Tools and Tips for conducting multi country Online Qualitative Research, remotely
Running multi country / multi market using traditional, in-person qualitative research (e.g. Focus Groups, IDIs) required lots of travel and time wasted in transit to gather and analyse data from research participants in various markets.
Not any more.
Online qualitative research platforms now make it possible to conduct research in multiple markets remotely.
Indeemo’s mobile first solution makes remote, multi country market research easier and more cost-effective than ever. Using our mobile qualitative research app, tasks are delivered to research respondents in multiple markets concurrently using push notifications.
Launching the study, onboarding research participants, collecting data, and probing respondents is all done from the comfort of your own desk. The resultant time savings and the fact that research is no longer constrained by geography, also means our clients are now able to serve more client projects per annum.
This blog details the benefits of using online qual to do multi country research and shares tips for how to do it well.
Leverage online qualitative research tools for conducting multi country research
Online qualitative research tools like Indeemo are a powerful way to do multi country market research remotely.
The Indeemo app is now localised into 21 different languages. These are: Arabic, Bahasa (Indonesia), Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, English, Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese.
When setting up a project, you (or your in-market partners) will provide us with translated tasks which are programmed into the platform. Once respondents register, we automatically detect the language settings on their phones and fully localise their user experience into their local language.
All respondent uploads appear in the dashboard in the respondents’ local language. If the language is one of the following, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish, our automated video transcription will transcribe the videos in the local language.
Videos and text can then be searched for keywords in the local language using Indeemo’s powerful filters.
If you do need to translate the text and videos into English for example, you can enable Google Translate in the Indeemo dashboard and the text and video transcripts will be instantly machine translated.
Alternatively, you can hire a local translator to do a human translation for you using the Notes function on Indeemo or they can export all text into Word or Excel and do the translation there.
We’ve supported a LOT of multi country projects at Indeemo. We know what works and what doesn’t. If you’d like to chat further about a specific project, please get in touch.
Benefits of using online Qualitative Research tools for multi country projects
1. Cost savings
The cost of running a remote multi country, online qualitative research study versus a traditional methodology is significantly lower. Without any need for travel, accommodation or interview / focus group facility rental, Mobile Qualitative Research is a much more affordable research solution.
2. Time savings
Remote qualitative research also saves you time. With your multi market research project being hosted entirely online, qualitative researchers across different markets and locations can easily collaborate using the Indeemo Dashboard. Uploading tasks, probing responses, managing activity and analysing data can also be all done through our browser based dashboard.
3. Richer, contextual insights
By allowing research participants to complete tasks privately, in their own time from the comfort of their own home, the context rich responses gathered using online qualitative research do not suffer from researcher effects or group biases (as can occur in Focus Groups).
Participants complete tasks in-the-moment, giving you a raw, unfiltered insight into their everyday lives without any post-rationalisation effects.
With longitudinal studies, you also get the opportunity to notice repetitive behaviours over multiple days which can further solidify your trust in the insights you surface.
4. In-the-moment moderation
Indeemo’s online qualitative research platform allows respondents to post responses (using photos, videos,-mobile screen recordings anytime from any context.
Our social networking style comments functionality allows you to comment privately on what your research participants upload. Your comments and probes are sent as push notifications.
This enables you to get under the skin of what is really happening and clarify the insights that you are surfacing.
5. Ease of analysis
Indeemo’s online qualitative research platform enables researchers to access, analyse, tag and export responses almost immediately.
With an intuitive Pinterest like interface, powerful search, keyword analysis tools and video transcriptions it is also possible to draw immediate conclusions even before the study is complete and to share the process or feedback with relevant stakeholders in real time.
6. Do research in multiple countries simultaneously
It might seem like an obvious requirement, but many research platforms do not allow you to simultaneously conduct research in multiple markets concurrently.
With Indeemo, using a single login and powerful filtering, you can see uploads from multiple projects at the same time. Furthermore, our flexible roles / permissions allow you, the project owner to see all markets with a single login while your research partners in each market can be restricted to only see uploads from the research participants that they are managing on your behalf.
