consumer research techniques

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Published October 17 th 2023

10 Essential Methods for Effective Consumer and Market Research

When it comes to understanding the world around you, market research is an essential step.

We live in a world that’s overflowing with information. Sifting through all the noise to extract the most relevant insights on a certain market or audience can be tough.

That’s where market research comes in – it’s a way for brands and researchers to collect information from target markets and audiences.

Once reliant on traditional methods like focus groups or surveys, market research is now at a crossroads. Newer tools for extracting insights, like social listening tools, have joined the array of market research techniques available.

Here, we break down what market research is and the different methods you can choose from to make the most of it.

What is market research, and why is it critical for you as a marketer?

Market research involves collecting and analyzing data about a specific industry, market, or audience to inform strategic decision-making. It offers marketers valuable insights into the industry, market trends, consumer preferences, competition, and opportunities, enabling businesses to refine their strategies effectively.

By conducting market research, organizations can identify unmet needs, assess product demands, enhance value propositions, and create marketing campaigns that resonate with their target audience. 

This practice serves as a compass, guiding businesses in making data-driven decisions for successful product launches, improved customer relationships, and a stronger positioning in the business landscape. 

For marketers and insights professionals, market research is an indispensable tool. It helps them make smarter decisions and achieve growth and success in the market.

These 10 market research methods form the backbone of effective market research strategies. 

Continue reading or jump directly to each method by tapping the link below.

• Focus groups
• Consumer research with social media listening
• Experiments and field trials
• Observation
• Competitive analysis
• Public domain data
• Buy research
• Analyze sales data

Use of primary vs secondary market research

Market research can be split into two distinct sections: primary and secondary. These are the two main types of market research.

They can also be known as field and desk, respectively (although this terminology feels out of date, as plenty of primary research can be carried out from your desk).

Primary (field) research

Primary market research is research you carry out yourself. Examples of primary market research methods include running your own focus groups or conducting surveys. These are some of the key methods of consumer research. The ‘field’ part refers to going out into the field to get data.

Secondary (desk) research

Secondary market research is research carried out by other people that you want to use. Examples of secondary market research methods include studies carried out by researchers or financial data released by companies.

10 effective methods to do market research

The methods in this list cover both areas. Which ones you want to use will depend on your goals. Have a browse through and see what fits.

1. Focus groups

It’s a simple concept but one that can be hard to put into practice.

You bring together a group of individuals into a room, record their discussions, and ask them questions about various topics you are researching. For some, it’ll be new product ideas. For others, it might be views on a political candidate.

From these discussions, the organizer will try to pull out some insights or use them to judge the wider society’s view on something. The participants will generally be chosen based on certain criteria, such as demographics, interests, or occupations.

A focus group’s strength is in the natural conversation and discussion that can take place between participants (if they’re done right).

Compared to a questionnaire or survey with a rigid set of questions, a focus group can go off on tangents the organizer could not have predicted (and therefore not planned questions for). This can be good in that unexpected topics can arise; or bad if the aims of the research are to answer a very particular set of questions.

The nature of the discussion is important to recognize as a potential factor that skews the resulting data. Focus groups can encourage participants to talk about things they might not have otherwise, and others might impact the group. This can also affect unstructured one-on-one interviews.

In survey research, survey questions are given to respondents (in person, over the phone, by email, or via an online form). Questions can be close-ended or open-ended. As far as close-ended questions go, there are many different types:

• Dichotomous (two choices, such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’)
• Multiple choice
• Rating scale
• Likert scale (common version is five options between ‘strongly agree’ and ‘strongly disagree’)
• Matrix (options presented on a grid)
• Demographic (asking for information such as gender, age, or occupation)

Surveys are massively versatile because of the range of question formats. Knowing how to mix and match them to get what you need takes consideration and thought. Different questions need the right setup.

It’s also about how you ask. Good questions lead to good analysis. Writing clear, concise questions that abstain from vague expressions and don’t lead respondents down a certain path can help your results reflect the true colors of respondents.

There are a ton of different ways to conduct surveys as well, from creating your own from scratch or using tools that do lots of the heavy lifting for you.

3. Consumer research with social media listening

Social media has reached a point where it is seamlessly integrated into our lives. And because it is a digital extension of ourselves, people freely express their opinions, thoughts, and hot takes on social media.

Because people share so much content on social media and the sharing is so instant, social media is a treasure trove for market research. There is plenty of data to monitor , tap into, and dissect.

