Welcome to MVA BMSR - Market and Social Research

MVA BMSR has a toolbox of dedicated methodologies in marketing and social research that are proven effective in addressing all sorts of research issues and scenarios – whether your needs are market-oriented (marketing effectiveness review), customer-driven (customer satisfaction measurement), operation-related (mystery shoppers), or even stemming from in-house requirements (employee surveys).

At BMSR, we do not have a mindset on the use of specific techniques. Instead, we keep an open-mind at all times, tailoring our methodology to the specific needs of the assignment

Customer satisfaction measurement: SPI and ServQual ™
Conjoint analysis (stated preference)
Marketing effectiveness review & optimization (marketing mix)
Focus groups / stakeholder workshops
Mystery shopping or visits
In-depth 1-to-1 interviews / observation study
Opinion polls / attitudinal surveys
Large-scale household survey
Employee surveys & staff ‘open talk’ sessions

All these toolkits are an integral part of MVA BMSR’s analytical and consulting framework.

Quantitative Research

Definition:

.‘The collection of (statistically) large samples of quantitative data and usually some form of statistical analysis. Quantitative research is often used to substantiate the findings from qualitative research.’(www.esomar.org)

MVA's Expertise:

In Hong Kong, the BMSR Group has undertaken a wide range of quantitative research and household surveys for both the private and the public sectors.

The types of quantitative research techniques that MVA excels at include:

Besides the techniques, the BMSR Group will launch a tool called QUICKbus ™ in the 3rd quarter of 2008 – an omnibus that regularly (monthly) conducts phone interviews with a representation sample base of residential respondents on-demand. Clients, also known as “riders’, of the QUICKbus ™ will enjoy the speedy and high quality survey services on a whole host of different issues and topics that are of interests to themselves.

More information on scheduling and costing will be available in the near future. If you have any enquiry regarding QUICKbus ™, please contact derek.ng@mva.com.hk.

Qualitative Research

Definition:

According to the European Society of Market Researchers (ESOMAR), qualitative research is defined as ‘the use of unstructured exploratory techniques (such as group discussions and in-depth interviews) that are based on statistically small samples in order to understand a problem further.’ (www.esomar.org)

MVA's Expertise:

At BMSR, our seasoned professional researchers have extensive experiences in focus group moderations and in-depth interviews. Our qualitative research credentials encompass projects commissioned by clients from the public as well as the private sectors.

Focus groups / stakeholder workshops
In-depth 1-to-1 interviews
Observation study
Mystery shopping or visits

Some techniques in Qualitative Research:

Avoid personal comments made by the moderator – always listen and prompt for ‘why’
Encourage respondents to raise different opinions – suppress ‘opinion leaders’ in focus group
Cultivate a friendly and easy atmosphere for discussion
Interactive techniques / priority evaluation
Projective techniques to help respondents express abstract ideas – building ‘collage’ via use of visual stimulants (prepared by moderators)

When do you use qualitative research?

Exploratory: ideal for the initial stage of a more comprehensive research protocol.
Learning from qualitative research will help guide the formulation of the scope and coverage of quantitative research and the design of questionnaire/ survey form.
Occasionally, qualitative research could complement the findings from quantitative research as a final validation of such results
Preliminary advertising test / concept generation stage with raw story boards
Concept screening / new product test (early stage of product development)
Customer satisfaction / experience sharing for problem detection and service improvement / enhancement
Positioning and segmentation studies – first stage, must be followed by quantitative survey
Other applications with an aim to explore and update general marketing/ consumer understandings and perceptions towards certain advertisement, brands, products, concepts or services, etc
Once again, never take the learning from focus groups alone for business or marketing decision.