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Clarifying Research Worksheet

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Research

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Quantitative Research

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a) quantitative research and what you learned about this type of research.

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Qualitative Research

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c) what you learned from completing the clarifying research worksheet activity.

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1

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

837© 2015 The Market Research Society
DOI: 10.2501/IJMR-2015-070

Quantitative and qualitative research

Perceptual foundations

Chris Barnham
Chris Barnham Research and Strategy Ltd

The way in which quantitative research and qualitative research are conventionally
contrasted with each other runs along familiar lines – the former is seen as offering
‘hard’, ‘factual’ data, while the latter is depicted as softer, as providing deeper
insight, but at the expense of being necessarily more ‘interpretivist’ and ‘subjective’
in its approach . Seldom is it recognised that this way of distinguishing the two
methodologies is, in fact, rooted in our quantitatively determined beliefs about
human experience . This paper aims to uncover these assumptions and to identify
how they are rooted in our underlying preconceptions about the perceptual process
itself . It outlines a new platform upon which the distinction between quantitative
and qualitative research can be established and which links the latter with semiotics .

Introduction

The distinctions between quantitative and qualitative market research are well
rehearsed . The former measures phenomena such as brand awareness, brand
penetration, product preferences, etc ., and elicits numbers and percentages
that, at least within the constraints of a given sample, have the status of
‘facts’ . Qualitative market research, in contrast, is used when more ‘in depth’
understanding of consumer attitudes, behaviour and motivations is required .

The quantitative search for ‘facts’ can be usefully thought of as a series
of ‘what?’ questions (e .g . what number or percentage of people prefer
product ‘A’ to product ‘B’, or what number of people in a given population
have drunk beer in the past week) . In contrast, qualitative research is almost
universally associated with ‘why?’ questions that reference its emergence in
motivational research and the suggestion that we can get to ‘deeper’ levels
through such interrogative strategies .

These distinctions between ‘what?’ and ‘why?’ questions are also reflected
in the academic world . Although approaches such as Discourse Analysis
(Potter & Wetherell 1987) and Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss 2006)
certainly extend the scope and aims of qualitative research, and do go

Received (in revised form): 28 November 2014

Quantitative and qualitative research

838

beyond a psychologically driven understanding of ‘attitudes and behaviours’,
there still remains a widespread belief that eliciting consumer motivations is
about understanding the psychological forces that act on an individual .

In the course of this paper this conventional distinction between ‘what?’
questions and ‘why?’ questions will be challenged, and the case will be
made that another, potentially more effective, dichotomy should replace
it . In the course of the argument it will be shown that conventional
qualitative market research is, in many ways, still rooted in a fascination
with ‘what?’ questions and that this opens it up to the charge of being
‘in depth’ quantitative research in several respects . By moving away from
this model, and establishing a new way of differentiating qualitative from
quantitative research, this paper will look at some of the underlying
philosophical differences between the two . In particular, it will consider
the extent to which qualitative and quantitative research can, and should,
be differentiated at the level of our theories of perception . This is an area
that is hardly ever considered as a basis for such discussions .

An analysis of a new theoretical basis for qualitative research will also
allow this paper to place many of the qualitative techniques used in the
commercial sector on a new theoretical footing . Projective techniques are
seldom discussed in the academic literature and are often viewed in the
commercial sector as simply useful ways of facilitating conversation . It will
be shown, in contrast, that they have strong foundations rooted in the revised
understanding of qualitative theory outlined in the course of this discussion .

Quantitative and qualitative research: conventional distinctions

In any quantitative research project, the task is to establish a ‘representation’ of
what consumers do or what consumers think; we try to establish behavioural
and mental ‘facts’ . When such a ‘copy’ of reality is created in data form, then
we inevitably want to know whether this ‘representation’ is a ‘true’ one . This
leads us into issues of validity and objectivity . In this context, quantitative
research has a firm intellectual platform that derives from the physical sciences .
Building on centuries of developments in statistics, there is broad agreement in
the research community about our use of quantitative analysis tools, and the
criteria we should use to ensure that data is both valid and reliable .

The position of qualitative research is more ambiguous . The relevance
of the ‘what?’/‘why?’ distinction immediately becomes apparent when we
consider what qualitative research actually does in practice . Although it
overtly seeks to understand why consumers think or behave in certain ways, it
almost always insists on a prior need to identify what consumers think and do .

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

839

This feels like a perfectly normal procedure to all qualitative researchers . So
we also begin by providing a description, or a representation, that corresponds
to the mental disposition and actions of consumers . It is only when we have
established this initial landscape that we feel entitled to enquire about the
‘whys?’ – in other words, the deeper motivations of the consumer mind-set .

