When A Market Researcher Dreams

 

By Zontziry Johnson

I’ve recently been doing some dreaming about what the field of market research could look like. So, let’s pause reality for a moment and look at some of these dreams, many of which are already being worked on by various firms and may become reality sooner than we expect!

Qualitative data mining

We’d have software readily available that could peruse across all qualitative channels, including online forums, communities, and social media channels, focusing in on any particular audience and product combination, then analyze all of that information in a few hours to show trends and themes.

In-the-moment surveys

We’d have respondents who are willing to take short-burst surveys while shopping, so that we could get in-the-moment feedback on what is impacting their decisions, as those decisions are being made. With their permission, we’d be able to see what apps had been accessed right before they decided to purchase a product (did they go search for the product on their Amazon app, Google search, or some other price comparison app), and we’d be able to ask why they either decided to purchase a product or not purchase a product.

Virtual reality conjoint analysis

Focus groups would be multi-part groups, starting with a combination of moderated and non-moderated conversation to hear more about the customer journey and how they feel about a company’s current product lineup. Then, taking that feedback into account, we’d conduct conjoint analyses using virtual reality, setting up a maximum of five sets of options for the respondents to choose from, and asking them to talk through why they are selecting one item over another.

Similarly, when designing anything, we’d be able to walk with the customer through them rearranging items, adding new items, and hearing why they are making the changes. (This could apply for everything from building a home, to a home remodel, to web redesign, to product packaging. What about product design?)

Well-written surveys only

Surveys would be free from being leading, double-barreled, or vague.

Connections between IoT, big data, and survey data

We’d have ways to easily connect the data gathered from the Internet of Things, big data, and survey data so that we could run queries and get rich information back. Heck, just connected IoT data and big data and having good ways to mine that information would probably lead to a decrease in length of surveys and an increase in pointed, shorter surveys because we would already have answers to so many of the questions we typically find ourselves needing to ask because of things like poor telemetry data!

Data reporting

All reports would be completely unbiased, yet presented in a way that people would listen, and actions to be taken based on the data would be abundantly clear. Those sharing said reports would do so in a way that was also unbiased, clear, and free of inferences that were completely invalid. (Hey, I said this was a dream.)

Increased collaboration among researchers

This one is especially true for large research firms, or large organizations with large internal market research groups. When starting a study, we’d see more collaboration across teams with similar studies, or who are asking information of similar audiences, so that we could reduce duplicative research that comes away with different answers because we each were asking similar questions in ever-so-slightly different ways. This would also lead to more consistent messaging and actions from the studies being conducted.

Attracting new market researchers

Because the information we presented was clear, actionable, interesting, compelling — more of the younger generation would be aware of what an amazing career market research could be for them, leading to more people purposefully choosing this career instead of stumbling into it.

Sampling done right

People would use the right sample for the right purpose. More to the point: general inferences about audiences wouldn’t be made based on surveys done of non-probability sample studies.

What would you add?

I know there is more that could be covered; this is just what has been on my mind recently. If you work with market research teams, or are a market research professional, what would you add to this list?