Measuring Consumer Emotions

CRAM International and Second Sight International have launched QualiQuant (QiQ) International to add the measurement of consumer emotions to the group's resources for clients around the world.

'The quest to measure emotions', said Peter Cooper, Chartered Psychologist and CEO of CRAM International, 'has been the ambition of market research for many years. With developments in IT this has become more and more achievable. QualiQuant blends in-depth sensitivity with the rigour of quantitative sampling, to meet client needs for metric insights into consumer brands, images and behaviour which have become more critical in today's fast-changing, uncertain and highly competitive world. The QiQ approach is summed up in the equation: Q2 > Ó (Qual+Quant).'

'Count the beats of your heart not the fingers on your hand' was the challenging message Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, gave to the world's market researchers in his recent keynote speech to the ESOMAR Congress in Barcelona. 'I want market researchers to find new ways of measuring emotion, love, desire. I want them to do this in the same accurate and quantifiable way they measure awareness and recall...'

John Pawle, Managing Director of QiQ, commented 'This is precisely the direction QiQ is taking. What has changed in recent years is our ability to use different media, particularly the computer-interface to interview consumers. Our recent research shows that computer interviewing has many advantages and gives different and in some ways better quality responses. QiQ measures of consumer emotion are adapted from qualitative in-depth techniques such as word and picture associations, collages, guided dreams, 'bubble' pictures, etc., which work very well in the interactive computer-interviewing environment. Also in the absence of an interviewer, consumers feel more spontaneous, more honest and willing to tell us things they may not say in front of an interviewer. Therefore we get closer to measuring real consumer feelings and emotions'.

Simon Patterson, Managing Director of CRAM International, added 'the link between CRAM and QiQ is an exciting new development for us because it allows CRAM to extend the range of services we offer to clients for getting inside the consumer mind.'

For more information visit www.QIQInternational.com

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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