Qualitative research is one of the most important aspects for all decision makers. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to obtain reliable qualitative research than it is other types of data. While most research data tends to focus on what happened, where it happened, when it happened, and how often it happened – qualitative research works more from a backwards perspective. It accepts the end result, but wants to know why or how the event(s) occurred.

All research is only as good as the sample collected. The sample needs to not only be representative of the ultimate group that is in question, but it also needs be free from potential bias or error from the researcher. With the added difficulties present when attempting research of the qualitative variety, the need for and difficulty associated with obtaining accurate samples is only emphasized. Here is a look at some of the most important criteria to be adhered to in order to best obtain an accurate sample.

Representation: It is of the greatest importance that the sample obtained be representative of the population that is intended to be studied. If a distributor wants to know why a group of people are buying his products, it does little good to gauge product opinion from a general population, many of whom are not his (or her) end customers. If a manager is looking to determine why a product may not be selling, it would be necessary to make sure that the population being sampled represents the decision makers who would be in his target customer demographic(s), but are choosing not to make the purchases. Age, gender, location, household income, personal views or habits, and other factors along these lines are often amongst the most common factors involved in selecting a representative sample.

Randomness: A sample needs to be random and representative. While those two descriptions would seem to be at odds, they are actually just the dual heads to the same coin. A sample need be random within a larger, but still representative, population. For example, if the researcher has found over ten thousand people within his desired population spanning different regions and backgrounds, it would be folly to interview a handful of people from the same neighborhood and call that an accurate sample. Essentially, quality qualitative research depends on the researcher effectively determining what the overall population is (and the vary aspects associated with that), then effectively randomizing the interviewees or subjects within that population.

Importance: Not all members of a sample are created equal. For example, for a soft drink retailer, the decision maker for a national retail chain of supermarkets holds much greater importance than the teenager who buys a couple of sodas from the vending machine a month. For the researcher’s purposes, it is very important to know the role and the scale of the person being interviewed in order to determine exactly how much sway that one opinion has.

One might assume that these three areas may seem extremely difficult to effectively obtain. That would be a correct assumption. This is why there is such high value put on great research teams. Nobody ever said it was easy!

Author Bio: By Felix Chesterfield; For more information on Qualitative Research and the Market Research Firms that best provide it, please contact the author.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: Qualitative Research, Market Research Firms, Data Sampling