Question

How do you see the difference between quantitative vs. qualitative research? Do you think 1 is more reliable than the other? Why? If you were conducting some marketing research on launching a new product or service for your employer/organization, which 1-2 specific research tools might you recommend to your supervisor to pay for?

Answer 1

Quantitative research is the investigation using scientific methods. The outcome is numerical, and can therefore be judged statistically to provide an answer to the hypothesis.
It is used to prove assumptions, theories or confirm tests.
It generalizes facts about a topic
The ways used to collect data are survey , experiment and observation.

Qualitative research on the other hand is much more on individual basis. It analyses social phenomena, and statistics or numerical data is not used at all.
The research is done with the help of biographies, interviews, ideologies, viewpoints, case studies, and try to understand people's point of view.
it is used to gather in-depth information which is not a fact.

Some people believe that quantitative is much better as it involves numbers and confirms to a fact. Also there is no biasness and so is more reliable. However this is not true. Even quantitative data is unable to prove the theories which are dependent on changing environment. So basically both the methods are equally reliable and it depends upon the type of research you are doing.

For marketing research of a new product i would recommend the following tools- growthbarand surveymonkey