Quantitative Research
Quantitative Research
Quantitative research, conducted primarily by sending some form of questionnaire to survey participants and analyzing their responses to the questions, is primarily suited for identifying general trends and quantitatively testing hypotheses.
Specific Methods of Quantitative Research
At Global, we support the following quantitative research (some methods are not available in all countries)
Internet research
This is a type of survey in which a questionnaire screen is created on a website and survey targets are asked to respond and submit their answers via the Internet. Because it is relatively inexpensive and quick, it is the most widely used type of quantitative survey.
mail research
This is a type of survey in which printed questionnaires are mailed to survey targets and the responses are returned. This type of survey can be conducted even with survey targets who do not have access to the Internet.
home use test
This is a style of survey in which samples of new or improved products are mailed to the homes of survey targets for tasting, sampling, and testing, and then evaluated using a questionnaire.
telephone survey
This is a type of survey in which questions are sent to survey targets in advance via the Internet or by mail, and responses are obtained during interviews by telephone. This type of survey is effective when you want to know more about the “real voice” that is difficult to obtain only from the answers to questionnaires.
Other
We can conduct “venue surveys,” in which survey targets are asked to come to a prepared venue for evaluation, and “street surveys,” in which interviews are conducted on the streets, at transportation stations, airports, etc.
Strong quantitative research skills.
- Because of the style of the survey, the burden on the survey targets can be reduced to some extent. In the case of Internet or mail surveys, another advantage is that the survey can be completed at home or at other convenient times.
- This is a good method to get an overall picture or trend. Also, since a certain amount of research is conducted and the results can be quantified, it is possible to make decisions that are backed by data.
Difficulty with quantitative research.
- In principle, we can only obtain responses to questions that have been included in the survey in advance, so there are limitations in terms of confirming the meaning of the responses in more depth and obtaining the “real voices” of the respondents. *This disadvantage can sometimes be resolved by conducting the survey in conjunction with a “telephone survey.
- Since it is impossible to accurately grasp overall trends with small-volume surveys, it is necessary to conduct surveys on a fixed scale. In addition, a certain amount of ingenuity is required to increase the valid response rate.
Things to keep in mind when conducting quantitative research
- As mentioned above, there are “strengths” and “weaknesses” in quantitative surveys. It is necessary to plan a survey plan after carefully considering the survey goals that you “truly” want to achieve with this survey.
- In other countries, the tendency for survey results to differ depending on the region and economic level in which the survey targets live is even more pronounced than in Japan. Especially in the case of marketing research, it is necessary to utilize multifaceted indicators such as SES (Social Economic Status) and SEC (Social Economic Class), including occupation, education level, and race, to identify and select appropriate survey targets.
- In many cases, a survey questionnaire prepared in Japanese for Japanese respondents cannot be translated into the language of the country where the survey is conducted and utilized as is. For example, in countries where the concept of diversity is widespread, it may be necessary to provide a third option for “gender” alone (e.g., the U.S. version of Facebook allows respondents to select their gender from more than 50 options). We need to accurately understand the current situation in the target country and use our knowledge to accurately localize the survey form.
- While survey research is the least burdensome research method for survey targets, it still requires some ingenuity to increase the collection rate and valid response rate. Since the target audience receives a vast number of emails and mail every day, it may be necessary to make the “subject line” and “appearance” easy to spot. It may also be effective to offer some kind of special benefit to respondents.