101 on Qualitative Research presented to Miami Ad School's planner bootcamp.

1. MIAMI AD SCHOOLQual 101
JANUARY 29, 2016 WOLF & WILHELMINE

2. HELLO

3. WOLF & WILHELMINE3
Wolf & Wilhelmine — W&W for short — is a shop born of our
founder’s frustration with industry standards and mediocrity. It all
started when Heidi dropped out of the industry, drove around America
in a pickup truck and discovered that she still loved brand strategy,
she just didn’t love how it was done.
So she decided to figure out a new way.
Back in New York, she collected and curated the smartest, brightest
and sometimes unexpected constellation of talents. Each of us brings
hardcore expertise in what we do, and as a collective, we are
outsiders brave enough to pursue, through our own lives and the
work that we do, a vision of what the future can be.
OUR STORY

4. WOLF & WILHELMINE4
Our brand purpose and reason to exist is:
“Do great work, live great lives.”
Our purpose is driven by the belief that the quality and creativity of the work and the quality of our
lives are inextricably linked. You cannot build emotional, powerful, innovative brands without
leading a life that’s the same.
DO GREAT WORK, LIVE GREAT LIVES

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We are obsessed with
what it means to be alive today
for culture, for people,
for brands and for businesses.
It’s no longer a battle of volume or frequency,
it’s a battle for meaning and relevance.
And we’re helping our clients lead the way by blending
old-school rigor with new school perspectives.

6. WOLF & WILHELMINE6
W&W is a collective of strategists and get-it-done types that fall into
three discipline buckets:
STRATEGY
At its core, W&W is a collective of rigorous and provocative strategists
from traditional and non-traditional backgrounds.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Our project management arm ensure that we run tight, efficient
ships… and we ask our clients to as well.
EXPERIENCE
Although much of the world has gone screen, we’re big believers in
the tangible and have an experience arm that makes strategies come
to life beautifully.
THE THREE DISCIPLINES OF WOLF & WILHELMINE

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At its core, W&W is a collective of rigorous and provocative strategists
from traditional and non-traditional backgrounds.
For each project, we design a best-in-class team around a lead
strategist we call an Alpha, who partners with either a project
manager or experience producer to make it all happen.
To populate the team, we tap into our network of talent that we call
the Wolf Pack: a crew of smart, hustling people that includes
specialized strategists, copywriters, videographers, ethnographers,
graphic design and/or other creator friends.
WE BUILD BESPOKE TEAMS FOR EVERY PROJECT

8. WOLF & WILHELMINE8
A FEW OF THE CLIENTS WE’VE WORKED WITH

9. WHY QUAL?

10. SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME, STORIES HAVE HELPED US UNITE, NAVIGATE OUR WORLD,
UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER AND RECORD OUR HUMAN EXPERIENCE

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GREAT BRANDS
ARE GREAT
STORYTELLERS
(But you should know that)

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Only when you’re brave about truth
can you tell good stories.

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And bring some edges to “the many.”

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THERE ARE NEAT,
CLEAN TRUTHS
THERE ARE DIRTY,
EMOTIONAL TRUTHS

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Good brands do their homework and
lean into neat and clean.
(Most brands do this. It’s not too hard.)

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*and equally love the neat, clean truths as well. You need both.
(Few brands have the guts to do this)
Great brands dive into the dirt*.

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Great truths come from
asking the right questions.

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(But answer with business answers when it makes sense)
To get to the good stuff,
ask emotional, not business, questions.

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Find the love. Find the pain.
Build from there.

20. QUAL 101

21. FOCUS GROUPS SUCK.

22. GREAT QUAL SHOWS
GREAT EMPATHY
(There is nothing empathetic about a two-way mirror)

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QUAL 101 CHECKLIST
RECRUIT DELIVERYMETHODOLOGY BUDGET

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QUAL 101 CHECKLIST
RECRUIT DELIVERYMETHODOLOGY BUDGET
Defining who you
want to investigate

