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2020 was a year full of challenges for the market research industry. However, despite global lockdowns and restrictions, the sector has embraced technology and advanced its methods for audience insight gathering. Necessity, in this instance, really has been the mother of invention.
Unsurprisingly, technology will continue to be at the forefront of the industry’s evolution in 2021, with AI and machine learning taking center stage when it comes to the ways we conduct, monitor, and analyze consumer sentiment. Access to these types of technologies will be particularly important as many organizations look to realign costs and spending in times of a looming economic downturn.
Continued reliance on technology will also shape the methodology used by researchers to gain a deeper insight into their consumers and target audiences. Insight and data capture via video are likely to give consumers an easier and more intuitive way of providing honest feedback and reviews of products and services.
Below we talk about some of the major trends we predict will positively define the market research industry in 2021:
<h2>Video-first will continue to thrive (even if things get back to normal)</h2>
COVID-19 forced businesses out of offices and into homeworking environments. We’ve become accustomed to the flexible working lifestyle which technology enables. In fact, the desire to hold onto this shift in work-life balance will no doubt continue in 2021.
As a result of a change in habits, the market research industry will have to continue to adapt to people’s new and preferred way of working. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/277125/share-of-website-traffic-coming-from-mobile-devices/">In the third quarter of 2020 alone, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 50.81 percent of global website traffic</a>. We can expect to see increased use of mobile-friendly and app-based surveys, which will arguably become shorter and more accessible for on-the-go and flexible users.
With remote working at a record high in 2020, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1118860/zoom-daily-active-users-uk/#:~:text=Daily%20active%20users%20of%20Zoom,devices%20in%20the%20UK%202020&amp;text=In%20the%20UK%2C%20the%20number,the%20end%20of%20November%2C%202020.">Zoom saw 1.7m users at its peak</a>. We can expect that the benefits of video-led research in terms of ‘any-time, anywhere’ will continue to not only help further diversify research samples but also open up a whole new world of opportunity for market researchers in terms of results and the types of projects that can be undertaken.
Put simply, video research is here to stay.
<h2>A boom in automation and AI adoption… if you can crack its potential</h2>
The volume of data available will continue to expand even further in 2021, creating a growing desire for organizations to have access to affordable and user-friendly platforms that can handle a variety of different data sets in high volumes.
Businesses are increasingly looking to take their research function in-house. The goal of these teams is to process and analyze vast quantities of primary research that will enable them to make informed decisions about their products and offerings. In order to do this, they need to get a handle on how to implement automation and AI to help them be more efficient at their jobs.
What will set great companies apart from the good ones in 2021 and beyond? Only some will work smart and adopt automation and AI to analyze volumes of market research data.
<h2>Agility – as a result of digitization</h2>
As the digitization of market research continues, researchers themselves will be required to think on their feet and adapt to new changes in technology. March 2020 forced a global shift in the way we go about research that most were not ready for—but have subsequently prospered from—as part of our new approach which shows no signs of slowing down. What’s more, its fully expected that even newer ways of working in an agile way will continue to unfold, as 2021 gets underway.
The benefits of being able to conduct and analyze market research remotely, stretch far beyond the ability to continue to work during a pandemic. The technology available and the ability to be able to reach research samples anywhere, at any time, enables organizations to access people with more accurate and diverse opinions, and increase engagement and loyalty. They can also engage with people in environments that are most comfortable to them – leading to much more natural and authentic responses as a result.

 <div class="post-related-post">
 <h3>Related</h3>
 <h4><a href="https://www.greenbook.org/insights/insights/four-ways-to-make-research-truly-representative">Four Ways to Make Research Truly Representative</a></h4>
 </div>
 
Future-focused research teams are using this period of uncertainty wisely, with many investing in the tools and platforms they need to do more with less. 2021 will certainly be the year where technology fundamentally starts to positively re-shape the sector–providing it with the tools to unlock greater levels and depth of insight.
This is something that we at <a href="https://www.greenbook.org/company/Medallia-LivingLens">Medallia LivingLens</a> are focused on – providing market research teams with access to a rich <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/">video intelligence platform</a> that allows them to unlock the true insight and data from within people’s stories.
