Qualitative Research, Con'td...

Qualitative research is a big aspect of the campaign planning process in order for discovery of what people say and do. It is research that can uncover meaning, comprehension and processes that consumers have regardless of where they live. This week, a couple of blogs were brought to my attention that further support the benefits of qualitative research usage inside of national PR campaigns. In a blog entitled, PR France, by Vanessa. Vanessa describes a qualitative fieldwork facility in Paris called the “Louvre Focus Group”. This facility is provided for businesses and whoever else needs to rent a space to conduct focus groups, translations services, and moderating group sessions.

The Louvre Focus Group helps to reveal just how quickly French Public Relations business strategies are progressing.  Mostly, other nations as well as the United States conduct all their focus groups in-house, to reduce as much costs as possible. As Vanessa stated in her blog, these rooms come for a pretty penny, thus taking away one of the most predominant reasons why companies and organizations conduct focus groups to begin with: To save money.  Thus, I believe that this type of “rent for rooms” will not take off far internationally unless costs can decrease. Another way to catalyze businesses like The Louvre Focus Group in the U.S. is through reciprocal agreements between businesses to business that rely on trading for focus space more so than buying time for space.

Additionally, Lisa’s Blog, by Lisa Perez, studied the qualitative research measure of ethnographic research and how this procedure “consists of studying human behavior in its most natural context…involving observation of behavior in a physical setting”. Thus such research can apply beyond U.S. national borders and into other countries with the studying/observation of respective cultures and traditions. All of which are characteristics that implement the differences between PR campaign conductions in each respective area.  In particular, Perez uses MTV’s hit show World of Jenks,  as an example as he , “physically puts himself into different environments each week to try and observe and understand the cultures Jenks interacts with, people that range from homeless, to star rappers…”. Thus, his study is much like a study one would conduct if they wanted to answer the question, “how does PR research campaigns differ from country to country” which my blog focus contains. Therefore I can see conducting an ethnographic study, although very expensive and time consuming, a way for me to answer my focus question  besides the posting of content inside this blog.