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Market Research

Insights Platform

Generating actionable insights to better understand your consumer base is challenging. Learn more by exploring our topics below:

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Why is Market Research Important?

Using market research and consumer behavior data to develop an in-depth understanding of your target audience does more than foster customer loyalty – it enables companies to support their decision-making with insightful and valuable data. With real-time consumer insights, organizations can test marketing campaigns prior to launch, measure brand health, collect competitive intelligence, and keep tabs on consumer sentiment allowing them to remain relevant with ever changing trends.

However, gathering and using consumer insights comes with risk – namely, guaranteeing the accuracy and quality of consumer data. If a business relies solely on legacy market research processes, data reliability issues can arise – and generating actionable insights into customer preferences is inevitably hampered by outdated or inaccurate data. Ultimately, making data-driven decisions based on stale or lower quality data can lead to misinformed outcomes. 

Take the infamous McDonald’s Arch Deluxe Burger market disconnect, for example. The Arch Deluxe Burger was intended to wow adult McDonald’s customers with a more “grown up” taste. In the past, the McDonald’s brand was childish, filled with bright colors and playful mascots. In an attempt to entice a more mature segment of the market, the fast-food chain opted to pivot its image away from childish fun, and accelerate towards high-brow sophistication. Thus the Arch Deluxe Burger was born. In large part, McDonald’s went full force with its new brand schema. Many marketing campaigns involving the Arch Deluxe went so far as to include images of children rejecting the burger because it was too cosmopolitan for their tastes. 

Unfortunately, the market data that was collected and analyzed did not accurately represent the desires of McDonald’s target audience. This failure to meet the expectations of the McDonald’s core customer base resulted in profit losses and a slightly damaged brand image. Seeing how the McDonald’s brand is a household name throughout the United States and across the globe, they were able to make a quick recovery. However, if a less established brand made the same mistakes the consequences would likely be catastrophic.

For these reasons and more, real-time, quality consumer insights have become critical for marketers, in-house research departments, and market research agencies alike. If brands and research agencies are to successfully navigate an increasingly competitive global marketplace, they need tools that can collect, organize, and present market data so accurate and original insights are extracted.

To dive deeper into the value of market research platforms, the following sections will explore:

What Are Market Research Tools? And Why Do Businesses Need Them?

In 1920, the first market research study  for advertising was created. In the early years, market research solely relied on in person and telephone surveys and live focus groups. Since then, market research has come a long way; many new platforms and processes have been engineered to generate increasingly accurate insights into customer preferences and behavior. But today, things are changing faster than ever before. The modern business world is becoming increasingly digitized, and consumer preferences are constantly shifting, making buyers less likely to stick with one brand. In fact, one recent McKinsey study found that 75 percent of US consumers are actively changing their buying behavior in response to a number of factors, including shifting priorities. 

So, how can companies best adapt to these consumer changes? Enter: comprehensive market research platforms. At their core, market research solutions arm researchers with faster and better insights using quality data and reliable target audience delivery.

Market research platforms, like the PureSpectrum Marketplace Platform and Insights Platform, empower users to: 

Target specific responders

Build methodologically sound surveys

Measure individual survey respondent quality

Store and correlate respondent psychographics, demographics, and geolocation

Organize all sample sources in one application

Monitor project progress

Generate easy-to-understand data visualizations for analyses

Gather real-time consumer answers

No business decisions should move forward without tangible, credible evidence. Utilizing market research platforms ensures that all insights used to support decision-making are accurate and accessible.

