Category: MARKET RESEARCH

Inclusion in market research is a recent trend. Traditional market research methods are not effective in reaching diverse audiences. It is impossible to use the same panel provider each time and expect different results. You can't ask the same questions or use the same demographic markers for categorizing your audience.

Tip: Similarweb provides the most up-to-date market data to help you see real market trends almost in real time.

This is what you should think about: A global event can destroy your business. Your target audience cannot afford your product any more, or don't want it. What can you do to recover? Maybe you focus on a new, niche audience. You might also consider how to improve your product offerings to meet customer needs.

Uber is an excellent example of a company that considered adjacent markets when conducting its research. Uber capitalized on the boom in the nearby food delivery market, which saw traditional ridesharing become less popular during the pandemic.

What is the lesson? Learn from the experience of others.

Market-tech audits are one of the most important trends in market research. It's been so easy in the last two years to use multiple software and techniques to no avail, it's now time to do an audit.

Consider which solutions are similar in function. Is your research increasing in complexity and doubling the work? Are the efficiencies you have found in tech actually slowing down your workflow process?

Examine every solution and concentrate on those that offer robust data analytics.

Customers today want to invest in companies that share their values. Your brand should demonstrate environmental sustainability to your target audience.

It is not enough to have a fancy mission statement. If your exterior appearance is not consistent with your day-to-day operations, customers will quickly notice. Social listening is a great way to keep up with market trends. You can keep track of the conversations about your brand's values on social media. If so, you might need to revise or renew vows.

The result? The result? Customer loyalty is at an all-time high.

One way to appeal to mobile-first generations is with shorter and smarter surveys. The average person doesn’t have the time or the interest to complete a 30-question survey. Locate your mobile audience, and then give them the most concise but richest survey possible. It will increase efficiency and yield greater results if your data is focused on the most important.

Return to AI. Market research doesn't always provide exciting insights or analysis. It can be tedious, such as collecting data, categorizing and organizing information, following up emails, and so on. Market research trends demand that you automate all of these tedious tasks. You can use your time for more worthwhile work.

What does this all mean?

Market research trends of the moment reflect the slowly evolving trends of the past few years and introduce new methods of conducting market research.

The truth is that market research has never been more exciting. Market research will reach new heights if you incorporate AI, inclusion, social listening, humanity, and diversity into your strategies. You can't make the most of market research trends without being aware of them.

What's the solution? Use market research trends to help propel your business forward. You will find new customers, and you'll show your existing customers that they are important.

How can a company improve its products and services in order to meet customer needs better? You need to get to know your customers.

Market research should be an integral part of every business strategy. You can find out who your customers really are, what their needs and wants, and what your business should be doing to meet those expectations by conducting the right research. Market research is not only extensive but also important.

There are many ways to conduct research. competitor analysis and audience assessment are just a few examples. What if your strategies are not relevant to the current landscape of your industry?

You can't rely on only in-person audience surveys and questionnaires as your strategy. This is not the 1960s. The world has changed and we have evolved, so it's not possible to expect the same strategies forever.

This is where market research trends can be of great help. Let's look at some market research trends that will be popular in 2022 to help you meet your customers and grow your business.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Companies have access to huge amounts of data that can be used to analyze customer needs. The vastness of data can be a double-edged weapon. How can you quickly collect and analyze so many data while still completing other important business tasks?

AI isn’t a new trend in market research. However, Companies use it every day.

It takes human capital to collect, organize, analyze and analyze data from all sources. AI is able to help. Machine learning and AI do the heavy lifting and save you time and money on labor. Imagine being able to see deep insights from millions of data points in just minutes. Magic.

AI allows for more innovation in terms of the data you can gather in your research, in addition to the increased efficiency. Emotion AI analyses facial expressions, eye movements and voices to determine how customers feel about a product or service. These valuable insights can be used to complement customer surveys or even replace them if they are more accurate.

However, innovators beware. While AI can't replace human capital, it is a useful tool that can be used as a supplement. People are still needed to think up growth strategies and provide insight to your business every day.

The bottom line: Bottom line: AI is a market research industry trend that will help you scale your business and reach customers. However, it should be used in conjunction with high-quality talent.

2. Mobile app intelligence

Apps can have a significant impact on almost all businesses, with the average user opening mobile apps 11 times per day and more than 90% of mobile time being spent on apps. Organizations need to be able to track and monitor app intelligence. This is not a luxury, it's a necessity. All industries are increasingly looking for mobile intelligence.

It's possible to view both web and mobile traffic together. This allows analysts and leaders to assess the impact of apps on their markets. This data is essential for those who want to make decisions about app investments. Organizations can see the entire digital landscape and track how mobile-first consumers spend their money online.

