There’s a difference between marketing research (a broad approach to looking at various marketing aspects) and its close cousin, market research. The perspectives we’re looking for from the latter deliver a deeper appreciation of customer behavior, including the emotional and cognitive drivers reflected in targeted segments.
In the modern era, we use tools from quantitative and qualitative probing categories across various customer experience (CX) touchpoints, mainly digital. In other words, our focus is customer-centric from A to Z, which includes:
- Describing various market research type studies, from surveys to interviews, focus groups, observations, and usability testing.
- Reviewing the importance of continuous feedback to:
- Create meaningful insights in real-time
- Keep pace with change
- Data analytics using software to:
- Identify trends and market motivators
- Energize informed decisions.
For a comprehensive overview of the above, read on.
What is market research?
At its core, market research involves clearing the strategy stage of haziness by:
- Distinguishing genuine behavior triggers from those that look strong but lack impetus
- Tracking how they change in a dynamic environment
It’s an essential monitoring activity that focuses on defined customer data collection and evaluation, piercing facades to uncover buyers’ pain points, preferences, aspirations, fears, who they admire, and other hot buttons
Why is customer research essential?
It elevates your decision-making efficiency by gaining actionable insights into customer behavior pinpointing the meaningful differences that lead to better customer experiences with your products or services.
These include adjusting to change as:
- Competitors vie for dominance or try to copy your initiatives
- Demographics alter
- Expectations shift gears
- Gaps open and shut
- Market segments ebb and flow
The most effective market research programs are two-pronged, delivering quantitative and qualitative insights that provide a holistic picture for marketers trying to stay ahead of the herd.
What is quantitative market research?
It’s the favored method of gathering and analyzing numerical customer data that enables us to statistically rate, score, and measure:
- Market trends
- Consumer satisfaction
- Endless motivational variables that influence churn, engagement, loyalty, and knee-jerk reactions
How? Typically deploying different types of market research tools like:
- Surveys (such as NPS, CSAT, and Customer Effort)
- Experiments and observational studies
- Secondary research resources such as market research reports and documents emerging in a continuous cycle from:
- Industry participant companies
- Professional research organizations
- Federal and state government studies
The types of quantitative market research methods in detail
To reiterate, the options reflected in (a) to (c) above share reliance on data collection one can statistically analyze (mostly with AI-enhanced tools) to provide measurable insights. A few examples are:
- Customers’ quantitatively scored reactions to constructs such as:
- Price changes
- Technology support
- Brand messages
- Promotional campaigns
- Web design alterations
- New chatbots
- Other customer strategies
- Researchers observing and quantitatively analyzing websites, customer records, and other analytic platforms to derive:
- Website stays, bounce rates, and leaving buying carts incomplete
- Customer churn and acquisition
- Market dynamics and trends demographically profiled (e.g., growth or decline by segment across several dimensions)
Here’s more on the way they work:
1. Survey questionnaires online (websites, social media, or email) or in-store:
These can follow different closed-ended formats, such as:
- Multiple choice questions (MCQs, providing three or four optional answers)
Example – “How would you rate the client support you received today?”
Helpful | Somewhat helpful | Unhelpful | Helpful but Inconclusive
- Binary questions, providing two answers, usually opposites
Example – “Did today’s call solve your problem?”
“Yes” or “No”
- Questions that ask the audience to provide an answer on a rating scale
Example – A Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey asks, “How likely are you to recommend our brand to your family or friend?”
“Extremely unlikely” to “Extremely likely”
- Statements with either “Agree” or “Disagree.”
Example – A CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) Survey poses the following to the audience: “Our brand delivered a fantastic customer experience.”
“Agree” or “Disagree.”
Scoring these surveys once the responses are in: There are various ways, such as using dedicated automated software that generally configures the distinct negatives and positives, calculating weighted ratios after removing neutrals from the equation.
Sogolytics’ library of market research tools contains everything you need to compile surveys with proven questions, distribute them to get audience attention, collect the responses, and rank them with scores that give an unmistakable indication of meeting industry-best standards (or not).
2. Experiments and observational studies
These mainly focus on measuring cause-and-effect relationships: For example, a researcher may want to test the theory that online shoppers who browse a site for more than ten minutes (an independent variable or IV) buy something thirty percent of the time (a dependent variable or DV). To prove this finding, the researchers must have a real-time process at their fingertips that can accurately:
- Identify candidates that qualify for the time tests.
- Follow the customer journeys to the end in each case.
- Measure the minutes to the last second.
- Calculate the resulting percentages quickly and seamlessly.
