Consumer-centric brands go to great lengths to understand and anticipate what consumers want and need at every stage of the customer or product lifecycle. With that goal clearly in mind, forward-thinking brands engage in both quantitative and qualitative analysis of consumer data to get at the what (quantitative) as well as the why (qualitative).
Comparing Quantitative vs Qualitative Analysis
Quantitative analysis is based on numbers, statistics, percentages, and other similar types of structured data. It is designed to answer a broad question, to draw a general conclusion, or perhaps to support a working hypothesis.
Qualitative analysis, on the other hand, looks beyond the numbers to find the why, where, when, and why of a story, as well as the feelings, behaviors, thoughts, motivations, and opinions that support quantitative data.
|
Quantitative Analysis |
Qualitative Analysis |
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Describes characteristics or attributes |
Describes personal experiences |
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Asks closed-ended questions |
Asks open-ended questions |
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Uses highly structured observation methods, such as tracking software or multiple-choice questionnaires |
Uses semi-structured observation methods, such as focus groups and one-on-one interviews |
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Data is numerical |
Data is descriptive |
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Participant responses are coded and used for predictive analytics |
Participant responses are visual and verbal and used to spark out of the box ideas and insights |
Effective qualitative analysis includes the ability to link various quantitative and qualitative data to get a better understanding of the story. For example, this may include finding out how many times people are using a certain term in focus groups or analyzing demographic data in relation to opinions.
Because of the varied ways that qualitative research is performed, it’s important to have efficient ways to capture this data. Archiving, videos, transcriptions, and searchability can be powerful functions to help correlate the data with the individuals who provided it.
How to Use Qualitative Analytics
Both quantitative and qualitative research and analytics are critical for brands to truly connect with the modern consumer. For instance, suppose you made a new landing page to promote a product, but you notice the majority of your visitors are dropping out of your funnel at the same stage.
Quantitatively, you may see that you’re losing 60% of the people between Step 1 and Step 2. Qualitative research and analysis is almost always a great starting point for discovering why this happens. Let’s look at some of the types of qualitative analysis you might use.
Sentiment Analysis
One option might be to conduct a real-time walkthrough with users to get their impressions at every stage of the process. Find out what’s confusing to them, what they’re clicking on, what makes them hesitate from moving forward, and other specifics.
Word Usage
When conducting multiple walkthroughs or interviews, look for verbiage trends that give more context for the user experience. Finding common denominators in your data can lead you to new ideas for improving your conversions.
Demographics Compared to Opinions
Linking user feedback to other data can provide helpful insight, too. For example, are people from a certain demographic providing similar feedback compared to other demographics?
How to Capture and Analyze Qualitative Data
Because qualitative data can take many forms, from interviews and focus groups to online reviews, case studies, and observations, having an easy way to capture and analyze data across formats is essential to the process.
One effective way to do this is to transform qualitative data from videos, transcripts, reviews, and other sources into a searchable format. Researchers can use search functionality to quickly find key terms to detect word usage trends or specific comments or recorded moments.
It may also be helpful for data tools to be able to correlate feedback and comments with the person offering them. This adds an extra layer of insight and context to the analysis by illustrating individual user experiences.
While most brands have systems in place to collect and analyze quantitative research, qualitative research is more difficult to manage. Traditional measures of capturing and analyzing data, such as turning videos and interviews into transcripts, can take researchers anywhere from 8-10 hours or more and create 20-30 pages of data per interview.
The process doesn’t have to be this complex or time-consuming, however. Discuss.io is a platform that is purpose-built for qualitative analysis at the enterprise level.
Coordinate Your Research with Discuss.io
Far more than just another video conferencing tool, Discuss.io is a platform designed to not only record consumer interviews but capture pivotal moments that can be easily archived and shared with collaborators across your entire organization. All videos for a project can be stored in one central space, transcribed, and made easily searchable by keyword. You can also integrate discussion guides into the platform to save you time when doing your qualitative analysis.
Archives of video interviews combined with the demographics of each respondent mean that anyone in your organization with access to project files can quickly find the consumer insights they need to do their work efficiently and effectively. Imagine being able to quickly watch a video and hear straight from your customer’s mouth exactly what you need to hear to solve a problem and move forward with your projects. That’s the power of Discuss.io.
Discuss.io is a fully functional platform that puts all the tools you need for qualitative analysis at your fingertips. Get a demo today to see it in action!
