Mixed methods research: How to combine quant and qual for actionable insights
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Learn how one (hypothetical) t-shirt company found a winning t-shirt design using a mixed methods approach to market research.
When does a narwhal beat a shark?
In a mixed methods market research study, of course.
To really understand this, you’re gonna need a little context. First, let's go back and explore how mixed methodology research studies used to be run.
Running mixed methods research in the past
Just a few years ago, running a mixed methodology market research study was a heavy lift for brands. To organize one, brands had to corral thousands of people, wire up recording devices, and dispatch the remote controls so respondents could enter survey results. After all that, brands had to store their surveys and comb through the results to see if they could glean any insights from the study.
Not only was this entire process labor-intensive, but it was also costly. Connecting with survey participants for follow-ups was a whole other hoop to jump through, and any study worthwhile would take upward of a month — sometimes longer — to complete.
Instead, researchers and marketers can use the Suzy platform for mixed methods research. Suzy combines both qualitative and quantitative research in one end-to-end platform so that researchers can easily discover the types of insights they need to make big decisions. With these insights, brands can create the type of consumer feedback loop that allows them to test, learn, iterate, and repeat.
To illustrate how the process works, let’s take a look at how a hypothetical clothing company — The Happy Animal T-Shirt Co. — used a mixed methodology approach to market research and found a winning t-shirt design.
Enter The Happy Animal T-Shirt Co.
After the success of a smiling shark t-shirt, The Happy Animal T-Shirt Co.’s board wanted to see the brand launch a new t-shirt design. In order to not only match but top the success of the smiling shark, The Happy Animal T-Shirt Co., created a few new designs to test. The team came up with a smiling penguin, hippo, and narwhal.
First, the researchers of the hypothetical clothing company (Suzy’s very own Chief Product Officer, Nick Gauchat, and SVP of Market Research, Will Cimarosa), ran monadic testing to see how the concepts performed. They found that the narwhal earned a 90% confidence level in terms of outperforming the shark tee. But that didn’t really tell the whole story. As Cimarosa found, the narwhale tee basically had parity with the other concepts.
Since the Happy Animal T-Shirt Co. needed to deliver on board demands and produce a t-shirt that outperformed even the smiling shark shirt, the researchers decided to leverage a quant/qual consumer feedback loop and a mixed methodology approach to research. They already had the quantitative data, now they just needed to know the why behind that data.
Combining quant and qual in mixed methods research
So, they asked some open-ended questions to learn what consumers found appealing or unappealing about each of the designs in their own words. Each respondent could explain to the researchers why they rated it the way that they did.
“This is where the quant/qual feedback loop becomes a real opportunity,” Cimarosa says. “We asked the consumers what specifically they found appealing or unappealing, relevant or irrelevant in their own words, unique, believable, or expensive.”
The researchers decided to follow up with groups of consumers who provided similarly themed answers about the t-shirt designs, pairing them all together and generating a new audience for qual feedback with just a few clicks on the Suzy platform. Those respondents were looped into further qualitative market research through in-depth interviews (IDIs) on Suzy Live.
In the IDIs, Cimarosa learned that consumers weren’t even all that interested in the t-shirt designs. They were actually more interested in how the t-shirt fit. The respondents also felt like the shirt concept designs were overpriced.
How mixed methods research helps researchers find better insights
Thanks to their qualitative findings, the researchers decided to highlight the shape, fit, and fabric of their shirt concepts. They also included the winner from the first survey (the narwhal), the hippo, and a new lion design. They relaunched the survey to a new audience using monadic testing.
The narwhal was the clear winner with a 95% confidence level, outperforming all the other designs.
The Happy Animal T-Shirt Co. was able to take the winning design to the board with the results from all the research and evidence to suggest that the narwhal tee would outperform the smiling shark.
The future of mixed methods market research
Because Suzy offers both quant and qual in one platform, there are plenty more opportunities to gather consumer feedback and further improve the t-shirt. They could even run online focus groups to explore concepts, build empathy, and get a range of critical qualitative insights.
Whether it comes down to the fit, the fabric, or even the smiling animals, the researchers at the Happy Animal T-Shirt Co. could continuously test, learn, and iterate to find a product that target consumers truly want and would purchase.
See the Happy Animal T-Shirt Co. find their winning design yourself!
Thanks to the mixed methods research approach, the team was about to complete a project that would normally take a month in just a single work week. And instead of shelling out over $110,000, as they might have in the past, the Happy Animal T-Shirt Co. simply had to ask 17 questions on Suzy and Suzy Live, directly to vetted consumers.
Mixed methods market research with Suzy Live
Suzy Live enables you to easily combine qual and quant methodologies by tapping into our on-demand proprietary audience of screened and verified consumers—giving you access to a closed insights loop that you can learn from again and again. Expand on your quantitative insights by interviewing the same participants, and validate your qualitative findings by surveying the same target audience.
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