Tips for conducting multi country online qualitative research
While simple to set up and more affordable than traditional research methods, there are still a number of key steps every researcher needs to take to ensure their project is a success.
1. Have a clear objective and design respondent friendly tasks.
Make sure you have a planned exactly what you / your client are looking to achieve from the research as this has a huge influence on research task design.
Light touch, well considered, user friendly tasks can elicit more valuable insight than long, dense and complex tasks that over burden research participants.
Being context aware is also critical when designing tasks. Respondents in some cultures might not be comfortable recording video in public for example and if so, asking for photos with captions will ensure you capture the insights you need in a manner that best suits the participants.
Indeemo’s team of strategists can help you with task design if needed.
2. Find local research partners you can trust
If you are not familiar with the country in which you are running your research project, we always recommend you find local partners who are familiar with doing research in your target market. A local, experienced moderator who is aware of the local nuances and familiar with cultural differences will be invaluable.
Experienced, local moderators can assist with creating your research tasks and optimise how you capture insights. For example respondents in one market may be more comfortable talking to the camera than respondents in another market where walking around talking to your phone would be frowned upon. Local moderators will be able to advise of these important cultural nuances and can advise on altering your tasks to maximise engagement.
Similarly as with a local moderator, ensure you partner with a local recruiter in each market. In some instances, the local recruiter can also assist with moderation if needed.
Their insight into the market will be invaluable when selecting and screening respondents. They will also save you a lot of hassle when it comes to chasing respondents and paying incentives.
Indeemo has supported hundreds of international market research projects, so if you need some introductions, just ask.
3. Allow time for translation of tasks and discussion guides
Even though the Indeemo respondent app is localised into 21 different languages, we currently do not provide a human translation service for translating your tasks or discussion guides.
To factor in local dialects and language differences even within the same regions, it is important to always allow extra time for translation to ensure you can begin your project on time with a comprehensive task list immediately available to the participants.
We recommend that you always agree the tasks with your client in your own local language before getting tasks translated. Better still, on Indeemo you can set up your project in your own language first and do a quick dry run through the research tasks. This will enable you to experience what your participants will experience and alter your tasks accordingly.
You can then pass these finalised tasks to your local recruiter or research moderator who can then do the final translations for you.
4. Don’t forget time zone differences
If you are planning on scheduling your tasks to go live at a particular time of the day, make sure you take the time difference into account.
Timing is critical when trying to elicit rich, in the moment, contextual feedback and poorly timed alerts can result in participants uploading delayed responses at the end of the day.
Indeemo’s online qualitative research platform automatically detects the time zone of each respondent as soon as they register and adjusts all your task reminder push notifications so they arrive at the correct local time zone.
This ensures that you only need to specify what time of day the tasks should go live and we automatically adjust the scheduling of tasks for each participant so they receive it in their own time.
5. Kick off calls are key
Before commencing the project ensure all your team members in each market understand the objectives of your multi market online research project. Scheduling a kick off call to get everyone aligned is vital.
Multi country online qualitative research projects require active management and moderation. Whether you are moderating the project yourself or working with local partners, respondents in different markets might react differently to different tasks, so it’s important to be responsive when it comes to moderation.
Indeemo are specialists at multi country projects.
We will onboard all your local moderators and recruiters, walk them through the workflow of the project and get them trained on the platform. It’s super simple to use and typically training takes no longer than 1 hour.
For respondents, Indeemo is just like a simplified version of a private, 1-1 Facebook or Instagram. Our Indeemo application (available on iOS and Android) has been used by every demographic, from Gen-Z to respondents in their 70’s without any issues. On your kick off call, we will also walk your local research partners through the respondent onboarding experience so they are completely familiar with the UX.
Let us support your multi market research
We’re increasingly seeing briefs where research needs to take place across multiple countries concurrently. Online Qualitative Research offers a disruptively powerful alternative to traditional multi market research methods.
It remotely immerses you into the culture and the context of respondents in multiple markets at the same time.
By enabling researchers and brands to conduct their research in any location from the comfort of their own desks, online qualitative research ensures you can research global while staying local.
Want to learn more about how we can support you with your next multi country study? Get in touch.
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