Market research analysis software: Answering the most frequently asked questions
Who is a typical user?
Q Research Software, MarketSight, and Survey reporter tend to be used primarily by market research consultants and the internal research departments of large companies. WinCross requires more programming knowledge so it is primarily used by market research consultants (with specialist DP setting up the tables). SPSS Statistics requires a deeper understanding of statistics and syntax as it has less automation, it is used by market research consultants, internal research departments, statisticians and ‘advanced quant’ teams. R is powerful yet very hard to use outside of tools like Q Research Software or Displayr (which automate many R functions), so it is mainly used by statisticians and ‘advanced quant’ teams who understand the R language.
What are the key features of each tool?
Q is easy to learn and use for basic and advanced analysis (predictive modeling, perceptual mapping, segmentation, machine learning) and visualization. It is the most complete market research analysis tool, catering for all skills sets and any type of analysis. It is integrated with MS Office and Displayr for dashboards and online reporting. It also automates most routine and complex tasks (e.g, updating trackers, statistical testing, cleaning and formatting data, creating lots of crosstabs, calculating weights and filters, model choice etc.).
MarketSight is relatively easy to learn and easy to use for basic analysis. It is a good tool for creating a large number of crosstabs. Doing advanced analysis requires the user to have a greater level of sophistication than with Q.
Survey Reporter is integrated with SPSS data collection products. It is good for creating lots of crosstabs.
WinCross is an efficient tool for creating crosstabs. It does require the user to have ‘programming’ knowledge, so is not very easy for anyone to use.
SPSS Statistics has many advanced features. However, it is difficult to learn and generally less efficient than the other market research analysis software listed. It requires the user to know how to write in syntax to automate many procedures.
R has more features than any of the other tools. It is automatable (Q Research Software and Displayr automate analyses in R) and customizable. It is not good for creating crosstabs and almost everything has to be done with ‘programming’.
What is the best tool for market research consultants?
Q research software of course.
