METHODS

Quantitative research (in simple terms) includes surveying a large number of people about their opinion, attitudes and experience in order to obtain hard facts and do a statistical analysis. To be able to obtain reliable results, it is necessary to survey a large number of people and ensure that they are a representative sample of the market being researched.

Nevertheless, if survey questions are not formulated well and if a respondent has not been surveyed in a proper manner, the results will not reflect the opinion of the population which is the research subject.

Qualitative research has as its objective in-depth comprehension of certain behaviour, as well as discovering motives for such behaviour by means of a specially prepared interview and moderation. Qualitative studies are conducted not only if you want to find out the opinion of an individual, but also why they have such an opinion. Either group research (FGD) or individual interviews can be used.

Qualitative methods are usually an introduction to quantitative methods, and very often qualitative methods are applied again after quantitative methods in order to obtain the most accurate information. This is how the value of certain customer attitudes obtained via interviews is measured.

Some academic authorities from the field of research put mystery shopping into the category of qualitative research, while some place it in the quantitative one. Be that as it may, mystery shopping is a separate combination of both methods.

Desktop research method includes search, analysis and structuring of information obtained from relevant sources. This method is thus employed for separating important information, using a pre-defined logical algorithm, from the sea of data available in research or public bases, on the Internet or in other databases (offline or online).

Apart from internal databases, the sources we use in desktop research include official data, bases and reports of relevant public and private institutions.

This kind of research method is most often used as a preparation for the market entry of some company or for launching a (new or existing) product onto a new market.