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By Thomas Fandrich, Co-Founder and U.S. Managing Director; Beatrice Capestany, Research Consultant; and Johanna Azis, Head of Marketing – U.S., quantilope. 

Brands often use qualitative research to get at the “why” behind consumer behavior for a deeper understanding of customer needs, anchored associations towards brands and categories and in-depth reactions to new products or innovations. While face-to-face conversations with consumers can add a human touch to data points, they can also be increasingly difficult to attain. Getting your specific target group all in one place, gathering a substantial sample size and then conducting and analyzing the study is effortful from both a logistics and cost perspective.

Even more, COVID-19 and social distancing orders have introduced a new level of complexity to qualitative research as many consumers are forced to stay home. Today’s researchers not only seek a more efficient solution to qualitative research but are now required to find a valid alternative for gathering qualitative insights as many traditional modes no longer exist.

In these cases, and in general, quantitative research can be used as a replacement for traditional qualitative approaches. Advanced quantitative research uses statistical modeling and analysis to transform respondent data into explanations or predictions of the “why” behind consumer behavior. By leveraging advanced, automated quantitative research methods researchers can quickly unlock deeper consumer attitudes typically associated with qualitative results.

Here, quantilope has developed a three-step, scalable process for researchers to implement advanced quantitative insights as an alternative to qualitative research. Steps 1 and 2 provide a framework to identify which quantitative method can be used to replace your qualitative question. Step 3 introduces how you can implement automated advanced quantitative research in an iterative framework for a complete view of your consumer or to support the development of a project from beginning to end. Iterative workflows provide the same deep insights at a fraction of the investment or length that multiple qualitative studies could take.

Step 1: Ask, what business question is your qualitative research trying to solve for?

Step 2: Ask, what is the goal of your qualitative research question?

Step 3: Create a series of iterative learning loops

For example:

Qualitative research question 1: Can we expand our business into a new product category?

Research goal: Understand what people associate with a certain category, what they associate with our brand and how this fits together.

The quantitative solution: Implicit testing using the single- and multi-association tests.

Data from qualitative IDIs or focus groups are used by brands when looking to create a new product outside of their category. However, leveraging automated implicit tests provides a more efficient approach to understanding why the product will or will not be successful.

Based on decades of neuroscience and psychology research, implicit tests capture the underlying unconscious attitudes of your consumers. Implicit tests can help you understand the signals a category, product or brand conveys to help you strengthen your own value proposition. Brands can leverage implicit tests to understand what consumers subconsciously associate with your brand and how those associations connect to the new product category you want to enter.

Implicit tests go beyond the insights that a qualitative approach can provide as they measure the unconscious forces that drive consumer decision-making – rather than a direct question-and-answer format. When automated, implicit tests can also offer a representative, reliable sample that’s cost-efficient, providing insights in just days versus weeks or months.

To learn more, read quantilope’s full whitepaper, From Qual to Quant, with additional examples and expanded sections on how to leverage automated advanced research methodologies in lieu of qualitative alternatives.

Want to learn more? Visit www.quantilope.com/en-us/blog/from-qual-to-quant.