While there are many important decisions to make when planning a market research effort, one of the most crucial is whether to conduct qualitative or quantitative market research.

In brief, quantitative market research refers to the process of collecting large amounts of data through surveys, questionnaires, and polling methods. Conversely, ..

The value of qualitative research has undergone a major shift in the past decade with the changing technologies of the 21st century offering broader, easily accessible and nearly constant chatter from which a company can mine for data. Being able to reference subjective information on products and services 24/7 via the Internet and social media..

A growing number of companies — led by billion-dollar brands like Nike — are enabling customers to customize products as part of their buying experience. As noted by TechCrunch: “Rather than being passive, the customer is now becoming a part of the product development process.”

Of course, companies do not have to be as big (or well-heeled) as Nike..

To say that the only difference between quantitative research and qualitative research is that the former concerns itself with numerical data while the latter concerns itself with non-numerical data, is – to paraphrase Mark Twain – like failing to see the difference between lightning and the lightening bug.

In a subsequent blog post we will focus..