Rapid market shifts are becoming the norm due to technology driving more demand for apps and disruptive start ups entering nearly every sector. App intelligence allows people to spot emerging threats, and then take appropriate action. Decisions about growth and strategy can be made without a complete picture. This could have a negative impact on the future.

3. Customer experience should reflect humanity

Market research trends can change the data we gather from customers. It's no longer enough to record technical data like gender, age, and location. Customer expectations today are personalized. You can't provide that experience without psychographic information. How do they view everything? Is their personality more introverted than extroverted. It is also important to understand their values and align yours with them.

You can then use your deep personal insights to bring more humanity to their experience. Send them an email to check in asking if they solved a problem with their last purchase. You can also refer to them online by their name. What did you get? Higher sales, bigger shopping carts and better profit margins are the results of a survey by Forbes. This was done by 40% of executives.

As with most aspects of modern life today, the market research industry has seen a dramatic change during our COVID-19 pandemic. Although most principles of market research are still valid, global brands have had to adapt their research methods in order to meet the "new reality".

Market research generally begins with a wide-angle view of the market's influence spheres (including changing customer behaviours and emerging industry trends). Then, the research zooms in on specific details within a target audience.

Here are some key trends in market research today, and what's ahead for 2022.

For example, advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), for instance, allow researchers to collect information from a wider variety of sources. These advancements have also led to a renewed emphasis on speed and agility in research. Various elements include:

Automating routine research techniques Automating routine aspects of research allows for faster analysis and interpretation. Researchers can save time and effort by automating the repetitive aspects of research, while focusing on what is most important in their work.

Smarter surveys and polls that are shorter and more concise. Surveys that are easy to position and distribute (and take only a few minutes to complete) can increase the speed of analysis. This involves identifying mobile-reliant populations that are willing to participate in surveys or polls upon request and in a short time frame.

Continuous research. Continuous research is equal to agile research. The insights from one survey may change dramatically in a constantly changing global market. Researchers can also use the findings from one survey to create a more specific survey that focuses only on changing market factors.

We have said before that "if your offerings meet current and emerging customer requirements, your business will build a reputation as being completely customer-centric, which your competitors cannot match."

Emotion AI is a tool that analyzes voice patterns, eye movements and facial expressions in order to decode human emotion. It also uses non-verbal cues to help brands link emotion to consumer behaviour patterns. Emotion AI is able to more accurately "read" the emotions of consumers and determine whether a venture succeeds or fails by analyzing their responses to proposed upgrades or product launches.

MIT Sloan points out that "new artificial intelligence technologies are learning and recognizing human emotion and using this knowledge to improve everything, from marketing campaigns to healthcare."

Social listening is the process of analyzing social media conversations related to your brand and your industry. This goes beyond the monitoring of basic metrics like "likes", "mentions", or "followers", and focuses instead on the buyer's emotions behind the data.

Customers often share their opinions about products and services via popular social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and others. This can be viewed by market researchers as real-time feedback on customer preferences, brand awareness and the inroads made to their products/services by other competitors.

Social listening is a great way to gauge customer sentiment (what they like or don't like about the purchase experience, preferences regarding how a transaction is done, etc.).

Continuous research is also known as longitudinal studies. It tracks market attitudes and consumer behavior over time. Researchers use a long-term method to gather data from different sources. This gives them insight into consumer buying patterns and their reactions to new products or services.

A caveat to DIY marketing is that it can be dangerous. Forbes points out that if you seek advice from a third party (for market research), you will likely receive a different perspective to what you would receive from your team. You also have a higher chance of getting an objective perspective, which can be healthier and more informative about the target audience.

It is gone days when a brand could simply tell its customers what it stands for. Customers who are savvy do extensive research to find out if a brand is "walking the talk", especially when it comes to the values they hold dear, such as the environment, sustainability, income inequality, racial harmony, etc.

Customers who identify brands that align with their values are more likely to stay loyal. Customers may decide to leave a company if they feel that there is a disconnect between the brand's mission and its actions.

Brands are encouraged to review their mission and values in 2022 and how they are communicated to their target audience. The process of refining a company’s mission statement can be aided by monitoring social media conversations about these values. This is a great opportunity to make a new commitment to support causes and initiatives that are most important to your audience.

Although market research trends change, the end result is consistent from the past to today.

Market research shows that brands must be agile in an ever-changing marketplace. Customers' needs are never static. A brand that meets customer needs and anticipates future ones will have a stronger position in the global marketplace than its competitors.