To find out more about how Medallia LivingLens can help shape your market research strategy in 2021, <a href="https://info.livinglens.tv/trial?utm_term=livinglens&amp;utm_campaign=CZ+-+Brand+(2020)&amp;utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;hsa_acc=2378937879&amp;hsa_cam=9910721704&amp;hsa_grp=102101081882&amp;hsa_ad=475959448470&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_tgt=aud-899846754139:kwd-339555653642&amp;hsa_kw=livinglens&amp;hsa_mt=e&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;gclid=EAIaIQobChMI95n_4L7S7QIV4-jtCh2jdQCVEAAYASAAEgJsrvD_BwE">sign up for a free 30-day trial here.</a>

Three Trends That Will Define Market Research in 2021

The holiday season this year could be ‘make or break’ for a number of retailers, with many trying to make up for the huge losses they have incurred as a result of the global pandemic. Add to this the impacts that the health crisis has had on changing consumer behavior, and it’s easy to see why the pressure to make the festive season count is well and truly on.
Although no business has a crystal ball to see how the holiday shopping season will pan out in 2020, many do have the means to maximize their chances of sales in the form of robust consumer insight gathering. Getting into the mindset of the customer via research will be invaluable when it comes to directing sales and marketing strategies in the run-up to the holidays. <a title="Medallia LivingLens" href="https://livinglens.tv/">Knowing what consumers want, when they want it and how best to deliver it</a>, are all key questions that consumer insight can help to answer.
Below we’ll discuss some of the trends and behaviors businesses need to be thinking about in what is known as the ‘golden quarter’, and the importance of consumer insight in informing and shaping marketing strategies.
&nbsp;
<h2>Online shopping habits will continue</h2>
The global pandemic has had a huge impact on our behaviors as consumers.
For instance, many of us have been forced to purchase goods and services online from the comfort and safety of our own homes. As a result, we’ve ‘shopped around’ and explored brands we may not have ever encountered or considered before. Pricing, delivery times, and shipping fees have all played a bigger role in directing consumer buying behaviors – particularly given the disruption to supply chains.
The impact of the health crisis has been significant. Recent McKinsey research suggests that as many as 75% of customers have tried new brands and new ways of shopping as a result of the global health crisis<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">[i]</a>. This is a seismic shift and one that will continue in the lead up to the festive season.
It’s clear that customer loyalty is certainly being tested in this new environment, and businesses need to be working harder to understand their audiences’ attitudes toward their products and services. In addition to attracting new customers, brands need to be thinking about how they can create meaningful moments that will retain the loyalty of their most valuable repeat customers, too. As we’ll discover, robust consumer insights can play a key role in supporting this.
&nbsp;
<h2>Supporting local and ‘purpose-driven’ businesses</h2>
The adverse impacts of the pandemic have been felt strongest among small local businesses. Many of these businesses have a smaller online footprint and have suffered as a result of a decrease in foot traffic in physical stores.
The 2020 festive season is likely to see consumers coming out in support of their local stores when it comes to making festive purchases. According to the data, as of May this year, searches for “available near me” have grown globally by over 100% since 2019<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">[ii]</a>.
In addition, the community spirit that the pandemic has fostered may also see an increase in consumers buying from brands who are ‘purpose-driven’ – the brands that aim to give back to particular groups and communities. Recent research suggests that nearly half (46%) of US shoppers state that they make a deliberate effort to shop at businesses that align with their values<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">[iii]</a>.
As always, businesses that recognize the value of understanding what their customers truly care about will thrive. Brands should use this year’s holiday season to think about how and where they can market the truly local aspects of their product, brand, or suppliers to consumers. In addition, those with a charitable or purpose-driven story to tell need to look at how they can communicate this effectively to consumers.
 
<h2>Early shopping and extended cyber sales</h2>
The lead up to the holidays is traditionally the time for businesses to offer discount days in order to maximize sales. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just two examples. However, we’ve seen discounting days turn into extended discounting periods, as smaller retailers compete with the big “e-tail” brands. In fact, the US saw some stores starting their festive discounting before Halloween<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4">[iv]</a>.
The need to avoid the crowds in physical stores, and guarantee delivery before the holidays, has seen 30% of US consumers start their holiday shopping earlier than ever, according to Coresight Research<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5">[v]</a>. In addition to safety and delivery concerns, many consumers will no doubt be looking to spread the cost of the holidays this year, too, as a result of the economic downturn we’re currently experiencing.
