ABSTRACT
To draw good inferences while respecting the limits of the interview data that comprise qualitative market research is peculiarly difficult. It is rare to find even a veteran practitioner of visits who would state for the record, “Sure, I know everything I need to know about how to generalize from the information gathered in visits.” By comparison, drawing inferences from survey data gathered using questionnaires seems quite straightforward and is far more familiar to most managers. Thus, with a survey a manager tabulates the proportion of the sample that agreed or disagreed with a statement and notes whether a majority came down on one side or the other. No matter how sophisticated the underlying statistical analysis, when reduced to its essence, all quantitative market research generates a number that can be compared to another number to see which is larger: “Seventy-five percent of the sample expressed an interest in the solution, whereas 25 percent did not.” Conclusion: The concept will be favorably received when exposed to the total population of customers. End of story.
