(This article was first published in Quirk's Media on September 5, 2024)
Consumer preferences and behaviors change rapidly, often within hours, requiring researchers to stay alert and adaptable. Researchers know how important it is to gather customer feedback to make business decisions but gathering it fast enough to make timely decisions remains a major challenge.
Earlier this year, we highlighted four trends that researchers should consider for success. After testing, validation and assessment, here is our refreshed list of trends that will shape the latter half of 2024.
1. Go slow to go fast: Speed continues to be king
Research needs to outpace the market. In a world where content spreads rapidly, it’s crucial for brands to quickly access user feedback to determine what’s worth investing in. The key is differentiating between fads and trends. Fads may appear promising but fade quickly, while trends can shape consumer behavior long-term. Customer insights are the only way to identify the difference. While researching to keep up with the market is essential, moving too quickly can compromise the quality of your research and lead to unreliable data. It’s essential to balance speed with thoroughness: go slow to go fast.
RTL, the Netherlands' leading commercial television network, created a dedicated community of opted-in users to deepen viewer engagement and incorporate audience feedback into their news and talk shows. By displaying QR codes during live broadcasts, RTL was able to engage viewers in real-time. This strategy resulted in nearly instant insights, achieving four times the anticipated engagement and a 67% completion rate. Insights were available on screen within just 20 minutes of collection.
2. Investing in segmentation
Understanding distinct customer groups remains vital. In addition to customers expecting personalized experiences, the needs, priorities and pains of each customer segment will differ widely from one another. Understanding these differences for each of your segments is pivotal for attracting and retaining those customers.
With companies investing in segmentation, the focus now is on scaling these efforts. Industry-leading research programs have granular segmentation allowing them to target the exact segment they need for any research project.
3. AI is your friend, not your enemy
AI's saturation in business strategy is undeniable, but its core function is straightforward: optimization, not replacement. Don’t assume it’s one thing and let it affect your ability to infuse it into your research approach.
Approaching AI with an open mind and a focus on end users can greatly enhance your research efforts. AI can streamline tasks like data analysis, topic extraction and sentiment detection in qualitative data. With AI integration, researchers can shift their focus to strategic priorities like scaling segmentation for deeper insights and optimizing user experiences more effectively than before.
4. Don’t exclusively rely on general population samples
While general population samples can be valuable when entering a new market or expanding into a different customer base, they aren’t very useful for improving products or services for your existing customers. After all, how much benefit does data unrelated to your current customers really bring to inform business growth? In most cases, not much. Although general population research may seem more affordable and convenient, relying on low-quality data can ultimately be more costly.
By recruiting your own users for research, you will get to know so much more about your offering. And because you know more, you can do everything better. By getting those real users, everything else in your research process and business will benefit. You win every time with real users.
Cabot Creamery, a farm family cooperative, launched a customer community to strengthen connections with its own customer base. Through this initiative, the Cabot market research team was able to consistently gather valuable product feedback, enabling the company to evolve alongside consumer needs.
Leveraging their community, Cabot initiated a project to assess customer views on sustainability. Surveys and qualitative research revealed an unexpected need for educational outreach on sustainable practices. By engaging directly with verified customers as opposed to the general population, Cabot Creamery gained deeper insights into their customers’ specific needs and preferences.
Involving real users in qualitative research
In today’s rapidly evolving economic landscape, where every decision and penny counts, engaging with real users and customers is crucial. With consumer behaviors shifting rapidly, relying on general population samples is insufficient. Real user engagement provides more accurate and actionable insights that enable businesses to navigate uncertainty effectively.
In a competitive and unpredictable market, investing in real user research not only enhances insight quality but also strengthens a company’s ability to make informed decisions and thrive. At the end of the day, the name of the game in modern research is real users.
