The following points highlight the four main methods of marketing research. The methods are:- 1. Participant Observation (PO) 2. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) 3. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) 4. Participatory Action Research (PAR).
It is increasingly being realized that market research cannot be conducted in rural areas as it is conducted in cities. The rural approach has to be entirely different from urban research approaches. Companies realize that they must adopt participatory approaches, that is, the researcher must participate in the lives of village people to learn about their rituals, values, culture and lives. Chambers (1992) explains that participatory approaches enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions.
These methods are explained below:
Method # 1. Participant Observation (PO):
It is a type of data collection method used in qualitative research, with the aim to gain close and intimate familiarity with a given group of individuals and their practices through involvement with people in their cultural environment. The observer uses informal interviews, direct observation, participation in the life of the group, discussions, self-analysis, activities and life-histories.
In his study of a two blue collar families living in Washington, DC, Howell (1972) says that PO is like non-judgmental observation and acceptance, “an opportunity to accept people as people.”
He describes four stages that PO involves:
(a) Establishing rapport or getting to know the people.
(b) Immersing oneself in the field.
(c) Recording data and observations.
(d) Consolidating the information.
In the first step, the researcher gets to know the members and becomes familiar with the area. It is important to become friends, or at least be accepted in the community. In the second step, the researcher tries to get assimilated with the locals and he/she must follow the language, culture and lifestyle being followed to get accepted as a member of the community. The researcher maintains field notes and reflexivity journals to record observations, interviews and data.
Personal thoughts and feelings are also recorded, though biases and subjectivities are to be avoided. A supervisor helps in avoiding these through a method called triangulation, which involves multiple team members gathering data about the same event. By cross-checking and comparison, biases are weeded out. Finally, the data must be analyzed. Two methods are used in data analysis. The first is thematic analysis, that is, arranging data according to recurrent themes found in interviews and observations, and narrative analysis, that is, categorizing the information and constructing coherent stories gathered from different narratives.
Method # 2. Rapid Rural Appraisal:
RRA consists of a set of guidelines which help people to work in a structured but flexible way in rural communities and a set of tools to aid interaction with those communities. RRA is activity carried out by a group of people from different professional fields or disciplines, which aims to learn about a particular topic, area, situation or group of people.
It is a method to collect information by talking directly to people ‘on the ground’, and it uses a set of guidelines on how to approach the collection of information, learning from it and the involvement of local people in its interpretation and presentation.
RRA uses a set of tools: exercises and techniques for collecting information, means of organizing that information, techniques for stimulating interaction with community members and methods for analyzing and reporting findings. RRA is described as a systematic but semi-structured field activity by a multi-disciplinary team and is designed to obtain new information and formulate new hypotheses about rural life.
Research is carried out by a team of appropriate disciplines and not by individuals. Team members with technical backgrounds, social science skills and marketing research skills are included. In this way, RRA is able to get a balanced picture.
The techniques of RRA include:
i. Semi-structured interviews and question design.
ii. Cross-checking information from different sources (triangulation).
iii. Group interview techniques, including focus group interviewing.
iv. Direct observation.
v. Focus group discussions.
vi. Preference ranking.
vii. Mapping and modelling.
viii. Seasonal and historical diagramming.
Method # 3. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA):
PRA is an approach and method for learning about rural life and conditions from, with and by rural people. It describes methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act. It draws from RRA: in RRA information is more elicited and extracted by outsiders; in PRA, it is more shared and owned by the local people.
Participatory methods include mapping and modelling, transect walks, matrix scoring, seasonal calendars, trend and change analysis, well-being and wealth ranking and grouping and analytical diagramming. PRA uses group animation and exercises to facilitate information sharing, analysis and action among stakeholders. Although originally developed for use in rural areas, PRA has been employed successfully in urban settings as well. The differences between PRA and RRA are summarized below.
Differences between PRA and RRA:
RRA:
i. Learning rapidly and directly from villagers – The researcher learns about rural areas by interacting with local people.
ii. Emphasis on efficient use of time and achievement of objectives.
iii. Team of outsiders analyze conditions and understand local people.
iv. Focus decided by outsiders.
v. Involves outside agencies and institutions to be more ‘participatory’.
PRA:
i. Learning with villagers – The researcher learns about rural areas with and by rural people.
ii. Emphasis on flexibility to adapt to time frame of community.
iii. Local people analyze their own conditions and communicate with outsiders.
iv. Focus decided by communities.
v. Enables communities to make demands on outside agencies.
The key principles of PRA are:
i. Participation:
PRA relies heavily on participation by the communities to enable local people to be involved, not only as sources of information, but as partners with the PRA team in gathering and analyzing the information.
ii. Teamwork:
PRA is conducted by a local team, speaking in the local language, with a few outsiders. PRA relies on informal interaction and brainstorming among people. This is best done by a team of local people who know the area’s conditions, traditions and social structure, with others having a mix of disciplinary backgrounds and experience. A well-balanced team will bring in fresh perspectives and new ideas.
iii. Flexibility:
PRA does not provide blueprints but is flexible in approach. The techniques used in a particular development context are determined by variables such as skill mix of the team, the time and resources available and the topic and location of the work.
iv. Optimal Ignorance:
PRA work intends to gather just enough information to make the necessary recommendations and decisions.
v. Triangulation:
Working with qualitative data, PRA teams follow the thumb rule that at least three sources must be consulted or techniques must be used to investigate the same topics to ensure that the information is valid and reliable.
Method # 4. Participatory Action Research (PAR):
PAR is an approach to conduct research in communities that emphasizes participation and action. It seeks to understand the world by trying to change it. PAR assumes that people can solve their own problems and emphasizes collective inquiry grounded in experience and social history. It has three elements – participation (life in society and democracy), action (engagement with experience and history) and research (soundness in thought and the growth of knowledge). The process of PAR should be empowering and lead to people having increased control over their lives.
Finding about rural customers by means of questionnaires is extremely time consuming and involves great expense. Participatory research helps discover the motivations and feelings linked to a product or brand. Such methods will also prove useful, for instance, to find out how a company should deal with local products that are cheaper and very popular in rural areas as compared to branded products.
When people participate in any of these methods, they feel empowered and brand loyalty may result since they feel close to the decision-making process. These methods would also be useful when participation of the local people is sought in distribution or in brand building exercises.