Mind your language in the Rainbow Nation

Last week I presented a paper at the QRCA Worldwide Conference for qualitative research in Vienna, which I knew would have relevance to researchers and clients in South Africa (the ‘Rainbow Nation’), even though it’s likely to open some cans of worms! Interestingly, it also clearly resonated strongly with researchers in many other markets where […]

The social responsibility of the qualitative researcher

Much has been said about the responsibility of the researcher in setting up/running qualitative research with integrity and sensitivity to the comfort of our respondents, and I was reminded of this again today in a different context. I have just been to a very relevant and thought-provoking talk by Professor Adam Habib, Vice-Chancellor and Principal […]

In Focus website launch

Over the past two months we have worked with the team from Yellow Door Collective to create a new website for our brand. Our vision was for it to be both informative and engaging, and we have worked hard to create something that reflects who we are at In Focus. Yellow Door Collective has spent […]

Some thoughts on LSMs, SECs, whatever socio-economic classification we use to segment and differentiate…

When recruiting for qualitative fieldwork, we have the obvious criteria of brands purchased/used/lapsed, age, gender, working status, etc. But LSMs/SECs are usually another important layer of selection, and are critical to the research and marketing process. We do need some means of differentiating consumers, for segmenting/targeting/consistency in ‘the kinds of consumers’ who we are talking […]