Focus Groups
Individual In-depth Interviews
Observational Studies
Online Bulletin Boards
Online Immersive Research
Virtual Focus Groups
Website Evaluation and Usability Tests

Qualitative Research offers in-depth insight of customer behaviors, motivations, and emotions to uncover the hows and whys of decision making. It is a powerful tool when the client needs to understand its customer at a deeper level and wants to explore reactions to brands, new products, or new categories.

Campos Inc is the recognized expert in asking the right questions, interpreting the answers, and making insightful recommendations that impact your bottom line.

We conduct qualitative research using traditional and emerging methodologies to capture the Real Customer Experience.

Focus Groups

Focus group discussions or in-depth group interviews give marketing and marketing research professionals an opportunity to learn how target groups think and feel about a given product, service or idea. A focus group typically consists of eight to ten respondents. Campos Inc moderators use a discussion guide that has been developed with input and approval from our clients to conduct the focus group interview in a neutral, unbiased way. Our moderators create and maintain an interactive, non-threatening environment, and manage the group dynamics so that all respondents have an opportunity to express their views and opinions.

Focus groups have many benefits and advantages:

• They enable clients to determine potential market acceptance of a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or form of packaging

• They can identify issues to validate in a quantitative survey

• Information is provided more quickly than if people were interviewed separately

• Results can be easier to understand than complicated statistical data

• Listening to others' verbalized experiences stimulates memories, ideas, and experiences that might not otherwise emerge in an individual interview or survey

Campos Inc designs, recruits and conducts focus groups from our focus group facilities in downtown Pittsburgh, from any location in any geographic market, and online

Individual In-Depth Interviews

In-depth interviews are a type of qualitative research methodology that obtains information/data on a given topic via interviews with individual respondents. The purpose of in-depth interviews is to understand a respondent's attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and feelings on a particular subject. The interview can range from highly structured to less structured, depending on the topic and respondents. Using an interview guide that has been developed in collaboration with the client, the interviewer guides the flow of conversation and insures consistency of data-gathering across multiple respondents. In-depth interviews can be conducted as a face-to-face conversation, over the telephone or online.

Campos Inc recommends using in-depth individual interviews when the topic of interest or concern is very personal, when the target audience is geographically dispersed, or when limited resources preclude the use of a more elaborate research methodology.

Observational Studies

Observational studies involve the systematic, detailed observation of behavior; watching and recording what people do and say in their typical environments or settings. The great advantage of observational research is that we can directly observe the behavior of customers, rather than rely on self-reported behavior. To keep the setting as natural as possible, the researcher usually blends in with the environment. For example, a researcher would act as a shopper, and rate for example, customer service behavior in a bank, store cleanliness in a shop chain, flight service of an airline, and reactions of other customers.

Campos Inc recommends conducting observational research in situations where gathering detailed information on behavior is critical, such as assessing customer service, or in a case study approach. It is usually undertaken over an extended period of time, ranging from several months to a year or more. A strength of observation and interaction over long periods of time is that researchers can discover discrepancies between what participants say, and often believe should happen, and what actually does happen. Specific types of observational research methodologies may include mystery shopping or mystery customer surveys, and the mobile phone cameras methodology.

Online Bulletin Boards

An online bulletin board is an interactive research tool that allows study participants to engage in comprehensive discussions within a brief period of time. In online bulletin boards, moderators and participants log in from any location at any time that is convenient for them (asynchronously). Participants spend some portion of each day (at their convenience) communicating online in a moderated discussion. During the course of the study, participants respond to a variety of questions, visuals and/or pre-determined topics. The convenience of an asynchronous study increases participation rates and enables our researchers to interact with participants from diverse geographic locations.

Campos Inc recommends using online bulletin boards for:

• Low incidence populations
• Geographically diverse participants
• Sensitive topics when participants may prefer anonymity
• Concept, package or product testing where stimuli do not need to be in hand
• Advertisement and/or website testing

Campos Inc creates a final report of the study that provides our clients with the insight, interpretation and recommendations that helps them make effective and strategic marketing decisions.

Online Immersive Research

Immersive research combines online ethnography with social networking technology to capture customer experiences, behaviors, attitudes, and emotions as they unfold via text and images. Conducted entirely over the Internet using a web-based software platform, immersive research allows us to absorb ourselves in the customers' experience. The research activities include a series of assignments that participants complete asynchronously over a period of days or weeks via a secure website. We develop the assignments, always with our clients' input, with the goal of capturing participants' experiences in their actual environment.

Activities might include participants uploading digital images or videos that represent feelings, perceptions, and experiences with your brand. Other activities include story-telling, role-playing, photo tours, diaries and journals, responding to stimuli, engaging in group discussions, and writing brief narrative responses to moderator questions. These activities enable us to visit your clients at home, at work, or in the community to help you see patterns of behavior in a real-world context.

Campos Inc moderators are experts at building relationships with our study participants and creating a comfortable environment for them to share their opinions.

We are able to:

• Gather insight into participants' perceptions of branding, packaging and messaging
• Provide recommendations to help increase customer frequency and loyalty
• Create trial among non-customers
• Identify key differentiators of a brand
• Determine how packaging and messaging influences customers' perceptions
• Provide clear recommendations that enable clients to achieve their strategic objectives

Virtual Focus Groups

The virtual focus group method has re-invented and re-imagined the traditional focus group methodology in light of new technologies associated with the Internet. Campos Inc conducts synchronous focus groups where participants log on at the same time for a specific time period (e.g. two hours) and engage in a real-time discussion. The web-based technology enables participants from all over the world to engage in the study. Our virtual focus group methodology utilizes video technology and a teleconference bridge system that recreates a focus group facility room in a unique way. The moderator and participants each broadcast their own streaming video via a connected webcam, allowing everyone in the room to see each other.

Participants are invited to log on at a pre-determined time. The moderator guides the discussion using a combination of pre-determined questions and unscripted quotes; respondents interact with each other in real-time. Clients can watch the session and interact with the moderator, but remain hidden from the participants view. For clients who don't attend the real-time session, Campos Inc provides a recording of the session that is available via web-based video.

Website Evaluation and Usability Tests

Websites typically reflect the expertise, orientation and mindset of their creators; as such it is very difficult, if not impossible to design a website from the point of view of the actual user. Website evaluation enables Campos Inc researchers to determine the functionality of their clients' websites from the customer's point of view.

Campos Inc website evaluation studies are typically conducted as a series of individual in-depth interviews with members of your target market. During the interview we explore users expectations of and experiences with your website. We are able to determine how well the website achieves the goals you intended for it.

Participants complete a series of tasks that elicit their true opinions and perceptions of your website. A Campos Inc facilitator works with each participant, probes for their reaction to the usability, usefulness and overall visual appeal of the website, and also probes for areas of frustration, confusion, ease of use, etc.