By using a social listening tool, like Consumer Research , researchers can identify topics of interest and then analyze relevant social posts. For example, they can track brand mentions and what consumers are saying about the products owned by that brand. These are real-world consumer research examples.

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Social media listening democratizes insights, and is especially useful for market research because of the vast amount of unfiltered information available. Because it’s unprompted, you can be fairly sure that what’s shared is an accurate account of what the person really cares about and thinks (as opposed to them being given a subject to dwell on in the presence of a researcher).

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Your complete social listening guide.

Learn how to get started with social listening

4. Interviews

In interviews, the interviewer speaks directly with the respondent. This type of market research method is more personal, allowing for communication and clarification, making it good for open-ended questions. Furthermore, interviews enable the interviewer to go beyond surface-level responses and investigate deeper.

However, the drawback is that interviews can be time-intensive and costly. Those who opt for this method will need to figure out how to allocate their resources effectively. You also need to be careful with leading or poor questions that lead to useless results. Here’s a good introduction to leading questions .

5. Experiments and field trials

Field experiments are conducted in the participants’ environment. They rely on the independent variable and the dependent variable – the researcher controls the independent variable in order to test its impact on the dependent variable. The key here is to establish whether there’s causality.

For example, take Hofling’s experiment that tested obedience, conducted in a hospital setting. The point was to test if nurses followed authority figures (doctors) and if the authority figures’ rules violated standards (The dependent variable being the nurses, the independent variable being a fake doctor calling up and ordering the nurses to administer treatment.)

According to Simply Psychology , there are key strengths and limitations to this method.

The assessment reads:

• Strength: Behavior in a field experiment is more likely to reflect real life because of its natural setting, i.e., higher ecological validity than a lab experiment.
• Strength: There is less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the results, as participants may not know they are being studied. This occurs when the study is covert.
• Limitation: There is less control over extraneous variables that might bias the results. This makes it difficult for another researcher to replicate the study in exactly the same way.

There are also massive ethical implications for these kinds of experiments and experiments in general (especially if people are unaware of their involvement). Don’t take this lightly, and be sure to read up on all the guidelines that apply to the region where you’re based.

6. Observation

Observational market research is a qualitative research method where the researcher observes their subjects in a natural or controlled environment. This method is much like being a fly on the wall, but the fly takes notes and analyzes them later. In observational market research, subjects are likely to behave naturally, which reveals their true selves. 

They are not under much pressure. However, if they’re aware of the observation, they can act differently.

This type of research applies well to retail, where the researcher can observe shoppers’ behavior by day of the week, by season, when discounts are offered, and more. However, observational research can be time-consuming, and researchers have no control over the environments they research.

7. Competitive analysis

Competitive analysis is a highly strategic and specific form of market research in which the researchers analyze their company’s competitors. It is critical to see how your brand stacks up to rivals. 

Competitive analysis starts by defining the product, service, brand, and market segment. There are different topics to compare your firm with your competitors. It could be from a marketing perspective: content produced, SEO structure, PR coverage, and social media presence and engagement. It can also be from a product perspective: types of offerings, pricing structure. SWOT analysis is key in assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

We’ve written a whole blog post on this tactic, which you can read here .

8. Public domain data

The internet is a wondrous place. Public data exists for those strapped for resources or simply seeking to support their research with more data.  With more and more data produced every year, the question about access and curation becomes increasingly prominent – that’s why researchers and librarians are keen on open data.

Plenty of different types of open data are useful for market research: government databases, polling data, “fact tanks” like Pew Research Center, and more. 

Furthermore, APIs grant developers programmatic access to applications. A lot of this data is free, which is a real bonus.

9. Buy research

Money can’t buy everything, but it can buy research. Subscriptions exist for those who want to buy relevant industry and research reports. Sites like Euromonitor, Statista, Mintel, and BCC Research host a litany of reports for purchase, oftentimes with the option of a single-user license or a subscription.

This can be a massive time saver, and you’ll have a better idea of what you’re getting from the very beginning. You’ll also get all your data in a format that makes sense, saving you effort in cleaning and organizing.

10. Analyze sales data

Sales data is like a puzzle piece that can help reveal the full picture of market research insights. Essentially, it indicates the results. Paired with other market research data, sales data helps researchers better understand actions and consequences. Understanding your customers, their buying habits, and how they change over time is important.

This research will be limited to customers, and it’s important to keep that in mind. Nevertheless, the value of this data should not be underestimated. If you’re not already tracking customer data, there’s no time like the present.

