Analysys Mason works with operators to develop and implement programmes of original research. By using Analysys Mason to carry out interview programmes, our clients have gained detailed insight that is directly relevant to their own business.
For many topics, publicly available information may be limited for a number of reasons:
- it is specific to a client. For example, when a client wants to test reactions to a new type of service proposition, secondary research is rarely found to be relevant
- it is in a niche area, and therefore not of interest to most public sources and reports. For example, information on wholesale products can be difficult to obtain
- it is a new and emerging service or technology. For example, next generation security is a topic on which public information is extremely hard to find
In these cases, standard research on secondary sources will not uncover the insight and analysis that a client needs for his business. A programme of interviews with our industry contacts can be the only way of gaining the information and analysis needed.
Primary research projects typically have four main stages.
- Define the type of research programme: Analysys Mason works with clients to define the type of interview programme, the types of interviewees and the interview guide.
- Interview recruitment: the recruitment of appropriate individuals to interview is a key challenge. We have consistently overcome barriers to recruitment by:
– offering interviewees incentives to take part, such as an overview summary of the results
– using our own analysts to undertake interviews, giving us the advantage of being able to engage with respondents on a ‘peer-to-peer’ basis
– leveraging our known contacts to gain a referral to another respondent.
- Interviews: the interview itself can range in type from an informal conversation to a standardised open-ended interview (see table below)
- Reporting.
|
Type
|
Characteristics
|
Strengths
|
Weaknesses
|
|
Informal conversational |
Really a casual conversation |
Highly responsive to the interviewee |
Unsystematic so useless for one-shot programme |
|
Interview guide |
Topics & issues listed in outline in advance.
Sequence and exact wording varies between interviews |
Interviews are conversational in character yet results in systematic collection of knowledge |
Different wording of questions can lead to differing responses |
|
Standardised open-ended |
Exact wording and sequence is pre-determined.
All questions are open-ended. |
Responses highly comparable and interviewer induced bias is minimised |
No flexibility to respond to interviewees. Wording may limit usefulness and relevance of answers |
Figure 1: Qualitative interview styles [Source: Analysys Mason]
Our in-house primary research can also be linked to a larger programme of quantitative primary business interviews through our external fieldwork partners. These interviews, designed, managed and analysed by Analysys Mason, can provide a highly focused, quantitative dataset that can be directly linked to the overall analysis and provide additional insight as required.
Click here to view a detailed description of our approach and specific case studies.
