Abstract:

The paper is based on experience in design, interpretation and application of five market segmentation studies for consumer products using samples of 600 to 2000 respondents in West Germany and Argentina and research into variables particularly in West Germany done between 1970 and 1981. The paper discusses, first, the two concepts "quality" and "quantity" in social research, showing that "quality" or "meaning" should be retained by exploring quantitative data. The second part shows which strategies should be used concerning number of variables per person, number of respondents, representativeness of samples, preciseness of scaling and use of factor-and cluster-analyses. The third part gives an example: how demographics can be qualitatively explored and transformed into information on life styles.