanera, shopping with a consumer at the local supermarket, or cooking dinner with a family at the end the day, seeing this behavior in their natural habitat leads to rich insights.
Shop-alongs
We employ a variety of methods for observing and engaging with shoppers in the store to better understand their motivations and behaviors along the path-to-purchase. From accompanying pre-recruited shoppers on their trip to the store to intercepting shoppers for on-the-spot interviews, our moderators provide deep insight into the shopper journe
Mobile
There's no better way to capture rich insights than when consumers are "in-the-moment." We regularly experiment with new ways to get closer to consumers and are excited that the ongoing evolution of mobile research technology can fuel this effort.
Here are just a few innovative ways we integrate mobile and qualitative research.
- Mobile journaling to obtain 'in-the-moment' instances and 'needs' states
- In-store mobile missions when shopping to share opinions in real-time
- Usability/website/app navigation and reaction via mobile devices
Mobile Journals
Mobile journaling can be used to obtain 'in-the-moment' instances and 'needs' states of your consumers.
We've all been in the store looking for a product we have on our shopping list and have either spent several minutes trying to find it or changed our minds due to an appealing promotion or a drop in price for a comparable product. When you use mobile journals to conduct research, you gain access to what is happening in the minds of the consumers at the very moment they are making their buying decision.
Digital Ethnographies
Ethnographic research allows us to deeply explore consumer behavior by joining them in their worlds. We immerse ourselves in consumers’ lives to observe and interview them in context to see things from their perspective, and with a holistic understanding. This leads to greater empathy to help our clients put the consumer at the forefront of their minds as they make business decisions.
A consumer's home environment and decor can provide a look into their lifestyle and values, providing context behind their motivations and behaviors. We can learn what brands they have on hand and explore the role each plays in their routines and rituals. We can see them use key products of interest, to identify their processes and workarounds - the frustrations and pain points that can help you pinpoint opportunities for innovation or improvement.
Whether that means spending time with teenagers celebrating at a Quinceanera, shopping with a consumer at the local supermarket, or cooking dinner with a family at the end the day, seeing this behavior in their natural habitat leads to rich insights.
Mobile Missions
It's very difficult for consumers to tell you why they bought something after the fact. But if they are using their mobile phone to document why they are making a purchasing decision at that very moment; that is the best way to capture the insights about how your targeted customers actually make their buying decisions. What motivated them to stick with their shopping list or to suddenly change their minds about a product? Was it price? Product placement? A special promotion? Using mobile technology helps you capture these "mental snapshots" in real-time so you can make smarter business decisions.
Live, Remote Interviews & Shop Alongs
Remote mobile interviews allow for real-time observations and discovery with participants and help to give answers to critical business objectives and questions.
These remote mobile interviews are more natural, discovery oriented and provide instant, in-the-moment insights.
They can also include mobile shop-alongs. You can read more about our shop-along capabilities here.
User Experience/Website/App Navigation
Online qualitative research can also be used to optimize website navigation and see consumers’ reaction via mobile devices by having them use mobile markup tools.
It can be a challenge to have a website that works well on a computer, tablet, and smartphone. But in today's world, it is an absolute necessity. Our mobile qual research methods can help you determine what actions need to be taken to improve your website across various devices.
A&U's
Understand what your brand means to consumers.
Has your brand had a check-up recently? Do you know if you have made in-roads in building awareness, consideration, or trial? Do you have a good grasp on the competitive landscape and how your brand stacks up? It's critical to keep your fingers on the pulse of the ever-changing landscape that your brand competes in - new products enter; consumer preferences change; the "sleeping giant" competitor finally wakes up. We can help you to understand this landscape with an Attitude, Awareness and Usage study (A&U). By partnering with us, we can reveal the power of your brand by:
- Understanding who is aware of your brand and how they feel about it
- Monitoring how your brand stacks up against the competition
- Determining the strength of your brand's equity
- Identifying barriers to product trial or use
- Uncovering opportunities through usage occasions
We understand that no category is created equal, and certainly no brand is created equal - that's why we customize each project with the most relevant metrics for your brand and your category.
