Market research glossary

In quantitative research, refers to the probability that the finding from a sample could have occurred by chance. For example, suppose you have developed a new formulation for your product and want to find out if people prefer it to the current one by asking a random sample of 100 people to test both formulations. The null hypothesis would be that there is no preference for the new formulation and the alternative hypothesis would be that people do prefer the new formulation. Based on the number of people who preferred the new formulation in your sample, a statistical hypothesis test will tell you how likely it is that the null hypothesis is true and conversely, how likely it is that the alternative hypothesis is true. In qualitative research, hypothesis testing may refer to any kind of preliminary research to test out new ideas, which may then be explored in more detail through further qualitative or quantitative research.