Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methodologies:

Who Says Oil and Water Don’t Mix?

Finding the Qualitative and Quantitative Nexus

Qualitative and quantitative data and methods are different, but that doesn’t mean that good marketing researchers can’t use them together to get the information they need to help their clients understand their businesses better.

Essentially, quantitative data is numeric in form and qualitative is any data that is not numeric. Quantitative research methods rely primarily on questions whose answers can be recorded in numeric form, while qualitative methods probe to explore feeling, motivations, opinions, behavior, drivers and inhibitors, patterns of thought, opinions, attitudes, assessments or behaviors.

One misconception is that a marketing research manager must choose between quantitative and qualitative methods. On the contrary, the two methods are intertwined, not only at the level of specific data sets (ratings questions mixed with open­ended questions), but also at the levels of study design and analysis (multi­mode and triangulation). Thus, the issue really shouldn’t be quantitative versus qualitative at all. Instead, the thoughtful manager must decide if a full understanding of a few controlled variables is what is needed. If so, this suggests a more analytic approach. Or perhaps a more systemic approach is warranted by a complex environment in which many variables interact. Often, either approach will demand a study design that calls for both sorts of data and associated methods at certain points to accomplish specific purposes.

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Data Types

With a research project that collects mostly quantitative data, such as a telephone survey filled with customer satisfaction ratings questions, the researcher may want to add some probing questions to find out why the respondent gave the client an excellent or a very poor rating for overall service. The respondents’ explanations for the good or bad ratings would be included in the report to the client – likely in an appendix listing all the verbatim responses – adding a qualitative element to a quantitative study.

On the other hand, when a research project consists of a series of focus groups or in­depth executive interviews, the researcher may want to include a few ratings questions for which the collected answers are numerical in format – providing a quantitative bit of data in a basically qualitative study.

Qualitative and Quantitative Distinctions

Qualitative Quantitative

Sample Size Small Large

Type(s) of Data Numeric Non­numeric; text, sound bytes, photographs

Probing Yes No

Lens Subjective Objective

Type of Research Generative Evaluative

Explores WHY? WHAT?

Measures Unstructured or semi­structured Structured

Methods

Focus groups; in­depth interviews; Delphi studies; projective techniques; dyads/ triads; observational research

Computer automated telephone interviewing (CATI); Interactive voice response (IVR); Web surveys; mail surveys

Types of Analysis Rich and precise Statistically reliable; can be generalized to a specific population

Consumer Language regarding issue

Known or not known Known if preceded by qualitative or from deep client knowledge

Issues to be tested Known or not known Known if preceded by qualitative or from deep client knowledge

Replicable No Yes

Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Data Methods

Just as common is the research study that uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. This is particularly true at the beginning of a research program, when someone wants to gather quantitative information for the first time. For example, when a company starts a customer satisfaction research program, it’s best to first determine the issues that influence satisfaction levels so that the quantitative part of the study is actually asking the right questions. So before a telephone or Internet survey of a company’s customers can begin, the researcher will first want to talk with employees to see what they think are the issues most important to their customers and then to the customers themselves. These conversations could be held in the form of in­depth interviews or focus groups. Once the issues are clear, then the quantitative ratings questions can be developed for a telephone or Internet survey of the customer database.

Increasingly, researchers are turning to qualitative research to provide additional and deeper insight for quantitative research. When a quantitative research project’s results seem counterintuitive or simply cannot be easily explained, a small additional qualitative project can shed light and clarify the topic. In these situations, extra care must be taken to recruit the appropriate respondents who will be able to provide clarification and explanation as well as to develop the interview guide so as not to lead or bias the respondents with the results of the quantitative study.

Caveat: Don’t Turn Qualitative Research into Quantitative Data

When clients conduct a costly and extensive qualitative research study, perhaps testing a particular concept on a nationwide level, they will sometimes look for ways to stretch their research dollar. They can’t use the information they’ve gained as if it were quantitative data, however, as tempting as this may be, even if they’ve conducted a large number of nationwide focus groups with a large number of participants. You can’t treat the participants as if they responded to a survey.

Although it’s easy to just think that research is research, it is important to remember that each qualitative market research methodology employed, such as focus groups, is not conducted in the same manner 100 percent of the time. From group to group, many internal and external factors can impact the insights gained, making it impossible to replicate the group. The order of questions could have been changed. How the questions were asked could have varied. Some questions may have been asked in one group and not another. Who is in the group and how the group dynamics formed can impact the flow of the focus group. With quantitative research, on the other

hand, the survey questions stay exactly the same and the data is designed to be replicated, added together and compared.

Finally, participants in qualitative research are not randomly selected so they are not representative of the population as a whole. With quantitative research, every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected to participate, which means information gathered from the respondents can be projected accurately onto the population at large. But that is not so with qualitative research.

Conclusion

It’s actually a rare research project that doesn’t have some mix of quantitative and qualitative data and methods, although one is often predominant, depending on the information sought. Both are valid and valuable research approaches and can yield important and insightful information. However, the researcher must be careful to ensure that the approach matches, and is appropriate for, the desired actions that will be taken as a result of the research findings.

Polaris Marketing Research

Founded by Jan Carlson in 1989, Polaris Marketing Research is a full­service marketing research firm

specializing in quantitative and qualitative research. Polaris provides consumer and business customer

satisfaction and loyalty measurement programs, with state­of­the­art online interactive reporting,

interviewing and data collection and personalized project management. Atlanta­based Polaris Marketing

Research is affiliated with the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, the American

Marketing Association and the American Society for Quality.

Polaris Marketing Research

1455 Lincoln Parkway, Suite 320

Atlanta, Georgia 30346

Phone: 866­217­7014

Fax: 404­816­0352

Email: research@polarismr.com

Web: www.PolarisMR.com