This is a summary of responses to a recent request on the egroup for good qual books – aimed at teaching clients and junior researchers (and ‘reminding’ the more experienced of us) the basics of qual.
- Suggest people read Laurence Smith from Chase Noble especially if you are holding workshops, focus groups etc. He has written many books such as A Winning approach to strategic business planning, Why Strategies Fail, Turbo Charged Strategy, and Why strategies Fail – A Postscript for Governments. His books are full of things to think about to do and not to do, also such fun to read.
- Wendy Gordon’s two books Good Thinking; A guide to qualitative research and Mindframes (this one may only be available direct from Acacia Avenue)
- Qualitative Research by Wendy Gordon and Roy Langmaid
- Sheila Keegan’s Good Decision Making Through Understanding People, Cultures and Markets (Market Research in Practice) – designed to help those who have limited experience of qualitative research, to become proficient buyers of research. It will enable buyers to commission QR with confidence; to choose a supplier, agree a methodology with the research agency, understand the process and end up with useful outputs which address the initial research issues
- Qualitative Market Research Principle & Practice – a seven volume set offering complete coverage of qualitative market research practice, written by experienced practitioners, for both a commercial and academic audience. Published by Sage
- For more general listening skills, Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind by Nancy Kline
- Market Research in Practice – a practical introduction to market research tools, approaches and issues
There were also some quant suggestions
- For a statistics primer, you can do a lot worse than Neil Salkind‘s Statistics for people who think they hate statistics
- Discovering statistics by Andy Field
- Graham Mytton’s Media Audience Research: A Guide for Professionals – this is not only about media research, but describes all market and opinion research methods and how they work, which of course means for all topics, products and researchable things (contact ICG member Graham direct for a discounted copy)
- Web survey methodology – guides the reader through the past fifteen years of research in web survey methodology. It both provides practical guidance on the latest techniques for collecting valid and reliable data and offers a comprehensive overview of research issues
- The Handbook of Mobile Market Research: Tools and Techniques for Market Researchers by Ray Poynter et al – The premier guide to mobile market research The Handbook of Mobile Market Research is the first guide to focus exclusively on the use of mobile technology in market research
Please email me with more suggestions or add here via comments.