&nbsp;
<h2>Consumer insight is the key to weathering uncertain times</h2>
It is no secret that consumer habits have changed this year. And with that, it comes as no surprise that the biggest shopping season is being significantly impacted. In a year that has been difficult to plan for, it is businesses with consumer insight functions in place that have been able to identify opportunities and challenges early.
As we gear up for the holiday season and beyond, there’s never been a better time for businesses to engage with their consumers in a meaningful way. <a title="Medallia LivingLens" href="https://livinglens.tv/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Medallia LivingLens</a> has been at the forefront of providing organizations with the advanced technology they need to extract meaningful consumer insights from video for some time now.
A video-first approach to consumer intelligence gathering has certainly been accelerated this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the physical restrictions that were (and are still) in place globally, <a title="Capture insights virtually with Zoom Edition" href="https://livinglens.tv/product/zoom-edition/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">focus groups and in-depth interviews across the globe have been taking place across video conferencing platforms, like Zoom</a>. Capturing these sessions on video and analyzing them with the latest in AI and machine learning technologies is helping forward-looking organizations to really get to the heart of consumer sentiment and spot emerging trends before they hit the mainstream.
Given the pressure to get the festive season right this year, consumer insight will be a valuable weapon in the armoury of many retailers, providing them with the means to identify consumer behaviors and outmaneuver opponents in a highly competitive retailing period.
What are you waiting for? <a title="Start Your 30-Day Free Trial" href="https://info.livinglens.tv/trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up for a 30-day FREE trial of Medallia LivingLens</a> to easily capture and analyze actionable consumer insights via video.
 
<h2>Citations</h2>
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">[i]</a> <a title="Survey: US consumer sentiment during the coronavirus crisis" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/survey-us-consumer-sentiment-during-the-coronavirus-crisis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/our-insights/survey-us-consumer-sentiment-during-the-coronavirus-crisis</a>
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">[ii]</a> <a title="Prepare Your Business For Christmas 2020 With These 5 Shopping Shifts" href="https://www.thriveability.co.uk/blog/prepare-your-business-for-christmas-2020-with-these-5-shopping-shifts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.thriveability.co.uk/blog/prepare-your-business-for-christmas-2020-with-these-5-shopping-shifts</a>
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">[iii]</a> <a title="Prepare Your Business For Christmas 2020 With These 5 Shopping Shifts" href="https://www.thriveability.co.uk/blog/prepare-your-business-for-christmas-2020-with-these-5-shopping-shifts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.thriveability.co.uk/blog/prepare-your-business-for-christmas-2020-with-these-5-shopping-shifts</a>
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">[iv]</a> <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c2f06c2a-fec6-4025-b9a0-40ec133e256b" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.ft.com/content/c2f06c2a-fec6-4025-b9a0-40ec133e256b</a>
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">[v]</a> <a title="RETAIL 4 ways shopping for the holidays is going to be different this year" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/09/4-ways-shopping-for-the-holidays-is-going-to-be-different-this-year.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/09/4-ways-shopping-for-the-holidays-is-going-to-be-different-this-year.html</a>

How COVID-19 Has Changed Holiday Shopping and What That Means for Retailers

The Black Lives Matter movement has brought issues of inclusion, representation, and equality right to the forefront of the political, economic, and societal consciousness – something not seen on this scale since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.
Quite rightly, individuals and organizations alike have taken stock and reassessed their own internal and external values when it comes to actively supporting true representation and cultural intelligence. Given the nature of its work to uncover the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of society, the research industry has a pressing responsibility to ensure it is doing everything it can to be truly representative and inclusive.
But what steps can the industry be taking to cultivate cultural intelligence and bring greater representation to the work it carries out?
&nbsp;
<ol>
<li>
<h2>Take the time to do some homework</h2>
</li>
</ol>
As a baseline, research studies should always aim to recruit diverse participants from different walks of life and include representation from various ages, genders, races, and ethnicities. In addition to recruiting the right audience, you need to do your homework – particularly if looking to engage and draw insights from minorities or the socially disadvantaged.
