What Are Qualitative Analytics Techniques?
Qualitative Analytics involve the application of quantitative
or statistical techniques to data collected in focus
groups or other qualitative research exercises.
Qualitative Analytics are Controversial
While the technique has been employed for years
by qualitative researchers who have strong statistical
capabilities, Qualitative Analytics are often misunderstood
by market researchers and have tended to be quite controversial.
The main objection to the use of statistical procedures
with qualitative database is that the size of the sample
in most qualitative studies is insufficient for the
application of conventional statistical techniques.
Indeed this often is the case. A typical qualitative
study consists of samples of less than 50 respondents
(e.g., six groups with eight respondents per session)
and would, by conventional statistical standards, have
a 95 % confidence interval of ± 13.8 %. This is clearly
an inadequate sample to draw conclusions of a definitive
nature concerning most matters of inquiry.
The Responsible Application of Qualitative Analytics
Qualitative Analytics are not intended to replace rigorous
quantitative research. Hence, Qualitative Analytics
should not be used to provide estimates of incidence
or polling statistics. However, there are at least three
ways Lang Research has found Qualitative Analytics useful:
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Content
Analysis: Content Analysis is
the codification of verbatim responses on
a given issue. These tallies provide a clear
indication of the extent to which various
comments were made over a series of focus
groups. Content Analysis is intended to
replace the subjective interpretation of
qualitative researchers (i.e., some, few,
rarely, most) and allows end-users of the
research to participate more fully in the
interpretation of response patterns.
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Respondent
Tagging: Respondent tagging involves
recording how each respondent felt about
each issue during the session. When combined
with session questionnaire data, the Qualitative
Analytics allow patterns to be identified
in the opinions of individual respondents.
These patterns can then be clustered to
identify distinctive and coherent points
of view.
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Repeated
Measure Exercises: With this
approach, responses are asked to provide
a series of responses in a questionnaire
format. For example, respondents may be
asked to rate a number of brands across
a series of image attributes or may be asked
to rate the appeal of a number of variations
on a product. These data are then used to
construct expanded datasets which employ
the brand, test product or other evaluated
entity as the unit of analysis. Repeated
measure exercises can be used to construct
databases of several hundred responses allowing
conventional statistical techniques to be
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Qualitative Analytics Add Value to Qualitative Studies
The Qualitative Analytics are now routinely
applied in the qualitative studies conducted by Lang
Research. This approach highlights the distinctiveness
of individuals and provides a much deeper understanding
of the factors which influence evaluations and behaviours
than is possible from the traditional interpretation
of response patterns.
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