 

Common Market Research Process Challenges Can Be Mitigated – With the Right Technology 

In truth, the need for comprehensive and intelligent market research solutions is greater than ever before. Many challenges confront researchers, especially as consumer expectations continue to evolve. Some of the most difficult challenges market researchers face include:

 

  • Questionable data credibility and survey fraud
  • Poor scalability
  • Outdated data
  • Lack of agility
  • Consumer bias

Let’s take a closer look at how market research platforms combat each of these challenges:

Questionable Data Credibility and Survey Fraud

Today, the increase in anonymity in online spaces has fostered intense data quality concerns. Common sources of survey fraud include repeat submissions, bots, and gibberish survey answers. To combat fraud, quality programs like PureScore™ work to find patterns in the behavior of respondents and identify potentially fraudulent actions. Here are a few examples of how PureScore™ evaluates survey takers: 

  • Profiling consistency
  • Quality survey answers
  • Speeding and/or straight lining
  • Device fingerprinting
  • Deduplication

Learn more about how PureScore™ works to improve overall survey data quality in this case study. 

Poor Scalability for Data Collection Processes

When it comes to collecting and processing data sets, many market researchers rely on legacy platforms and multiple, disparate technologies. This puts data quality at risk and makes it much more difficult for research teams to get their jobs done with the quality they need. As the ever-growing list of digital channels continues to overflow with data, researchers need a single, scalable technology to keep up. Utilizing a quality-focused, end-to-end quantitative research solution empowers researchers to easily capture consumer feedback and generate detailed insights faster and more accurately. Additionally, all-in-one platforms (like PureSpectrum) streamline the research process to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Want to see a scalable solution in action? Discover how Watermelon Research used PureSpectrum’s adaptive solutions to scale their research process during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic here.

Incorrect Market Trends Predictions

Evaluating consumer behavior alongside local and global market trends is absolutely crucial to evolving and future-proofing any business. However, gathering lower quality, questionable data can cause brands to jump to the wrong conclusions. It’s important to note that sample size alone does not mean the validity and reliability of collected data is sound. Remember the Arch Deluxe Burger incident? To avoid these costly mistakes, research teams can adopt platforms that offer real-time results and easy-to-understand data visualization tools.

Lack of Agility

The way consumers prefer to interact with brands and surveys has rapidly evolved. Respondents now want to engage with quick and easily consumable surveys on popular platforms—namely, social media channels. To answer this demand, Agile Market Research solutions help research teams adapt to changing preferences and interact with respondents via the most effective channels. 

Agile Market Research also leans on technology to improve the speed and accuracy of research deliverables. Legacy processes for gathering consumer insights and analyzing results can take weeks or even months, and as the modern world moves at breakneck speeds, research teams simply do not have time to spare. But the solution is simple: implementing Agile Market Research solutions (like the PureSpectrum Insights Platform and the PureSpectrum Marketplace) provides fast and high-quality insights researchers can trust. Learn more about the benefits of Agile Market Research here.

Consumer Bias

To prevent the skewing of any research project results, bias must be eliminated. Unfortunately, bias is sneaky and can creep in without raising any immediate red flags. From sampling bias to response bias, researchers are left to grapple with many threats to their project results. To combat bias, platforms like the PureSpectrum Marketplace Platform source respondents from trusted suppliers. Additionally, PureSpectrum offers full transparency regarding which suppliers we are sourcing sample from. This results in many benefits such as: 

  • Surveys will meet their quotas quickly due to a large respondent pool 
  • Deep profiling allows companies to reach even niche target groups
  • Source bias is removed due to the diversity in respondent recruitment
  • Fraud impact is de-risked when leveraging a multi-source approach

Lastly, our researcher backed templates and internal expertise empower businesses to effectively curb bias in every step of the research process. PureSpectrum’s multi-source technology also offers greater representation, inclusion, and works to eliminate under-coverage.

 

Which Tools Are Predominantly Used for Market Research?

On a basic level, research teams use market research platforms to collect quantitative insights. This includes consumer research, market research, consumer behavior, and customer insights. Most often, researchers need solutions that will help them accomplish the following: 

  • Find and reach out to relevant consumers (ensuring they reach their ideal target audience)
  • Create high-quality surveys
  • Utilize intuitive data analytics features to help researchers better understand their findings
  • Support common use cases such as Brand Tracking, Ad Effectiveness, Concept Testing, Consumer Sentiment, and more

To better understand the capabilities of full-solution market research solutions, let’s look at The PureSpectrum Insights and Marketplace Platforms. 

