ABSTRACT
Qualitative marketing research, on the one hand, still raises controversies and concerns for its future, and on the other, continues to have a stable position amongst other types of marketing research (e.g., from the perspective of its share in the marketing research expenditure of companies). This chapter will be a reflection on the future of qualitative marketing research. The new research solutions emerging over the years (e.g., ethnography, semiotics, neuromarketing, co-creation, online qualitative research), despite such concerns or predictions, do not replace classic qualitative research but rather are an interesting supplement, as every one of them brings something new to our understanding of the consumer. In the future, when the collection of various publicly available data is simpler and easier (e.g., Big Data), wise qualitative research integrated with quantitative methods and combining different qualitative approaches (referred to as the “mixed-method”, “hybrid method” or “triangulation”) will survive. The qualitative marketing research of the future will also comprise contextual research that takes the broader perspective of the inner world of the consumer (psychological perspective) along with their external environment (socio-cultural landscape) into account when attempting to understand consumer behaviour.