Choosing the right market research method for your strategy

Not all methods will be right for your situation or your business. Once you’ve looked through the list and seen some that take your fancy, spend more time researching each option.You’ll want to consider what you want to achieve, what data you’ll need, the pros and cons of each method, the costs of conducting the research, and the cost of analyzing the results.

Get it right, and it’ll be worth all the effort.

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Home Market Research

Consumer Research: Examples, Process and Scope

What is Consumer Research?

Consumer research is a part of market research in which inclination, motivation and purchase behavior of the targeted customers are identified. Consumer research helps businesses or organizations understand customer psychology and create detailed purchasing behavior profiles.

It uses research techniques to provide systematic information about what customers need. Using this information brands can make changes in their products and services, making them more customer-centric thereby increasing customer satisfaction. This will in turn help to boost business.

LEARN ABOUT: Market research vs marketing research

An organization that has an in-depth understanding about the customer decision-making process, is most likely to design a product, put a certain price tag to it, establish distribution centers and promote a product based on consumer research insights such that it produces increased consumer interest and purchases.

For example, A consumer electronics company wants to understand, thought process of a consumer when purchasing an electronic device, which can help a company to launch new products, manage the supply of the stock, etc. Carrying out a Consumer electronics survey can be useful to understand the market demand, understand the flaws in their product and also find out research problems in the various processes that influence the purchase of their goods. A consumer electronics survey can be helpful to gather information about the shopping experiences of consumers when purchasing electronics. which can enable a company to make well-informed and wise decisions regarding their products and services.

LEARN ABOUT:  Test Market Demand

Consumer Research Objectives

When a brand is developing a new product, consumer research is conducted to understand what consumers want or need in a product, what attributes are missing and what are they looking for? An efficient survey software really makes it easy for organizations to conduct efficient research.

Consumer research is conducted to improve brand equity. A brand needs to know what consumers think when buying a product or service offered by a brand. Every good business idea needs efficient consumer research for it to be successful. Consumer insights are essential to determine brand positioning among consumers.

Consumer research is conducted to boost sales. The objective of consumer research is to look into various territories of consumer psychology and understand their buying pattern, what kind of packaging they like and other similar attributes that help brands to sell their products and services better.

LEARN ABOUT: Brand health

Consumer Research Model

According to a study conducted, till a decade ago, researchers thought differently about the consumer psychology, where little or no emphasis was put on emotions, mood or the situation that could influence a customer’s buying decision.

Many believed marketing was applied economics. Consumers always took decisions based on statistics and math and evaluated goods and services rationally and then selected items from those brands that gave them the highest customer satisfaction at the lowest cost.

However, this is no longer the situation. Consumers are very well aware of brands and their competitors. A loyal customer is the one who would not only return to repeatedly purchase from a brand but also, recommend his/her family and friends to buy from the same brand even if the prices are slightly higher but provides an exceptional customer service for products purchased or services offered.

Here is where the Net Promoter Score (NPS) helps brands identify brand loyalty and customer satisfaction with their consumers. Net Promoter Score consumer survey uses a single question that is sent to customers to identify their brand loyalty and level of customer satisfaction. Response to this question is measured on a scale between 0-10 and based on this consumers can be identified as:

Detractors: Who have given a score between 0-6.

Passives: Who have given a score between 7-8.

Promoters: Who have given a score between 9-10.

Consumer market research is based on two types of research method:

1. Qualitative Consumer Research

Qualitative research  is descriptive in nature, It’s a method that uses open-ended questions , to gain meaningful insights from respondents and heavily relies on the following market research methods:

Focus Groups: Focus groups as the name suggests is a small group of highly validated subject experts who come together to analyze a product or service. Focus group comprises of 6-10 respondents. A moderator is assigned to the focus group, who helps facilitate discussions among the members to draw meaningful insights

One-to-one Interview: This is a more conversational method, where the researcher asks open-ended questions to collect data from the respondents. This method heavily depends on the expertise of the researcher. How much the researcher is able to probe with relevant questions to get maximum insights. This is a time-consuming method and can take more than one attempt to gain the desired insights.

LEARN ABOUT: Qualitative Interview

Content/ Text Analysis: Text analysis is a qualitative research method where researchers analyze social life by decoding words and images from the documents available. Researchers analyze the context in which the images are used and draw conclusions from them. Social media is an example of text analysis. In the last decade or so, inferences are drawn based on consumer behavior on social media.

Learn More: How to conduct Qualitative Research  

2.Quantitative Consumer Research

In the age of technology and information, meaningful data is more precious than platinum. Billion dollar companies have risen and fallen on how well they have been able to collect and analyze data, to draw validated insights.

