The different types of quantitative and qualitative research
Both qualitative and quantitative research is important to businesses that aim to gather information from marketing research. Each one serves the research with different data, which can be used later on for different purposes.
Considering what happens in practice, most companies use a combination of these two methods. That’s because they want to get more reliable information to make business decisions.
When marketing research is a reality in the company, there is no place for random marketing strategies. Also, it is possible to save time and money, as well as get to the target audience more easily.
If you are interested in understanding more about the different types of qualitative and quantitative research, in this article you will learn more about this.
What is marketing research
Marketing research (also known as market research) happens when a business is evaluating the acceptance of a new service or product among consumers. By doing so, valuable information such as the target market, opinions, competitors, and where to find potential consumers is put together.
With all this information the company is able to determine its advertising activities, set prices, understand where and how to sell the service or product, and improve customer satisfaction.
Therefore, doing marketing research and collecting important data result in easier decision-making for the business. At the same time, mistakes that would cost a lot of time and money can be avoided.
What is quantitative research
When there is a question regarding “what”, “where”, “when” or “how many”, the answer to that is obtained through quantitative research. This type of research is focused on numbers and graphs to analyze the information.
Questionnaires are common tools to do quantitative research, with ratings and multiple-choice questions.
Quantitative research is used to identify general facts and make predictions about the product or service the company needs to evaluate.
What is qualitative research
Qualitative research, on the other hand, is used to describe qualities, characteristics, concepts, and thoughts. The answers obtained through this type of research are usually in narrative form.
Because of these aspects, qualitative research is commonly considered difficult to measure and analyze. However, the good part of qualitative research is having in-depth information about specific topics.
Since the answers are descriptive, it’s possible to understand what people think about these subjects. Which is something that can’t be done with quantitative research.
Qualitative research is usually performed using interviews, observation, and questionnaires with open-ended questions. These formats of research may result in text, video, photos, or audio recordings to be analyzed.
Differences between quantitative and qualitative research
Quantitative and qualitative research help companies answer different types of questions. Therefore, the information collected is not the same and can actually be used combined.
Analysis
One big difference between these two types of research is the way data is analyzed. While quantitative research is analyzed using math and statistics, qualitative research does that by summarizing and categorizing data.
Information
The information gathered in quantitative research is essentially expressed in numbers, graphs, or tables. In opposition, qualitative research has its results in words the majority of the time.
Number of participants
Many people must participate in quantitative research in order to achieve reliable and good results. On the contrary, qualitative research needs only a few answers to be analyzed and considered in strategic decisions.
When to use quantitative and qualitative research
There is a general definition that considers quantitative research good when the company wants to confirm information or test a product or service with the target market. There is usually a theory or hypothesis involved in quantitative research.
The use of qualitative research is more common when the goal is to understand a concept or thoughts on the product or service.
As the types of research are so different, it’s possible to use both at the same time, which is called the mixed methods approach.
Practical example
Quantitative research
The marketing team survey 500 people at the exit of a store asking questions such as: “From one to five, how satisfied are you with the products in this store?” The conclusion is going to be the average of the answers.
Qualitative research
Interviews are conducted with 30 clients, and open-ended questions are asked: “What is the most positive aspect of the products?”, “How can the store improve its organization?”, “Why do you enjoy buying clothes at this store?”.
Learning more about the different types of marketing research is important so a company or person can decide which approach to use. The important thing is being able to collect the data necessary to make the best decisions and find the right target market.
Whenever a company needs to understand its presence among consumers or wants to launch a new product or service, marketing research is a great tool to get information.