So does qualitative research have an equivalent theoretical platform to
statistics? In response to this question, proponents of qualitative research
adopt an interesting approach . Still entangled in the desire to provide an
accurate account of the consumer mind-set, qualitative researchers often
argue that their methodology (smaller samples, but more depth) yields what
can only be described as ‘better mental facts’ . These are the ones that are
thought to lie at a more subconscious level, and that can be reached only
through prolonged discussion and analysis . It is argued that qualitative
research should therefore differentiate itself by ‘getting under the surface’ of
rational consumer responses to another and deeper layer – in other words,
what respondents really think . Such a claim effectively suggests that qualitative
research can outdo quantitative research at its own game and, by asking better
‘what?’ questions, reach a better understanding of these ‘mental facts’ .

As I have discussed in a previous paper (Barnham 2012), this is a position
that is fraught with difficulty, for it puts forward the notion that it is possible
to give an account of what is really going on at the subjective level – to give an
account of essentially what can be described as the ‘objective subjective’ . This
is a position that has been critiqued by many other authors (e .g . Radford 2005;
Volosinov 2012) because it clearly involves an inherent contradiction in terms .

Seldom, however, do qualitative researchers really challenge the implicit
assumption that we should be trying to establish ‘mental facts’ . This remains
a natural part of the qualitative process . It is, of course, perfectly possible
for qualitative research to record what consumers say they think – and to
do this in a way that is often more detailed than quantitative research . But
to assume that this is a sufficient source of differentiation for qualitative
research is to grossly underplay the potential benefits of the methodology .
And, as we know, it immediately leads to questions about validity .

It will be argued in the course of this paper that the point of differentiation
for qualitative research lies at a completely different level . As we shall see,
its main task should be to establish how consumers think rather than to
provide a more detailed account of what consumers think . The importance
of this distinction cannot be overstated . It fundamentally shifts the ground of
the debate about qualitative research and its inherent validity . For if we are
evaluating how consumers think, then we are no longer seeking to discover
‘mental facts’ as such; instead we are seeking to identify the mental structures

Quantitative and qualitative research

840

that consumers use to describe and understand their world . We turn our
attention from an attempt to give a valid representation of what respondents
think, and replace it with the very different task of establishing the mental
‘rules’ and ‘distinctions’ that consumers utilise when thinking . And these lie
on the surface – they are not buried in any putative ‘subconscious’ .

But before we look at these distinctions in detail, we need to briefly
consider how the problem of qualitative validity is conventionally addressed .

Qualitative validity: conventional solutions

As we saw above, if we want to identify apparent ‘mental facts’ then this
will lead us to the question of how to establish the validity of those facts .
In quantitative research, as we have seen, this already exists in the form
of statistics . But no such theoretical solution seems to exist in qualitative
research . The methodology is widely seen as a useful research technique
and it can certainly be helpful in understanding consumers, but it appears
to lack an underlying philosophy of science (Sykes 1990) . It neither
seems possible to demonstrate what a qualitative research ‘fact’ is, nor is
qualitative research capable of providing data that is replicable in other
studies . Findings vary from project to project and from researcher to
researcher . All we are able to offer the client is ‘interpretation’ and, while
this is sometimes very useful, interpretation is always viewed as being just
that – essentially a construction in the mind of the researcher (Willis 2007) .

In the commercial sector of qualitative research there is little attempt to
question the underlying model of ‘mental facts’ . We have tended to stress,
instead, the usefulness of the methodology . In the academic sphere there
is, however, a greater need to establish a foundation for the validity of
qualitative research . In brief summary, there are a number of approaches that
have been adopted .

• First, we can make qualitative research seem more ‘objective’ . We
can, for example, adopt the technique of ‘triangulation’ – enabling
the use of different researchers, samples, time frames, methodological
approaches, etc ., to provide us with greater faith in the qualitative
findings . If the findings from different studies tend to confirm one
another then we conclude that there is more objective ‘truth’ in them
(Ereaut 2002; Flick 2002) .

• Second, we can change the status of the methodological goal that
qualitative research is setting itself . Instead of seeking absolute ‘objectivity’

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

841

in our findings, we can build on the notion of ‘utility’ and adopt those
findings that prove the most useful in understanding a particular
problem . This approach acknowledges that ‘objective truth’ is not
achievable as such, but asserts that some findings are better than others
when explaining consumer reality . Through an iterative process we
can fine-tune our understanding via hypothesis generation and testing .
Over time we will arrive at theories that are a better ‘fit’ with reality
and explain it more effectively . Gadamer’s concept of the ‘hermeneutic
circle’ typifies this kind of approach (Gadamer 1975) and also has links
to the philosophical school of pragmatism (Ayer 1968) .

