Market Research: Foundations to Practice · Foundations of Market Research
Qualitative vs Quantitative Research
These two research traditions answer genuinely different questions, and confusing which one a business question actually calls for is one of the most common early planning mistakes. This chapter covers how to tell them apart.
Qualitative research explores the 'why' and 'how' behind behavior and attitudes through open-ended methods like interviews and focus groups, covered in the next module, producing rich, detailed understanding from a relatively small number of participants rather than a statistically representative sample of a broader population.
Key Takeaways
- Qualitative research explores 'why' and 'how' through open-ended methods with a small number of participants, producing rich, detailed understanding.
- Quantitative research measures 'how many' and 'how much' through structured methods that can be generalized to a broader population.
- The methods are complementary: qualitative exploration often generates hypotheses that quantitative research then tests and measures at scale.
- Defaulting to a survey for every question, including fundamentally 'why' questions, is a common mistake since surveys are poorly suited to deep explanation.