1 March 2001
Verbatim: A fresh perspective on qual
It's all too easy to take our industry for granted, but what does it have to offer newcomers?
We asked two (relatively) new researchers Lucy Devereux of Diagnostics and Phil Booth of Firefish how they viewed qualitative research, career possibilities, and its impact on their lives.
How did you find out about qualitative research?
Lucy:At University, career advice for law students was geared to shepherding people into legal or bureaucratic professions. Qualitative research was something you would only find by a great deal of luck and a dose of persistence. For me, this combination only collided in my first qual job interview.
Phil:I was interested in the role planners played in bringing the consumer aspect into the advertising process. Through this I found out about qual research.
What attracted you to a career in the industry?
Lucy:Initially it was a job ad promising the opportunity to 'find out what makes people tick'. When I realised I would be involved in interpretative analysis and marketing, there was no going back.
Phil:I wanted to communicate with a variety of different, interesting and creative people while feeding my longstanding curiosity of human behaviour.
Has it lived up to expectations?
Lucy:Yes, I think I've pretty much struck gold.
Phil:No, it's better.
What are the best elements of the job?
Lucy:You never know what you're going to get, which means there is always a fresh challenge, either in the form of a project, or off-the-wall respondents.
Phil:Top is being a part of the advertising process, albeit in a small way. Then there's the variety of great brands, the different people, the 'climbing into someone else's head' thing and the extra social opportunities.
What are the worst elements?
Lucy:The hours. Need I say more?
Phil:I don't like being left out-of-the-loop by some clients after the research has been presented. I always want to know which route they decided to follow and what factors aside from qual influenced their decisions.
How do you describe your job to people that you meet?
Lucy:When I say I do market research, people tend to start muttering things like 'No, I'm sorry, I don't have a minute'. My standard back up is, 'Attitudes and behaviour, not clipboards and statistics'.