• Third, we can take the philosophical high ground and argue that
qualitative research is not in the business of trying to establish ‘objective’
truth at all . We can take what is called a ‘phenomenological’ stance and
argue that the qualitative task is to give an account of how respondents
see the world from their point of view . The role of qualitative research is
still to give an account of the underlying consumer disposition, but this
is now framed as being just from the point of view of the respondent .
No attempt is made to establish whether this view is ‘correct’ or more
‘objective’ . Berger and Luckmann (1967), for example, talk in terms of
the ‘social construction of reality’ .

These theoretical solutions, therefore, seek either to find a way of making
qualitative research appear more ‘objective’ or they attempt to get around
the issue by making their accounts not subject to the criterion of objectivity .
All, however, are still working within a framework that seeks to establish a
representation of consumer reality in some form or other . They still want
an account of what the consumer thinks in a way that corresponds to how
things are in their mental world .

Few of these conventional approaches to qualitative validity consider
the possibility that the differences between quantitative and qualitative
research may exist along the specific dimension of distinguishing what
consumers think from the business of how they think . And none of these
accounts certainly goes so far as to link the latter possibility with our
underlying model of perception .

In the next sections of this paper it will be shown how these two
dominant models of market research can be seen to differ at the level of
our models of perception . In doing so, this paper will point towards key
underlying differences between quantitative and qualitative research and
suggest a stronger theoretical platform for the latter .

Quantitative and qualitative research

842

The ‘quantitative model of perception’ and its methodological
consequences

The very idea that there could be such a thing as a ‘quantitative model of
perception’ is one that will strike the reader as surprising . This reaction,
in fact, strikes at the very heart of our problem when distinguishing
quantitative research from qualitative research . What we have here, if you
will forgive the pun, is a ‘blind spot’ in our theory of human cognition .
We tend to assume that the way that human beings perceive the world
is a ‘given’ and that, as a result, it is methodologically neutral . Nothing,
however, could be further from the truth .

The quantitative model of perception is, not surprisingly, the one
that dominates our conventional way of understanding our experiential
processes, and acts, more extensively, as an underpinning of scientific
methodology . So what are its assumptions and what sort of model is it

?

It is no coincidence that our modern account of perception emerged
in the 17th century – at the same time as Cartesian Dualism (Descartes
1984) was becoming established and as quantitative scientific theory
began to dominate . It assumes a model of reality in which we, as subjective
individuals, inhabit a world of three-dimensional objects . The critical
aspect of this model is that we, as conscious human beings, are detached
from the world and look upon it as if from the outside . This is what
fundamentally determines our need for representational accounts of reality
and the pursuit of objectivity that we encountered earlier .

One critical aspect of this framework is that objects in the outside
world are deemed to be passive . Although forces obviously impact upon
objects, and they move around, this is not a world where they are forces
themselves . In philosophical terms they are not ‘animistic’; they do not
have ‘agendas’ (Latour 1993) . As a result, we do not believe we experience
them because of their action upon us – but rather because we (the only
active forces allowed in Descartes’ model) experience them through our
acts of perception . The fundamental effect of construing perception in this
manner is that our experience of the world is inevitably, and necessarily,
broken down into our individual perceptual acts . Each of our perceptions
has a specific content and it is separate from the other perceptions that
we experience . It follows from this that we cannot, for example, have a
perception that contains two different qualities at the same time – it would
have to be, by definition, two separate perceptions .

In philosophical terms, the consequences of this model are enormous .
For it follows that, if all of our perceptions of the world are fragmented,
then we cannot ‘see’ the connections between them . This leads directly to

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

843

the philosophical problems of induction, causation and identity that have
beset modern philosophy . The problem, of course, is that we cannot ‘see’
the connections between our perceptions, by definition . If we could ‘see’
such a connection then it would yield another, separate, perception, and
then we would need to find the connection between the original perception
and the newly perceived ‘connection’ . This model of separated perceptions
is thus deeply flawed . It leads us to the sceptical conclusion that we cannot
see reality as it actually is – only as a series of separated sense data .