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Sometimes the ask is very clear on who you need to investigate, but sometimes it’s not. Either way, it’s
important to articulate your research target.
A screener is a document that provides the guidelines on how research participants will be selected.
What goes into a screener will vary depending on the project, but some things to think through:
- The basics: age, gender, race, geography, household income (HHI)
- Behaviors: purchasing habits, brand loyalty, hobbies, brands shopped
- Psychographics: beliefs, opinions, interests
1. WRITE A SCREENER

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➡ Quantify your guidelines, especially when it comes to behaviors.
For example, if you want to speak to “hardcore athletes,” you could define that as “works out 5-7
times a week.” Many recruiters use online surveys to screen for candidates, so think of it in terms of
how someone might answer a survey about themselves.
➡ Consider the breakdown of the participant group as a whole.
For example, do you want an even gender split? What about racial or socioeconomic diversity? Does it
make sense for half of your participants to be moms and half to not be?
➡ Show why you are choosing the cities or regions.
For example, are you hitting NYC for a big city perspective and then Austin for a smaller, quirkier one?
SCREENER TIPS

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A NOTE ON DIVERSITY
Brands matter in the world. Our lives are
saturated in media which is driven by
brands and ad dollars.
If every planner pushed for more diversity
in research, more brands would be built on
and act with a more inclusive point of
view. This is your chance to do a little
good in the world.
And frankly, the racial and socioeconomic
trends of the world are heading in that
direction anyway. Get on board.

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There are three primary types of recruiting methods. Your choice will depend on need and budget.
2. CHOOSE YOUR RECRUIT METHOD
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Leverage yours and/or
your client’s personal
networks. Best for
scrappier budgets or
easy-to-find people.
PROFESSIONAL RECRUITER
Hire a company or individual to identify
and secure your recruits. Recruiters
have networks and often specialize in
certain areas or types of people. Best
for when you have a decent budget,
hard-to-find targets or when you want
an unbiased perspective.
Mine an existing
customer database for
recruits. Usually used
when a brand wants to
investigate loyalists to
understand what makes
their brand compelling.
CLIENT DATABASE

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QUAL 101 CHECKLIST
RECRUIT DELIVERYMETHODOLOGY BUDGET
Figuring out how to
understand them

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To guide your research plan thinking (aka how you’re going to figure it out),
it’s important to define what you’re trying to figure out. Some examples:
- Understand the relationship between Millennial men and grooming
- Define what it means to be a modern woman
- Figure out how to connect young athletes with a new shoe innovation
Underneath your objectives, you will have research topics: more specific areas of investigation. For example,
in order to understand Millennial men and grooming, you’ll want to look into:
- Personal grooming habits, grooming purchasing behavior, perspectives on men’s grooming at large, etc.
Your objectives and research topics will inform your methodology and also your discussion guides.
1. DEFINE YOUR RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

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There are a lot of ways to do qual:
- One-on-one interviews
- Workshops
- In-home’s
- Shop-along’s
- Ride-along’s
- … etc, etc.
Sometimes it’s one research tactic, sometimes it’s a combination of many.
But the most important thing to remember…
2. CREATE YOUR ACTION PLAN (AKA METHODOLOGY)

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“I wanna be where the people are.”

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Get creative in exercising deep empathy
for the people you’re investigating.
What is the most authentic and
interesting way to get to know them?

34. Here’s how to start thinking about your methodology…

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Get out there. You will never
understand someone until you’ve
walked / trained / surfed / shopped in
their shoes.
Not only does it give you first-person
perspective on their world, it often
helps open up the conversation and
develop rapport.
GET GONZO

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It’s not what they say, it’s what they do.
An interesting way into insights is to ask
participants to get creative: have them
solve a problem or dream up a solution.
For example, we asked surf kids to sit on
a beach with us and create their own
surf companies.
GET CO-CREATIVE

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Oftentimes, the most interesting things
are hard to talk about.
Rather than ask a straight question, have
participants answer through different
and unexpected lenses. You can then ask
follow-up questions. For example, don’t
ask a 12-year-old their views on feminism,
ask them to draw a female superhero.
Projective techniques are good for younger
people or for internal brand investigations.
GET PROJECTIVE

