Jerry Thomas, CEO of Decision Analyst, a leading international research firm and friend of Godfrey, distilled some great guidelines about when and where it is appropriate to use qualitative research (I’m truncating it to QUALR). I have found no better working definition of QUALR than what Jerry offers in his white paper, Qualitative Analytics:  “unstructured, non-directive discussions or interviews (such as focus groups, depth interviews, and ethnography or observation) to explore a topic. Typically, sample sizes are small, fewer than 50 respondents, and sampling methods are rarely scientific.”

Follow these guidelines when considering a research project and you will be able to make a smart decision on whether qualitative research is the right methodology.

• Use QUALR: if you want to better understand “why” customers believe what they believe. QUALR can provide insight into what’s behind human behavior.
• Use QUALR: if you need to study “intricate systems or processes.” For B2B marketers, QUALR can provide a deeper understanding of what influences a buying decision e.g. steps in the purchase process, what the sources of information are, who influences the buying decision.
• Use QUALR: if you are intending to do a large-scale quantitative research study. QUALR can be of great value in getting insight on the range of answer choices for designing a questionnaire. In addition, it will help in discerning the customer’s language, perceptions and key issues or hot buttons.
• Use QUALR: when marketing issues are complex, perplexing or confusing. QUALR, with its inherent interactivity, (in the hands of a skilled moderator-analyst) can help navigate through complex issues expeditiously.
• Use QUALR: when the sample sizes are limited. QUALR is appropriate for B2B marketers because often we find there are very few customers who have the right background, experience and expertise that we need to talk to. If you can’t talk to many customers, you’d better get a bunch of information from the precious few people that can provide valuable insight.