The DV’s value rides on the independent one and may increase (or decrease) significantly as the IV changes, delivering an outcome that proves or disproves the theory in quantitative terms.
This technique doesn’t necessarily require a theory to initiate an observation. Google Analytics and dedicated virtual AI software applications connect to real-time online omnichannel movements that alert watchers to spikes and depressions in trend lines on PPCs, website visits, brick-and-mortar activity, and other vital metrics. All reflect as statistically significant percentages and ratios that create mind-shifting insights.
3. Secondary market research
One of the least expensive research resources is ready-made industry/government reports that reflect hundreds of crucial statistics, highlighting trends, segment changes, and sentiments related to different marketing initiatives.
Accessing these data banks for free or affordable prices can save your company thousands of dollars in unnecessary surveys and interview interactions. Companies like Qualtrics, Statista, and Kantar offer professional research expertise and extensive independent studies that work in the stakeholder’s favor.
How to maximize the benefits of quantitative research
Consider the following tips to help you access the three types of market research under this category and bolster their outstanding customer engagement advantages:
- Use relatively small but representative sample surveys based on high-probability randomization to generate unique metrics and measurable insights into massive markets. These are at the forefront of:
- Spotting, maximizing, minimizing, and addressing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats reflected in the scores and ratings.
- Rigorous statistical testing.
- Observing behavior and quantifying it based on repetition and unique reactions.
- Collecting relevant data quickly, especially where time sensitivity is a primary consideration.
- Conduct anonymous surveys, applying confidentiality protocols to observational methods, for objective and honest responses.
- Use short questionnaires, with mostly one or two penetrating probes, to ensure high response percentages.
- Compound metric insights substantially by combining quantitative with qualitative questioning and data (see below).
- Leverage the broad versatility and flexibility inherent in the quantitative resource pool to test hypotheses (as demonstrated above).
- Replicate the studies based on standardized methodologies.
What is qualitative market research?
Qualitative types of market research involve gathering data through open-ended questions and conversations, often combined in surveys containing quantitative closed-ended queries.
- They go to the crux of the “why” behind consumer behaviors, opening up the motivations and perceptions behind measurable reactions.
- In other words, qualitative probes focus on more profound insights into customer emotions, thoughts, and attitudes behind the CXs.
- Expect them to go beyond straightforward numerical data, with a versatility that includes:
- Survey questionnaires
- Focus groups with expert interviewers
- AI Software that can read nuances contained in SM reviews, audio recordings of customer support calls, and more.
Examples of open-ended questions (OEQs) following closed-ended ones:
- A Net Promoter Score survey asks, “How likely are you to recommend our brand to your family or best friend?” – “Extremely unlikely” to “Extremely likely”
“Why have you chosen to answer the way you have?” (The OEQ)
- Score or rate a loyalty program reward (from zero to five).
“Why did you rate the reward the way you did?” (The OEQ)
- Agree or disagree (on a scale of zero to ten) with this statement, “The client support experience was great.”
“Can you tell us more about your experience with our service agent?” (The OEQ)
- “What did you think of our recent project to help you appeal more to your clients?” Excellent | Good | Okay | Wasn’t so helpful | Poor
“What are your primary concerns regarding the project?” (The OEQ).
- “Would you welcome us doing the promotion again?” – “Yes | No.”.
“Can you give us more details on why you answered the way you did?” (The OEQ)
A focus group case study:
A beverage company marketing a popular range of enthused sodas was diversifying into the fast-growing flavored sparkling water segment. It wanted a diverse focus group of potential customers to provide their perspectives and feedback on taste (flavoring), packaging design options (aesthetics and content), and proposed marketing messages.
Using professional interviewers, the company stakeholders believed it would highlight weaknesses and strengths when designing the final marketing strategy. They broke the exercise into sections, as follows:
- Participant Selection: This involved careful consideration of the targeted demographics, emphasizing:
Age, income, and lifestyle.
Language, ethnicity, and influencers.
College (or not) education, gender, and location
- The Focus Group Moderator: The selected person was certified and experienced in conducting small and medium group interviews (the visualized scale) with piercing open-ended questions and engaging discussions. Much depended on the moderator’s ability to balance respondent viewpoints, disallowing dominant group members to drown out more reserved individuals
- Discussion and Group Dynamic Guidelines: These encouraged participants to participate enthusiastically, sharing thoughts and opinions in a constructively interactive environment.
Key actionable findings of the focus group created helpful insights such as:
- The participants strongly preferred the orange, lemon, and grapefruit flavors (citrus-centric) versus fruity options, leaning toward tart tastes.
