InterviewingPresented By

Nishmitha P H

Introduction• Businesses use professional marketing research interviewing

services to get feedback about their products and services. It provide a complete program that studies what their consumers need, want and buy which. makes it easy for any company to quickly tap into trends

• Interviewing is one of the most difficult tasks in marketing research and yet it has not received any adequate attention. It is difficult because it includes rare combination of intelligence, initiative and tact on the part of interviewers so that they can get the desired information from the unknown respondents

Meaning

• The collection of data by asking people questions and following up or probing their answers

• In qualitative marketing research an interview may be conducted with just one respondent (this is known as a depth interview), with pairs (paired depths), small groups (mini-groups), or group discussions of between 5 and 8 participants. (In the US, focus groups may comprise between 5 and 12 respondents.)

The condition for a successful interview

• the interview is a purposeful conversation between the interviewer and the respondent aimed at eliciting certain information from the latter.

• It is necessary that certain condition are fulfilled in order to ensure its successful completion. These condition are explained below

Availability of Information with the Respondent

First the respondent must have the information which is sought by the interviewer. It may well be that the respondent had the information but due to the passage of time, he has now forgotten it.Alternatively, he might have repressed it due to some emotional stress.

Cognition

• Second the respondent should understand what is required and expected of him. He should be in a position to decide what information he should give, how much he should give and in what manner he should give it.

• The interviewer should ensure that the respondent understand his role when he is interviewed

Motivation

• Finally the respondent should feel motivated to answer questions accurately. He should cooperative right from the beginning to the end of the interview.

• At the same time he should realise the seriousness of the interview and give correct answer.

The interviewer’s Task

• The interviewers task has a four aspect1. Locating sample members2. obtaining interview3. asking questions4. Recording the answer

Locating the respondent or sample number

• The interviewer cannot choose his respondents on his own. He has to approach only those persons who have been selected in sample. This fixes a responsibility on the interviewer to find the sample member

Obtaining the interview• Having located the respondent, the interviewer has to

initiate the interview. He may have to show identity and authorisation letter/card of his organisation.

• After this, it is necessary to inform the respondent about the purpose of the survey, to impress upon him how his response will be helpful for the survey and to convince him of the need for his cooperation.

Asking the Questions• Having initiated the interview, the interviewer must ask

the necessary questions.• He should ensure that whatever is asked, is understood

by the respondent in the sense in which it is intended• He should also to ensure that he understands what the

respondent say • He has to be extremely careful not to influence the

respondent by his own ideas and prejudices

Recording the responses• The interviewer has to record the answer honestly, as

they are obtained from the respondent• In no case should he add or delete something on his

own.• While closing the interview, the interviewer should thank

the respondent for his cooper.ation in the survey

The interviewing Errors1. errors may arise if the interviewer is unable to establish

a proper rapport with the respondent.2. Errors in interviewing may also arise if the interviewer

has deliberately or inadvertently not followed the instructions.

3. If the interviewer gives undue emphasis to a particular word or a part of the question, it might be suggestive to the respondent. This too would be a sources of an interviewing error

4. Error of omission5. The interviewer may commit some error in the recording of response

Selection of Interviewers1. He must have Good Health2. He should be an extravert3. He should be well dressed and posses a pleasing

personality4. He should have the knowledge of local or regional

language5. He must be well educated and well qualified6. Discrepancies should be avoided7. Interviewer must be capable of communicating with the

respondent

Training of Interviewers• Before the interviewers are sent out for collecting data, it

is necessary that they should be given some training. In case of subject of enquiry is of a very general nature, the training need not be very elaborate.

• The interviewer should be given some guidance regarding how they should conduct the interview.

• If the training is technical, the technical aspect should be fully explained and the necessary literate should be given to them so that they can familiarise themselves with the subject matter.

• Normally training of 2 to 4 weeks may be considered sufficient

Types of training • Initial Training : Soon after the appointment of the interviewer, initial

training may be given which should familiarise him with the relevance of marketing research and the role of interviewers in marketing research studies. General aspect such as

Locating the respondent Obtaining interviews Problem of non respondent the entire training should not be classroom lectures and

discussion there should be some practical training

Training for individual studies

• In addition to initial training, it is necessary that training for individual studies should be given. The purpose of the research study should be explained. If a consulting firm is undertaking research for an outside firm, it is desirable to inform the interviewer as to which is the sponsoring organization and to give them some background information about it. Further, if the study involves any technical aspect, these must be clearly explained to the interviewer

Supervision of interviewers

• A supervisor’s work should be include:1. Gathering and training interviewers on the

fundamentals of interviewing, including application forms.

2. alerting and briefing interviewers for a particular job.3. Allocating territory, in some cases requiring map work of

a fairly detailed nature.4. Carefully studying the first day’s work, and correcting

errors.

