Summary
This article looks at the ‘knowledge frameworks’ underlying the practice of qualitative research. Although they are rarely articulated, qualitative research relies upon different sets of underlying assumptions about what we are looking for, what counts as evidence and what counts as knowledge. These different ‘knowledge frameworks’ are each good at addressing different kinds of issues. This article attempts to make some of these knowledge frameworks more explicit. Doing this allows us to see that some research projects ‘fail’ because they are grounded in a knowledge framework not suited to the task in hand.

Summary
This article looks at how brands are using qualitative research and how the methods employed are changing. It highlights some of the drawbacks of traditional focus groups, including rogue participants who skew research sessions, cost and the variability in the quality of moderators. However, new ways of approaching focus groups are emerging which include holding focus groups in friendlier locations and drawing out more meaningful responses by engaging participants in forms of artistic expression. Brands are also showing strong interest in alternative qualitative methods, such as mobile research applications, social media research and online application methods, as well as ethnographic deep dives that use face-to-face interactions in new ways. The article also looks at the current trend in mobile ethnography and looks ahead to the future of focus groups.

Summary
Following new rules given in this article can result in accurate data visualisations that show in real-time how consumers are talking about brands. The sheer volume of data generated by social media is typically a huge repository of unfettered opinion, uninfluenced by a question. This unstructured data can only be organised after it has been understood, which requires an approach that recognises a 'third dimension' in analysis. A further challenge presents itself as the dominant social media monitoring tools are not primarily designed for mining social data for insight. This article uses a number of examples to outline some solutions to the problem that encourage marketers to break some of the rules of research.

Summary
This paper reports on research into social media habits in Asia, with a particular focus on mothers and Generation Y (Gen Y) consumers in Singapore, a nation found to be avid users of social tools and platforms. Eight key findings for Gen Y are listed and include: friends and family are more influential than online reviews; they distrust advertising; they are motivated by entertainment and everyday life, rather than self-improvement; and they are active video watchers. Key finding among mothers include: they seek expert opinions online; they use the internet and social media to connect with their kids; and they go online to be 'me' as well as a mother. The paper concludes with some implications and practical advice for brands.

Summary
Many commentators tell us that the qualitative research tools in most common use, while fit for many purposes, are ineffective in discovering the emotional reasons behind behaviour. In my arena – children and young people’s research – I am seeking to address this with the development of creative workshops. With this, I have for the first time combined my dual backgrounds of qualitative research and drama (before retraining as a researcher, I was in theatre for 15 years as an actor and director, including many productions for children). Workshops will comprise a mix of research and drama exercises, together accessing areas normally hidden during, for instance, standard focus groups. The impetus for this development comes from a current trend to involve storytelling in research in some way or another.

Summary
More and more research agencies offer Market Research Online Community (MROC) services alongside other methods, but efficiently coping with the huge amount of text that some MROCs produce often remains a challenge. This paper describes research looking at how text analytics can be a helpful tool for a community moderator and for a qualitative researcher in dealing with these problems. More specifically, it explores how Cluster Analysis, ConceptNet, WordNet and Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) can be deployed in the context of Community Research. A case is presented in which these techniques were used to improve efficiency of deploying a MROC, both in terms of improving monitoring and in terms of supporting qualitative researchers in the reporting phase, leading to more solid results.

Summary
This article reports on the use of the card-based game method in semi-structured interviews in three separate research projects. The essence of the method is simple: cards are created with words or images to represent the concepts or terms that are central to the topics in a semi-structured interview; the cards then act as visual cues to facilitate focus and prompt reflection. Of greater interest is the application of the approach in specific contexts, and the benefits that accrue from its application. This research demonstrates that the card game method can be used to provide qualitative validation of theoretical models, and can be applied variously to elicit and explore definitions, priorities, processes, challenges, issues, difficulties, views on the future and critical success factors. The card game method and other innovative techniques that involve the interviewee in activities have the potential to enhance the value of semi-structured interviews.

Summary
This paper describes how the Saudi Arabian-listed Savola Foods used qualitative research to properly position a newly-launched edible oil brand in Sudan, a country with very challenging market dynamics. The paper shows how poor decisions can be made from shallow interpretation of qualitative data and, equally, how putting the analysis in the right context and connecting it with other relevant consumer knowledge it can lead to extracting meaningful insights.

Summary
This paper argues, with several examples from experience as well as secondary data sources, that researchers are doing themselves a disservice by focusing excessively on their role as providers of consumer reality. Reality is going to be increasingly cheap and plentiful in today’s technology-enabled, data-surplused world. It is in the framing of reality and in inspiring the imagination that qualitative research will truly make an impact. The paper calls for research to re-orient its profession around being architects of the imagination.

Summary
A report from a 2011 MRS conference. A presentation from VCCP shows that agency/researcher relationships can benefit from the adoption of visual research techniques such as ethnography; W+K and Voodoo suggest that research can amplify - rather than stymie - the creative process, while Yahoo and Google show that online video ad best practices are evolving, with advertisers advised to leveraging the "long tail" of video platforms and skippable ads increasing user engagement.