What is Market Research and How Does it Helps a Business?
Market research is a data-gathering process that can tell how effective your marketing strategy is. Market research is a crucial information that can tell exactly how the company is perceived by the target audience. The company can see how it ranks against competitors for different qualities. We can gather customer feedback to improve the look, feel, and quality of the content. How aware and receptive customers are to marketing campaigns and activities can also be measured.
Research helps in the process of developing and marketing retail products. Market research can help in making product strategies, how to bring them to the marketplace, and marketing them to consumers. It also gives an accurate view of business and the marketplace. Helps in determining who and where your customers are, and which customers are most likely to do business with you. It can also reveal how customers and prospects view your existing business and products. Market research can help in making product packaging and promotional decisions.
Which Trends are Reshaping Market Research and How?
In the long run, companies will keep trying to find ways to grow their business. Organizations need to decide on what roads they’re going down, to chart their path and increase their chances at success. Market research organizations will continue to play critical roles in achieving business growth goals through data and insight-driven decision-making.
It plays a crucial role in analyzing real-time market trends, competitive benchmarking, and customer intent behavior to provide that insight on which business decisions can be based.
That’s why it’s not surprising that the industry is adapting technology to focus on the data collection process, research methods, and presenting insights to clients. Some of these technologies have the potential to reshape this industry. The use of automation, AI, and machine learning facilitate the development of cutting-side Market Research Platforms, like cloud-based ones that enable you to research demand. Some of the bold innovations in this area are coming from the Indian market research industry.
1. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality technology places you in an alternate digital reality which can be interactive – that means you have a say in it. Augmented Reality superimposes components on the physical world by using your smartphone as a screen or your glasses. Virtual environments are some of the newest and most powerful tools for conducting market research. They’re being used for everything from idea testing to understanding consumers, and their behavior.
Surprisingly enough, the world of VR is still an accessible option to a wide range of businesses. Whether you’re on a budget or not, then this trend is something you should consider. This presents new opportunities for marketers looking to move away from traditional means of gathering market research and into the virtual space.
2. Mobile App Intelligence
With the average person opening a mobile app 11 times per day, and over 90% of the mobile time being spent on apps –there’s no doubt that apps can impact every business, in one way or another. The need for mobile app intelligence is not just a nice-to-output, it’s a must. Across all industries globally, the use of this technology will rise.
The ability to see web and app traffic side-by-side makes it easy to spot how consumer behaviors are changing. Which in turn allows measuring the impact of apps on the market. Know which app to invest in? Use this data to make a decision! Along with overall insights from 24,000 apps, you can see the top-performing segments and the best link-building strategies.
Recent advances in technology are influencing increased demand for apps and services. Start-ups that were once unheard of are now constantly entering various sectors and the market is changing fast. App intelligence gives the ability to see emerging threats and take action. With a complete understanding, the risks taking capacity increases, and the plan is not impacted.
3. How Microdata is Gaining Prominence
Big Data has become an area of contention but is arguably the most talked-about subject amongst market researchers. “Microdata” on the other hand, is now more important than big data. One of the most integral aspects of research companies is the use of big data, but businesses increasingly recognize that targeted and effective decisions are more likely to come from individual behavior. This is because they analyze the impact of combined macro and micro-level data patterns on individual customers, which you wouldn’t get with macro-level data alone.
Organizations that collect large data remain interested in it while some have recently been acquiring microdata. This includes information about what individual customers are doing. To unlock the full potential of micro data reporting, a coordinated effort between existing statistics and newly gathered micro data sources is necessary. To ensure that data is representative several factors will need to be taken into account. There could be a need for existing statistics to be modified or for new research to occur, depending on the planned scope of the new project. This can affect how and when data requirements are gathered.
4. Role of Online Qualitative Research and Social Listening
Qualitative research is a big trend in market research. One of the things it makes possible that wouldn’t be possible by other means is the ability to do online research. The other benefit of online qualitative research is that it’s cheaper and doesn’t have many of the logistical complications of live focus groups and in-person qualitative research. Nonetheless, now online focus groups are becoming more extensively used during methodological approaches by research professionals, who hail from all over the world. Your focus groups can now be online! This gives you the freedom of adapting your data collection approach and providing more engagement or digital rewards to the panel members.
Many conversations are happening on social media about businesses, so it is important to monitor them for insights into understanding the customer’s needs. Social media is a very immersive, emotional platform – which is both a good and a bad thing. There’s more opportunity than ever before to get an understanding of what people are thinking and feeling, but it can all be too much. You may isolate the data you care about and track short-term indicators using social listening. This is how indigenous research will function in the future. When managed correctly, social listening can contribute to faster recognition of relevant channels and activities.
5. Real-Time vs. Agile
When it comes to agile and real-time market research, there should not be any decision between the two; rather they should complement each other. To stay competitive in the market research industry, real-time research must be combined with primary research. Then and only then will we be able to put it to better use. For example, because real-time data indicates when a customer is looking for a product, survey data may help prioritize the triggers like what preferences and needs of the customer. Lastly, the marketing efforts will most likely lead to a purchase.
It’s important to keep in mind that real-time market research is an additional source of data that provides a multifaceted view of customers and won’t be able to deliver its full potential if the company can’t respond quickly. However, by using both real-time research and agile marketing research together we can keep up with the perspective of a consumer’s past, present, and future habits at the rate at which they change. The changes Consumers are making as they evolve.
Also read: The 8 Major B2B Lead Generation Challenges And How To Overcome Them
Conclusion
Technology has been rapidly advancing and it is constantly changing. It can change the way we do things, from day to day. Market Research has also witnessed the same. Marketing has seamlessly integrated AI into each step of the data collection process, simplifying reports with human-oriented analysis tools and presenting data in an efficient and highly accurate.
Marketing gurus predict the coming years to be even more dramatic, in terms of upheavals in market research, with the advance of technology shrinking the world into a smaller place.
Market Research tools make it possible to gather customer opinions much faster and cheaper than ever before. They have cut out the need for expensive focus groups and allowed smaller brands, like yours, to compete with the big guys. Once research teams are working with a strategy built around AI, they can quickly scale up and down based on the needs of the project. This allows them to become more flexible and nimble when they need it.
In conclusion, AI will dramatically change the marketplace research industry. We’ll be able to do more with quicker results sent to your inbox in a matter of days. To be more efficient, the researcher should make use of emerging technologies that expedite data collection and analysis so they can focus on solving higher-level problems. Market research also has great potential.
