ABSTRACT
Anyone can be a qualitative research moderator but not everyone is a good moderator with whom clients want to work and for whom clients are ready to switch research agencies to hang on to “their” moderator. This chapter is dedicated to the role of the moderator in qualitative marketing research and to defining the characteristics of a good moderator. Being a moderator is part craft and part art. Experience is hugely important but it goes hand-in-hand with the necessary individual traits (cognitive skills) and interpersonal and social skills, but most of all, however, the ability to build rapport with respondents. Interview facilitation skills like active listening and the use of the right tools (e.g., probing, paraphrasing, and clarifying) are also crucial. A good qualitative research moderator is also a person who has knowledge of psychology (general knowledge about the human person), consumer behaviour, and marketing (specific knowledge relating to the researched issues) – understands how advertising works, how consumer decisions are made, and knows the mechanisms underpinning consumer behaviour. This chapter describes all the traits that make a good moderator and discusses the ways to develop skills conducive to becoming an even better qualitative marketing research moderator.
