Qualitative measures Laddering

Laddering is a qualitative marketing research technique, which seeks to understand why people buy and use products and services. You find out which product features are important to product users and end with users emotional benefits. You use the technique to create ads, positioning messages, and develop new products. A conversation with your target audience is the best way to gather critical information to create superior products, services and communications. For many working in market research, marketing and product development, it is important to really connect with people through communications about products or services. In order to do this, we have to uncover their needs, beliefs, motivations and aspirations.

Visualization
Visualization is not a new concept. It has been used for centuries to distill and communicate information. Think about all the maps, graphs and charts in existence, and the popularity of this form of data analysis will quickly become clear. However, with advancements in technology, data visualizations are taking on more complex forms than ever before. They are being used to unravel the meaning behind big data sets that would otherwise be too difficult to understand. Highlighted in this piece are eight Ontario-based startups whose innovative applications are setting the future for data visualization. Visualization is the study of data being communicated visually through graphical means. Bar charts, graphs and maps are illustrations of basic data visualizations that have been utilized for quite a few years. Over time, visualizations have become more intricate to the extent of having animations that illustrate changing data over a period of time. There is virtually no limit to the translation of information into an image.

Word Association

In word association,respondents are presented with alist of words, one at a time, and asked to respond to eachwith the first word that comes to mind. The words of interest, called test words, are interspersed throughoutthe list which also contains some neutral, or filler wordsto disguise the purpose of the study An unstructured, indirect form of questioning thatencour ages respondents to project their underlyingmotivations, beliefs, attitudes or feelings regardingthe issues of concern.

Brand Personification For many people a brand is such an ethereal concept it can be hard to pin down the defining make-up of the brand. The most common technique for eliciting the composition of the brand is personification. "If the brand were a person, what type of person would it be...?" This is known as a projection. It is often far easier to talk about something we have words and images for, such as people or cars, so by describing the brand as a person, it is easier to articulate what the brand is about. Projection techniques are used frequently in qualitative brand research to get at the essence of brand make-up.

Projective Techniques In projective techniques, respondents are asked tointerpret the behavior of others. In interpreting the behavior of others, respondentsindirectly project their own motivations, beliefs,attitudes, or feelings into the situation

Mechanical/Technological Devices
People Meters As television viewership increased, there was a need for research of which channels are being viewed the most in other words known as Audience measurement. Thus Nielsen a leading market research company came out with the Audimeter. The Audimeter is the first meter to be established which could measure network viewership.

Eye Cameras cameras in stores are now being used to monitor customer eye movements and facial expressions for the purpose of marketing research. Reportedly, a number of large retailers are using software from Almaden's BlueEyes research project. The BlueEyes project is also developing interface technology for personal computers.

Galvanometers A device used to measure the emotion induced by exposure to a particular stimulus by recording changes in the electrical resistance of the skin associated with the minute degree of sweating that accompanies emotional arousal; in marketing research the stimulus is often specific advertising copy.