Qualitative methods are used to test concepts, develop customer profiles and when research issues are not completely understood. Compared with Quantitative methods, they are less structured and more in-depth. While this methodology involves small samples, the data gathered are rich in detail and insight. 

Qualitative research is useful in generating hypotheses to be tested and investigating subjects/behaviors that are too sensitive to survey quantitatively. It may be conducted prior to quantitative research to define the issues to be researched, it may be conducted after quantitative research to better understand the numbers, or it may be conducted independently of quantitative research.

• Focus Groups – Groups of between 5 and 10 respondents are brought together, usually for a two-hour discussion led by a trained moderator. The interaction of the participants leads to considerable depth of understanding of a discussion. The moderator intervenes along a continuum of control, sometimes staying out of the discussion altogether and sometimes operating in a highly directive manner. This depends on the quality of participants and their ability to work well together.
  
  
• In-Depth Interviewing – One-on-one, in-depth interviewing is useful with populations that are particularly hard to reach--corporate executives for example. The success of this method is highly dependent on the skill of the interviewer.
  
  
• Observational Methods – Sometimes the only way to understand consumer behavior is to observe them in their everyday life. We must be careful not to intrude and to limit our impact on the subjects being observed. When phenomena of interest to us are observed, we ask questions to understand better the motivations, thoughts and feelings behind the phenomena. Observation can reveal deep and/or hidden motivations that would likely never come up in focus groups or one-on-one interviews.