The PureSpectrum Insights Platform

Before we dive into the specific abilities of our Insights Platform, let’s answer a couple of high-level questions. 

    What Does Insight Mean in Research?

    Regarding market research specifically, an insight is any information that is actionable, relevant, and informs data analysis for a target market.

    What is the Difference Between Market Research and Market Insights?

    In the simplest terms, market research relates to the process of collecting raw data. Market insights, also known as consumer insights, relates to the process of interpreting that data to inform effective business decision-making.

    Fundamentally, insights platforms are intended to help synthesize mass quantities of customer data through a single platform so market research companies and brands can easily interpret the data and make better informed business decisions. It’s important to address that insights platforms are not meant to suggest conclusions to researchers. Rather, these solutions provide the information and analysis tools researchers need to make the best decisions possible. For example, The PureSpectrum Insights Platform gives researchers instant access to important analytics and creates exportable custom visualizations of data that are easy to interpret and share. 

    Beyond the basics, here are a few market research insight examples that can be derived from the PureSpectrum Insights Platform.

    Brand Tracking

    Brand Tracking involves continually monitoring all brand awareness and perception efforts and evaluating the success of those efforts against established metrics. This allows researchers to uncover new emerging trends related to their brand positioning. Tracking tools help brands make more targeted decisions to improve sales, marketing ROI, and retain and gain market share. The PureSpectrum Insights Platform provides impressive Brand Tracking capabilities to create a feedback loop that continuously measures key brand metrics and helps researchers evaluate the impact of their marketing efforts over time.

    Concept Testing

    As a main driver of innovation, concept testing is the process of determining consumer interest and acceptance of new products, services, and features. The insights derived from concept testing allow brands to make significant improvements to their offerings and align them with consumer needs before they hit the market. Using the PureSpectrum Insights Platform, you can easily screen, evaluate, and optimize ideas before launch.

    Creative Asset Testing

    Creative asset testing helps brands see what language and imagery delight their target audience. This process is especially helpful when launching a rebrand strategy or unveiling new products, features, and services. Creative asset testing is useful for a number of reasons, including: 

    • Enhancing ad campaigns 
    • Developing more appealing creative assets
    • Understanding what content drives your target audience towards the final sale
    • Avoiding costly controversy (For reference, see Peloton’s 2019 Christmas commercial)

    The PureSpectrum creative asset templates empower researchers to effectively evaluate the performance of customer communications and campaigns. Using insights derived from PureSpectrum, you can easily determine which creative assets will best represent your brand and positively perform in the market. 

    Ad Effectiveness

    Without the right data, it’s impossible to determine if your marketing efforts are resonating with your target market. Evaluating ad effectiveness using market insights platforms allows brands to accurately track the impact of campaigns, evaluate positives and negatives, and make necessary adjustments. PureSpectrum provides actionable insights into the performance of all ad campaigns. Our platform helps researchers source feedback on advertisements, easily run ad tests, survey various attributes, and track critical metrics.

    Consumer Sentiment

    Collecting consumer sentiment allows brands to understand exactly how customers feel about the company—or important topics related to their business—and identify changes to consumer preferences. Using PureSpectrum, you can collect thousands of responses across the globe. Our platform allows you to investigate consumer opinions, behaviors, and motivations related to your brand or industry.

    B2B Go-to-Market Resources

    No go-to-market strategy will win new and continued business without solid data. The PureSpectrum Insights Platform has the power to survey various industry leaders to give you the big picture. Using our technology, you can source respondents by industry, title, department, company size, and more.

    Customer and Market Segmentation

    Your business strategy is greatly impacted by the interests and preferences of different consumer groups. Without an in-depth understanding of the preferences of your targeted demographics, it’s impossible to engineer effective business plans and growth initiatives. The PureSpectrum Insights Platform enables you to evaluate consumers based on common characteristics and demographics. With our technology, you can easily develop an enhanced understanding of the needs and desires of your market and customers, and tailor marketing efforts to each segment’s preference.

