Some Vital Pros and Cons of the Qualitative Research Technique

Qualitative research is carried out with the help of open-ended questions and collects data differently. This type of research technique is more experiential and focuses on capturing people's views and feelings. It is non-numerical data that assesses a small group of people to gather ideas and insights. The qualitative research is carried through exploratory strategies like focus groups, in-depth interviews, and observation that provide an insight into the minds and thought processes of consumers. 

Qualitative research technique is usually carried out when an institution or business research objective is to explore a topic or an idea, or if they wish to gain insight into a target audience's behaviors, culture, motivations, and preferences, etc. 

Likewise, if they want to gain an understanding of the reasons behind the quantitative research results, or they wish to obtain input from key informants outside the target audience, qualitative research techniques can be insightful. 

Businesses while deciding if qualitative research will suit their brand's current needs or not should consider the major pros and cons of qualitative research. Like any popular research technique, qualitative research has its advantages and disadvantages.

Pros of the Qualitative Research Technique

Gain Insight into Target Audiences’ Minds – Brands or institutions carrying out qualitative research through interviews or focus groups can probe into a person’s opinions and feelings. Interviewers come up with follow-up questions to gain deeper insight into their customers’ minds and the reasons behind their responses. The open-ended questions asked in the research uncover the basic understanding of the customers and there is no limitation of what can be uncovered through an engaging conversation. All these insights will provide a researcher a true picture of their audiences, and their thought about the brand or product.

Expand Audience - The pandemic taught businesses to online conduct in-depth interviews and focus group interviews. Brands and businesses conducted qualitative research through qualitative sessions that earlier may have been out of budget. With virtual focus groups, businesses may include subjects from different locations in the same session for a diversified conversation. It also minimizes distraction. An additional benefit is that audience responses are captured from where they belong, thereby providing a glimpse into their life and environment that was otherwise hard to capture at a facility.

Observe Emotions - It is extremely difficult for businesses to pick up their customers' feelings and thoughts through quantitative research techniques because unspoken nuances can only be experienced through personal interaction with a subject. These in-depth details of the research lead to accurate and insightful observations.

Cons of the Qualitative Research Technique

Consume a Lot of Time to Collect the Data Points - A lot of information is available from this research process that consumes a lot of time to sort through the elements to find useful information. With a lot of potential data points, finding usable information for researchers are at times a difficult task. Besides, the uncertainty element can never be eliminated from this type of research.

Does not provide statistical representation - The results of qualitative research are not shown in percentages or statistics, as this research technique proves effective for looking at specific areas of concern within local demographics. It is difficult to apply the findings to a broad population. The best outcome of this research technique is a comparison of data through which it can be understood why some things happen in a specific way. Thus, this research technique cannot be used by businesses when they look to estimate market opportunity, measure brand quality, conduct market segmentation analysis, or quantify growth trends. 

Researchers should know about the topic which they are reviewing - The incisive outcome of qualitative research is also partly possible because the researchers have industry-related expertise. However, if the researchers do not have sound knowledge of the subject then they will not be able to ask the relevant questions that are necessary for seeking the desired results. The interviewer requires some level of personal knowledge and its absence can undermine the desired research objectives.