One of the most important steps in qualitative research is the recruitment of respondents to fully meet the stated criteria. Let's explore why exactly recruiting accounts for a major part of the success of interviews and focus groups, and how to ensure that it is done well.

It is important to understand that qualitative research uses a purposive rather than a representative sample (i.e. consumers who meet certain parameters, also called a target group or target audience depending on the specifics of the product).

How to determine which target group will be the most effective for the study? This depends on the objectives to be achieved. If you want to study consumer behaviour in relation to your product in general, this is one story; if you want to "steal" customers from competitors – it is another; if you are interested in why one of your consumer segment changed its behaviour – it is a third story. Either way, it's worth acting on both sides here - certainly the brand or product manager has inside knowledge, but the agency can also be helpful by leveraging expertise and general market knowledge. By the way, it is worth remembering that the description of a target audience is not limited to socio-demographics, but often also includes characteristics of customer or consumer behaviour (brand loyalty, frequency/situation/consumption motives, etc.).

So, you've identified the target group, what's next? Let's skip the choice of specific methodology and research design, and go directly to the recruitment.

What is "qualitative recruitment"?

It means you have participation of exactly those people who you agreed to participate in the study. Your respondents are exactly the right gender, age, income, marital status and have exactly the habits and portfolio of regular brands you want.

To ensure this, Mix Research has a recruiting department, with a member of our staff managing a staff of outsourced recruiters (this staff is regularly updated and rotated from project to project to minimise the risk of the same people participating in the research). Recruiters provide a contact database of potentially suitable respondents (depending on the level of feasibility, but the volume of initial contacts is usually 1.5 times the number of respondents to be recruited, including the reserves, of course). If we are talking about easy feasibility, however, the initial contact base can be up to 10 times larger. Who gets into this base? People who have provided brief key information about themselves (usually name, place of residence, age, family composition, regular brands in the category of interest, or any other answers to "fit / unfit" questions).

Recruitment channels also include:

• Official groups for recruiting respondents on social media (VKontakte, Telegram channel)
• Contact databases provided by the client
• Partnerships with online panels
• "Snowball" method
• Social media (including targeting), open sources (e.g. product and service review services)
• Third-party agency partners (in cases of specific specialization of TG or region-specific recruitment requests)

For each project requiring recruitment, we combine several channels of recruitment and make sure that, in the end, the respondents recruited through different channels take part in the study. Why do we do this? To avoid distortions due to people belonging to the same narrow stratum, knowing each other, or being from the same reference group.

Let's face it - people lie, especially when it comes to earning opportunities (and participation in market research is one such opportunity). How do we deal with this?

Firstly, we rule out the possibility of the recruiter telling potential respondents exactly what answers we expect. Because the recruiter receives a task in the most general form, for example: we are looking for customers of X shop, gender is not important, we need people with different incomes and spending levels in the shop. Then the head of recruitment will call and ask the respondent for all the details of the screening questionnaire, comparing them with the preliminary information.

Secondly, we inform people that we can ask for proof of one aspect or another, for example: a photo of the receipt testifying to the purchase (so one can check the age of purchase, the amount, the make/model of the item purchased, etc.); a photo of the product from the category under study is currently available at home (allows one to make sure that one is indeed a user of the brand), etc., all depending on the specific situation. By the way, even the very fact that we are talking about the possibility of such verification cuts off the "easy profit" lovers who do not meet the required criteria, because organising such evidence takes time and effort on the part of the person.

Thirdly, all collected contacts are immediately checked through a database of respondents (many companies maintain such a database, and there is also a common database to exclude 'professional participants'). If a person has already participated in some studies we try not to invite them, even if they participated a long time ago, longer than the required limitation timeframe (as a rule it is half a year). Exceptions are possible if it is a difficult-to-reach TG, but even in this case, we will not invite a person who has participated in a previous study on a similar topic in order to avoid distortions.

Fourthly, the screening questionnaire is administered by a qualified specialist (head of the recruiting department), who will, if necessary, ask follow-up questions not included in the questionnaire if they suspect the respondent of being insincere. We never invite respondents with whom we have not spoken to in person. The recruitment process is in any case strictly monitored by us.

This is how all contacts are handled, irrespective of the channel through which they receive contacts.

In addition to the fact that the head of the department is responsible for recruiting, the process is closely monitored directly by the moderator, who is in contact with the client. The moderator learns about the recruiting process in real time, the difficulties that arise in the process. They can conduct several selection interviews to assess the situation and promptly inform the client to adjust the requirements for participants, if necessary.

Also, the head of the recruiting department together with the moderator leading the project determine the list of respondents, which will be sent for approval to the client and then invited to the study. When compiling this list, our staff will monitor: the fulfilment of the quota assignment, the degree of sociability, openness, the ability to share their opinions coherently and reasonably, as well as the interest of respondents and their willingness to participate.

Perhaps this virtual visit to the "inner kitchen" will help in choosing a contractor, or will allow you to make a checklist for checking the quality of your recruitment services.

Belousova A.