As the old adage goes, ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’. Doing some of your own research will go a long way. Not only will it help you to uncover some initial influencing factors in your audience’s decision-making processes, but it’ll help to ensure that your research project is designed in a way that will help participants from diverse groups feel comfortable being open and honest with their responses to questions. Doing some initial groundwork will also help to ensure that you’re well equipped to best reach your audience, and may also uncover sensitive topics or lines of questioning for you to avoid.
It all starts with self-education. It’s by informing and developing our knowledge of injustices in society that organizations can become allies and give diverse groups a voice and a stake in the work that we do.
&nbsp;
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h2>Avoid your preconceptions</h2>
</li>
</ol>
In order to be effective, researchers need to put their implicit bias and preconceptions to one side and let the data, and the insights they generate from that data, do the talking.
In all research projects, each and every participant has their own way of communicating and articulating their answers. It’s the job of the researcher to help them do this as comfortably and efficiently as possible. Stereotypes about certain groups, or preconceptions of what ‘good’ or ‘bad’ responses are, should be left outside of the research lab. For example, English may not be the first language of some participants. As a result, providing them <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/capture/">with a tool to speak freely in their native tongue</a> would allow them to more easily communicate their thoughts and feelings when answering your questions. A tool like Medallia LivingLens would then <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/analyze/">automatically translate and analyze</a> those responses for you. This ensures that language barriers don’t have you missing out on an opportunity to collect valuable data from all of your consumers.
&nbsp;
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h2>Read between the lines</h2>
</li>
</ol>
Many researchers look for key themes and mentions when analyzing the results and data from research projects. However, when working with diverse groups, it’s also worth thinking about the things they didn’t say in a research interview. It’s the ability to look into these negative spaces for insights that will set great research professionals apart from good ones.
We need to ask ourselves why certain things may not have been mentioned by participants, and whether this is as a result of how the research program was designed or due to an influencing cultural factor, and allow those insights to inform our decision making and program design in the future.
&nbsp;
<ol start="4">
<li>
<h2>Take advantage of technology</h2>
</li>
</ol>
Technology has a big role to play in helping us dive deeper into the vast insight that diverse groups can bring to our research projects. <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/zoom-edition/">Remote video conferencing</a> is certainly a technology that has been widely adopted this year, and one which can be advantageous for researchers.
Not only do <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/capture/">remote video capture methods</a> for interviews and ethnographies allow researchers to easily connect with individuals from a variety of groups – regardless of geographical barriers – it also gives them the opportunity to revisit interviews at a later date for further analysis. In having access to a recording, researchers are positioned to fully analyze a respondent’s answers and sentiment, eliminating the potential influence of the researcher’s own biases and misconceptions.
What’s more, the technology actually gives researchers the means to dive deep into datasets and pinpoint relevant content. The <a href="https://livinglens.tv/">Medallia LivingLens</a> platform, for example, was designed with a whole raft of analytics tools to help researchers identify key themes, patterns, and trends within their video content. For instance, sentiment and emotion can be captured and assessed at scale using the very latest in Emotive AI and machine learning technologies – helping researchers to assess whether a person’s response to a question is negative, positive, or neutral. This means that researchers can go well beyond what is being said and develop a more holistic picture of their respondents’ answers. Often, the data can reveal something the researcher may not have been aware of, or even knew to ask.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<h2>Giving a voice to all</h2>
This year has brought with it a lot of change, and as a result, brands have been steadily relying more and more on research and insights to advise them on a number of things, including product and service rollouts. In order to understand the best ways to reach and connect with the largest number of people, brands need to ensure that they’re including truly diverse perspectives in their research.
Having the awareness and desire to be proactive when it comes to developing cultural intelligence is vital for organizations to stay relevant in this brave new world – and it’s up to each and every research and insights professional to stay on top of this – whether through education, technology, or ideally, a combination of both.
&nbsp;
Learn all of the ways Medallia is committed to diversity and inclusion at <a href="https://www.medallia.com/diversity/">https://www.medallia.com/diversity/</a>
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Four Ways to Make Research Truly Representative

Do you currently work for an organization that is a global entity?
Has your organization become somewhat of a household name in its market sector?
Has your organization seen massive expansion in the last decade from relatively meager beginnings?
