Course Goal:  To enable students to apply a wide range of qualitative marketing research techniques for more distinctive and competitive marketing.

Course Content: This course provides an in-depth introduction to qualitative marketing research methods as a basis for competitive marketing strategies and execution. We will situate qualitative research within the larger marketing research toolkit by reviewing the strengths and limitations of qualitative v. quantitative research. Students will learn how to craft respondent screeners, research proposals, and conduct qualitative research first-hand.  We will cover a wide range of qualitative research methods in detail, including focus groups, in-depth one-on-one interviews, interactional research, and ethnography, looking at ways these techniques can be executed F2F, online, and otherwise. The course will draw on methods and theory from “classic” marketing research, along with valuable methodological and analytic approaches from anthropology, psychology, sociology, phenomenology, and semiotics. Students will gain first-hand experience with techniques and theory in and outside of class.

Robert Morais

Lecturer in Business

Robert J. Morais is an anthropologist with a 35+ year career in advertising and market research, and a Lecturer at Columbia Business School. He spent 25 years with advertising agencies, rising to Chief Strategic Officer, and 11 years as a Principal/Owner at a market research firm. He has worked with Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, WD-40, Coca-Cola, Post Foods, Danone, Hain Celestial, Safeway, Sabra, Pinnacle Foods, Sunny...

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