With decades of experience under our belt, and virtually every brand category researched, we know what it takes to design, implement, and bring the findings from an A&U study to life. Let us know how we can help you!
Advanced Analytics
Run-of-the-mill statistics don't exist here. Our in-house Advanced Analytics team excels at delivering innovative, yet practical analyses that elevate every project's findings. They not only bring advanced analytics expertise to the table, but also a keen business acumen. Our statistical consultants are true team members - they are on the project every step of the way - from translating your complex questions into spectacularly-designed research to helping analyze the data into actionable insights.
Our analytic toolbox is deep and varied. You name it, we've done it.
- We can optimize your product line by using TURF and cannibalization/incrementality analysis - a must-have for many of our CPG clients.
- Conjoint helps forecast demand and configure products, product portfolios and pricing. We have a wide array of methodologies from traditional conjoint and choice-based conjoint to adaptive and menu-based conjoint.
- We tackle segmentation in a number of ways - k-means, latent class, hierarchical approaches and innovations like cluster ensembles. We also leverage a Max Diff approach in many of our segmentation surveys to gain greater discrimination in defining your segments.
- To understand the strengths of concepts, we offer model-based scoring techniques such as Bradley-Terry.
- We have lots of tools in our arsenal that we use for drivers analyses - it could be as simple as correlations or ANOVAs, and as advanced as structural equation modeling or hierarchical Bayes regression.
Advertising Testing
Sometimes you need to evaluate early-stage creative as quickly as possible. You want to make sure your creative is telling the right story.
CopyIQ is an online and interactive research methodology that blends innovation, art, and science to evaluate your brand's early-stage creative quickly and easily. CopyIQ cuts budgets and timelines by bringing real-time research to you anytime, anywhere - whether you need to test rough-cut ads, animatics, finished commercials, storyboards, positioning themes or more.
By leveraging the best of both quantitative and qualitative research, online pre-recruited respondents react to your creative in real-time through group-directed dynamic probing, as well as closed-ended and open-ended questions. Each session ends with an immediate debrief of findings and a full report delivered within one week.
From measuring message communication, persuasive ability, ad diagnostics, and more, CopyIQ facilitates on-the-fly learning about what's working with your advertising and what's not. We've helped brand managers, agency folks, and researchers achieve their goals using our approach.
Concept Testing
Launching successful new products is tough. We have the tools and experience to help set you on the right path. Our concept testing solutions include screening multiple ideas to find the best and comprehensive evaluations of individual concepts to optimize them prior to launch. We're known for providing added-value insights wherever you are in the concept development process.
Our concept testing toolkit includes Max-Diff scaling and an interactive highlighter to help identify the most motivating benefits and claims in a concept. And our proprietary Concept Potential Score combines multiple factors which pinpoint a concept's true potential.
Finding winning concepts often isn't the end of the story. We have extensive expertise in helping clients determine how to manage new product(s) within their existing brand portfolios. Utilizing TURF, Shapley Value Analysis, and other share-based analytics, we provide essential insights into managing your brand's incrementality and cannibalization challenges.
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) studies have been part of C+R's fabric for over 30 years and in this time we've conducted CSAT studies for many clients across many industries. We are accustomed to handling customer satisfaction studies of all sizes - from small to very large continuous tracking studies. We have the systems, security measures and infrastructure in place to handle all the logistics for even the biggest programs, including automated "Red Flag" reports that alert you when a customer is dissatisfied, and wants to be contacted by someone from your organization. When people hear customer satisfaction tracking, many feel that the survey is staid and will never change. This is not the case with C+R, - our studies are designed with maximum flexibility; we understand that internal/external factors fuel the need to address a burning issue, or that we need to probe something more deeply. We understand that customer satisfaction tracking must be fluid, and we expect that studies will evolve and grow.
