Market Research

Britannica defines market research as the study of the requirements of various markets, the acceptability of products, and methods of developing or exploiting new markets. Market research investigates and analyzes a target market. Researchers use market research to collect consumer data within a marketplace. It deals with the collection, analysis, and use of market data and market statistics.

Market research allows a company to discover the target market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their interest in a product or service.

Researchers use market research to gauge the marketplace’s wants, needs, attitudes, purchase behaviors, and other characteristics. It helps them understand and compare their products and services with their competitors’, industry standards, and thoughts about newly launched products and services. It is also used to explore fresh markets and understand consumers’ needs in the marketplace – both existing and new.

Consumer Research

Consumer research is actually a part of market research. It answers the ‘why’ – identifying the motivation and purchase behavior of targeted customers. Consumer research helps companies and brands understand customer psychology, create detailed purchasing behavior profiles, and provide systematic information about customer needs.

Another way to look at it is that consumer insights extend and enumerate the information gathered during market research to make relevant, specific, and actionable conclusions and predict audience reactions to a company’s brand, product, or service.

Using consumer research information, brands can make changes in their products and services, making them more customer-centric, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.

How They Compare

Market Research is an all-purpose term referring to the practice of collecting and analyzing data to answer discrete business questions, while consumer research is the practice of studying consumer behaviour to derive broader business insights for effective business decision-making.

Tony Oduor, GeoPoll’s Research Manager, summarizes it as thus: market research studies the entire market or a broad segment of the market while consumer research narrows down to a specific brand or product. For example, for a beverage company, market research will show the size of the soft beverage market and the gaps that need to be filled, and consumer insights will point out the most preferred beverage flavor.

Used together, market research and consumer research help brands understand where their business currently stands in the market, as well as what actions they can take to improve their position among consumers.

Conduct Market and Consumer Research with GeoPoll

GeoPoll conducts research for global fast-moving consumer goods brands, media houses, consulting firms, financial institutions, and technology companies. Our team includes researchers experienced in creating innovative solutions for tracking essential metrics such as brand health, testing new concepts, measuring advertisement effectiveness, and more. See our market research solutions and contact our team if you have questions regarding our capabilities.

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Data should be the driving force behind your marketing efforts, and collecting customer insights will help you better understand your customers in order to improve product advertising and messaging, and strengthen your overall marketing strategy. Success in marketing is based largely on the return on investment it delivers, and surveys can be a quick and cost-effective way to collect customer insights and improve ROI. Read on to learn more.

The Value of Consumer Insights

Today’s marketing is taking on a more consumer-centric role. Great marketing plans focus directly on the consumer by providing them with the information they want so they can make an informed buying decision. Globally, more than $500 billion is spent on advertising yearly, so using your marketing budget wisely should be a priority.

Consumer insights are data points that can be gathered to help businesses build their brand and sell their products more effectively. This data can help you understand the current market landscape and determine what is important to your target audience.

Some of the most valuable data you can gather will tell you why consumers behave in the way that they do. You can find out how they perceive a brand, which marketing messages speak to them the most, and get feedback on products or campaigns. You can also collect data at various points throughout the customer journey to see how perceptions develop over time.

How to Use Surveys to Collect Consumer Insights

Organizations understand that the most useful data comes from accessible and understandable customer insights delivered on demand. In today’s world, insights are constantly shifting. Information is delivered to consumers at lightning speed, and their opinions and thoughts can change just as quickly. So, it’s necessary to gather consumer insights in a way that delivers results quickly. While traditional market research methods like focus groups have their place, surveys can be a quicker and more cost-effective way to collect actionable data.

Surveys can be administered directly to consumers, no matter where they are located, through web-based links, mobile applications, or text messages. Online surveys are an excellent and affordable option in areas where internet penetration is high or if you are looking to reach wealthy populations. However, in countries where internet connectivity is unreliable or if you are looking to reach a representative sample in emerging markets, surveys sent through SMS are an excellent alternative. SMS surveys are delivered instantaneously to the mobile phone of a potential respondent, and the results come back in near real-time.

A majority of survey-takers note that they want to have a say in a company’s upcoming products and services, and surveys help your customers feel like they’re being heard. As soon as the results of your survey start coming in, you can use the data to shape your future products and marketing campaigns. 

Determining the Type of Cosumer Insight Survey to Use

What type of survey questions you want to ask will often depend on what type of information you’re looking to collect. For example, when you’re launching a new product, you may use a one-time survey to help understand people’s initial thoughts about the product, and how you can improve it.

On the other hand, if you’d like to track people’s perception of your brand over time, you may want to run regular surveys over the span of weeks, months, or longer. You can see if your brand or product is trending amongst competitors, or if your latest marketing campaign had the impact you wanted on consumers.

You can also use surveys to learn more about the specific profile of your target customer, and what they care about the most. You can learn about their interests that go beyond your brand or product, and may even discover a previously unknown demographic that has an interest in what you have to offer.

One-time surveys can be used to complement the data you gather from other sources, like website analytics or point of purchase systems. If you notice people are coming to your product pages and spending time there, but are not actually making purchases, send out a survey asking them what you could do to improve. Take a look at some of the trends on your website, and use these as a basis for your surveys so you can more clearly understand why your customers are taking certain actions.  

Collecting Consumer Insight Data in Africa

Before businesses can put forth a successful marketing plan, they need to understand the different needs of each population they’re looking at. Targeting different populations throughout the world means taking into consideration cultural influences, technological limitations, and differing product use cases.

Using text message surveys to collect consumer insights in Africa can be particularly effective because of the widespread use of mobile phones throughout the continent. The rate of internet penetration is still quite low in some parts of Africa, and while it is increasing rapidly every year, basic mobile phones are available to more of the population than internet-enabled devices. Users don’t have to have a smartphone or internet access to be able to receive an SMS survey. Even if a phone is turned off or out of service when the survey is sent, it will appear in the user’s inbox when service is restored. Surveys that utilize web links that can be opened in basic mobile browsers can also be successful when reaching certain target audiences, and are often less expensive than text message surveys.

Consumer markets are growing rapidly throughout Africa as economies strengthen and people have more disposable income. Tapping into this growing market is essential for many businesses, and mobile-based surveys are an excellent way to gather business intelligence from all over the world. GeoPoll specializes in collecting consumer insights in emerging markets using mobile-based modes, and can reach your target audience quickly to collect high-quality data that drives business growth. Contact us today to learn more.

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