It is a common misconception to view motivational (or qualitative) research as a special brand of market research. But, primarily, it is not a special branch of knowledge or methodology, but a skill. Some people have more aptitude for it than others - we all have some - and a background of formal study or knowledge - as in psychology and the social sciences - may be conducive to developing it. But it remains essentially a skill, and one that all marketing men engage in, whether more or less effectively. Both formal market research and the less formal motivational research are part of the same general operation: the intelligence work of marketing, informing its general strategy and specific campaigns. Within this general dispensation, the special emphasis of motivational research is to enable the marketing man to handle the abstractions of quantified market research with a sound sense of their relation to real life, with a genuine and rounded sense of the feelings and motives of the consumer. From study in depth of the case histories of specific consumers emerge the generalisations as to attitudes and behaviour, with which the particular investigation is concerned. Broadly speaking , quantified market research yields descriptive intelligence, while qualitative (or motivational) research yields explanatory theory, although there is some overlap of these functions.
In this session, we are concerned to consider the relative merits of qualitative and quantitative work. In theory, I am sure we would all agree that these two forms of work are not by any means mutually exclusive, but are complementary. I certainly hold that view. However, there is much room for discussion as to the relative contribution each kind of approach may make. It is here we may disagree. My own view - and I speak as one, admittedly, who specialises in qualitative work - is clear; it is, that quantitative methods are entirely inadequate of themselves, and that without the qualitative approach, most market research is sterile, if not misleading. In order to sustain this point of view, I want to spend a little time in reviewing with you, first the nature of market research, and next something of the nature of scientific work in general, and of social science in particular with which market research has much affinity. I shall then return to make what I regard as the proper evaluation of the qualitative approach.