Why We Need Context in Quantitative Market Research Analysis

It’s unfortunate but true—context often goes overlooked when examining market research results. All too often, really, market research provides numbers that don’t seem to mean a thing without background information to support them. The important takeaway here is, in order to analyze data for meaning that is actually relevant to your marketing venture, you need to understand its context.

Context matters in everything we do. For instance, spending double digits on a meal seems absurd at a fast food restaurant, but it’s the norm at a sit-down one. Meeting someone who’s a 14-year-old student is typical—until you find out she’s attending an Ivy League University among the most brilliant adult minds in the country. Now, take this idea and apply it to your market research. What does it mean to have a satisfaction rating of 70%? Is this result favorable or not?

One of the first factors you must consider in determining context is the scale you are using to compare results. For instance, it makes no sense to compare data from a five-point scale to data from a ten-point scale. Doing so only leads to misleading and inaccurate results that will leave you scratching your head.

In the same vein, it’s essential that you consider context when comparing your business to others. It’s entirely possible that the big corporations are eating you alive, but that you also tower over smaller businesses in your field. Vary that angle at which you examine your results.

One of the most useful tools in determining market research context is to define two separate factors: your expectations and your goals. Doing so is actually a very helpful exercise to complete with a team so that you all can arrive at a consensus about business goals. The activity can also show the group where goals might be realistic or which team members have too-high expectations. When the results of a study are actually released, the team of owners can also assess their own expectations within a realistic market research context.

With no context supporting them, numbers cannot tell you anything of value to your business. The more you consider context within market research, the more value you add to your results.