Obtaining and collecting qualitative data in the form of audio and video recordings for market research is one thing. Making sure that every gathered audio and video file is organized and well put together in such a way that would allow researchers to draw well-informed conclusions and derive insights afterward is another thing. Both are crucial stages in conducting efficient market research.

Why?

You can’t just collect x amount of data and throw it all into your research and expect everything to make sense all at once. There has to be a system, an organization of files, and the right way of continuously managing it. But research teams face daunting problems of how to organize, manage, store, retrieve, analyze, and give meaning to audio and video recordings, mostly of IDIs and FGDs, obtained during qualitative market research.

It is therefore essential to employ effective ways to manage audio and video files for market research.

Here Are Five Easy Ways to Organize Your Audio and Video Market Research Data:

• Check your data

You have to have a limit to the amount of data you need to obtain and a metrics that will help you determine once you have gathered enough for analysis already. Double-check the files to make sure nothing has any issues. Play each one of them from start to finish so you’d know if there’s a crucial need to re-do or fix any of the files before it’s too late and you’re already too deep in the research.

• Label your files accordingly

Once you have gathered sufficient data, make sure you label each file properly. If you let it pile up before doing so, it’ll be harder and much more confusing to rename them. Imagine having tons of audio and video files in your computer with similar-looking thumbnails and a bunch of numbers for file names. It’ll be really hard to tell which file is which and it will cost you more time in the long run. It would also help if you come up with a naming structure to make it easily identifiable and searchable.

• Organize through folder categorization/segmentation

You can avoid having to sift through a bulk of files if you create specific folders per project from the get-go. This way, it’ll be easier for you and your team to sort out, categorize, and look for files afterward. Another method of segmentation is to separate the data according to elements such as in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, according to the type of respondents, sub-topics, et cetera. This will depend on which strategy would work best for you and your team.

• Review your files and edit out unnecessary details

Once you’re done sorting out the files and distributing them into the necessary folders, recheck your audio and video files to see if anything needed editing or trimming for conciseness. You may have experienced clicking the stop button a little later than you’re supposed to and captured or recorded more running time than needed. These are unimportant cuts that you can easily trim away from the audio or the video.

• Incorporate a reliable management platform

Civicom’s Glide Central is an online content curation and management platform specifically designed for market researchers. This platform allows you to store, organize, and even retrieve data in designated folders where you can manage multiple projects at the same time. It even allows you to tag project folders or files using specific keywords which makes it easier to search for them within the platform. Glide also allows you to place time markers that will act as reference points to specific portions of your video recording and leave comments so your research partners are given a heads up why that particular moment was bookmarked.

Note: Make sure you keep a backup of all your files so you wouldn’t have to worry as much should anything happen to your files.  This is so you can prevent the loss of crucial data and avoid having to retrieve them knowing there might be no guarantee of getting it all back.

Again, remember that organizing and managing your market research data is just as important as analyzing and drawing conclusions. Every stage plays an important part in the success of your market research and thus, should be given ample attention and dealt with urgency and sensitivity.

Manage Your Media Files Better with Civicom Glide Central®

Organize and showcase the best of your multimedia content with Glide Central®. This solves the organizational pain points when handling video and audio generated with IDIs and focus groups. Develop tags for keywords, generate human or automated transcripts, make video clips, and create storyboards, letting you showcase the best data from your research. Learn more about our media curation features.