The Yin and Yang of Research

A brief thought today, but one that bears repeating. Survey research, especially as it relates to consumer and B2B marketing research, has an interdependent relationship with qualitative research. In short, they both benefit from each other. 

I recently had the opportunity to sit in and observe a brand development session. This session was essentially a guided focus group. The comments that arose from the session gave me new insight into how my executive team is thinking (a blessing for any client-side market researcher). It is the depth of insight that arises from qualitative work that can really drive a more targeted survey designed to answer the client’s specific questions of concern.

So in this case the qualitative research better informed my survey design. But does qualitative always come first in the process?

Data from focus groups and in-depth interviews can lead to better surveys, but they can also be added post-facto. Some years back I administered a survey that raised very interesting questions. These points were restructured and posed to focus group participants after the survey. This lead to deeper insight into the motivations respondents were using in their decision calculus, which subsequently lead to better creative design.

With this said, the relationship between quantitative and qualitative data collection methods is a bit like Yin and Yang. Both feed into the other and we as researchers would be remiss by not incorporating both into our process.