&nbsp;
If you’re fortunate enough to have answered ‘yes’ to one or more of the above, then there’s a good chance you’re working for an organization that places value on research – and perhaps most importantly – insight. If you’ve answered ‘no’, it’s possible that not investing enough in research may be the culprit.
Research is the bedrock of many hugely successful companies operating globally. In fact, the ability to perform research effectively and derive meaningful and deep insight is perhaps the difference between greatness and mediocrity in our competitive and increasingly tech-centric global market.
Of late, thanks to a relatively enormous Black Swan event, we’re now more reliant on technology to perform remote research programs. For some, this will perhaps be a short to medium term wrinkle before ‘normal’ service resumes. However, apart from the fact that none of us know when we can put our current challenges behind us for good, those with a growth mentality will be and have been using this as a watershed moment of opportunity to really ramp up their remote research capabilities both operationally and strategically.
Having been at the forefront of this remote research revolution for some time now, we at <a href="https://www.greenbook.org/company/Medallia-LivingLens">Medallia LivingLens</a> know there are a number of companies out there that are thriving purely as a result of investing their time, expertise, and hard-earned cash into remote research fairly early to ensure that it is the rule and not the exception.
What’s more, for those that have truly succeeded, we’ve observed a number of key habits that each of these companies share – either related directly to their research programs or evolving as a result of their approach to remote research.
These habits serve as good practice that organizations of all sectors and sizes can adopt. We hope that the below observations will act as some food for thought and help you to think about your own organization’s approach to research.
&nbsp;
<h3>The Five Market Research Habits of Highly Successful Businesses</h3>
&nbsp;
<ol>
<li>
<h4>Communication: Have a two-way dialogue with your audiences</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Simon Sinek is an author and motivational speaker that is revered in the global business community. He once said:
“Great communicators don’t just hear the words. Great communicators hear the meaning behind the words.”
&nbsp;
This sentence alone nicely sums up what many successful organizations actually strive to do in their own approaches to research. Data, feedback, and reviews are one thing when it comes to key audiences and customers. However, it’s simply not enough to ‘hear the words’, as Sinek puts it, we need to ‘hear the meaning behind them’ too. As a result, we may need something more than simple words on paper, or huge data sheets being strewn across boardrooms.
Remote research comes into its own in this sense. Firstly, not only can we put interviewees at ease from the comfort of their own homes, we can actually capture their responses from a multitude of data-driven and emotional viewpoints. The ability to capture body language and sentiment represent just two of these emotional metrics, with both having the power to bring the human element to pure data.
Using technology to conduct virtual research interviews one-on-one or one-to-a-group has become the norm of late. Thankfully, the <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/analyze/">technology to uncover useful and meaningful insight</a> from those interviews exists, too.
Via video capture, researchers can analyze responses from a multitude of sources, including <a href="https://www.medallia.com/press-release/medallia-livinglens-announces-integration-with-zoom-video-communications/">Zoom</a>, and actually, get closer to what a customer feels and thinks about a product or service. In essence, researchers now have a window into the ‘whys’ behind the asks and the ‘needs’ behind the words. They can actually listen and reflect beyond what people are saying and can collect critical signals about both good and bad experiences.
&nbsp;
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h4>Diversity: All insight is good insight</h4>
</li>
</ol>
The companies we’ve worked with who’ve had the most success don’t rely solely on their highly engaged customers, brand ambassadors, and fans to draw insight from. In fact, they step out of their bubble and venture where some organizations fear to tread because they recognize the importance of diverse insight. You get a more accurate, full-picture view when you source insight from groups and individuals who’ve either had a negative experience with their product or service, dumped them from their supplier list, and/or have made the move to a competitive brand.
Successful organizations engage heavily with customers falling into a vast number of interest groups and with differing credentials. Some of these include:
<ul>
<li>Geo diverse populations</li>
<li>Diverse cultural groups</li>
<li>Diverse industries/sectors with differing organizational sizes</li>
</ul>
Stepping out of your bubble of promoters means that you can uncover the blind spots in your own perceptions of your brand and face up to some hard truths. This particularly flies in the face of the types of post-rationalist behaviors which exist in some boardrooms when faced with data and research which is contrary to internal views and beliefs.