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A good way to prime an interview is to have your participants do homework first. You can then use their
answers to dive deeper and guide the discussion. Some exercise examples:
PROJECTIVE EXAMPLE: INTERVIEW HOMEWORK
OBITUARY
Write an obituary for the
brand. Why did it die? Who
loved it? Who did it leave
behind? What is its legacy?
VISUALIZING THE BRAND
Choose five pictures that
represent the brand /
relationship / topic. Why did
you choose them?
BRAND FRIENDS
Choose five brands that yours
should be friends with. They
don’t need to be in the same
category as yours.
Helps identify key problems
and pride points
Helps articulate pillars and
principles of the brand
Helps identify
aspirations

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QUAL 101 CHECKLIST
RECRUIT METHODOLOGY DELIVERY BUDGET
Communicating
what you learned

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The greatest qual in the world doesn’t
matter if you can’t communicate it in a
compelling way.
You’ve got to double down on empathy:
for the consumer and for your client. How
can you immerse your client into the world
of the people you were investigating?
This starts with building in the time and
energy towards creating powerful
deliverables from the start.
DELIVER WITH EMPATHY

41. You could build a beautiful deck that tells a story

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AN EXCERPT FROM A CONSUMER INSIGHTS DECK…

43. CAITLIN, WILD WOMAN
“There are more doors open to women
today. Exploring available options is
vital to finding something that satisfies.”

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To live a life of truth, the
Wild Woman must know
herself and know the world
she lives in. Her explorations
involve traveling far, but
also traveling inward.
A THIRST TO KNOW HERSELF AND THE
WORLD AROUND HER
“Exploration is an important part
of development in all areas of our
lives. In order to "find
yourself" or develop a real
sense of self, one needs to
explore all of the options.
Sometimes this requires action, and
sometimes it can be done through
open thought and imagination.”
— CASEY —

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The road to that discovery is full of
experimentation, dead ends and far-
flung interests. She unabashedly
invests the time and energy into her
passions and interests, old and new.
Never satiated, the Wild Woman
seeks out the new and the different
to tickle her fancies and intrigue her
senses. Variety is the spice of life,
and she’s a spicy one.
A LUST FOR THE NEW AND DIFFERENT

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You cannot explore second-hand. Exploring
is raw and tangible and present. The Wild
Woman isn’t one to stay at home. She lives
out in the world, rain or shine.
PUTTING HERSELF OUT THERE

47. Wild Women make difficult
daughters. Never one to be
content with “should” or “trust
me,” she puts herself out there
and explores the new and
different in order to know and
make the choices in her life.
AN EXPLORER
THE WILD WOMAN IS

48. You could create a tangible deliverable

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HURLEY: SURF MAGAZINE
We delivered consumer
insights in the form of an
expressive surf magazine.

50. You could bring it to life #IRL

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BUILDING AN INSIGHTS ROOM
We took the insights and made
them experiential. The space
immersed clients in the world of
our consumer and each item tied
to a specific insight.

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QUAL 101 CHECKLIST
RECRUIT DELIVERYMETHODOLOGY BUDGET
Planning your project
against costs

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Qual research is often the first time that a planner will have to tackle budgeting. Fun.
Things to think through when coming up with a budget:
➡ Recruiting costs. How much will it cost to recruit each participant?
➡ Participant compensation. How much will you need to pay each participant? Sometimes brand credit
or product can be used for compensation (or to supplement it).
➡ Methodology costs. Does the methodology require materials? Postage? Room rental? Snacks
for participants?
➡ Recording costs. How do you plan on capturing the information? Do you need to hire anyone or get
specific equipment?
➡ Travel costs. How much does it cost to get there, get around there, stay there and eat there? In terms
of food, think through your “per diems” — the amount of money per day for food.
➡ Deliverable costs. How are you delivering your findings? Does that require materials or labor?
BUDGET FOR EVERYTHING

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The harder to find your participant, the more expensive it will be to recruit each. Some rough numbers:
EASY-TO-FIND
There is a large population of these people. For example, smoothie-drinking adults. $100-150
HARD-TO-FIND
There is a smaller population of these people. For example, Millennial women motorcycle riders. $200-400
EXPERTS / INFLUENCERS
Thought leaders and influencers can help you gain insight into a category or cultural space. $500-1000+
MORE ON RECRUITING COSTS

55. THANK YOU