The Qualitative Interview in Marketing and Consumer Research: Paradigmatic Approaches and Guideline

Abstract

Interviews are the most pervasive means of collecting data in qualitative research projects. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the practice of conducting interviews has evolved within consumer and marketing research and to offer insights for those who would like to gather qualitative data via interviews. To do so, we first identify and differentiate two broad perspectives on qualitative marketing and consumer research: the phenomenological approach and the post-structuralist approach. We then develop a step by step guideline on how to conceive, conduct, and analyze interviews under both approaches. As much as the paper provides a useful toolkit to researchers with initial and intermediate degrees of intimacy with qualitative methods, it also contributes to the mapping of important ongoing paradigmatic discussions in the field of qualitative marketing and consumer research.