Again, a well-constructed research program, and the ability to pivot to virtual, has been the means via which successful organizations have been able to enter into dialogue with audiences all over the globe to elicit valuable insight. It’s startling to think of where we’d be without the technology to do this, particularly given current global challenges.
&nbsp;
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h4>Efficiency: Protect brilliant minds from ‘operational noise’</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Successful companies don’t waste the minds of brilliant researchers. In fact, they nurture them and give them the head space and tools they need to be even more brilliant.
Take the typical day of a researcher, and it’s easy to see why so much talent gets wasted in the maelstrom of operational noise. There are interview transcripts to type, interviews, and supporting materials to file, references to search, and taxonomy to grapple with. Unfortunately, these ‘operational’ tasks take up a lot of time and valuable headspace.
Successful companies focus their researchers&#8217; time on the things that are fundamental to take the business forward—for instance: listening for nuggets of insight, analysis of interviews, and the synthesizing of analysis with reporting so that it can be shared successfully with stakeholders.
Organizations are starting to realize that remote research techniques and <a href="https://livinglens.tv/">the technology that supports them</a>, can actually give their researchers the space they need to take a more active and strategic role within their company.
&nbsp;
<ol start="4">
<li>
<h4>Scalability: Optimize your research program</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Insight and ideas have an infinite shelf life. As a result, great organizations manage this information and knowledge within their company effectively, right from the get-go. In stark contrast, average companies will try to reinvent the wheel every time when it comes to profiling their key audiences and markets. This wastes time and drains the great minds and resources of any company.
<a href="https://livinglens.tv/use-cases/video-asset-management/">Knowledge management tools</a> are a great way for companies to effectively ‘stand on the shoulders of giants’ and operationalize processes quickly whilst operating at scale. For example, researchers can use such tools to access historical insight quickly and equip their organization with the evidence on which to make pivotal decisions in competitive markets.
Tools of this type, coupled with a solid approach and strategy to remote research, can also support those processes which manage and organize audience interactions – particularly in making sure consents are respected, data is anonymized, and making interviewees feel comfortable with what they are participating in.
&nbsp;
<ol start="5">
<li>
<h4>Storytelling: Make research speak</h4>
</li>
</ol>
Remote research in particular goes beyond just data and allows companies to <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/capture/">tap into video</a> to give a voice and vitality to both their promoters and their detractors.
With the right technology, researchers are now able to tap into the tiny part of the human brain which loves to be told stories. In fact, storytelling is powerful and great companies use it to align business groups to a shared business goal. What’s exciting is that the use of video in remote research is set to play a bigger role in creating powerful, behavior-changing stories.
By finding valuable nuggets of spoken insight from the videos collected and splicing together a compelling story in the form of a <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/share/">showreel</a>, researchers chart new waters and put themselves at the very forefront of every successful company’s ambition.
&nbsp;
<h3>The true potential of remote research</h3>
Great companies are built with a great attitude towards the power of research and storytelling. Everything discussed above is well within the grasp of each and every researcher or organizational lead.
A tool to help you collect insights about your consumers is no longer a nice to have. In fact, when the research can be done remotely and at scale with <a href="https://livinglens.tv/">the latest cutting-edge technology</a> and systems, it truly has the power to shape the future of great companies and the great minds working within them.
&nbsp;
Ready to kickstart your remote research program? Download ‘The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Market Research’ for FREE now: <a href="https://bit.ly/2RE9DFL">https://bit.ly/2RE9DFL</a>

The Five Research Habits of Highly Successful Businesses

Given recent events, technologies used to help businesses work remotely are dominating the market. Zoom, for example, has seen its number of daily users grow by 50% from March to April, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/23/zoom-shares-pop-after-users-grow-from-to-300-million.html">according to CNBC</a>. Insights professionals within brands and agencies alike are looking for tools that enable them to conduct research virtually, particularly <a href="https://livinglens.tv/">video tools</a> that can help them capture and manage their consumer insight video assets in one place and extract insightful data from the video more quickly and easily. 
Capturing video in research is nothing new. The ability to review responses for additional analysis or to timestamp insights that are particularly pertinent has always proven to be a useful practice. 
But there&#8217;s much more communicative information embedded in consumer insight videos than we’ve ever traditionally extracted. Only now do we have the technology available to quantify and extricate meaningful insights within videos. 
