Quantitative Market Research Techniques

How many people should be interviewed for research to be considered "quantitative" vs. "qualitative"?

Quantitative research needs to be conducted with a large enough number of people to provide statistically accurate measurement and analysis.

• Most research companies believe that each test cell (group of customers that will be analyzed) needs to be at least 100 people for the analysis for that group to be statistically valid.
  
• One hundred people doesn’t sound like a lot of people, but when you consider that the industry average is 1% for people to complete market research surveys, it requires contacting 10,000 potentially qualified respondents to get 100 completed surveys. 

Know this:  the biggest challenge in conducting quantitative research will be getting enough “sample” (a market research industry term for contact information for people who are qualified and who will respond to market research surveys).  You need a very large list of qualified respondents to complete a quantitative research study.  There are companies that specialize in recruiting people to participate in research and sell access to these people.  Finding Market Research Participants explains how this works and recommends reputable suppliers.

 

Screening criteria for Quantitative Research

This is the term the market research industry uses to describe what qualifies or eliminates someone from participating in research.

For instance, a company that sells car oils might set their criteria as: men 16 to 50 who own a car.  That’s pretty broad (and therefore easier to find people who meet this criteria and so less expensive). 

As they add additional criteria like “changes their own oil” or “has a household income of more than $75,000 a year”, the incidence of finding people who meet all these criteria is smaller.  And, like all supply and demand scenarios, it becomes more expensive to find these qualified research participants.

A screener is a set of questions asked of all potential research participants at the beginning of the survey which determines whether the individual is qualified, or not, to take the survey.  For example, if the screening criteria is mothers who are 25 to 39 years old who are married with children under age 5, then the screener will include questions that ask people their gender, marital status, age and the ages of their children.  People who do not meet the criteria, are not asked to complete the research survey. 

• Market Research Screeners explains how to do this

What questions are asked in quantitative research?

Quantitative research is very structured.  Every respondent is asked the same series of questions.  Surveys and polls with multiple choice answers are the most common type of quantitative research. 

Quantitative research can also be structured like a science experiment where different test cells (groups of 100 customers) are shown different things (ads, products, taglines, logos) and the results compared.  Like a science experiment, to be most accurate, only one variable should be changed to understand what variable impacted the test results.

Most marketers don’t have the patience for this so they test completely different things to decide what approach “wins”.  That’s helpful for evaluating what to do, but not for understanding why one approach worked over another.  To do that, groups would need to be shown something where only one variable changed.  And to be most accurate, a control group would also be set up where the people would not be shown any stimulus.

The results, or data, from quantitative research can be analyzed thoroughly to understand how different groups of customers answered different questions.

For instance, answers from women can be compared to men (if there are equal numbers of men and women who completed the survey).  And current customers’ answers can be compared to those from prospects. 

You want to think through how you want to analyze the data when you are determining what questions to ask. 

• All the Top Online Research Suppliers sites have templates for typical quantitative research that you can use to customize your research.  That makes the process go faster if you have something to start with. 
• Our article on Customer Satisfaction Surveys covers recommendations for how to best conduct that specific type of research including what questions to ask (and which ones not to). 

TIP:  you can hire a freelancer who is an independent contractor with expertise in market research to write your survey and manage the process, analyze the data and write the report.  Look for someone with experience in your industry and type of business so they will be able to apply their accumulated knowledge.  

How to conduct quantitative research

Quantitative research can be conducted online, by email, by phone or in person.  

Most surveys are now done online or with an email invitation. 

This is less expensive than printing and mailing surveys (with only 1% response rates) or trying to reach people by phone to answer a 15 to 20 minute research study. 

Online research is particularly effective for reaching particular target audience groups but not for reaching certain populations of people who do not have computer access at home or their office. 

• Top Online Survey Suppliers lists the top companies that offer these services and their costs.

Mall intercept research in areas with a high density of the targeted population group are generally used to reach people without computer access. 

Phone interviews are harder to conduct because so many people have caller ID, are on do not call lists or only use their cell phone and don't want to take market research surveys on that.

Next page has tips on conducting quantitative research