Scientists and quantitative market researchers could safely ignore this
problem of perception (and leave it for philosophers to muse upon) except
for the fact that, paradoxically, it forms the basis for their very methodologies .
In the 18th century, while the sensible approach would have been to reject
this inadequate model of perception, western thought took a decisive turn
and actively decided to work within it . Given that this model does not allow
us to see the connections between our perceptions, then we need to find
some way of overcoming this dilemma . At this point quantitative science
discovers its historic role (Hacking 1975) . As a methodology it allows us
to count the phenomena we experience in the world and to identify the
connections (or incidences) that exist between perceptions . Using statistics
we can then establish (through inference rather than perception) which of
these ‘incidences’ are ‘real’ . This data can then be used to construct the
‘account’, or representational ‘copy’, of the world that we pursue .

Two key criteria, of course, need to be satisfied in order for this approach
to work . First, we need to count the incidences in conditions that are
controlled – otherwise incidences that seem to be meaningful may, in fact,
be driven by external conditions . This is certainly the case in the physical
sciences and it also holds true in a quantitative research context . This is
why quantitative respondents are not allowed to influence one another .
Second, we need to have enough incidences in the data to count their
conjunctions in a meaningful way . This is what drives the need for base
sizes that are large enough to allow patterns of conjunctions to emerge
in a way that we can believe are ‘real’ . Both of these criteria – controlled
conditions and large base sizes – are fundamentally determined by the
underlying assumptions of the quantitative model and the core belief that
our starting point is one of fragmented perceptual experience . It is wholly
misguided to apply these two criteria to qualitative research . They make
sense, in a research context, only if we still chase the quantitative ambition
of establishing ‘mental facts’ .

In a quantitative context, however, we have here a methodology that
gives us the confidence (indeed, the statistical confidence …) to believe

Quantitative and qualitative research

844

that we can see beyond our subjective experience . Ironically, in our modern
culture, this methodology is nearly always portrayed as a triumph of the
human intellect . In fact, the truth is a lot less exciting – it is simply the only
practical way of establishing empirical knowledge given the rather flawed
model of perception that dualism has imposed upon us .

When this mind-set is applied to the key tenets of quantitative
methodology, a number of points emerge . These are summarised in Figure 1 .

When this quantitative way of thinking is considered in diagrammatic
terms, we usually create patterns of side tabs and cross tabs in our data sets .
We thus quantify different phenomena along different axes and identify
where the incidences occur . This model of data analysis is the dominant
mode in quantitative research and in the quantitative sciences – for the
very reason that it enables us to identify incidences in the phenomena
that we experience . In a market research context, it provides us with the
confidence to believe that we have truly discovered what consumers think .

A ‘qualitative’ model of perception?

Is there an equivalent model of perception that can form the basis for
qualitative research? Interestingly, we find that such a model does exist
within western philosophy . Its origins are in Greek philosophy and it
dominated western thinking until the 17th century, when it was replaced
by the ‘quantitative’ view of perception discussed above . The model
then disappears from view for 300 years until it is articulated again by
C .S . Peirce (Boler 1963; Deely 1994; Short 2007) at the end of the 19th
century . This American philosopher is most often associated with semiotics
and is considered one of its founding fathers, alongside Saussure . There
is no small significance in this link to semiotics, but I will leave aside
the implications of this in the following discussion . Instead, I will briefly

What are the underlying assumptions
about our experience of the world?

We can only experience the world as a series of
separated perceptions

What is the underlying methodological
assumption?

We cannot assume, ‘a priori’, that any of our
perceptions are in fact connected in the real world

What, therefore, is the underlying
methodological task?

To establish the connections that we assume
actually do exist

How do we do this?
We can count particular phenomena and the level
of incidence that they have with other phenomena

What is the Latin root? ‘Quanto’ – how many?
In practical terms, what do we need to
have to achieve this?

Sufficiently large base sizes, controlled conditions
and the correct application of statistics

Figure 1 Key tenets of the quantitative model

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

845

outline Peirce’s theory of perception and contrast it with the quantitative
account described above . This comparison can provide, as we shall see, a
perceptual basis for an alternative account of qualitative theory .

The Peircean model of perception begins with assumptions that are
diametrically opposed to its quantitative equivalent . It makes the radical
assumption that our experience of the world is unified – everything that
we perceive is connected to everything else . This transforms the nature of
what perceptions are – they are mentally ‘picked out’ of the perceptual
continuum, after they have been experienced, instead of entering our minds
as already fragmented units .

