WHY WE SHOULD USE QUANTITIVE RESEARCH

 

We decided to conduct a quantitative research because its methodology offers some advantages a qualitative research does not. We decided to set a quantitative research since it is a flexible method used to recommend a final course of action and we need to define our next step: "What product are we going to propose, and what will be its features and prices? Do we remain a low-cost gym chain? How do we adapt our business plan to the Chinese market?"

According to The Marketing Donut.com, here is some information that a quantitative research tells:

 

- Is there a market for your products and services?

- What awareness is there of your product or service?

- How many people are interested in buying your product or service?

- What type of people are your best customers?

- What are their buying habits?

- How are the needs of your target market changing?

 

Other different reasons might also explain why we chose to set up a quantitative research:

 

• The purpose of a quantitative research fits with our objective which is getting a valuable insight of what Chinese think about gym and fitness clubs.

       - Our research focuses on quantifying data and generalizing results from a sample to the target population. Of course, we could not ask the entire                   Shanghai population.

       - Quantitative data helps us measure the incidence of various views and opinions among this population of interest and produce hard facts and                       statistics to guide our actions.

• The sample is easy to reach and the data easy to collect

       - In a quantitative research, respondents are selected randomly which permit us to ask only the English speaking people with on-street questionnaires.

       - The findings are conclusive and usually descriptive and it allows us to lead an efficient data analysis.

 

Two quantitative research methods are really popular: interviews and questionnaires. We used the second one because it seems a logical and, most of all, an easy option as a way of collecting information from people. Quantitative research is about asking people for their opinions in a structured way. To get reliable statistical results, it was important for us to survey people in proper large numbers and to make sure they are a representative sample of your target market.

 

However, while conducting our questionnaires, we had to face barriers preventing us from getting as many answers as we would have. First, China’s rules and policy make asking question in a marketing research framework illegal. It means that we needed an official authorization to conduct this survey. Then, our findings are only based in Shanghai which is not representative of the entire Chinese population or the other tier cities in the country. Also, the results may be skewed because of the Chinese language barrier and the translation our team had to make to understand the answers, as there is no Chinese speaking person in it. Because winter is coming and cold is already settled in Shanghai, it was also difficult to get to people in the streets as they were always on the move, trying to warm up in the malls and coffees. Last element explaining why we had difficulties talking to Chinese may be cultural. Not every Chinese was willing to cooperate. Indeed, we found out that it was easier to approach teenagers, young couples and even youngsters than business man or a whole family because the latter ones seemed disturbed by our presence, bothered or even afraid. We could definitely not hand them on a spot to let them fill the questionnaire.