Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Qualitative Research

This week I will base my blog post around the realm of qualitative research within the fitness and supplement industry.  Qualitative reseach can yield a great amount of information for any industry.  For a basic definition, qualitative research is the gathering of data through non-numerical information which investigates the "why" and "how" of a certain topic.  This research can be conducted through many methods such as observation, focus groups, and discussions.  



As the fitness and supplement industry is very difficult to gather numerical data, due to irs prodcuts' complexities, qualitative research is consistently an effective manner in which companies seek information from customers regarding their products.  Qualitative research is conducted more than people think regarding fitness and supplements.  For example, a person at the gym consumes a certain supplement followed by others asking that person how he or she feels about that product.  Before you know it, there is a "focus group" of people discussing the effectiveness of supplements, in other words engaging in qualitative research.  There are many aspects that consumers want to be informed about before buying a product regarding the benefits and side effects of each product.  It is important to get other opinions on the product before making the decision to purchase that specific supplement.

Companies within the industry are able to conduct qualitative research through message boards and discussion forums as "average Joe's" continually discuss aspects of fitness and supplements open to the public.  Also, companies ar able to gather in retail stores that sell these products to discuss supplements and observe customers' purchase behavior.  Personally, before I purchase a supplement I conduct a great amount of qualitative research by reading discussions about that product, as well as observing others before I make my purchase.

In my opinion, qualitative research is vital in the fitness and supplement industry.  Methods of qualitative research are used by both the seller and the buyer in various ways.  In an industry where quanitative research is very difficult to gather, qualitative research thrives in effectively providing both the company and consumer with data and information.

No comments:

Post a Comment