As a result of this, Peirce distinguishes between the content of a perception
(he calls this a ‘percept’) and the mental action (or ‘perceptual judgment’)
that picks it out . As an example, I see a chair that is ‘yellow’ . The ‘yellowness’
forms the ‘percept’, but it is the ‘perceptual judgment’ that actually makes
it a perception of that colour . Peirce argues that the intellectual act in the
‘perceptual judgment’ is one of comparison . The mind grasps that the colour
is ‘yellow’ by determining that it is not ‘red’, ‘blue’, ‘orange’, etc ., and also
that it is like other ‘yellow’ things that have been seen in the past:

The perceptual judgment ‘This chair appears yellow’ has vaguely in mind a whole
lot of yellow things, of which some have been seen, and no end of others may be
or might be seen; and what it means to say is, ‘Take any thing you like, and you
will find, on comparing it with this chair, that they agree pretty well with this
color’ . (C .S . Peirce 1931–35, 7 .632)

The colour of the chair is, therefore, relationally defined . And, most
importantly, the yellowness comes to exist only as a synthesis of the percept
and the mental action contained in the ‘perceptual judgment’ . Not only
are our perceptions, therefore, linked to one another in the perceptual
continuum; they are also defined with reference to one another in the
perceptual act . This forms the theoretical underpinning for the triadic
structure of the sign with which Peirce is most frequently and famously
associated (Murphey 1961; Bernstein 1964; Almeder 1980) .

This account of perception is transformatory . It means that what things
are is relationally determined by what they are not . And at the heart of
perception we have a classificatory process that defines our experiences in
terms of ‘what sorts of things’ they are .

This clearly has significant implications for qualitative researchers . We seek
to understand our respondents’ experiences of reality and these can now be
construed in a relational way . This insight is particularly pertinent when we
come to consider social phenomena – the main focus of qualitative research .

Quantitative and qualitative research

846

We are all defined by our culture and by our relationships with one another .
We experience the social world relationally and cannot, for example, be
‘mothers’ or ‘sons’, ‘daughters’ or ‘bosses’ without the corresponding notions
of ‘children’, ‘parents’ or ‘employees’ . We are defined by our relationships
with one another . This is also true, significantly, of brands . We know that
brands possess their meanings and values because of the competitive set that
exists around them . A brand, for example, can be seen as ‘unhealthy’ or ‘old
fashioned’ simply because of the arrival of a new player in a market . Brands
exist, like individuals in a society, as purely relational entities that reflect the
perceptual model outlined above .

The Peircean perceptual model: is it qualitative?

This Peircean model of perception gives us the opportunity to establish an
equivalent to the quantitative theory that we have discussed above . Because
it assumes that all of our perceptions are connected to one another, the
methodological questions that it generates are very different from those
incurred in the quantitative model . As we have seen, instead of assuming
fragmentation and separation, it assumes unity and connectedness .

This model has significant implications for qualitative research . For, if
we apply this way of construing perception to qualitative research, our
focus is drawn to different types of research question . How do consumers
make distinctions? How do they classify things? How do they create
separations in their perceptual continuum? This results in further questions
that are already very familiar to qualitative researchers . How do consumers
‘slice up’ the world? How do they frame concepts? There seems to be a
prima facie convergence here between the Peircean perceptual model and
the types of question asked by qualitative researchers .

The methodological task, therefore, becomes one of understanding
how respondents classify their perceptions and this is, I would argue, at
the theoretical root of qualitative research . Discovering how respondents
make distinctions in their experience and how they differentiate between
phenomena should be the ambition of qualitative researchers . Crucially,
this means that we should attempt to understand how consumers think
(i .e . what mental structures or ‘perceptual judgments’ they employ) rather
than focus on what they think . In other words, we should look for the
underlying ‘rules’ behind consumer attitudes and behaviours .

As I have discussed in a previous paper (Barnham 2010), the links
between this modus operandi and qualitative research also run deeper
in other ways . If we refer to the English dictionary, we will find that the

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

847

origin of the word ‘qualitative’ resides in the word ‘qualis’, which means
‘what kind of ’ or ‘what sort of ’ . Qualitative research thus shows some
etymological indications of being a classificatory way of thinking about
the world, and this reflects the notion that what things are, and how our
meanings are created, is derived from the way we make distinctions . By
way of context, it is also interesting to note that the French sociologist
Pierre Bourdieu established an entire philosophy of sociology upon the
insight that social structures are based on our ability to make distinctions
(Bourdieu 1977) . Indeed, his most famous work was entitled Distinction
(Bourdieu 1984), although I am not aware that he ever linked this back to
the etymological origins of qualitative research itself .