Because we understand that every study serves different needs, we don't push our clients' objectives into a one-size-fits all methodology or design, or tell you how to define loyalty - we work with you to determine criteria that makes sense for your brand and your category. Whether it's NPS, overall satisfaction, or a combination of factors, rest assured that we will dig deeply to understand what makes someone a loyal customer.
Our goal is to provide you with solutions to change vulnerable customers into satisfied ones and satisfied customers into loyal ones. Beyond that, we will work with you to help you promote the CSAT study within your organization.
DIY A&U
As a marketing professional – whether you are a research novice or expert – there is always a need to deeply understand your CPG category and brand by conducting an Attitude and Usage (A&U) study. But if your budget and your timeline don’t allow for a fully customized study, and basic quick-turn survey solutions won’t answer your most important questions, then A+U NOW® is the perfect solution for you!
With A+U NOW®, C+R has thoughtfully applied 60 years of expertise at designing and perfecting A+U standards and delivering an insightful, actionable report, suitable for CPG professionals of all levels and departments, through an intuitive DIY portal. A full presentation-ready report and an accessible data mining portal are delivered to you within days, at a cost that’s a fraction of a traditional custom A&U.
Product Testing
Are you ready to launch a new product into the marketplace? Maybe you need to redesign or reformulate your existing product to cut costs, better compete against another brand, or meet new clean-labeling standards? Or, perhaps you need to evaluate your product's ease of use, effectiveness, or ease of storage? Whatever the case may be, we can partner with you to gather the consumer insights you need before your product goes to market, or goes back to market.
C+R knows what it takes to conduct successful product testing; we have decades of experience, and hundreds of studies under our belt, including in-home usage tests (IHUTs) and central location tests (CLTs). When it comes to IHUTs, in particular, we have the infrastructure in place to handle the largest, most complex studies. For example, we successfully implemented a 40-cell sequential monadic IHUT in which 10,000 products were shipped to over 5,000 participants. Along with our fulfillment partner, we can handle all aspects of your product testing - from acquiring & anonymizing competitive product, to help desk inquiries, and everything in between.
Our experience spans many product categories, so no matter your needs, we have the know-how and structure in place to design and handle your product testing with expertise, accuracy and care.
Segmentation
Given the time and budget commitments involved, we believe that insights from segmentation research should provide insights that will have a significant impact on a company’s business and marketing strategy for years to come. Whether the goal is to identify new growth opportunities, refine or expand a brand’s target, or market more effectively, C+R has the expertise to deliver game-changing segmentation insights.
Over the years, we have developed and executed hundreds of segmentation studies in all types of industries and we continue to adapt and innovate our approaches. Our newest approach – called 360-Degree Segmentation - was developed to provide FMCG companies a smarter way to do segmentation. What makes this approach smarter? In a nutshell - we can marry actual purchase behavior (through receipt-capture) with attitudes, psychographics, and lifestyle characteristics. The beauty is that we don’t need to rely on self-reported purchase information, and we have historical purchase data on each person, providing a more in-depth analysis.
No matter what approach we use and who your target is --from margarita-drinkers to business travelers, dog owners to avid crafters, and millennials to moms of preschoolers, we have broad experience to guide us - and you - on your next segmentation project.
Pop-up or Short Term Communities
Our clients love the flexibility of short-term online communities. They are perfect whether you have one specific research objective that needs to be addressed over a few months or you have multiple related questions for one targeted audience. Our community managers provide you with the flexibility and tools to conduct any combination of qualitative and/or quantitative research among as few as 50 or as many as thousands of participants.
Long Term Communities
Our clients love the depth of insights that come from long-term online communities. They are perfect when you need to address multiple research objectives on an on-going basis or wish to continuously engage with your customers for feedback and ideas. Whether for six months, twelve or longer, our community managers provide you with flexible tools to conduct any combination of qualitative and/or quantitative research among as few as several hundred or as many as thousands of participants.
