Police methods in the supermarket: Cognitive interviews in market research

This paper explains how Cognitive Interview (CI) can be applied to qualitative market research, using examples from Germany, Israel and the US which generated insights on the detailed perceptions of a retail environment.

Police methods in the supermarket: Cognitive interviews in market research

Ruthie Brandman and Christiane Schmitz-TrebeljahrBrandman Market Research, Israel and Séissmo-Markt und Forschung, Germany

Introduction

The Cognitive Interview (CI) is a qualitative interviewing technique derived from forensic police methods for eyewitness interrogations. Here we explain how this technique can add value to market research, generating insights on the detailed perception of a retail environment. To better illustrate the performance of this technique, we report the learnings from three CI shopper studies conducted in Germany by Séissmo and in Israel and the US by Brandman Research. Using the examples...

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