Let us continue the discussion on Market Research. One critical question is what should we do and when to do it.

When the issue on hand is at a very nascent stage, we need more information. We need a ‘feel’ for it rather than numbers and percentages. This is the stage we do qualitative research. For example, let us say that we want to understand the customer satisfaction levels for a bank. We need to first know what are the key parameters the bank customers look for. And, how do customers describe the banking experience. This can be obtained by speaking to just a few customers of the bank and talking to them in detail.

Next stage is when we want to ‘quantify’ the understanding. In the above example, we might want to understand the percentage of customers who are happy and those who are unhappy. This is the stage we apply quantitative research. This is when we will be going to a larger sample size which can represent the customers of the bank.