Two questions about Station Road: Lena's Bakery Ltd plans a fourth shop on Station Road, opposite the railway station. Lena and Marco want to sell breakfast to commuters on their way to the train.
They have two questions
- How many commuters would buy breakfast from us? The first question wants a number.
- What would make them stop? The second wants reasons, in people's own words.
Research that collects numbers (quantitative research) answers how many, how much and how often. The answers can be counted, turned into percentages, put on a chart and compared.
Research that collects words (qualitative research) answers why. It gathers opinions, feelings and reasons, in the customer's own words, from a few people in depth.
Quantitative: numbers
- Marco's survey. 200 commuters at the station answer one question: 'Would you buy breakfast from a bakery on your way to the train? Yes or no.'
- The result. 124 say yes. That is 62%.
- What it tells Lena. How many. Enough commuters want breakfast for the idea to be worth a closer look.
Qualitative: words
- Aisha's focus groups. Aisha, who manages the High Street shop, invites sixteen of her regulars who commute. Two groups of eight talk for an hour about their mornings.
- The result. 'I have four minutes between the bus and the train. If there is a queue, I walk past.'
- What it tells Lena. Why, and on what terms. They will buy, but only if it is fast.
The quick test: Can the answers be counted and turned into a percentage? Then the research is quantitative.
Are the answers opinions or reasons, in the person's own words? Then it is qualitative.
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In 4.4.1 you met four ways of asking customers yourself: surveys, interviews, focus groups and observations. None of them is quantitative or qualitative because of its name. What decides it is the kind of answer the method collects.
Closed and open questions: A question with a fixed set of answers to choose from (a closed question) gives numbers: 'Yes or no?', 'Rate us from 1 to 10', 'Would you pay $3, $4 or $5?'
A question people answer in their own words (an open question) gives words: 'What would make you stop at a bakery on your way to work?'
| Method | Gives numbers when | Gives words when |
|---|---|---|
| Survey | the questions are closed: 124 of 200 said yes | a question is left open: 'Anything else you would want?' |
| Interview | everyone is asked the same closed questions | the customer talks freely about why, as in most interviews |
| Focus group | hardly ever: eight people are too few to count | almost always: the group talks through reasons and ideas |
| Observation | someone counts: 1,850 people walked past between 6.30 and 9.00 | someone watches how people behave: who stops, who hurries on |
| Secondary sources (4.4.2) | the rail company publishes 4,200 passengers a day | a newspaper article reports what commuters complain about |
The rating trap: 'Rate our bread from 1 to 10' sounds like an opinion, but the answer is a number. It can be averaged and compared with last month, so it is quantitative.
Sort research by the answers it collects, never by the name of the method or the topic of the question.
Notice the sizes too. Marco can ask 200 people because each answer takes seconds to give and to count. Aisha talks to sixteen because each person talks for an hour.
That is why quantitative research usually uses a large sample and qualitative research a small one. How the people are chosen was 4.4.3.
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What the survey missed: Marco's survey and Aisha's focus groups pointed Lena to two different breakfast plans.
Marco's survey
- The survey said 62% of commuters would buy breakfast.
- Lena's first plan was a counter with six stools and a coffee machine.
Aisha's focus groups
- They said something the survey never asked about: nobody will wait.
- Lena changed the plan to a shelf of ready-packed breakfasts and ordering by phone the night before.
| Quantitative (numbers) | Qualitative (words) | |
|---|---|---|
| Shows | How many, how much, how often | Why, and on what terms |
| Sample | Large, so the result is more likely to speak for the whole market | Small, so it may not speak for everyone |
| Analysis | Quick to count, chart and compare with last year or another town | Slow to sort, and hard to measure how much each finding matters |
| Main weakness | Answers only the questions someone thought to ask; a tick is not a reason | One loud member of the group, or the person leading it, can steer what the others say |
| Cost per person | Low: a few seconds each | High: an hour each, a room and someone to lead it |
Using both
Words first, to find the right questions
Aisha's focus groups showed that speed matters more than anything. Nobody at the bakery had thought to ask about it.
Numbers next, to see how many
Marco adds a closed question: 'Would you order by phone the night before? Yes or no.' If 90 of 200 say yes, that is 45%, a figure Lena can plan the morning's baking around.
Or numbers first, then words to explain them
If Park Road's bread sales fall by a tenth in a month, the till records show how much. Only asking the customers shows why.
Neither is better: Numbers without words can measure the wrong thing very precisely. Words without numbers can tell you what sixteen commuters want and not whether the 1,850 others agree.
Most businesses use both: words to understand, numbers to measure.
How this comes up: The case gives you the method and the people. Say what kind of answers it collects, then what that means for this business.
The usual questions
- Two marks. Define qualitative or quantitative research.
- Two marks. Explain one advantage or one disadvantage of a research method for a named business. The answer often turns on whether the method gives numbers or words.
- Four marks. Explain one advantage and one disadvantage of using qualitative or quantitative research for the business in the case.
The four-mark pattern
- Name the advantage. Qualitative research finds out why customers act as they do, in their own words, including things nobody thought to ask.
- Show it in the case. Aisha's focus groups found that commuters will not queue, so Lena's Bakery planned a ready-packed shelf instead of a counter.
- Name the disadvantage. Qualitative research uses small groups, so the findings may not speak for the whole market and cannot be turned into a reliable percentage.
- Show it in the case. Sixteen commuters, all High Street regulars invited by Aisha, may not speak for the 1,850 people who pass Station Road each morning.
The trap: saying which one is better: 'Qualitative is better because it gives more detail' is a comparison, not an explanation. The question asks what qualitative research does for this business and what it costs it.
Qualitative research
- Depth
- Reasons
- Small groups
Quantitative research
- Large samples
- Percentages
- Charts
Keep the two apart: Swap them and the point is wrong, however well it is applied.
Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for Lena's Bakery of using qualitative research to plan the Station Road shop.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.