Equipped with this new way of thinking, however, we are now in a
position to revisit Figure 1 and, based on the Peircean model of perception,
identify the parallel assumptions of the qualitative research model . We
can see in Figure 2 how different they are to the quantitative equivalent –
indeed, they are almost diametrically opposed to each other .

Qualitative methodology reframed

In Figure 2, there is a question mark that represents qualitative research
methodology . What sorts of research activity could be positioned in this
apparently empty space? What is the qualitative equivalent of the ‘counting
of incidences’ in quantitative research?

As we have discussed, we are no longer trying to establish ‘mental facts’ .
Instead, we have now identified that we are trying to understand how
consumers make distinctions in their world via their perceptual judgments .
Some readers might argue that this is a low ambition and that quantitative
research is right to seek out the ‘hard’ facts that identify what consumers

What are the underlying assumptions
about our experience of the world?

We can experience the world only as a perceptual
continuum

What is the underlying
methodological assumption?

We can assume, ‘a priori’, that all of our perceptions are
connected, in some way or other, to one another and
are, therefore, relational

What, therefore, is the underlying
methodological task?

To establish how respondents divide up their experience
of the world through their ‘perceptual judgments’

How do we do this?
We identify how consumers make distinctions and make
comparisons in their world

What is the Latin root? ‘Qualis?’ – what sort of?
In practical terms, what do we need
to do to achieve this?

?

Figure 2 Key tenets of the qualitative model

Quantitative and qualitative research

848

think . But, commercial qualitative research needs to discover how consumers
create meaning and this should be its purpose for its clients . After all,
understanding the ‘rules’ of a market enables them to create added value .

So what do qualitative researchers do? In line with the theory above, we
seek to identify how consumers ‘split up’, or ‘classify’, their world . In any
qualitative interview or group discussion we already do this at a number
of levels . These stretch from the basic task of asking open-ended questions
through to the use of projective techniques . All of these approaches will
be familiar to readers – the ‘empty’ space is, in fact, already full with
qualitative techniques that enjoy methodological success, but that have
hitherto seemed to lack an overt theoretical foundation .

Asking open-ended questions

Even at the basic level of asking questions, we find that the word ‘qualis’
often has a role to play . When, for example, we enquire how respondents
feel about a particular experience, such as going to the supermarket, we
know that it is useful to ask open-ended questions . These types of question
are characterised by the fact that they allow respondents to say ‘what the
experience is like’ . The word ‘like’ is important here – we are implicitly
asking consumers to make their own comparisons (and distinctions) . The
well-asked open-ended question is, therefore, often an enquiry into how
consumers make classifications – an invitation to say what sort of thing an
experience is (or is not) and to describe their ‘perceptual judgment’ .

Not all open-ended questions, clearly, ask consumers to do this, but it
is surprising how many of them implicitly do so . They allow respondents
to tell us about their own mental categories rather than asking them to
use ‘ours’ . The latter phenomenon is, of course, exactly what happens
in quantitative research . Practitioners of quantitative methodologies find
themselves having to assume, on a systematic basis, that respondents
mean the same things by the same words in order to make sense of their
data . However, five minutes in a group discussion can usually relieve one
of this illusion .

Replacing ‘why?’ questions

As a profession that has its roots in motivational research, we are always
encouraged to ask ‘why?’ questions . We believe that, by asking such
questions, we will uncover the motivations for a particular consumer act
or brand choice . As experienced researchers, however, we recognise that

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

849

respondents are often not able to tell us ‘why’ they do something (Gordon
2011) and, even if they do so, they may simply give us a post-rationalisation
of their decision-making process . In many instances it is much more useful,
instead, to ask a ‘what kind of?’ question . This is a more indirect method
of asking consumers to explain their motivations . For example, if we ask
a consumer why he or she plays football, they may provide some rational
reasons . If we ask, instead, what sort of activity is playing football – the
respondent will place football in the world of other activities and sports
and will reveal how they think about it and how it is different from these
other activities . These distinctions will often allow us to uncover their
underlying reasons for playing the game .

Framing

The notion of ‘framing’ has become topical in recent years – it is one of
several platforms that have informed the rise of behavioural economics
(Thaler & Sunstein 2009; Gordon 2011; Whitehall Hayter 2014) . In
light of our discussion, however, we can now see that ‘framing’ is simply
another way of describing the ‘qualis?’ question . It is a concept that
encourages us to analyse how consumers think about a product or a brand
and the contextual framework that they use when they think about what
sort of thing it is . Framing thus informs positioning and reaffirms that
everything in the social realm (including brands) is relational . Thaler and
Sunstein argue that framing ‘matters in many domains’ (2009, p . 39),
which is a slight understatement in light of our above discussion . It is
quite apparent that the framing process is fundamentally how consumers
construct their worlds . It is the mechanism that determines and underpins
all meaning creation .