Brands and agencies shouldn’t stop there, though. They should also be looking for technologies that go a step further and leverage speech-to-text to index what consumers are saying, and emotion analysis to understand consumer attitudes and sentiment.  
<h3>The Video Environment</h3>
Video has been further adopted among consumers as a result of the shelter-in-place orders of the COVID-19 pandemic. The power and value of video technology have since been multiplied many times over. 
Prior to the pandemic, social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok had already started popularizing the usage of video to record our daily lives. But current events have brought video capture methods further into the mainstream. According to <a href="https://sensortower.com/blog/tiktok-record-revenue-downloads-february-2020">SensorTower</a>, TikTok generated a record of 113 Million downloads in February 2020 alone! 
Video calling is now one of our only methods of communicating with anyone outside of our household. In turn, consumer audiences have become even more comfortable with video as a medium and its use in all settings. Research studies are no exception.  
Concurrently, social media has brought consumers and brands closer together and fostered a culture of two-way dialogue in place of the one-way broadcasting of marketing messages. As such, consumers are now far more open to the idea of engaging with brands and providing feedback virtually. 
In short, brands are now perfectly positioned to carry out quality market research efficiently, cost-effectively, and at scale. 
<h3>The Changing Role of Research </h3>
Billions of dollars have been spent by researchers over the years in an effort to uncover what the customer wants, the demand within markets, the perceptions of businesses and their competition, and so on. Focus groups, ethnography, surveys, and in-depth interviews are the methods by which this research has traditionally been carried out, many of them requiring travel and face-to-face interaction.  
Over the past few years, and particularly in the last few months, however, we’ve seen the evolution of data collection evolve into more comprehensive insight programs. Single-perspective techniques are no longer enough. Instead, businesses are now looking for tools that provide them with a holistic, 360-degree view of their customers’ experiences and opinions. 
Though researchers are still relying on tried and true research methods, they’ve recently had to make the shift, like the rest of the world, to remote work. For some, virtual research is business as usual. For others, it provides a real challenge. But with the right tools in place, insights professionals will find that conducting projects virtually is a quicker and much easier way of conducting research in greater volumes. In addition, the automation of certain manual processes enables them to thoroughly mine and analyze the data collected in significantly less time. 
On the one hand, evolution has been driven by the development and proliferation of social and digital technologies. Both have given a home to the various ways of conducting research and made it easier to manage and store data in greater volumes and with more sophistication. On the other, it is being pulled forward by organizations that are hungry to do more with insights and are looking to uncover impactful customer stories that can inform the way they do business. 
<h3>The Role of Video</h3>
Traditionally, the value of video has been to document market research so that its findings can be revisited, or so that new findings can be drawn out through further analysis by the researcher. Documentation is still extremely important, but the new value of video technology lies in its <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/analyze/">sophisticated digital analysis techniques</a> and the automation of insight discovery. 
Traditionally, qualitative and quantitative data has lacked any form of integration. In fact, just last year, an <a href="https://adage.com/article/focusvision/how-market-research-changing/2220201">AdAge survey</a> reported that 51% of marketing and insight professionals have a desire for improved integration between the two. 
Adding video to your research program enables you to extract six times more data than you’d get from open-ended text responses. With the right tools, everything in a video—<a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/analyze/">from spoken word to sentiment, emotion, objects, and activity</a>— can be analyzed. The right tools also make it possible to review transcribed material in sync with original video content, and easily uncover the key themes discussed. 
Meanwhile, the application of emotion and sentiment analysis allows organizations to understand how participants feel about specific topics and to quantify the video data in order to draw broader conclusions. 
<h3>Integrated Solutions </h3>
Video intelligence platforms like Medallia <a href="https://www.greenbook.org/company/Medallia-LivingLens">LivingLens</a> can aid in conducting virtual research projects. Video content can be captured and organized into channels for easy access to both current and historical project data. Filters and tagging functionality enable you to organize your content, making it fully searchable. Powerful AI and machine learning can also help uncover meaningful trends in your video data. 
What’s more, the most meaningful stories and trends identified can be easily <a href="https://livinglens.tv/product/share/">packaged into showreels</a> to bring the desires and needs of the customer to life for key stakeholders. A <a href="https://www.techsmith.com/visual-communication-research.html">TechSmith study</a> found that 67% of people understand information better when it is communicated visually.  
