- 25/11/2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this research. The success of any research is its systematic and comprehensive approach to solving the tasks, so the study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, designed to help you achieve the research objectives.
Research methods that are used in marketing, are divided into two major groups: quantitative and qualitative. The principal difference between these categories is that quantitative research methods have to deal with numerical characteristics of the studied populations, which are suitable for statistical analysis. In contrast, qualitative research methods have to deal with the characteristics of the studied objects and phenomena, marked qualitative categories, which are not suitable for statistical analysis.
Qualitative research method
The name of this type of research is not due to the fact that all the other studies provide substandard results, but qualitative studies are based on different principles than quantitative research. Qualitative research is aimed at obtaining the deep motivation of consumers, detailed information about the subject of research.
Qualitative methods involve the collection of information in a free form, they focus not on statistical measurements, and based on the understanding, explanation and interpretation of empirical data, are the source of hypothesis formation and productive ideas.
The task of qualitative research methods is to obtain exploration data, rather than quantitative distribution of opinions. In qualitative methods to explain and interpret the concept researchers use words but not numbers.
This type of research does not justify the claim that “25% of our customers think so-so”, but qualitative methods are very helpful in a situation where you would like information on the poorly known problem when you do not quite understand what you want to ask the respondent. (Gill & Johnson 1991)
In qualitative research is widely used projective and enabling techniques that help the researcher to reveal the motives, attitudes, relationships, preferences, values, degree of satisfaction of respondents with regard to products or brands. Projective techniques help to overcome the difficulties of communication, as well as reveal the hidden motives, implicit installation, etc.
Most of the methods of qualitative research are based on approaches developed by psychologists, so use of these techniques is limited, because Data collection should be carried out by highly qualified specialist in the field of marketing in conjunction with a professional psychologist.
However, quantitative and qualitative methods are rather the two instruments, which complement each other. Qualitative methods provide insight into the problem, formulate the objectives and concepts for the subsequent quantitative research.
“Quantitative measurements are quantitatively accurate; qualitative evaluations are always subject to the errors of human judgement. Yet it would seem far more worthwhile to make a shrewd guess regarding that which is essential than to accurately measure that which is likely to prove quite irrelevant” (LaPiere, 1934).
Qualitative information is taken from different types of sources such as Tesco web sites, white papers, Tesco brochures, case study of Tesco, magazines, journals, news articles, one-on-one interviews, thesis, information from internet, business news etc. custom research paper
Qualitative research is used to collect information about the inclinations, motivations, values, attitudes of consumers. Qualitative methods provide a deeper understanding of the processes occurring in the minds of consumers, they help to identify patterns and consumption habits, make it possible to determine the cause of a reaction to the product, packaging or promotional materials.
Qualitative methods are effectively used in cases where necessary: to get a deep understanding of consumption patterns, consumer behavior and determinants of consumer choice, and his habits, preferences; to explore the decision making process of buying;
describe the attitude of consumers to products, brands and companies; to assess the degree of satisfaction with existing products.
Another key to marketing scope of qualitative research is the development of new products, where these studies provide: to understand whether there is in the target market niche for a new product; to estimate amounting brand (product, packaging, names, etc.); to identify attitudes to new products (or product concepts); to define and refine the positioning strategy.
The third area, which used techniques of qualitative research is a creative development. In this direction adjoins the use of qualitative research at the stage of strategic development of the brand concept, providing an opportunity to: estimate the concept of brand; generate ideas about the concept of brand positioning; generate ideas for creative implementation of strategic concepts; evaluate the elements of marketing communication (name, logo, packaging, promotional materials, etc.); choose the most successful variant of execution of advertising, packaging, logo etc.
“Quantitative data are data which can be sorted, classified, measured in a strictly ‘objective’ way – they are capable of being accurately described by a set of rules or formulae or strict procedures which then make their definition (if not always their interpretation) unambiguous and independent of individual judgements.” (R. Harvey 2002)
Quantitative Methods
These methods are widely used in marketing researches as are based on the fact that the behavior of people and their attitude can be expressed by numerical values, which are then analyzed using statistical methods.
Quantitative studies focus on the task to get an evaluation problem using statistical inference. That is, analyze the percentage of respondents who hold a certain behavioral model. To obtain reliable statistical results should be carried out quantitative studies on a sufficiently large sample: at least 100 and not more than 1200 people. And the level of statistical reliability is directly dependent on the number of respondent audience. (Gill & Johnson 1991)
Quantitative research methods include surveys and experiments.
Survey – is the most common and important form of data collection in marketing. Polls are used in about 90% of marketing research. Polls can be made verbally – through personal contacts, by telephone and in writing – by mail or email. In a written survey respondents receive questionnaires, which they must complete and send to its destination.
To improve the quality of questionnaires and the success of data collection it is necessary:
– comply with certain requirements for the formulation of questions (questions should be simple, clear, unambiguous and should not affect the response);
– to use certain principles of making of questionnaire (the order of questions: from simple – to complex, from the general – to the special, from the non-binding – to the delicate, first issues, establishing trust, then the substantive issues, then, perhaps, control issues, at the end of questions about personality);
– try to increase the percentage of return for a written survey due to: promotion (but you need to consider the costs and the possible responses from the embellishment of gratitude),
– make a cover letter so to awaken interest, attractive design letters and its small size;
– to work closely with the interviewers (give detailed instructions on carrying out work to control them, for example, with a subsequent telephone interview).
When conducting interviews it is of great importance to make a sampling plan. In planning the sample, researchers must first set the object sample, that is the studied population of consumers (general population), of which the sample is taken. The representativeness of the sample to a large extent depends on the procedures of selecting respondents for the study. When survey participants are volunteers or selected because of their accessibility, these samples rarely produce reliable conclusions.
The best results of marketing research can be obtained if to use qualitative methods to gather information, and only then, after analyzing the data, to carry out a full quantitative study.
The sources which will be used for research are internet, journals, books, articles, newspaper, and related news found in magazine, legal websites, reports of university, newsletter, Tesco website, Tesco case studies, white papers, seminar papers and marketing departments. The good reason of secondary data is, its comparatively inexpensive and the availability is very easy (Saunders et al.2003). significantly, there has been research done on customer loyalty and customer satisfaction as well as Tesco clubcard and many books have been publish on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
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