Clients often come to Campos knowing they need to conduct market research, but are unsure of what kind of research they need. Quantitative? Qualitative? Both?
To answer that question, we start by clarifying the goals of the research and how it’s going to be used. From there, we explain the relative strengths and limitations of various potential research approaches and advise our client on what methodology we recommend and why.
In this blog, we’ll give you a window into this process by providing introductions to quantitative market research and qualitative market research, the advantages associated with each, and how to choose the right method for your needs.
What’s Quantitative Market Research?
Quantitative research is the “numbers” side of market research. It’s about collecting and analyzing measurable data. This often means conducting surveys or analyzing existing datasets. Quantitative research provides precise answers and uncovers trends with strong statistical reliability.
Advantages of Quantitative Market Research
This approach offers several key benefits for decision-makers:
- Statistical significance: Quantitative research is associated with larger sample sizes than qualitative research, and large sample sizes lead to more reliable and accurate results. A large enough sample ensures findings and patterns are real, not random.
- Representativeness: Large, quantitative samples can also be managed to ensure they are representative of a larger market. That way, we can say the research findings reflect the views and opinions of that market.
- Trackability: Standardized methods deliver precise, trackable metrics that can be measured consistently over time.
When to Conduct Quantitative Market Research
Consider using quantitative methods when you need hard numbers to make decisions, or you’re seeking to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses. For example, if you want to understand awareness and perceptions of a brand in a market, assess demand for a product among a particular audience, or confirm consumer willingness to take an action, you’ll want to conduct quantitative research. Because quantitative research is repeatable, you’ll often see it used to set benchmarks and track the impact of organizational efforts.
Common Types of Quantitative Studies
Quantitative market research isn’t one-size-fits-all; there are various study types depending on your goals. Here are a few examples:
- Market segmentation studies: Break a market of consumers into distinct subgroups based on shared attitudes, behaviors, and demographics to inform targeted marketing strategies.
- Brand health tracking: Regularly survey customers to measure awareness, consideration, perceptions, and other key metrics, tracking changes over time.
- Pricing and conjoint studies: Use data-driven methods to determine optimal pricing or identify which features customers value most.
- Message and concept testing: Test ads or product concepts with target audiences to identify which resonates best before a full-scale launch.
What’s Qualitative Market Research?
Qualitative research is the “storytelling” side of market research. Instead of large-scale number-crunching, qualitative methods aim to explore “why” and “how” questions through deeper, open-ended inquiry. It’s less about counting how many people think X vs. Y and more about understanding the reasoning, emotions, or context behind their thinking.
Advantages of Qualitative Market Research
There are several powerful advantages to going the qualitative route:
- Deeper, more nuanced insights: Qualitative research uncovers the “why” behind the numbers, revealing motivations, perceptions, and pain points that surveys may miss. Understanding context helps refine products, brand and messaging strategy, and customer experiences.
- Flexibility and exploration: Unlike structured surveys, qualitative research allows real-time follow-ups, deeper probing, and observation of emotional cues, making it ideal for discovery and open-ended exploration.
When to Conduct Qualitative Market Research
Consider qualitative when you need context. Qualitative research is often exploratory, meaning it’s great for gaining a foundational understanding of a subject and discovering issues you didn’t even know to ask about. For these reasons, it’s often done before quantitative research. Qualitative research allows us to design much better quantitative research instruments. But qualitative research is also highly useful after quantitative research. Qualitative research that follows quantitative research allows us to make much more nuanced recommendations.
Common Types of Qualitative Studies
There are several go-to techniques for gathering qualitative insights, each with its own use case:
- Focus groups: Moderated discussions (5–10 people) in which participants share opinions, react to concepts, and build on each other’s ideas, providing diverse perspectives.
- In-depth interviews (IDIs): One-on-one conversations that offer deep, candid insights—ideal for complex, sensitive, or personal topics.
- Online discussion boards: Asynchronous, moderated engagements in which participants provide thoughtful responses, interact, and share insights over time.
- Ethnography: Engagements in which a researcher observes people in real-life settings to uncover authentic behaviors, habits, and pain points they may not otherwise articulate.
- Diary studies: Longitudinal studies in which participants share experiences over time, revealing perceptions and behaviors through a combination of close-ended, open-ended, video, and photo upload questions.
- User testing: Interactions in which users try a product to identify usability issues and provide feedback to improve the user experience.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative: Is One Better?
No, one isn’t better than the other. That’s like asking if a hammer is better than a screwdriver. Each tool has its strengths, and their value depends on the job you’re trying to do.
Quantitative market research provides breadth. It’s superb for the big picture: trends, percentages, and averages across a large group. If you need to make a yes-or-no decision or prioritize actions based on hard evidence, quantitative will give you clear guidance. It tells you what’s happening but not why.
Qualitative market research provides depth. It shines in exploring the nuances and reasons behind the trends. If you want to truly understand customer emotions or brainstorm solutions to a problem, qualitative is the way to go. It offers rich insights but isn’t meant for percent-of-population conclusions.
Multi-Phase and Mixed-Method Research
Rather than seeing one method as superior, view them as complementary. The most impactful research blends quantitative and qualitative data. Sometimes we achieve this blend through multi-phase projects, where one research phase informs the next. Other times we deploy hybrid or mixed-method research methodologies. Thoughtful integration ensures you capture the scale to represent your audience and the depth to truly understand them. Here are a few ways to do that effectively:
- Quantitative ➡ Qualitative: Start with a quantitative survey, then follow up with qualitative research on a subset of respondents to dig deeper into key findings.
- Qualitative ➡ Quantitative: Begin with qualitative market research to explore an issue, then use quantitative market research to validate insights at scale.
- Qual-Heavy Quant: Combine qualitative elements within a quantitative survey, including open-ended responses, video uploads, or text fields alongside structured questions.
- Qualitative Sprints: Field a survey of all open-ended questions with a small but diverse sample to surface themes and unexpected insights quickly. This is a fast way to gather exploratory feedback that can later be tested in a larger quantitative study.
- Diary Studies: Collect both quantitative and qualitative data over time by having participants log structured responses (e.g., daily ratings) alongside personal reflections (e.g., journal entries or video updates).
Conducting Market Research: Choosing the Right Approach
So, how should you go about planning market research? Here are some key steps and considerations to guide you:
- Define Your Objectives Clearly
Define what you need to learn and how you plan to use the research. Research studies will fail to produce actionable insights if objectives are too vague or too varied. A focused research objective and clarity on how insights will be used will help you choose the right method and should ultimately guide research instrument design and reporting. - Match Methodology to Your Goal
Use quantitative market research when statistical significance is critical and qualitative market research for exploring the “why” behind opinions and behaviors. Consider combining quantitative and qualitative research if time and budget allows. - Factor in Resources & Timeline
Sometimes the ideal approach is not feasible from a budget or timeline perspective. Having a clear understanding of what your organization can spend on a research study and when you need the results by will help inform what methodologies are possible. - Leverage a Research Partner if Needed
Many organizations need a research partner to help them define their objectives and select the right methodology. But even organizations that are clear on objectives and methodology may need a partner to pull off a research project. First, start by assessing if you have the internal capability to source quantitative or qualitative respondents, and do so in a way that ferrets out fraudulent and/or low quality participants. Then, determine if you have the expertise and bandwidth to conduct the study in a way that will produce actionable findings. Remember, research is only useful if it produces insights you can act on!
Campos specializes in actionable quantitative and qualitative market research and will tailor an approach to your specific needs. Contact us to get started!
