What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative market research methods?

• A. Qualitative uses surveys; quantitative uses interviews.
• B. Qualitative measures numbers; quantitative uses narratives.
• C. Qualitative explores attitudes with interviews, focus groups; quantitative uses numerical data via surveys, stats.
• D. Qualitative is always faster; quantitative is always more accurate.

Answer: (C)

Qualitative vs. quantitative research is about how data is gathered and what it’s used for. Qualitative work dives into the why and how behind opinions, feelings, and behaviors, using non-numeric data collected through methods like interviews, focus groups, and observations. The goal is to uncover meanings, motivations, and patterns in depth, often with smaller samples, and the findings are interpreted for themes rather than statistical generalization.

Quantitative work, by contrast, focuses on measuring things with numbers. It gathers numerical data through structured surveys, experiments, or existing statistics, and uses statistical analysis to describe and test relationships. This approach aims for generalizability to a larger population, provided the sampling and design are sound.

So, describing qualitative research as exploring attitudes with interviews and focus groups, and quantitative research as using numerical data via surveys and statistics, captures the essential difference in data type, methods, and purpose.

Other statements blur these distinctions—for example, suggesting qualitative uses surveys or that qualitative measures numbers—because surveys are typically designed to yield numeric data, and qualitative data is primarily descriptive rather than numeric. Statements about speed or accuracy are not defining features of the methods themselves.