Quantitative or Qualitative research: Which should you choose?
Market research generally falls into two main types: Quantitative and Qualitative. Each approach is complementary; however they do have quite distinct purposes.
Quantitative market research is a measure of how many people behave, feel or think in a certain way: the ‘What?’, ‘Where?’, ‘When?’, ‘Which?’ and, to some extent, the ‘How?’ questions that brand and business owners face.
This approach uses statistical analysis to determine the results. For instance, if you want to know how many of your customer base would support changes in a product or service, you can use this data to determine whether you have a valid business case for making any changes.
How does quantitative research work?
Question Design is structured with mostly closed questions, i.e. the respondents select their answers from set lists of possible responses, using a range of question types. For example, rating questions: to measure strength of feeling and importance of satisfaction and ranking questions: to determine preferences, etc.
Collecting data typically involves a pre-coded questionnaire and involves interviewing a large number of people and can be either face-to-face, via telephone or conducted online. Because of its statistical nature, sample size is important for Analysis and Interpretation and quantitative research studies typically analyse responses to questions across a larger number of people.
Qualitative market research is an in-depth exploration of what people think, do and feel — essentially seeking to explore the ‘Whys? that typically, are manifested in the various behaviours we can measure through quantitative market research approaches.
How does qualitative research work?
Qualitative research adopts a semi-structured discussion guide with open questioning that participants are encouraged to explore the reasons for their responses. The discussion guide sets out to ensure that all topics stay relevant and seek to reveal underlying views and motivations, behavioural triggers and barriers.
Data is collected by way of focus groups or group discussions conducted amongst a relatively small number of respondents, interviewed at length and in depth. These are usually led by a moderator, who measures the dynamics of the interaction between the different participants within the group.
The more intimate environment of depth interviews, where one-to-one interviews are conducted by telephone or face to face, allows participants to talk openly; particularly appropriate if participants are competitors who would not agree to participate together in a larger group discussion.
Transcriptions from the data analysed by the moderator, can be either audio-recorded or video-recorded, and observed in real-time at specially designed research venues.
NB The term qualitative research is frequently shortened to ‘qual’ and quantitative research to ‘quant’ simply because they are easier to pronounce.
When should you use Quantitative market research?
The types of marketing problems that may require a quantitative focus include anything that requires measurement, such as:
- Advertising pre-testing
- Communication effectiveness tracking
- Retail/ market sizing/ auditing
- Validating/ checking qualitative hypotheses
- Quantifying target markets/ audiences
- Best by test, product evaluations
- Customer satisfaction
When should you use Qualitative market research?
The types of marketing problems that may require more of a qualitative focus include the following:
- Creative development work, for example: strategy definition, executional guidelines
- NPD research, for example: gap analysis, concept exploration, packaging development
- Market exploration studies, for example: consumer perceptions, segmentation hypotheses/ generating hypotheses, understanding target market needs
- Tactical studies, for example: packaging, general strategic exploration, pre-quantification, image analysis
If you are in doubt as to which approach to use, it is always best to start with the market research brief or ‘what you are looking to achieve from the research’ first, rather than be concerned about how you will obtain the insights you seek. At Latimer Appleby, we use a method-neutral approach which means we work with our clients to find the most appropriate way to research each problem and select the qual and quant research techniques (or combination thereof) accordingly.
