Why Online Qualitative is Relying on New Sample

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an immediate discussion point was the impact COVID-19 would have on in-person qualitative research. It was important to figure out how to maintain safety of both researchers and participants, as well as what would happen when facilities were mandated to close.

This conversation naturally turned to the availability and advisability of online substitutes for in-person qualitative research. Given advancements in technology, there are now online equivalents for most historically in-person research. Continuing to perform high-quality research during the coronavirus pandemic has left the industry with very few non-online options, and market research providers have turned to these alternatives at an unsurprisingly rapid rate.

An interesting outcome of this trend has been a very specific need that has resulted from the transition to online qualitative work: the need to recruit participants to this type of research. The shift to an online environment, complemented by tightened budgets, meant that classic, labor intensive and quite pricey qualitative recruitment techniques (including in-person or social media intercepts or customer list outreach) were no longer the logical fit.

This led to firms getting creative and reaching out to online sample companies to fill their recruitment needs. The demand for utilizing an online panel to recruit for online qualitative research has skyrocketed. Working closely with my colleague, Suzanne Hasbrouck, we built out a new standard operating procedure at Paradigm Sample to accommodate the increase in demand for this type of work.

Using panels to recruit for online qualitative studies has been a great success! We have proven that using this process to recruit for activities such as online focus groups, phone or video in-depth interviews, online communities and diary exercises, and virtual movie or television pilot research works extremely well.

What I love about this example is that it showcases yet another way the market research industry is pivoting to combat the changes and challenges we are facing as a result of the coronavirus crisis. We are demonstrating increased levels of adaptability and creativity, and I feel we will have some great new research methods and processes in place as a result. I suspect leveraging online panels to recruit for online qualitative research will be a trend that has positive staying power.