Projective techniques

At a deeper methodological level, we can also see that many of the
techniques that qualitative researchers use in groups and depth interviews
are, in fact, simple manifestations of the ‘qualis?’ question . Projective
techniques are very familiar in the research world (Gordon & Langmaid
1988; Chrzanowska 2002; Keegan 2009) . Almost without exception,
however, they have been understood as purely psychological methods (or
even simply ‘games’) to enable consumers to project their subconscious
feelings in a less inhibited manner . Academics have seldom discussed them
in much detail, but have tried, on occasion, to assess their validity and

Quantitative and qualitative research

850

reliability (Boddy 2005) . Such techniques are hardly ever seen, however,
as a fundamental facet of qualitative analysis that allows us to identify how
consumers break down their perceptual continuum .

These techniques, familiar to readers, are briefly summarised below, but
can now be reframed in the light of our discussion .

Mapping exercises

These are conventionally understood as a way of seeing how a market is
segmented, but in fact are better construed as a technique for establishing
how consumers split up a concept . If we map the lager market, for example,
we are asking consumers ‘what sorts of lagers’ there are, how do they
distinguish between them and what defines the edges of various sub-sectors?

Mood boards

We often find in consumer research that respondents use a word with
multiple meanings – it is, in the terminology of Wendy Gordon, a ‘fat
word’ (Gordon 1999) . Using mood boards, however, we can identify how
consumers can split this word and identify the various meanings within it .
All of the words for the multiple types of ‘service’ in our culture do not
exist in the dictionary . We only have the basic ‘fat word’ of ‘service’ to
work with . But we can show consumers different images of ‘service’ on
a mood board and they will be able to identify what sort of ‘service’ is
associated with their GP and how this is different to the sort of ‘service’
that is associated with their local Accident & Emergency Department, etc .

Adjectival and image sorting

Using this technique we can establish what sorts of words and images are
associated with a particular brand or company . Each adjective or image is
used as a way of distinguishing one brand from another – we are essentially
asking the respondent to make a distinction on a given dimension . Sometimes,
of course, the consumer finds this difficult to do – one word or image can
go with more than one brand . This is not a failure of the technique because
the next question should be ‘and what sort of “male”, “female”, “premium”,
etc ., is brand x or y?’ The multiple ascribing of an adjective is no more than
a sign that it is a ‘fat word’ that should be broken down into more meanings .
Thus any apparent respondent inability to make initial distinctions are not a
problem – they are an opportunity for further learning and to ‘split’ a word .

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

851

Personification

This technique is usually understood in terms that are embedded in modern
psychology – we want to get at the ‘deeper meanings’, ‘personality’ and
‘underlying’ associations with a brand . But if we step back from this way of
construing personification we can now see it in a new context . When we ask
respondents what sort of car a particular lager brand is, we are essentially
giving them a specific dimension (cars) and asking them to place the brand
on this dimension . We are asking them, again, to make distinctions . What
sort of car is Stella Artois and, indeed, what sort of car is it not?

We are now in a position to fill the ‘gap’ that we had in Figure 2 . We can
see that it is actually full of methodologies that have lacked a theoretical
basis before . They have been used for decades in qualitative research
because they have worked . They have been conventionally understood in
strictly psychological terms, but we can now see how they are rooted in a
qualitative account of perception .

Closing the circle: the synergies of methodology and subject matter

When, earlier, we considered quantitative research, we saw that it has a
vision of how the world is constructed on the basis of incidence . Importantly,
however, we also identified that this model of reality is also paralleled by the
methodological approach that it adopts to analyse quantitative data . There
is a clear synergy here that both makes the subject matter researched appear
comprehensible and the methodologies used to understand it feel legitimate .

When we consider qualitative research, this synergy of worldview and
methodological approach has not, hitherto, been apparent . But we are
now in a much better position to outline what an equivalent conceptual
framework for qualitative research might look like . It is a model of a
relational world that can be understood only in relational terms because
our perceptions are relationally founded . We understand it by identifying
how different consumers frame the world and make distinctions through
their ‘perceptual judgments’ . Every distinction that a consumer makes
is, of course, relational because it includes certain things and excludes
others (Barnham 2009) . Underpinning this methodological approach is the
concept of ‘qualis’ and the classificatory qualitative mind-set that it entails .

