MARKETING MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT- I

Quantitative VS Qualitative When any company is developing a new product and is preparing to commission a market research study to ensure the product meets their customers' needs. Having multiple choice companies are not sure to which methodology to choose. All market research methods can be divided into two primary types-quantitative and qualitative. Establishing how these are defined, assessing their relative strengths and weaknesses, and understanding how and when each style is most effectively utilized can help companies to choose the type of market research that's right for them. Quantitative research deals in numbers, logic and the objective, while qualitative research deals in words, images and the subjective. Quantitative research focuses on the left brain - objective, comfortable with logic, numbers, and unchanging static data and detailed, convergent reasoning rather than divergent reasoning. Qualitative research deals with the right brain - the hemisphere accountable for processing data as words, emotions, feelings, emotions, colour, and music. Quantitative Research Has its strength in Numbers Strength in numbers characterizes the many advantages of quantitative research. A numbersbased research discipline, quantitative research statistically measures customer attitudes, behavior, and performance. Utilizing a series of tests and techniques, quantitative research will often yield data that's projectable to a larger population. Because it is so deeply rooted in numbers and statistics, quantitative research has the ability to effectively translate data into easily quantifiable charts and graphs. Real-world examples have shown the effectiveness of quantitative research in measuring product awareness, establishing customer profiles, and determining market size. Quantitative research is about measuring a market and quantifying that measurement with data. Most often the data required relates to market size, market share, penetration, installed base and market growth rates.

At the heart of all quantitative research is the statistical sample. Great care has to be taken in selecting the sample and also in the design of the sample questionnaire and the quality of the analysis of data collected. Market research involves the collection of data to obtain insight and knowledge into the needs and wants of customers and the structure and dynamics of a market. In nearly all cases, it would be very costly and time-consuming to collect data from the entire population of a market. Accordingly, in market research, extensive use is made of sampling from which, through careful design and analysis, Marketers can draw information about the market. Quantitative research has these advantages: * The results are statistically reliable. That is, quantitative research can reliably determine if one idea, concept, product, package, etc., is better than the alternatives. * The results are projectable to the population. That is, the proportion of respondents answering a certain way are similar to the proportion of the total population that would have answered that way if they all had been asked. Qualitative Research Its not about Size When it comes to dealing with large sample size, quantitative research reaffirms the axiom "bigger is better." Yet when it comes to dealing with smaller, more focused samples, qualitative research proves that "size doesn't matter." Qualitative research is a highly subjective research discipline, designed to look beyond the percentages to gain an understanding of the customer's feelings, impressions and viewpoints. Gaining such insight into the hearts and minds of the customer is best acquired through the use of smaller, highly targeted samples. Expert moderators, unencumbered by the strict time and structure constraints of a quantitative survey, use a multitude of techniques to obtain indepth information. Interviews are lengthy, oftentimes as long as four hours, allowing the moderator to elicit extremely candid, highly complex responses. The result is rich, in-depth data laden with insight unobtainable from quantitative market research techniques. Qualitative research is based on human behavior and the reasons behind an individuals choices and feelings. Simplistically, qualitative research is harder to classify and catalog into perfect charts and graphs, however it in imperative to an overall understanding of how the

target audience understands the brand message. Qualitative research is based on nonnumerical data, so while its important to understanding how an audience receives the brand message. Good, sound qualitative research has many strengths. It's flexible, highly-focused, and designed to be completed quickly. Because the results are seen or heard first-hand, management relates to the findings easily. Qualitative research is not without its weaknesses and limitations. Misuse or misunderstanding the capabilities of qualitative research is commonplace. Companies often fall in love with the data-rich results and assume that the results are projectable. This assumption is incorrect. Because the analysis is subjective and deals with a small sample size, projectability is not possible. Another common misconception is the expectation that qualitative research will always produce definitive conclusions. In reality, the results will not provide companies with definitive conclusions, but only with enough information to establish a firm basis for decision making. Trained moderators are essential to the success of qualitative research. Placed in the hands of an untrained moderator, a qualitative research study's chance of success is vastly diminished. ConclusionMy conclusion after understanding both qualitative & quantitative methods of market research. In my view quantitative methods are more accurate & realistic compare to qualitative research. The qualitative analysis becomes bias because in qualitative research the possibility of the researcher taking a neutral or transcendental position is seen as more problematic in practical and/or philosophical terms. So qualitative researchers often reflect their perception & views on the research process & make their analysis which ultimately becomes bias. Why Quantitative research ? However, quantitative research can also be used to measure customer attitudes, satisfaction, commitment and a range of other useful market data that can tracked over time like qualitative research.

Quantitative research can also be used to measure customer awareness and attitudes to different manufacturers and to understand overall customer behaviour in a market by taking a statistical sample of customers to understand the market as a whole. Such techniques are extremely powerful when combined with techniques such segmentation analysis and mean that key audiences can be targeted and monitored over time to ensure the optimal use of the marketing budget. While quantitative research is a fundamental step to market research, without qualitative research companies can miss an enormous opportunity to truly understand their audience. The objective of quantitative research is to gather enough information to employ mathematical models, strategic market graphs, and hypotheses regarding future marketing plans. Its based on statistics, an array of numbers gathered from points on surveys or percentages on polls that can be seamlessly applied to graphs and charts. To conclude if I would have to select method for market research I would chose quantitative market research because of benefits of quantitative research:
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Results are easy to summarise and analyse Comparisons between groups, locations and times can be measured for difference Researching a small group can give a reliable indication of the views of a larger population