QualSpace(TM): Gaining New Insights with Online Technology

The world lives on the Internet. All around the globe, people have become familiar and comfortable with living and working online. From online business transactions to social networking, going online has become the norm rather than the exception in our daily lives.

And this is true for market research as well.

But how do you leverage the online universe to deliver thought-provoking qualitative research that informs your business decisions?

The qualitative research experts examined that issue. And the result is our new QualSpace(TM) solution.

What is QualSpace(TM) and what makes it different? QualSpace(TM) takes qualitative research to a new level. With customizable online forums designed to leverage frequent moderator interaction over the life of the research, we ensure executional excellence in meeting your research objectives.

As with other qualitative research, the moderator designs the discussion guide to meet your specific research objectives, facilitates discussion with the respondents, probes and redirects the conversation to uncover deep insights, and summarizes the findings. But what makes QualSpace(TM) different is the moderator has the ability to develop relationships with multiple target consumers - even geographically dispersed or hard to reach consumers - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Specifically, QualSpace(TM) offers the following unique benefits:

• Intention vs. Reality Because QualSpace(TM) is a real time solution, consumers can more accurately remember triggers for their decisions and behaviors (as well as the emotions associated with those actions). Additionally, the longitudinal nature of the research allows moderators to uncover insights related to real life choices rather than idealized intentions.
• Magic Beyond the Guide While respondents begin research as a group with common interests, life stages, or experiences, they quickly build cohesive communities open to exploring topics beyond the discussion guide. These conversations often garner unpredictable and powerfully deep emotional insights, which can steer clients in truly uncharted directions. Further, the anonymity of the online environment frees consumers to express themselves more openly and honestly - revealing whole truths and actionable insights.
• Unparalleled Flexibility In an increasingly complex and time-constrained world, QualSpace(TM) offers unparalleled flexibility to both you and respondents. It enables you to conduct research among low incidence or hard to reach consumers and ensure high response levels among them. And unlike in-facility or other in-context research, respondents have more time to answer questions thoughtfully and with richer explanation.
• Ideal Solution for Resource-Constrained Initiatives QualSpace(TM) helps save both time and travel expense, while enabling multi-city or even multi-country research to be conducted in hours or days versus weeks.

Some Examples

Those are the benefits and advantages of the QualSpace(TM) solution. But what about putting it into action? Let's illustrate a few examples of how it worked under different circumstances and under different timelines.

Nurturing Communities & Ideas

What if you wanted to study a target group that was both hard to reach and extremely stretched for time? And not only were you targeting a challenging segment but your product in question is also tied to a highly personal and deeply emotional decision? That was the challenge faced by one of our clients. In this instance QualSpace(TM) enabled the team to study different stages of childhood development over an extended amount of time. As a result, it enabled our client to build the panel they needed, study the decision making process, and identify the moment of change for the consumer.

But what transpired went beyond normal market research. The research opened an online community where participants not only shared thoughts and emotions on the product in question, but also shared their personal experiences with other respondents. The result was the birth of an online community that dug deeper into the needs and concerns of the panel than had been anticipated or could happen in another setting. The insight gained is not just a business opportunity; it was an opportunity to truly identify and connect with the needs of the target group and build a brand that had a deep and personal connection with its users.

Rapid Ideation & Optimization

What if you were launching a new product and needed packaging ideas...in one week?! That was the case for one client. They had conceptualized a number of ideas for packaging their product line, but needed to ensure that they hit the target market with packaging that caught their attention, suited their needs, and built on the brand's success.

QualSpace(TM) delivered in days what would have taken the client team weeks or months. Further, QualSpace(TM) delivered a high scoring packaging concept - 75% higher scores than targeted benchmarks.

What do you need?

Combining the benefits of an interactive focus group with the longitudinal thoughtfulness of an extended bulletin board, QualSpace(TM) allows you to uncover the answers you need, explore new ideas and concepts, and inform your decisions so you can better connect your brands to your consumers.

For more information about QualSpace(TM), contact Jill Wittman, Vice President, Innovation with Ipsos Understanding UnLtd. or Louis Rougier, Senior Vice President, Global Qualitative.