Quantitative Measurement and Qualitative Measurement

Introduction

Most of the market researchers have their research methods that they believe are efficient, although different market researchers always have diverse preferences. Some market researchers prefer qualitative research because it can be significant when learning about consumers or brands. Other researchers will argue that the best approach is through quantitative research method. Marketing research is always the first step in the marketing process, and it is for this reason that the choice of the research method is important. The choice of the market research method is based on the problem that needs to be solved. In addition to this, the marketing research method that is preferred will be applied in obtaining the information on the competitors and determine the needs and wants of the consumers. The researchers will then be required to analyzed the data they have collected using their preferred method in order to solve the problems by developing various marketing strategies.

Discussion

In research, two types of data exist. These are Quantitative measurement and Qualitative measurement. Quantitative measurement is defined as the measurement of data that can be put into numbers. The main focus of quantitative research is to run statistical analysis; hence the data collected must be in numerical. In qualitative research, the focus is on collecting the data that is not numerical. In each of the marketing research technique, advantages and disadvantages exists. Quantitative marketing research can provide the researchers with a rigorous, scientific view of the relationship that exists between given variables. The shortcoming with quantitative research is that is fails to provide more information to why that given relationship exists (Kotler & Keller, 2016). Because of this, I agree that the quality of the research is important, but scientific evidence is more effective than quality of the research. For this reason I believe that quantitative market research method is the best.

In any marketing environment, consumer purchasing habits or their decision making is complex. In some occasions, they fail to have the ability to make wise decisions on their purchasing power, hence failure to rate the product or services they have purchased. For instance, when loyal customers are surveyed, most of them will be perceived providing a biased opinion about the product or service being researched. In this case, qualitative marketing research, despite having its disadvantages, will manage to provide information on the consumers. (Kotler & Keller, 2016) This is what marketing is entirely all about (getting someone to purchase a particular product). Despite this advantage, some market researchers who oppose qualitative research are likely to argue that quantitative market research is more effective because it is the only accepted technique that has been experienced improvements in the recent years.