Classmates' Blogs

This week I will focus my attention to my other classmates' blogs concerning the method of qualitative research within their specific topics.  As I read many of the blogs, I found that qualitative research is very common and beneficial to a variety of industries and topics.  It involves non-numerical strategies such as focus groups and observations.  By reading other classmates' blogs, I learned there is a use for these tactics in all industries.

First, I read about qualitative research within Sam's blog.  Sam talked about an article revealing qualitative research and its use in the fashion industry.  It was intriguing to discover how this time of research is so important to companies as they are constantly depending on feedback and reviews from clients to further their company success.  In an industry that is constantly changing, it is important for companies to use qualitative research to keep up with their clients and trends.

I also read Alyssa's Blog regarding qualitative research within the fast food industry.  Alyssa described how this specific industry requires a lot of qualitative research to keep up and surpass competitors.  As there are many competitors in this industry, it is vital to get the views and opinions of customers regarding both your company as well as others in the area.  For example, McDonald's and Burger King are constantly going back and forth offering the "next best thing" to surpass each other.  A lot of these actions are based on the qualitative research including focus groups and observations from customers.

In conclusion, by reading other classmates' blogs it is easy to see that qualitative research is important regarding all companies and industries.  Each topic has many uses for qualitative research in digging to find opinions as well as the "why" and "how" of specific topics. 

Qualitative Research

This week I will base my blog post around the realm of qualitative research within the fitness and supplement industry.  Qualitative reseach can yield a great amount of information for any industry.  For a basic definition, qualitative research is the gathering of data through non-numerical information which investigates the "why" and "how" of a certain topic.  This research can be conducted through many methods such as observation, focus groups, and discussions.  

As the fitness and supplement industry is very difficult to gather numerical data, due to irs prodcuts' complexities, qualitative research is consistently an effective manner in which companies seek information from customers regarding their products.  Qualitative research is conducted more than people think regarding fitness and supplements.  For example, a person at the gym consumes a certain supplement followed by others asking that person how he or she feels about that product.  Before you know it, there is a "focus group" of people discussing the effectiveness of supplements, in other words engaging in qualitative research.  There are many aspects that consumers want to be informed about before buying a product regarding the benefits and side effects of each product.  It is important to get other opinions on the product before making the decision to purchase that specific supplement.

Companies within the industry are able to conduct qualitative research through message boards and discussion forums as "average Joe's" continually discuss aspects of fitness and supplements open to the public.  Also, companies ar able to gather in retail stores that sell these products to discuss supplements and observe customers' purchase behavior.  Personally, before I purchase a supplement I conduct a great amount of qualitative research by reading discussions about that product, as well as observing others before I make my purchase.

In my opinion, qualitative research is vital in the fitness and supplement industry.  Methods of qualitative research are used by both the seller and the buyer in various ways.  In an industry where quanitative research is very difficult to gather, qualitative research thrives in effectively providing both the company and consumer with data and information.

Unobtrusive Research Elsewhere

This week I will focus on other classmates' blogs and how they relate to unobtrusive research methods.  Every blog i read had a valid situatuon where unobtrsuve research could be applied.  It contributed to the theory that unobtrusive research can be very beneficial to every industry.

The first blog I read was Charlie Niland's blog post regarding unobtrusive research.  This was an interesting post to read because Charlie stated that he conducted types of unobtrusive research with a first-hand experience at his internship last summer.  He conducted content analysis and looked up historical data on government representatives regarding stem cell research to then report back to his managers with the information.  This is an example of indirect measures of data collection as he was searching through historical data without the subjects knowing.

The second blog I read was Lindsey Hock's blog post.  As well as Charlie, Lindsey's post on unobtrusive research came from a first-hand experience from her internship at NBC.  She mentioned how NBC would use content analysis to measure the publicity of the network in different forms of media such as newspapers, magazine, and the internet.  She also mentioned the Neilson rating system, which reports the amount of audience viewing each different television programming.  This is called syndicated research and is a great way to monitor the publicity of a network or business.

In my opinion, unobtrusive research applies to every industry.  The data collected by this type of research can be very beneficial to any business to move ahead of a competitor.  As reading my peers' blogs, I realized that these forms of research are very similar to each other and pertain to the same goal to find out more about the public and industry, to ultimately move ahead of competitors.

Unobtrusive Research

An aspect of PR I will focus on in this post is unobtrusive research.  Believe it or not, all of us conduct, and are subjects of unobtrusive research each and everyday.  Unobtrusive research is the gathering of data without any formal or direct relation to the research subjects.  It can simply be observing subjects in specific enviornments to collect data to pertain to your study.  Unobtrusive data can also be gathered by published statistics or sources without the subjects knowing.

Unobtrusive research is very relevant to the Fitness and Supplement Industry.  In fact, most of the data that is gathered by companies in this industry is obtained by unobtrusive research.  One aspect of collecting data in this manner is through bodybuilding profiles and statistics.  There are many websites where anybody is able to create a profile, list their supplements, and provide their results and progress regarding their body and health.  The most famous site is a network called Bodybuilding.Com-BodySpace.  This is a social network of bodybuilders listing their supplements and progress.  Any person, from a supplement company or not, can go on the website and "creep" on each member's bodybuilding information.  This is an example of collecting unobtrusive research.

Another example of conducting unobtrusive research within this field takes place at supplement retailers such as GNC and Vitamin Shoppe.  Supplement company employees can gather data by going to these stores and observing the subjects that come into the store and choose what they want to purchase.  A lot of information can be gathered by subjects' body language, questions, and decisions made between supplements.  Once again, this is a form of gathering information from unobtrusive research.

In my opinion, unobtrusive research, including aspects such as content analysis and indirect measures, is how most data is collected within the fitness and supplement industry.  Companies greatly rely on obtaining information from subjects without them knowing.  This serves as a very important method in the industry.