How quality and quantity differ in their definitions, qualitative and quantitative research do too. Qualitative research is focused on individuals and the value of their answers. Quantitative research uses a high number of respondents to build a large body of data to draw down insights and trends.
When combined, these two methods can provide mixed-methodology research. Separately these methods do have their own strengths and can both be vital to a business or project.
We’ve broken down both methods, so you can understand which best meets your needs most effectively…
If you want to understand respondents’ feelings, emotions, thoughts, choices and how they make decisions; it’s qualitative. The findings from this research are vital to helping you delve and explore your own brand, as the responses are real and honest.
We support research agencies and brands week-in week-out, with qual-based research to rigorously test UX, understand buying behaviours, purchasing decisions. Like the research we’ve recently undertaken with a leading bricks and mortar gaming branding looking to test platforms, user-experience and creative for their new gaming verticals.
Looking for more opinionated and informative responses to your research with unique insights? Qual is the way to go as it uses smaller groups, and can be used to investigate beliefs, attitudes and concept of behaviour.
Using qualitative research to gauge customer reaction is a great way of testing creative concepts for a rebrand or pitch. We love working with branding and advertising agencies to test their work, helping them to qualify and improve before presenting on to their client.
Here at BEAM we help conduct online and face-to-face focus groups, in-depth interviews, accompanied shops, telephone depths and much more. You can read more about how we conduct this research here.
Quantitative research gathers numerical data from intercepting respondents online or on-site. This research is often seen as focussed and direct, as it includes questionnaires and surveys which give closed answers, reducing scope for expanded answers or opinions.
This research allows you to build a large body of data and can be done through mystery shopping, door-to-door surveys, product and sensory tests and much more. The data created is statistically valid and accurae and can then be generalised to your entire user population. Quant is great at providing insights for recall, Likert-based opinion tracking and numeric entry like the recent work we undertook for a UK-based food and clothing retailer around their Christmas campaign.
We work with our trusted data partners to provide clarity for the results which are presented in an easily digestible report format providing the clear results.
Both research methods have benefits. If you’re still struggling, or you’d like to learn more about what we can do for you, then get in touch with our BEAM Team today, or find out more about what we do here.