- The group consensus favored modern or contemporary designs with bright colors (in preference to more traditional styles and muted aesthetics).
- One-sided, positive reactions to health-conscious messaging offering natural ingredients and low-calorie content.
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Follow-up: The company distributed surveys asking respondents to score or rate different messages and brand designs to verify the focus group insights with a more representative sample.
How to choose the right market research type for your business
Tips for a cohesive and cost-saving market research program are as follows:
1. Deciding between qualitative research types and those that work best quantitatively is mostly not a “black” or “white” decision. Why? I’ve demonstrated how the two methodologies work hand in hand for in-depth understanding.
- So, although one derives a measurable metric on a construct, the follow-up “why” question gives you multi-dimensional perspectives.
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2. Representation is a crucial consideration. You want to know that whatever the feedback received highlights for you, they’re accurate and unbiased.
- So, from a budget viewpoint and the segment size you’re visualizing, market research scale is a critical consideration.
- Companies like Sogolytics, with the latest analytical software at their fingertips, will guide your decisions to ensure you’re acting on metrics and qualitative data that counts.
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3. Surveys with closed-ended questions are ideal for fast follow-up to recent customer interaction events, such as a finished agent support call or recently concluded promotion.
- Keep them short, limited to one scoring question, with a “Why did you score what you did?” open-ended question as an addition.
4. Contract professionals to stand in your corner in all your marketing research efforts. Why? They have the best resources available at affordable prices to generate the most compelling results quickly with:
- AI-enhanced algorithms to dissect, sort, and extract the data for crucial insights to define your strategies.
- Survey templates proven to work in similar situations.
Sogolytics won’t waste money on research projects that aren’t with your market size. Also, they’ll seamlessly structure your processes as described above, and get your demographics spot on to remove unnecessary bias.
5. The most expensive types of market research are the ones where trained and certified interviewers are in the mix for long intervention conversations with customer panels.
- These are generally the domains of enterprise businesses with massive markets and six-figure research budgets.
- If your program is launching, lean toward the significantly less costly options.
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Don’t underestimate the value of available professional reports itemized above. They’re a Google search away and may deliver your desired answers without the time and costly detail required for a formal program.
Conclusion
Sogolytics is the resource that helps thousands of clients in the SMB and enterprise categories with their market research strategies, covering all types of market research surveys, from demographic analysis to data analytics.
Our team will save you thousands in unnecessary trial and error, retaining an operational scale that meets your needs from end to end. Our secondary market library is second to none, and the chances of discovering insights already in Big Data are good. Our market research connections cut across every mainstream product and service industry.
One of our specialties is going through all the steps to design representative samples so your survey results emerge unbiased. Contact us today for a no-obligation conversation about your research and marketing strategy needs. Need back-up? Consider connecting with our team for a managed research project!
FAQs
Q1: What is Market Research?
A: At its core, market research involves clearing the stage and separating the genuine behavior influencers from those that look strong on the surface but lack impetus. It’s an essential activity focusing on customer data collection and evaluation that pierces facades to uncover their pain points, preferences, aspirations, fears, who they admire, and hot buttons.
Q2: How does Market Research differ from Marketing research?
A: There’s a difference between marketing research (a broad approach to looking at various marketing aspects) and its close cousin, market research (often referred to as customer research). The latter’s perspectives are a more focused appreciation of customer behavior that includes the emotional and cognitive drivers reflected in targeted segments, including customer surveys (quantitative and qualitative) across various customer experience (CX) touchpoints, especially digital CX in the modern era.
Q3: What are the most popular quantitative types of market research?
A: Surveys (like NPS, CSAT, and Customer Effort)
- Experiments and observational studies
- Secondary research resources such as market research reports and documents emerging in a continuous cycle from:
- Industry participant companies
- Professional research organizations
- Federal and State Government studies
Q4: What are the qualitative types of market research?
A: Open-ended questionnaires and focus groups.
Q5: Can I use quantitative and qualitative market research types together?
A: Yes. As demonstrated in this article, the two methodologies work hand in hand.
Q5: How do I find the market research right for my business?
A: Contract professionals to stand in your corner in all your marketing research efforts. Why? They have the best resources available at affordable pricing to quickly generate the most compelling results with all the appropriate cogs turning the wheels when and how you want them.
- They’ll use AI-enhanced algorithms to dissect, sort, and extract the data for crucial insights that can define your strategies.
- They also have survey templates proven to work in similar situations.
- They won’t waste your money on research projects unaligned with your market size.
- Sogolytics, for example, will seamlessly structure your processes as described above, and get your demographics spot on to remove unnecessary bias.
