Qualitative and quantitative research for small business

Market research can seem complicated when you are about to undertake it for the first time What may help is that it broadly falls into two distinctive areas that each have their own strengths: qualitative and quantitative research

A good piece of market research will need to include both of these areas, but certain industries or marketing objectives may end up only needing one depending on the specific information you want to find. So what are the differences between these two methods and how can they help businesses conduct market research

What is quantitative research? Quantitative research is a more logical and data-led approach which provides a measure of what people think from a statistical and numerical point of view. For example, if you wanted to know how many of your customers support a proposed change in your products or service and how strongly (on a scale) they support it.  Quantitative research can gather a large amount of data that can be easily organised and manipulated into reports for analysis

How to do it  Quantitative research largely uses methods such as questionnaires and surveys with set questions and answers that respondents tick from a predefined selection. Answers can be measured in strengths of feeling such as ‘strongly agree’ ‘disagree’ or numbers such as scales out of 10. This form of research is very flexible in terms of how it’s carried out such as through the post, online or even over the phone. If you are carrying out research, make sure that you have a fair cross section of respondents and that you have enough of them to provide a greater range of reliable data. To help gain willing participants, companies often offer incentives such as free products or financial remuneration for their time.

What is qualitative research? Unlike quantitative research which relies on numbers and data, qualitative research is more focused on how people feel, what they think and why they make certain choices. For example, if you are thinking of changing your branding you would carry out qualitative research to see what emotional reactions people have to the new identity and what they associate it with. 

Qualitative research is largely led with discussion around certain concepts or ideas with open questioning. Attendees are encouraged to explain or describe their reasons for having certain responses which can reveal underlying motivations, associations and behavioural triggers. The most common forms of qualitative research consist of focus groups relevant to the target market or one to one interviews, conducted face to face or over the telephone. Taking a mixed approach Combining these two sets of information can produce insightful results for a business looking to learn more about customer opinions, preferences and reactions. For example, before issuing a survey to gather quantitative results you will first want to find out more about what your customers consider to be important. With this in mind, you would first carry out qualitative research to put together questions that go deeper and can help the following questionnaire show real insight