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Market Snapshots

Amy Batiste, Ph.D.  February 2007

“Pepper Miller presented on the IDEAL (Institute for Diversity Education & Leadership) stage with gusto. Her marketing savvy certainly hit the mark.”

At last -- in-depth, qualitative insights paint an eye-opening picture of Black culture and lifestyle and how to connect your products and services with Black consumers.

ISBN 0-9725290-9-0     REVIEWS 

Qualitative Research

Focus Groups/In-depth Interviews/Executive Interviews

Qualitative Research, particularly focus groups, often gets a bad rap today for not being effective. We STRONGLY disagree with this attitude and maintain that dialoguing with the African-American target via focus groups is very important for clients who want to determine African Americans’ attitudes and behavior and mindset.  This is particularly critical for clients with little or no experience with the African-American market. Three practices separate HMG’s qualitative services from the competition:

1. Respondent Screening Criteria – We have the skills to help clients develop accurate screening criteria for the right qualitative respondents. We begin by talking through the marketing objectives, challenges and research goals. We then share and develop hypotheses about the target from previous business and personal experiences. At an early stage, we help our client understand what works and what doesn’t.
2. Establishing Comfort Levels – The focus group environment has the potential to make most respondents a bit uneasy. Given African Americans’ history, many have a higher tendency than white respondents to be skeptical about the focus group process. In fact, of African-American respondents who have participated in previous focus groups, on average only two African-American respondents have ever participated in an all Black group! Our trained moderators can truly relate to the audience, primarily because they are deeply rooted in the African-American experience. In addition, we use practices and relevant exercises that help African-American respondents feel comfortable and allow them to speak from the heart.
3. Disarming Respondents – This is critical to obtaining honest answers and insights. Our experience and industry information has determined that many African-American respondents have a higher propensity than white respondents to be politically correct –responding with what they think others want to hear versus what’s in their hearts.  It’s not that African Americans are not truthful, being politically correct helps them fulfill the need to be included.   Thus, we implement a variety of exercises that help African Americans revel their true values and beliefs and disregard politically correct answers.

Ethnographic Research

Technically, the practice of ethnography is about observing people in their natural environment.  However, many clients typically describe ethnographies as in-home interviews, street intercepts, or in-depth central location interviews.  Nonetheless, HMG’s expertise in conducting ethnographic research includes utilizing focus groups and the above practices to identify qualified and articulate respondents.  The outcome has resulted in rich, insightful information for our clients.

Data Interpretation

Unlike our competitors, our job doesn’t end with the compilation of data. Instead, we interpret the data and write comprehensive reports that include detailed actionable recommendations. Our analyses have helped clients introduce successful new products, reposition existing products and determine appropriate advertising messages. In sum, our research has a direct effect on your bottom line success.