Qualitative Methods in Market Research

¶ … probing of issues, and for examining issues that cannot be explained simply. More detailed analysis and open-ended responses are possible, and these add value to the research. Generally, it seeks answers to questions, especially where the answer is open-ended or not known by the research. As such, qualitative research is often exploratory in nature, seeking to understand phenomena to a level of detail that is not otherwise possible in quantitative research (FHI, 2016).

Qualitative research is used in market research, for example, to augment the market and demographic data that a company gathers. It can gather consumer perceptions, such as in a focus group, or it can seek to explain factors, like interviewing former customers about why they stopped doing business with your company. These are the sort of impressionistic, in-depth things that qualitative research can lend to marketing studies, over and above the usual market variables -- the qualitative research is a complement to assist with understanding.

Surveys, focus groups and interviews are all valuable sources of qualitative data. The drawback of these techniques is that they can be costly and time-consuming, but they are also valuable in that they provide a higher level of detail in the information, and the explanatory data can help with a variety of different business applications. Arguably, when qualitative data is required, it is highly effective, which is why it is common in marketing.

Marketers can measure phenomena, but when there is no explanatory power, then the measures themselves are not actionable. Hard measures can certainly identify where problems exist, but they cannot explain why those problems exist. A basic example of the texture that qualitative market research can give is with, say, a small store. The store can see that its sales are declining, and that nothing much has changed in its town.

It would, however, require surveys or interviews to find out why -- perhaps a Walmart opened twenty miles away but is still cheaper, or maybe people are ordering things from Amazon and the store needs to change its product mix to things that people do not order online. Whatever the explanatory variable, qualitative research is required to find out what it is. Qualitative research is common in the social sciences, which gives it a role going forward in marketing.

Marketing is a blend of quantitative data analysis and qualitative research, the latter more on the sociological side. There is a lot of complexity in consumer behavior and a high level of unpredictability. Where there is a large body of data and no changes to the external environment, hard data can provide insight, but these conditions do not always exist in the real world. Thus, there is and will be a large role for qualitative query in marketing (Gummesson, 2005).

Quantitative and qualitative research both exist because they provide different things to marketers. As such, there is a role for both when conducting market research. These different techniques complement each other, one.