The ways in which the consumer frames reality are not fixed or
‘objective’ in any sense . Consumers will always make further distinctions
as they encounter new phenomena and they have to decide ‘what sort
of thing’ these new phenomena are . This is a two-way process – new

Quantitative and qualitative research

852

experiences are constantly being classified and new types of classification
are always being created . But what we have here is an approach that
enables a way of thinking about the world to parallel the methodological
techniques that are used to research it . This is the bridge between theory
and practice that is often missing in the philosophy of qualitative research .

Conclusion

The purpose of this paper has been to explore the possibility of putting
qualitative research on a new theoretical footing . It has tried to do so by
identifying the very platform upon which quantitative research diverges
(and did so historically) from a qualitative mind-set . In so doing, it has been
argued that the most effective way to differentiate the two methodologies
is at the level of our underlying theories of perception and that the two
resulting paradigms take diametrically opposing views as to what these
involve . We have also seen that the point of divergence coincides with the
underpinnings of Peircean semiotics – but this is a discussion that falls
outside the scope of the current paper .

Conventionally, qualitative research has sought to find its modus
operandi in the tradition of psychology . This has always involved an
implicit attempt to evaluate what consumers think, but at a deeper level
than quantitative research – at the level of what they ‘really think’ . Such
an attempt has always involved an intrinsic need to give a descriptive and
representational account of psychological or behavioural reality that is
open to criticisms of validity and reliability .

The model that has been put forward in this paper is less concerned
with what consumers think, and more with the question of how they
think . As we have seen, this, in turn, resolves into an enquiry into how
consumers make distinctions and how different consumers make different
distinctions . This is the process through which consumers create meaning .
This shift in research focus means we are no longer looking for an account
that ‘corresponds’ in some way to a psychological ‘reality’ in the minds
of respondents . Rather, we are looking for the ‘rules’ and ‘structures’ of
consumer thinking based on their ‘perceptual judgments’ .

By taking our analysis back to the level of perception we have,
additionally, uncovered some of the implicit (and seldom discussed)
theoretical underpinnings of quantitative research . We have shown that
quantitative research is founded on the belief that we experience the world
as a series of fragmented perceptions . This assumption has provided, in the
last three centuries, the necessary theoretical platform for our statistically

International Journal of Market Research Vol. 57 Issue 6

853

inclined account of what is ‘real’ . In the course of this paper we have
seen, however, that this ‘quantitative’ account of perception might not be
the most appropriate model for understanding social phenomena that are
always relational in nature .

We have also recognised that, by tracing our analysis back to the level of
perception, we can also identify, within each paradigm, parallel accounts
of how the world should be analysed . These accounts are rooted in their
respective views of how the world is constructed and these, in turn, inform
the methodological approaches that they promote . In the quantitative
model the world is constructed on the basis of ‘incidence’; in the
qualitative model on the basis of ‘distinction’ . This point of differentiation
is potentially important to qualitative research because it no longer means
that it is asked to justify its methodologies within a theoretical framework
that is inherently inimical towards it .

The model that has been discussed in this paper also has, as a final point,
one further benefit for qualitative research . This is to establish a stronger
theoretical link between qualitative methodology and qualitative analysis .
In most academic accounts of the latter there is felt to be an inherent ‘gap’
between data collection (i .e . the outputs of the interviewing process) and the
interpretative task . A ‘leap’ is felt to be required that takes the researcher
from the raw qualitative ‘data’ to meaningful interpretation . We can now see
that such a leap is no longer implicit in the analysis process . Within qualitative
methodology we are asking respondents to reveal the distinctions they make .
Analysis should, in turn, be construed as no more than a continuation of the
process of defining and redefining how consumers make these distinctions .
This enquiry always begins in the interview process . It simply continues in
the analysis stage in the absence of the respondent .

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About the author

Chris Barnham has run his own qualitative research consultancy, Chris
Barnham Research and Strategy Ltd, for nineteen years, conducting projects
in the UK, Europe, the USA and the Far East . He began his research career
on the client side at Whitbread PLC and then worked in a number of
research agencies, including TNS and the Strategic Research Group . He read
Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University and is researching a
part time PhD at University College, London, on Peircean Semiotics and the
Philosophy of Perception . He is also a Visiting Fellow at Kingston University .

Address correspondence to: Chris Barnham Research and Strategy Ltd,
34, Regents Court, Sopwith Way, Kingston, Surrey, KT2 5AG .

Email: chrisbarnh@aol .com

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