The Qualitative Research Design, Methods, & Ideas Blog

Perceptions & Attitudes Framed as a video selfie talking head, Perceptions & Attitudes captures people’s facial expressions with a proximity closer than any other methodology can provide...

ANALYZING VIDEO What’s the best way to go through video responses and glean insights? Tom Bassett, founder of mindswarms, discusses best practices for extracting relevant data and...

ASKING QUESTIONS The art of asking questions In study after study, great research, creativity and innovation revolves around asking the right questions. Since the mindswarms methodology is...

The primary ways to follow up after a mindswarms study include: Scheduling telephone interviews Organizing Skype/Facetime/Hangouts interviews Conducting in home ethnographies Inviting participants to a focus group...

CONCEPT TESTING Evaluate resonance, relevance and overall impressions of new concepts, platforms, messages, headlines, and taglines. How the process works Identify concepts, segments and prepare testing materials...

THE PITCH Rapidly gather compelling customer research videos for new business pitches that demonstrate insight and empathy for a client’s market, brand or product. How the process...

BRAND PERCEPTIONS Gain insight into consumer brand perceptions to inform brand (re)positioning and increase brand valuation efforts. How the process works Identify market segments and relevant brand...

CAMPAIGN EXTENSION Understand the core advertising equities, assets and characteristics of a current ad campaign in order to learn how best to evolve it. How the process...

In our latest mindswarms mobile video study on the topic of athleisure wear, lululemon customers whom we found in our recruit openly shared that wearing their most...

In our latest mobile video study, consumers universally admitted they were letting one aspect of their personal hygiene slip: their hair. The Big Question Whether it’s eyebrows,...

Covid-19 is affecting all of our lives. But what we really wanted to know was what types of changes have people made? What changes to their behavior...

In Making a Murderer Season 2, Kathleen Zellner observed that the detective who interviewed Brendan Dassey used the Reid Technique – an industry standard training methodology for...

What do Frank Gehry, Yves Behar, David Rockwell, Maira Kalman, John C Jay and John Boiler all have in common? They all begin projects with The Brief....

In a recent study, mindswarms set out to understand unique generational considerations in how Millennial women relate to home cleaning, home cleaning brands, and home cleaning product...

We’re not far off from a time when everything people do in public will be videotaped at all times. How does this shift impact the way people...

What shapes the identities of teens today? California ad agency BSSP wanted to reach beyond data-driven assumptions to find out, going deep into the minds of Generation...

We’ve been there: presenting research insights to a room of C-Level executives who are distracted by the latest crisis. Then, you start a video – phones go...

Qualitative research is key when it comes to understanding customer truths, and an innovative tool opens new doors into consumer minds: mobile video ethnography. mindswarms founder Tom...

We often say that the limits of mobile video ethnography coincide with the limits of your imagination. At mindswarms, our clients are continually discovering new options to...

In This guide, gleaned from 20+ years of experience with world-class brands like Nike, Sonos and Google, Tom Bassett shares his tips for making the most of...

Millennials are redefining the concept of brand loyalty; in their eyes, it has changed dramatically from their parents’ version. Whereas their parent’s loyalty is seen to be...

What makes a positive shopping experience for Millennials? We ran a mobile video ethnography study to better understand this, and we learned 8 ways brands can make...

In over 20 years of working with some of the world’s most valuable companies and recognized brands, mindswarms founder Tom Bassett has learned that mobile video surveys...

Wearable technology like FitBit and FuelBand and have split American consumers into two camps: enthusiasts and rejectors. A recent mindswarms study shows how their opinions differ dramatically...

Knowing that attitudes about food quality and the importance of food origin have evolved with time, mindswarms wanted to explore the topic with a new generation of...

ADVERTISING EQUITY Understand consumer perceptions of the core advertising equities of your brand: platform, key messages, relevance/differentiation, and characteristics including music, visuals, featured characters, tone/personality and more....

CREATIVE BRIEF Bring inspiration to your creative brief with video-based insights to energize and focus your creative teams. How the process works Identify key topics to investigate...

AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION/DEEP DIVE Identify key behavioral or attitudinal differences amongst audiences to develop a segmentation strategy (or drill down on one specific segment). How the process works...

Journey Mapping Have consumers show you their journey through a decision, product use or consumption journey. How the process works Identify the journey to investigate in the...

While consumers demand transparency from corporations, a new online reputation study conducted by mindswarms uncovered a double standard when it comes to managing their personal reputation. So,...

Given the rise of the Sharing Economy through companies like Airbnb and Zipcar, mindswarms wanted to uncover Millennials’ attitudes and brand relationships within this new economy. Would...

How do Millennials view Luxury? We wanted to know. So we launched a study on our platform, and the responses we received were illuminating, capturing the sophistication...

Leslie Stone, director of strategic services for Ogilvy NYC, cites 5 advantages of mobile video over in person ethnography (watch her video interview here): liberating respondents to...