    Conclusion: Not Adopting an Insight Platform Might Be Too Big of a Risk

    Choosing to use an insights platform gives researchers and brands access to a wealth of actionable data to fuel innovation. Not collecting on-going consumer feedback could hinder your ability to remain relevant and competitive. In the end, real-time data and effective analysis are competitive advantages that can make or break the success of an organization.

    The PureSpectrum Marketplace Platform

    In addition to insights platforms, solutions that streamline sample management and help researchers source their ideal customer profile should also be adopted. For example, the PureSpectrum Marketplace Platform gives researchers real-time access to a global, multi-source respondent pool of millions of engaged consumers. Armed with automation and sampling expertise, this platform was designed to make researchers’ jobs simpler and more successful. 

    Here are a few highlights of what the Marketplace has to offer:

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    Automated Fielding

    This feature removes time-consuming and inefficient manual processes, so researchers can begin sampling immediately. Automation also ensures that your surveys reach the right audience.

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    Panel Deduplicaion

    By assigning all respondents unique IDs, PureSpectrum ensures that every sample is different and committed to active participation.

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    Broad Range

    PureSpectrum can field in 60+ countries, giving researchers access to a global respondent pool.

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    Easy Survey Integration

    Our Marketplace Platform is survey tool agnostic and works with any survey platform that accepts redirects and offers API integration.

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    Powerful Location Targeting

    Researchers can upload zip or postal codes and create custom quota groups for more precise fielding.

    Interested in learning more? Read our article to better understand how sampling automation works and how PureSpectrum fits under the umbrella of progressive market research techniques.

    What is the Best Solution for Market Research?

    Although many companies make big promises, not all market research platforms are of equal quality. Free market research platforms, in particular, are less effective and do not provide features and tools supporting data accuracy. Since free solutions shouldn’t be the basis for quality market research, how can researchers determine which market research platforms are worth the investment? To help you compare and contrast your options, PureSpectrum created this comprehensive checklist. 

     

    The Best Market Research Tools Checklist: Features All Researchers Need

      • The ability to track behavior data and ensure the reliability of a supply
      • Fraud prevention mechanisms and processes
      • A dedicated support team to advise on all projects from beginning to end
      • Automated fielding capabilities to eliminate cumbersome manual processes
      • An easy-to-understand user interface
      • Simple survey integration capabilities
      • A single-solution model that allows researchers to rid themselves of disparate tools
      • A transparent pricing structure that illustrates exactly what you’re paying for—no licensing, project, or minimum fees
      • Bias detection and elimination capabilities
      • Versatile and easy-to-use survey creation features that provides diverse question types
      • Precise, beautiful, and automated data visualizations for presentations
      • Simplified workflows that allow researchers to collect and analyze data in a single space

      Discover How To Do Market Research Better With PureSpectrum

      Actionable and accurate data insights are absolutely vital to back reasoning behind product changes or marketing decisions—this much is certain. But today’s researchers are faced with many unique challenges. Manual processes drain resources, survey fraud continues to infiltrate sample sources, and costly subscriptions stretch budgets thin, preventing researchers from gaining a holistic view of their target markets.

      To keep up with the digitized and increasingly fast-paced global landscape, researchers need the most comprehensive and agile market research tools—and PureSpectrum is here to rise to the occasion. Our end-to-end market research and insights platform delivers the high quality data insights professionals need to make decisions more efficiently and faster than ever before.

      Aside from our product’s superior functionality and usability, our team is deeply committed to client advocacy. We have deemed 2023 the year of the user, and are working harder than ever to craft great client experiences for all stakeholders. Our dedication to satisfaction, simplicity, and quality has earned us many accolades, including a featured spot as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in North America on Deloitte’s Fast 500 list. 

      If you want to see what PureSpectrum can do for you, schedule a demo today.