Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Social Marketing Research
As a social marketer, you undeniably realize the difficult goal with which you are tasked: Most notably, as defined by Alan R. Andreasen in his book, "Marketing Social Change," you are attempting "to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences to improve their personal welfare and that of their society." You will need to rely on research to a greater degree than with a typical commercial marketing program, both in types of research used and the frequency over the life of your program: Qualitative can help you to understand your targets but quantitative can give you the degree of understanding -- the combination can help you to get underneath the specifics.
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Quantitative Research
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Quantiative research looks for meaningful and measurable responses. Use a quantitative research method, such as formative surveys or available secondary research, when you need concrete numbers that measure information about a particular target market or a component of your marketing strategy. Everyone gets asked the same questions and the possible answers are limited so they can be measured, or quantified, allowing you to see meaningful differences and similarities. According to Terry Baugh, executive director of Kidsave International and president of social marketing agency T. Baugh & Co. in Washington, D.C., quantitative research will help you focus on specific audiences to discover what will most likely resonate or work to create change. Andreasen cautions that if you elect to do original research, your survey sample will need to be large enough to be statistically reliable. He advises that it may be more cost efficient to contract it out to a specialty firm.
Qualitative Research
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The focus group is a qualitative research method. Your qualitative research will require time and manpower to conduct rather intimate and personal conversations. For many social marketing programs this may mean going into several neighborhoods or rural areas to gather information. This research guides the respondent through in-depth interviews or focus groups. As a social marketer, qualitative research can give you a richness of the range of emotions and language, providing a breadth of understanding about your program -- either in how you need to structure it, or how effective it is in its current stage.
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Common Social Marketing Research Practices
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Many local governments carry out their own research for social marketing. At some point in your social marketing career you will come across the acronym "KAP," or "KAPB." This refers to knowledge, attitudes and practice; or, knowledge, attitudes, practices and beliefs. Popular with health programs, quantitative KAP surveys are readily carried out by local governments or large international agencies, such as the World Bank. You can also design your own KAP to make it more meaningful to your program, incorporating more qualitative aspects to discern lifestyle information. Other helpful research methods to integrate into your program can include ethnographic research for understanding the culture in which you are working; interviews in homes and "on the street;" and other in-depth interviews, particularly for testing products and messages.
Pre-testing and Monitoring
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Social marketing programs are lengthy -- behavior change can take years and sometimes is never truly attained. Andreasen has identified at least five stages the public must go through before actually changing behavior and there are no guarantees they will complete all five stages: Precontemplation; contemplation; preparation; action; and confirmation. Since many social marketing programs rely on funding from donors or government programs year after year, you will need to justify your resources and demonstrate progress. Research is one way to help you do that. Pre-testing can help with decisions on messaging and strategies, as well as flush out possible alternatives. As your program proceeds, you will want to use benchmark testing to keep your program on track and ensure you are still reaching your audiences and their respective stages. Customer satisfaction surveys and other quantitative and qualitative evaluation research are also tools you can use to measure outcome. Ongoing integrated research techniques are crucial for efficient use of resources.
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