Quantitative Research

     Quantitative Research: When people speak of marketing research, they
are usually referring to quantitative research. Quantitative research
involves a survey of a selected sample of a specific group using mail,
telephone or in-person interviews. Data is collected by means of a
carefully constructed questionnaire that is pre-tested before the actual
survey. Completed questionnaires are edited, and verbatim responses to
open-ended questions coded using pre-developed categories. The data from
the questionnaires is entered into a computer for tabulation of results.
Final computer output, or "tables," are then ready for analysis.

     It is important for both research buyers and users to understand the
strengths and weaknesses of each of the various research approaches so they
can select the technique best meeting their needs at a cost within their
budgets.

     Mail Surveys: Mail Surveys were extremely popular during the 1950s and
60s when the costs of telephone interviewing were prohibitively high. Mail
surveys are still widely used today, although the advent of the WATS
telephone service has made telephone surveys much more cost competitive.

     The major strength of mail surveys is still their relative low price.
For the price of postage, materials and printing, a small business can
conduct a very cost-effective research study. In addition, since the
respondent actually receives materials from the researcher, illustrative or
test documents can be included in the mail-out.

     The major drawback to mail surveys is their very low rate of return,
or response rate. Even with incentives such as money, and second mailings,
most end up with about a 5% to 15% response rate. This means you do not
know the opinions of 85% to 95% of the people you wish to study. 

     In addition, those individuals who do not respond to a mail survey are
often different than those who do. For example, older retirees are more
likely to have the time and inclination to fill out and return a
questionnaire while single people between 25 and 35 years old are much less
likely to do so.

     Different research techniques such as incentives and telephone
reminders can boost the response rate to as much as 50%, but all these
methods add to the price of the study, defeating the purpose of selecting
this technique in the first place.

     In-Person Interviews:
Many of us are familiar with in-person interviews. Every ten years the U.S.
Census Department knocks on doors to conduct in-person interviews and find
out how the population has changed. In-person, or personal interviews,
involve a face-to-face meeting between an interviewer and a respondent.
Using a prepared questionnaire, the interviewer asks the respondent a
series of questions and carefully records the answers. These interviews
take place either at the respondent's home or place of business, or at a
well-traveled location such as a shopping mall.


     Unlike mail surveys, personal interviews usually result in a very high
completion rate. Response rates as high as 95% are not unheard of. In
addition, in-person interviews allow the respondent to physically come in
contact with proposed products, services or advertising under the guidance
of the interviewer. This is why in-person interviews are often used in
researching advertising copy or packaging designs.

     The biggest problem with in-person interviews is their extremely high
price. Since an interviewer is required to visit the respondents at their
home or business or track them down in shopping malls, a great deal of
interviewing time is required. Even at low hourly rates for interviewers,
an in-person interview currently costs at least $100. Considering that most
surveys use a sample size of at least 100 people, this approach can get
very expensive.

     Telephone Surveys: In recent years, two major developments have given
rise to the widespread use of telephone surveys in marketing research.
First, the introduction of WATS lines and "Least Call Routing" using
different long distance companies has reduced telephone toll charges.
Second, computers have been introduced into the telephone interviewing
process. Interviewers now sit in front of a computer screen and read from
a pre-programmed questionnaire that appears in front of them. Respondents'
replies are recorded directly into the computer system using a keyboard,
which saves time in data entry and coding. Results are immediately
available at any point during the survey. These "Computer Assisted
Telephone Interviewing" or CATI systems are becoming widely used by
research companies and allow for faster, cheaper and more reliable
interviewing.

     While telephone surveys are much less expensive than in-person
interviews, they are usually slightly higher in price than a straight mail
survey. Response rates with telephone surveys are much better than mail,
usually 50% and higher, which makes them the ideal choice for most research
applications.