Anyone can tell you there has been a recent explosion of new tools for online qualitative research. But which platforms are best used when? We break down five popular social and mobile tools so you can determine which would be most valuable to your research.

The world of marketing and innovation is changing. As a result, business teams are feeling increased pressure to be consumer centric in a way that is faster, more in-depth, and better integrated with marketing and product development processes. In order to be true qualitative heroes, we need to answer the "why" questions critical to driving good business decisions - and that requires us to do things differently.

Important problems and great solutions don’t exist without customers. That’s because customers are the ultimate arbiter of whether organizations have products and services that are worth their time, effort, and money. 

As kids settle into their school routine, retailers are reviewing their results from the back-to-school season. It’s a good time to consider how these six research-based back-to-school marketing ideas can help you improve next year’s approach.

You’ve got some important decisions to make about your products or services. But before you forge ahead, you want to make sure you really understand what makes the most sense for the people who make or break your business; your customers. The questions you have can’t be answered by checking a few boxes. You need in-depth answers to know how they are using your products currently, what features or benefits they really value, and how you can optimize your offering to gain their loyalty.

What’s better - an in-person research or online research? We love our black-and-white answers, but this is more a case of not which qualitative research method to use, but when to use it, and where.