Qualitative Analysis

Definition

A qualitative analysis is a technique which uses complex mathematical and statistical modeling, measurement and research to evaluate things. There could be a number of reasons behind conducting this analysis and may include: measurement of progress; performance evaluation; prediction of related global events and valuation of financial instrument. For a business individual or company it is very important to keep a check on all these factors in order to smoothen progress his business.

How to Conduct Qualitative Analysis

There could be various steps involved in the process of qualitative analysis. Generally these steps are:

• Data / Information Collection

The first and very basic step for any analysis is to gather related data likewise data collection for qualitative analysis is first and most important step. Wrongly collected data or information could lead to misjudgment and wrong decisions. For qualitative analysis, a good understanding is needed about consumers’ preferences.

• Surveys

For deeper delves, you need to ask consumers about their satisfaction level on a certain product or service. Ask him details about the rank he gave to a certain product and suggestions for future improvements.

• Analysis

The first step in carrying out quantitative analysis after getting answers to the product related questions, is look for categories in the responses and assign numbers for each category. This will convert words into numbers alongside the other quantitative data in the survey.

Now you need to go through all the open ended questions and collected information by reading the transcripts or print outs to develop an understanding about how consumers rank your product and how they talk about it. Categorize the popular views and merge them to develop a theme or code list. Finally, add color to data tabulation to clearly present various categorizes for example differentiation of groups having the same opinion based on income level, educational level or satisfaction level.

• Presentation of Final Report

In the end, incorporate your result in the form of a presentation using tables, graphs or flow charts.