Not only is there a desire for more visual content, but using it in workplace communications actually increases engagement and productivity, TechSmith reports. This means that not only does a visual medium like video help stakeholders better understand the insights, it will also leave a lasting impact and inspire action to make real changes. 
<h3>The Future of Research</h3>
COVID-19 has made virtual research the ‘new normal’. Businesses that were not already conducting research online have been forced to do so and, realizing the benefits, many of them will continue to in part, if not entirely. 
As the pandemic has established new ways of engaging online, like townhall-style events, team meetings, and happy hours, so too has online research become the accepted standard. This digital transformation is largely made possible by video technology and the use of more integrated solutions. 
There will still be a place for real-world research, of course, and traditional market research techniques like focus groups and in-depth interviews remain as important as they ever were, but the pandemic has shown that taking these traditionally in-person research methods online is more efficient and is just as, if not more, valuable. 
The extraordinary set of circumstances we find ourselves in also means that consumer attitudes toward brands will shift – perhaps in the short-term, perhaps forever. Different brands will be affected to different extents by factors outside their control, but all have at least some measure of control via the actions they take and how intently they listen. 
These changes are happening now. Brands must recognize this and use the tools available to research and understand the changes that are happening or risk losing ground to their competitors.

The Role Technology Plays in the Evolution of Market Research

Editor’s Note: Every year, participants in the <a href="https://www.greenbook.org/grit">GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) Report</a> survey vote for the most innovative companies in market research. In <a href="https://www.greenbook.org/grit">Insights That Work</a>, these top companies share the real-life challenges and solutions of their biggest clients.
<hr />
<h3>Challenge</h3>
Brands face pressure to continuously innovate to keep up with the competition and meet customer needs. As consumers, we demand more from the interactions we have with our favorite brands; we want superior experiences, to connect, and to be treated as individuals. To thrive today, brands – in all sectors – are shifting to be more human-centric, understanding and engaging with consumers as people, on a more personal level.
This means market insights (research and innovation especially) need to not only address key brand and business problems, but also critically reveal what influences them, how they feel, and what motivates behavior. Marketers need insights to help them understand how and why consumers connect, or not, to their brand.
<h3>Solution</h3>
Throughout the product lifecycle, top consumer product, communications, and healthcare companies have made BuzzBack their go-to partner for 68 for rich insights to better understand and position their products for changing and unmet needs.
With video as an integral component to this strategy, BuzzBack selected LivingLens as its video intelligence platform partner, to both capture and analyze consumer video and images at speed. This partnership adds vital consumer context which is critical in helping marketers better understand their customers.
The BuzzBack LivingLens solution focuses on the consumer, with seamless integration of LivingLens with BuzzBack’s interactive projective techniques, making it easy to engage consumers, wherever they are in the world, in any language. The partnership supports BuzzBack’s mobile-first strategy and alignment with its new Swipe technology (think Tinder for idea screening), for more comprehensive learning that uniquely blends qual and quant.
Nestlé used a combination of Swipe and videos to evaluate new product ideas -– where consumers talked about how they would use products, revealing the “what” as well as the “why.”
Danone was looking to build a new pipeline for one of its leading brands in multiple countries – including Asia and emerging markets. Consumer feedback with Swipe and integrated video provided insight into how consumers in these markets reacted to new ideas relative to their changing needs, helping to identify cultural differences in the emotional response.
<h3>Outcome</h3>
Video has proven to provide a deep understanding of how consumers think and feel, through layers of information including what they say, how they say it, their facial expressions and actions. This unstructured data helps to humanize feedback and delivers a heightened level of understanding into consumer behavior.
“What we deliver to clients is much more dynamic with the integration of consumer voice and video. Insights are more powerful, real-life, and actionable when brands ‘hear’ and ‘see’ what consumers really think about their new products.” – Carol Fitzgerald, President &amp; CEO BuzzBack 
Visual content including video and images has become an integral part of innovation projects delivered by BuzzBack for leading global brands, such as Danone and Nestlé. The ability to easily and efficiently capture, decipher, analyze and share content is transforming how brands understand consumers.

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