Motivational Research:

Any research that tries to explore the area of motivation of individuals can be termed motivational research.

Motivational research is a kind of marketing research that tries to explain why customers behave as they do. Indirectly, motivational research assumes the presence of underlying or unconscious reasons that influence consumer behaviour.

Motivational research tries to identify forces and influences that customers may not be aware of (e.g. cultural factors, sociological forces). Naturally, these unconscious motives (or beyond awareness reasons) are intertwined with and complicated by conscious motives, economic variables, cultural biases, and fashion trends (broadly defined).

Motivational research tries to examine through these influences and factors to undo the mystery of consumer behaviour as it relates to a specific product or service, so that the marketer well understands the target audience and how to influence that audience.

The Major Techniques of Motivational Research:

The three main motivational research techniques are observation, focus groups, and depth interviews.

1. Observation:

Observation can be a productive method of deriving hypotheses about human motives. Anthropologists have established the development of this technique. All of us are aware with anthropologists living with the “natives” to recognize their behaviour. This same systematic observation can produce equally insightful results about consumer behaviour.

Observation can be accomplished in-person or sometimes through the convenience of video. Typically, personal observation is basically too expensive, and most consumers don’t want an anthropologist living in their household for a month or two.

2. The Focus Group Interviews:

These include interviews of a group of 8-12 individuals lasting about one and half hours. The discussion is run by a moderator who keeps the focus on the desired topic.

3. The Depth Interview:

This entails interviews lasting from one to three hours and requiring expert guidance. They generally use a funnel technique discussion at first on an extensive level and then narrowing down the depth of the subject.

business research methods

August 22, 2017