Pros and cons of quantitative and qualitative market research

Marketing for Managers

Pros and cons of quantitative and qualitative market research
Qualitative marketing research is used instead of quantitative sometimes because the consumers’ actions do not always match the answers they give in the market survey. Qualitative market researches are not structured in their measurement, which promotes a wide variety of responses. The surveys are only limited by the creativity of the marketing researcher (Kotler & Keller, 2012).
The flexibility that qualitative research allows, both researchers in their questions and the consumers in their responses, this form of research can be useful in the beginning process exploring consumers’ brand and product perceptions. A skilled interviewer in an unstructured, free flowing format that the topic of discussion guide is loosely followed. Since qualitative research is more indirect than quantitative research the people answering the questions may feel more open and make more known about their selves during the research process (Kotler & Keller, 2012).
Some of the pros and cons of qualitative market research are open ended and dynamic. The con to this is that responses are not measured or are they statistically representative. Another pro to this type of research is that it taps into the consumers’ creativity. On the other hand, this cannot be repeated as easily with exactly replicable and thus comparable results as quantitative research. Another pro would be smaller sample size, which leads to faster and less costly projects. The con to this is that smaller sample sometimes necessitates follow up larger quantitative sample for more controversial marketing decisions. Last, qualitative market research can penetrate rationalized and superficial responses. The con to this is that the quality of the research is