5. Editing wall work6. Validating some of the reports7. Keeping careful production records.8. Reviewing the sheets.9. Rendering a detailed bill for the work. To minimise the chances of interviewing cheating, supervision may visit the places, without any prior intimation, where the interviewer expected to be present.

Refusals In almost every research study based on interviews, there will be some respondent who refuse to participate. Here, one may find that certain types of people may be unwilling to answer the questions. For example, females, persons having lower incomes and retired and old people would be reluctant to cooperate in a survey

Types of interviews

1. Individual Face-to-Face Interviews2. Focus Group Interviews3. In-Depth Interviews4. Telephone Interviews

1. Face to Face Interviewing Services

• Face to face interviewing remains the most frequently used quantitative research method. Interviews can be conducted in the respondent’s home or workplace, in halls or even simply on the street.

Advantages of face to face interview

• Allow for more in-depth data collection and comprehensive understanding

• Body language and facial expressions are more clearly identified and understood

• The interviewer can probe for explanations of responses• Stimulus material and visual aids can be used to support

the interview• Interview length can be considerably longer since the

participant has a greater commitment to participate

Disadvantages of Face To Face Interview

• Interviews are more time consuming to recruit and conduct

• As a result of timing and travel, F2F interviews can be expensive

• Interviews can deliver biased responses• Most carefully vet the respondent’s ability before

investing time in the recruitment process and interview process

2. Focus Group Interviews

• In the focus group interviewing method, the interviewer collects a small number of representative consumers for discussion on a particular subject. The optimal size of a focus group is usually taken to be about eight people. Any number less than this is insufficient for the focus group. On the other hand, if the number is say, 10 or 12, it is regarded as too large. The larger the size of the group , the longer people have to wait for the turn.

Advantages of focus group• It is an inexpensive and fast method of acquiring

valuable data. • Co-workers and friends are more comfortable in voicing

views in each other’s company than on their own with the researcher

• Participants are given a chance to reflect or react to the viewpoint of others with which they may disagree or of which they’re unaware.

• The dynamic discussion between participants stimulates their thoughts and reminds them of their own thoughts regarding the research subject.

• All individuals along with the researcher have a chance to ask questions, and these will produce more information when compared with individual interviews.

• The researcher can clarify clashes among participants and ask about these diverse opinions.

Disadvantage• The researcher has trouble controlling discussion and

managing the process in comparison to individual interview.

• A few individuals could possibly be introverts while others take control of the debate and impact the end result, or possibly even introduce bias

• The group climate can hinder or fail to energize the individual, or it can be livelier and produce more data.

• Recording data can present difficulties

In- Depth interview• In-depth interviews -- typically used when your target

participants are likely to provide untruthful or misleading answers -- require skill in getting people to open up and reveal sensitive or emotional information. Questions must be tailored so as not to upset or attack participants during the interviews. Indirect questions that require longer explanatory answers are best for such interviews. You might utilize this technique to learn about alcohol or drug abuse or to gauge consumer reactions to a new depression medication.

Advantage• It is able to discover hidden motivations which really

determine consumer behaviour• Depth interviewing may lead to the development of a

motivational pattern with respect to a particular brand or other action under investigation.

• It provide a strong stimulus to the insight of the interviewer.

Disadvantage

• It does not provide a systematic structure for interpretation of the information obtained.

• The information obtained is non- quantifiable

• It need more vigilance and training

4. Telephone Interviews

• Telephone interviews are the most expedient and cost-saving. You can reach many more respondents in the time it might take to arrange for a face-to-face appointment or stop someone at a convention. Live interviewers can ask probing questions and tailor the interview to the respondent as the conversation progresses, or they can utilize a prearranged set of questions designed to elicit a yes or no answer. Computerized phone surveys can take the place of live interviewers and immediately provide you with results from each call. Telephone interviews are best when you have a deadline or have a limited research budget.

Project methods• Sometimes, to provide a stimulus to help generate a

discussion in informal interviewing, certain projective methods are used. Such techniques are based on the principle of confronting an individual with a purposely ambiguous situation which he must interpret.

• The ambiguous situation may just be a word an incomplete sentence, or a picture.

For example, when a respondent is shown a series of pictures with ambiguous situations, he is supposed to invent a story which explains the pictures

Projective techniques

• Word association test• sentence completion Test• Thematic Apperception test• Story completion Test• Cartoons

Advantages• They can help to uncover information not available

through direct questioning• Projective techniques is that they can be extremely

helpful in the beginning of a research study when the researcher study when the researcher is not clear as to how be should processed

Disadvantage

• Highly complex• No response• suffer from interpreter bias

Thank you