qrca Archives

Trends

AI Imagery: Generate Engagement—Not Distrust

September 9, 2026 0

Generative AI is transforming how brand imagery is created, but not without consequences. In this article, Chris Arning examines how AI-generated imagery are reshaping consumer trust, drawing on semiotics, industry examples, and conversations with qualitative researchers. Rather than treating AI as inherently damaging, the piece argues that transparency, intent, and creative craft are the real drivers of trust. Readers will learn how consumers are beginning to question not just what images show, but how they are produced, and what this shift means for brand distinctiveness, authenticity, and qualitative interpretation in an increasingly synthetic visual landscape. […]

After Qualitative Research: Predicting Market Success

September 9, 2026 0

Sales forecasting can seem outside the qualitative researcher’s comfort zone, yet the behavioral questions that drive a forecast—why people buy, repeat, and stay loyal—are exactly the territory qualitative researchers explore every day. In this Quant Lens article, Robert Walker walks through the full forecasting sequence. A hypothetical Acme Fruit Juice example makes the math concrete, and guidance on scenario planning and sensitivity analysis shows how to use forecasts credibly in practice. This step-by-step guide shows how concept appeal, awareness, distribution, trial, and repeat purchase combine into a Year 1 forecast. […]

Insights on the Brink: Revitalizing the Market Research and Analytics Industry

August 4, 2026 0

Paula Rosecky reviews how Insights on the Brink: Revitalizing the Market Research and Analytics Industry challenges the consumer insights profession to evolve from data collection to strategic business partnership. Drawing on personal experience working with co-author Brett Townsend, Paula reflects on the enduring value of consumer empathy, storytelling, curiosity, and business acumen. Readers will gain practical insights into how research professionals can create greater business impact by focusing on decisions, outcomes, and meaningful human understanding. […]

Business Matters

Rethinking Client Deliverables: What Happens after the Research Ends?

August 4, 2026 0

Your engagement doesn’t have to end after your marketing research report is delivered. The insights you uncover can serve as a springboard for expanded services—creating customer personas, developing key message platforms, or assembling brand guidelines. By applying research insights, you deepen client relationships and elevate your role from researcher to strategic partner. Thoughtfully extending your deliverables can also potentially create new revenue opportunities while reinforcing your core expertise. […]

Cognitive Interviewing 101: Adding a Crucial Blade to Your Qualitative “Swiss Army Knife”

August 4, 2026 0

In an era where AI can analyze thousands of interviews in seconds, cognitive interviewing stands out as the irreplaceable human skill that transforms research design. This powerful technique—borrowed from survey methodology—helps qualitative researchers uncover hidden problems in questions, recruitment screeners, materials, and user experiences before costly mistakes happen. Through real case studies learn how to add this AI-resistant methodology to your research toolkit. Create a service that your clients don’t even know to ask for. […]

Agentic AI and Qualitative Research: A Work-in-Progress View

June 26, 2026 0

The authors examine how Agentic AI can transform qualitative research. By automating repetitive tasks such as transcription, coding, summarization, theme-generation, and evidence tracking, Agentic AI frees researchers to focus on insight, interpretation, and storytelling. It emphasizes transparency, verifiability, and human oversight, proposing a practical, researcher-centered framework where AI complements rather than replaces qualitative judgment. The authors offer a grounded, practitioner’s perspective, highlighting how Agentic AI enhances efficiency, clarity, and stakeholder trust while preserving the integrity of the qualitative craft. […]

VIEWS Podcasts: Bryony Hancock

June 24, 2026 0

In the latest episode of Conversations in Depth, host Doug Keith talks with Bryony Hancock, Senior Strategist at Eighth Day, about her journey from industrial designer to innovation strategist. Drawing on her experience in product design, strategy and innovation, and qualitative research, Bryony explores how imagination, design thinking, and powerful anecdotes can help researchers uncover deeper insights and inspire meaningful action. She shares practical ways to move beyond validating existing ideas to help clients imagine new possibilities. […]

Connecting Bubbles: Collaboration, Belief, and Shaping the Future of Research Associations Together with Anne-Sophie Damelincourt

June 23, 2026 0

ESOMAR President Anne-Sophie Damelincourt reveals a striking paradox at the heart of the research industry—and offers some ways that professional associations help solve it. Drawing on her experience as a marketing client, agency owner, and association leader, she challenges researchers to rethink how they approach collaboration, artificial intelligence, and industry transformation. Discover why she believes connecting isolated “bubbles” of knowledge matters more than ever, and why small steps might be more powerful than big leaps in navigating today’s rapid changes. […]

When Everyone’s an Expert: Qualitative Research in Pet Care’s Fragmented Authority Landscape

June 23, 2026 0

Pet care is one of the most emotionally charged consumer categories, and today’s pet parents navigate a fragmented landscape of authority that includes veterinarians, peers, influencers, and digital platforms. Drawing on extensive qualitative research experience, this article examines how shifting trust dynamics reshape pet care decision-making—and why traditional research assumptions often fall short. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of how reassurance, habit, and lived experience drive behavior, and how qualitative researchers can adapt their methods to generate more accurate, humane, and actionable insights in pet care. […]

Leveraging AI to Recruit Qualitative Research Respondents

May 26, 2026 0

When traditional methods fall short in finding hard-to-reach qualitative research participants, AI-powered social media ad campaigns can offer a highly effective alternative. These campaigns use AI to target recruits based on specific behaviors and interests across multiple online platforms, as well as help optimize ad visuals, copy, and delivery to boost engagement and reduce cost. Author Tami Wloch shares that a thoughtful, human-guided approach—supported by AI—can deliver efficient, accurate results, helping researchers recruit for qual studies. […]