Soft data
Week 4 Discussion
Market research is important to businesses when they are developing strategies to develop competitive advantages. While soft data comes from qualitative observations, hard data is factual and measurable (Spacey, 2017). Both soft and hard data enable organizations to gain insight into the market. Market research allows organizations to measure their reputation, understand customers, and beat competition (Thomas, 2016). Soft market research entails collecting information on elements of goods such as emotion, experience, and psychological connections. On the other hand, hard market research involves the use of demographic and numerical data to determine the company target market, customers’ needs, and their expectations.
Soft data collected from observation and focus groups is beneficial to organizations since managers engage in conversations with consumers to understand their needs and expectations. Besides, businesses obtain negative feedback from customers that is essential in identifying areas of improvement. When organizations collect accurate soft data, they build the capacity to develop products and services that meet the needs of consumers. Soft data allows managers to learn the attitudes of consumers about the company and its products (Wild & Wild, 2019). This type of data is preferred when companies deal with customers from different cultures.
Hard data enable organizations to enhance their competitiveness in the market. The information is factual and measurable, making it easy for businesses to utilize it in increasing its geographic reach (Liberti & Peterson, 2019). Once hard data is collected, it is analyzed and communicated to all the organization’s stakeholders. The stakeholders make decisions based on this information. Hard data is preferred when companies want to determine their market share. The organizations measure their performance in comparison with that of competitors. Therefore, both soft and hard data are vital to the success of businesses.