Online data collection: focus groups and qualitative blogs
OpinionWay draws on several different innovative data collection techniques.  The type of moderation (synchronous or asynchronous) is dictated by client needs.

Need for spontaneity: NetFocus®, the remote synchronous group
It is common practice to conduct individual interviews when focus groups are too difficult or expensive to implement (opinion leaders, company directors, elected representatives, etc).  It is however possible to recruit individuals in these categories by telephone and offer them an online focus group.  By simply going on line from the convenience of their office or home they can become a part of a group dynamic. OpinionWay is the French leader in remote group moderation.

Need for detailed consumer experience analysis and collaborative work groups: the asynchronous group (qualitative blog).
Certain subjects require an increased level of respondent involvement: assigning them tasks (snapshots of their wardrobe, where they store tools, attractive displays, etc.) and leaving them the time to exchange, debate, think… Here OpionWay implements an online interface for optimal interaction among respondents (one to two weeks, picture and video downloads, etc.): the qualitative blog.

Traditional data collection: focus groups and individual depth interviews
Certain subjects require an increased level of respondent involvement: assigning them tasks (snapshots of their wardrobe, where they store tools, attractive displays, etc.) and leaving them the time to exchange, debate, think… Here OpionWay implements an online interface for optimal interaction among respondents (one to two weeks, picture and video downloads, etc.): the qualitative blog.

Traditional data collection: focus groups and individual depth interviews
The objectives of a research project often include data collection in terms of understanding how and why targets collectively represent market segments. Understanding a sentence, using a service, navigating a website, and the purchase of a product is a singular experience and therefore requires an individual depth interview.

However, when exploring how consumers represent brands and trends, when identifying product development trends and advertising campaigns, group dynamics using projective and creative exercises are key to success.

Rather than adopting a single technique OpinionWay recommends simultaneously using individual and collective data collection whenever possible.

In focus groups, respondents sometimes perform individual exercises, evaluations and experiments (self-administered questionnaires, isolated navigation, silent product tests, etc.).  Individual interviews are sometimes followed by focus groups, creative group exercises or group logbooks to be kept by all members of a family when the study’s needs justify it. •••••

Ethnomarketing
The greater the distance taken in the approach, the greater the risk market research runs of losing site of consumers’ personalities and daily reality.

Therefore OpinionWay believes that subjective declarative data needs to be put into perspective by using objective behavioral data as often as possible in order to balance it all out. The study of dissonance and congruence between practices, habits and discourses can validate and significantly enrich a study’s conclusions. That’s why OpinionWay often uses ethnologic, ergonomic and in particular ethno-visual tools to further enrich its qualitative research tools.

By using video, photography and observation, OpinionWay positions itself at the crossroads between ethnomarketing and visual anthropology. Our aim is to understand and describe practices as accurately as possible and help interviewees re-experience a situation, a specific moment or event in their lives.

OpinionWay uses a team of video research managers and a multi-media production department that integrates all visual, sound and written data.  Our goal is to provide clients with the “next level” of research data by making the most of NITC.  Therefore, all of OpinionWay’s qualitative, and a significant percentage of quantitative research incorporate video content.

In order to monitor the opinions of citizens/consumers as closely as possible, OpinionWay has created the first French video omnibus, called OmniWay®, regularly conducting the following types of research:
• In situ ethno-visual studies (in homes, sales outlets, etc.)
• Video profiles outside sales outlets
• Flash video studies in the street to gauge public opinion
• Video feedback (consumer reactions to their behavior)
• Participatory observation
• Indirect observation (no human presence, automated remote monitoring)
• Online research with video recording

Semiological and lexicological analyses
OpinionWay has developed an in-depth command of content analysis and is regularly called upon to carry out media image research, speech analysis and studies on controversial issues with high media coverage.

For content analysis OpinionWay uses a combined qualitative and quantitative approach drawing on powerful automated language processing software. 

Our team includes two specialists in this field: Jean-Marie Cotteret, current consultant at OpinionWay, founder of Infométrie, former member of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (French authority for media networks) and Hugues Cazenave, former CEO of Infométrie and Chairman of OpinionWay.

EyeTracking
 “Eyetracking” is a technique which allows clients to follow a user’s reading trajectory across a web page, an advertisement, a product pack, etc. In effect, the user’s eye movements are tracked and recorded and can be “played back” on a machine. Analysis of a user’s eye movements means knowing what users look at most as well as what they don’t.

OpinionWay uses this highly specialized observation technique as an adjunct to its standard opinion gathering techniques. OpinionWay has chosen Tobii to execute these observations. The Tobii technique consists of using diodes to emit beams of infrared light to the center of the pupil. The infrared light reflected back by the cornea are then detected and analyzed to determine the position of the centre of the pupil to determine where the eye is looking on a given target.