Qualitative market research

Research designed to help organisational decision-making, focusing on understanding the nature of phenomena and their meaning, rather than their incidence. It tends to have the following characteristics: direct face-to-face contact between the primary researchers and those being researched; in-depth examination of small-scale samples or small numbers of observations; unstructured interviewing guides which are responsive to context and may be amended throughout the project; the researcher and his/her interpretative input is key to the process.