What is market research?
Market research is crucial for decisions like new product development and for getting the insight you need to be confident about your direction and big marketing decisions.
Most businesses know that market research is vital to understanding your customers – it can help you to forecast and anticipate future trends within your sector. It’s also a key to writing business plans and strategies as you grow and innovate. However, it’s unlikely you have the time, money or inclination to pound the streets with a clipboard asking thousands of people what they think of your new business idea or your company’s latest innovation. Not only is that not the way it’s done any more, but with new platforms available to bring you real-time data as and when you need it, the clipboard is resting in peace while online tools provide in-depth analytics on demand, for savvy market professionals.
And new technologies mean it’s time to see some disruption in a market research industry estimated to be worth £4.8 billion, improving issues with speed, access, quality and scale.
The future
Market research is no longer just about saying how many out of ten cats preferred a given brand of tinned pet food, it’s about measuring return on investment, getting real-time results and being able to analyse those results to better understand customer behaviour.
Market research, and use of data in marketing, has grown up and now we not only look at what people choose, but why, and how they relate to their decisions emotionally – connecting to the whole decision-making process.
In a world full of an unlimited array of options, tracking customer choices is more important than ever before, but pinning the customers down can be trickier as you compete for a slice of their time and for their real opinions. Gamification plays a role in the future of market research, with an emphasis on making participation fun and rewarding too. At the same time security, and keeping data secure, has never been more important.
If you want to commission market research to tell a story, prove (or disprove a theory) or for PR and marketing purposes, either inside or outside of your organisation, then take a look at Attest, who are market research specialists.
Attest can help you achieve new breakthroughs, gain insights and keep momentum going with affordable, fast and shareable data and tools.
Attest already provide market research services to hassle-free haggling experts Carwow and the bringers of beautiful botanicals to our gin and tonics, Fever Tree.
