Lessons from Traveling Abroad: Souvenirs and Coding Insights

I am a notorious over-packer and at this point in my life, I don’t even try to to fight it. I also am a sucker for souvenirs to commemorate my experiences, whether traveling domestically or abroad. Each year my partner and I aim to visit new cities/countries and I document a different theme; from book recaps, to socks from each location, or postcards with notes, holiday ornaments, etc. We’re calling this my long-term experiment to see if I actually remember more about our travels when we’re in our senior years.

We recently had the opportunity to visit Portugal through a combination ‘workation’ trip that overlapped with our birthdays and QRCA’s Worldwide Conference. It was my first time across the Atlantic and I did not shy away from the impulse purchases. We did all the touristy things and I wanted a physical memory of every place we went to - hence the giant spread of souvenirs I brought back with me. (Also, please note this isn’t everything, I removed the gifts I purchases for family members!)

🎶 Hi! It’s me! I’m the problem it’s me! 🎶 😉

When I was going through my souvenir inventory, it dawned on me that this was an excellent coding example to share with those outside the marketing research industry. This semester I’ve been teaching undergrad students in my first marketing research course and they are just getting into the quantitative data collection methods (and analysis). Coding open end responses is a very nuanced skillset that, IMO, takes team collaboration to ensure the right coding tactics are being used. I rarely single-code responses in my line of work, because the responses I’m coding through social media are mostly rooted in conversations, not simply response prompts.

At first glance - I can code my purchases into some basic groups that are simple to interpret: Wall decor, office supplies, books, pouches, magnets, vintage/shelf decor, everyday uses.

And then as I was putting everything away again, I realized some of these items can be bucketed into more than one group - like an example below: (1) the birds, sardines, and elephant could call into an ‘animals’ bucket, (2) the bird could also fit into my vintage market finds from flea markets and park stall buys, (3) a combination of the animals and vintage finds could be considered table decorations, (4) lots of the individual items fell into an azulejos theme.

This is completely normal if we compare this souvenir sorting to that of coding open end responses in marketing research. Depending on the context, the code assignments could change. When we work on an Instagram project with influencers and creators, it’s not uncommon for us to review the responses with the research team and to even get input from the influencer, to ensure our context for the responses is on the right track for the project objectives. We believe this part of the research process is and should be iterative and collaborative among the key research teammates.

Stay tuned for more Portugal highlights! Coming soon: Why details matter when traveling and planning research projects!