Flex/DIY Communities
Feel like an online community is the right answer, but not sure how to make it happen within your budget? C+R's Flex DIY Communities can be set up for you to conduct your own research, helping you gain the information you need for a cost you can live with.
We equip you with our user-friendly platforms so that you can put questions into the community yourself. Our team builds and manages the community's ongoing health and sampling so that you can focus on the getting the insights you need. If your time or resources become constrained, our analysts can help move your projects along. We help you in any way you need - by building your questionnaires, developing discussion guides, or providing support with programming or analysis and reporting.
Custom Panels
Panels are different from communities in that participants do not interact with each other. Panels are best used when you don't need to see interactions over time - when you simply need quick access to your target audiences at any given time.
Custom panels can be either short term or long term, and can have anywhere from 50 participants to thousands. Because participants are pre-recruited and we know their profile, C+R has immediate access to panelists who can be selected to participate in online qualitative or quantitative research projects.
Mobile Communities
Mobile Communities or Panels are perfect for those who seek a solution for ongoing research objectives that require in-the-moment insights or heavy mobile user targets. We utilize mobile platforms that are app- OR web-based, depending on the needs of your research. All of C+R's Community or Panel solutions can be mobile only!
Whether for six months, twelve, or longer, our community managers provide you with ways to conduct any combination of qualitative and/or quantitative mobile research among your targeted participants, whether you require several hundred or even thousands of participants. We have myriad tools at our fingertips, such as geo location, barcode scanning, and multimedia uploads, to ensure any experience is captured. All these tools open the door to all sorts of in-the-moment insights:
- usage journals
- purchase journey
- in-store experience
- on-premise consumption
- video confessionals
Lasso (Mobile Sample)
Do you have any apps on your mobile device - games, fitness, brain teasers, etc.? If you're like millions of other smartphone and tablet users, we bet you do! Now, you can reach these millions of consumers, in the moment, on their mobile devices without having to rely on a pre-recruited panel.
Lasso is C+R's mobile sampling solution for reaching mobile consumers while they're playing games and using other interactive apps. Lasso is especially great for harder to reach audiences, such as millennials, young men, multicultural consumers and lower income consumers.
Mobile-friendly Surveys
What's the most appropriate device for your survey? Is it a smart phone, tablet, or PC? We understand the 'who', 'what', 'where', and 'how' of the 5, 10, and 20" screens on which people complete surveys.
Mobile is the most important technology for research since the internet. Smartphones are now carried by more than two-thirds of the US population and over 30% of all surveys are being completed on mobile devices. As a result, we design mobile-friendly surveys that are responsive - meaning they will automatically resize and reformat to fit any device that a respondent wants to use to complete a survey. This strategy enhances the respondent's experience, and in turn ensures data quality and maximizes survey response. For complex study designs, such as discrete choice, shelf-set evaluation, and segmentation, we intentionally limit mobile access in order to ensure the highest-quality data.
Shopper Missions
Understand the shopping experience from a shopper's perspective. We send respondents out on assignment and have them use mobile technology to communicate what they notice, what they consider, how they decide, and what they experience. From ad hoc virtual shop-alongs or as part of your path to purchase study, we help you evaluate the shoppers' experience as it's happening. With the ability to take and upload photos and videos, as well as scanning barcodes and confirming location through geo targeting, mobile technology enhances the information we gather from shopper missions.
In-the-Moment Insights
We've all seen it - people taking photos of their meals at restaurants, snapping selfies at sporting events, messaging in the check-out line, and posting comments during television shows. Mobile gives us the opportunity to communicate with your audience wherever they are, whenever it works for them.
In-the-moment insights are obtained through surveys, discussions, journals, photos and videos, in or outside of a consumer's home. Whether you want to understand usability issues, in-context drivers or barriers of choice, C+R uses mobile technology to help you capture and evaluate in-the-moment experiences with your consumers.
