Driven by a range of forces such as rapid technological innovations, internet, mobile devices, social media and analytics, the Market Research Industry is in a state of change and disruption. Every year the pace of innovation in the industry increases and 2015 has been no exception. This creates a whole host of exciting avenues for brands and service providers alike. So here is our hottest Market Research trends of 2015:
Mobile Market Research is here to stay: In 2014, we reached the mobile tipping point – the point where there are more mobile internet users than desktop users. The ability to access consumers’ thoughts, emotions and experiences in real time became an exciting prospect for the marketers.
Innovation allowed for integration of document, image and video upload into mobile platforms. Survey takers could record videos and document rich, emotive feedback in real time. Mobile market research shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. Read more about the best practices from our experts.
Social Dominance: It is no secret that research is becoming increasingly social. This gives companies the ability to not just follow what customers are saying on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other social platforms, but to engage with them, respond, and deliver marketing messages and offers as these conversations happen.
For being engaged to such conversations, the Online Communities is the new concept. Rather than directly asking for feedback and artificially stimulating discussions, brands are taking a step back and allowing opinions to form organically through naturally emerging market research professionals. The personification of this is community blogging, in which brands provide opportunities for consumers to provide personal feedback and then engage socially around these focal points.
DIY Research would continue to grow: With market research companies innovating with product portfolios, we are seeing more and more research methods offered in a do-it-yourself package, and enterprise organizations investing in proprietary data collection and analysis programs that are perfectly aligned to their needs.
But that doesn’t mean DIY research will replace the need for market research professionals and companies. There will always be an important role for professional research tools and consultants. Smart companies know when to bring them in and when they are redundant.
Collectively, these trends paint a picture of an industry that has many opportunities in-store. Data is the true hero of our world today, and although the types of data and the ways we go about collecting and analysing it are changing very rapidly our core value proposition of helping companies make smarter, more impactful business decision has not changed.
