User Research in Spain

Key Points about the Spanish Market

Languages research can be conducted in:

Spanish and English (not recommended in most cases).

Challenges for recruitment of research participants:

Spain still has a strong cultural and folk tradition that affects work calendar; depending on the city and the dates, the recruiting might be difficult and this needs to be considered in advance.

It is convenient to avoid setting up a field on a Friday in the evening or the day before bank holidays.

If recruiting people from a database, make sure there are extra participants; it is frequent to face dropping outs.

Cultural pitfalls and solutions, how to’s, typical response behaviour:

The geographical dispersion: it is recommended, due to the large size of Spain, to replicate the project in different cities, being Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia the most common ones. On brand image studies, it is quite common to find substantial differences in the perception and behavior of the user / consumer according to the city in which they are located.

Any other information that a foreign researcher might find useful

Flexibility and openness with the recruitment agency: it is convenient to make it part of the team. In this way, if complications arise (eg. it is difficult to find a profile or a participant has just canceled) the agency will have the confidence to tell you and offer you viable solutions or find them together.

Typical response behaviour and how to deal with it

Spanish consumers usually speak out their minds in an open and sincere manner. They are quite critical and need to express complaints related to previous experiences with the brand; in these cases, it is necessary to allow them to talk about it and kindly redirect them to the topic of discussion.