New online process aims to improve insights into brand images

With the online research method “Konstruct”, Konkret Marktforschung wants to enable deeper insights into the decision-making behavior of consumers. The tool, which is based on the repertory grid technique of personality psychologist George A. Kelly and is already used offline in many areas of market and opinion research, is intended to achieve what was previously not possible.

“Our online-based Repertory Grid combines the depth of content of an interview with the factual clarity of a test in one process,” says developer Dr. Matthias Rosenberger. The latest software makes this development possible in the first place. In contrast to conventional tests, no answers are given from which a suitable one must then be selected, but open-ended questions are asked that participants should answer intuitively. Despite this openness, the interview procedure associated with the method should allow statistical methods to be used for data analysis. Statements by the respondents would, for example, circle around the brands or products being treated and the results would be visualized in a three-dimensional space. The research institute has come to appreciate the performance of the tool, especially in studies on the subject of “brands”. “The method enables detailed insights into brand images and precise positioning analyzes, which show how the brands examined are doing in the competitive environment,” explains Managing Director André Scharf.

So far, market research institutes have only adapted classic procedures for use on the Internet. On the one hand, quantitative methods that can be easily implemented for online use, such as standardized questionnaires, would be used. The problem, however, is that respondents can only express their opinion using pre-formulated answer categories. Therefore it is only asked what is already known. This online research often reaches its limits, especially when it comes to depth psychological issues in which subliminal decision-making bases are to be determined. For this purpose, qualitative methods already existed online, in which respondents can answer openly in their own words, but their evaluation is strongly affected by subjective influences. This makes it difficult to compare results. As soon as answers and associations across the individual case are to be determined for customer groups, regions or even the entire society, the procedure turns out to be limited. With “Konstruct” difficulties, with which the two approaches mentioned have to do, can be avoided and at the same time their advantages can be combined.

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