Research methods

A Guide to Research Methods....

-Primary -Secondary -Quantitative -Qualitative

Primary Research

Secondary Research

What is it?

What is it?

-Primary research is orginal data collected by you personally or a company you hire. Can be either Qualitative or Quantitative. The benefits of it is the research is specific to your needs and you control the quality. Primary research is more complex and explores in depth. The disadvantages of primary research is it usually costs more and takes longer. It may also be time consuming and the interviewer could possibly be bias.

There could be a low response rate and the questionnaires can be misinterpreted.

Examples:

-Secondary research is data collected by someone else.

It can either be Quantitative or Qualitative. The benefits of this is that it is usually cheap and quicker. It can be easier to conduct and prepares people for primary research. It gives a broad understanding on the topic and the needs of the public. However some disadvantages is that the data can be too old and/or not specific enough for you needs. It is also a possibility that the data may not be accurate.

Examples:

-Open and closed questionnaires

-Internet

-Structured interviews

-Websites

-Surveys

-Books -Magazines

Quantitive Research What is it?

Qualitative Research What is it?

-Quantitative research is used to determine the problem by way of exact figures and facts. This involves facts, statistics and data. It measures precise measurements of different questions like ‘how much, how often, how many, who’ etc. It is used to quantify opinions, attitudes, behaviors and other defined variables, which are very general results from a much larger sample group.

Collection methods are much more structured than qualitative research methods.

Examples: -Surveys

-Qualitative research is primary research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and is also used to uncover trends to therefore dive deeper into the problem. It is proposed to determine the meaning behind human behavior. It is also used to determine in depth details and motivations of consumers.

It provides information into the problems and develops ideas for possible quantitative research. Qualitative data research methods vary using unstructured/ partly-structured techniques. The sample size is typically small and is selected to suit the given task/products.

Examples:

-Statistics

-Individual interviews

-Questionnaire

-Group discussions

-Face to face interviews