Quantitative research is all about numbers and statistics. An evolved consumer who purchases regularly can vouch for how customer-centric businesses have become today. It’s all about customer satisfaction , to gain loyal customers. With just one questions companies are able to collect data, that has the power to make or break a company. Net Promoter Score question , “On a scale from 0-10 how likely are you to recommend our brand to your family or friends?”

How organic word-of-mouth is influencing consumer behavior and how they need to spend less on advertising and invest their time and resources to make sure they provide exceptional customer service.

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Targeting

Online surveys , questionnaires , and polls are the preferred data collection tools. Data that is obtained from consumers is then statistically, mathematically and numerically evaluated to understand consumer preference.

Learn more: How to carry out Quantitative Research

Consumer Research Process

The process of consumer research started as an extension of the process of market research . As the findings of market research is used to improve the decision-making capacity of an organization or business, similar is with consumer research.

LEARN ABOUT:  Market research industry

The consumer research process can be broken down into the following steps:

• Develop research objectives: The first step to the consumer research process is to clearly define the research objective, the purpose of research, why is the research being conducted, to understand what? A clear statement of purpose can help emphasize the purpose.
• Collect Secondary data: Collect secondary data first, it helps in understanding if research has been conducted earlier and if there are any pieces of evidence related to the subject matter that can be used by an organization to make informed decisions regarding consumers.
• Primary Research: In primary research organizations or businesses collect their own data or employ a third party to collect data on their behalf. This research makes use of various data collection methods ( qualitative and quantitative ) that helps researchers collect data first hand.

LEARN ABOUT: Best Data Collection Tools

• Collect and analyze data: Data is collected and analyzed and inference is drawn to understand consumer behavior and purchase pattern.
• Prepare report: Finally, a report is prepared for all the findings by analyzing data collected so that organizations are able to make informed decisions and think of all probabilities related to consumer behavior. By putting the study into practice, organizations can become customer-centric and manufacture products or render services that will help them achieve excellent customer satisfaction.

LEARN ABOUT: market research trends

After Consumer Research Process

Once you have been able to successfully carry out the consumer research process , investigate and break paradigms. What consumers need should be a part of market research design and should be carried out regularly. Consumer research provides more in-depth information about the needs, wants, expectations and behavior analytics of clients.  

By identifying this information successfully, strategies that are used to attract consumers can be made better and businesses can make a profit by knowing what consumers want exactly. It is also important to understand and know thoroughly the buying behavior of consumers to know their attitude towards brands and products.

The identification of consumer needs, as well as their preferences, allows a business to adapt to new business and develop a detailed marketing plan that will surely work. The following pointers can help. Completing this process will help you:

• Attract more customers  
• Set the best price for your products  
• Create the right marketing message  
• Increase the quantity that satisfies the demand of its clients  
• Increase the frequency of visits to their clients  
• Increase your sales  
• Reduce costs  
• Refine your approach to the customer service process .

LEARN ABOUT: Behavioral Research

Consumer Research Methods

Consumers are the reason for a business to run and flourish. Gathering enough information about consumers is never going to hurt any business, in fact, it will only add up to the information a business would need to associate with its consumers and manufacture products that will help their business refine and grow.

Following are consumer research methods that ensure you are in tandem with the consumers and understand their needs:

The studies of customer satisfaction

One can determine the degree of satisfaction of consumers in relation to the quality of products through:

• Informal methods such as conversations with staff about products and services according to the dashboards.   
• Past and present questionnaires/ surveys that consumers might have filled that identify their needs.   

T he investigation of the consumer decision process

It is very interesting to know the consumer’s needs, what motivates them to buy, and how is the decision-making process carried out, though:

• Deploying relevant surveys and receiving responses from a target intended audience .

Proof of concept

Businesses can test how well accepted their marketing ideas are by:

• The use of surveys to find out if current or potential consumer see your products as a rational and useful benefit.  
• Conducting personal interviews or focus group sessions with clients to understand how they respond to marketing ideas.

Knowing your market position

You can find out how your current and potential consumers see your products, and how they compare it with your competitors by:

• Sales figures talk louder than any other aspect, once you get to know the comparison in the sales figures it is easy to understand your market position within the market segment.
• Attitudes of consumers while making a purchase also helps in understanding the market hold.      

Branding tests and user experience

You can determine how your customers feel with their brands and product names by:

• The use of focus groups and surveys designed to assess emotional responses to your products and brands.  
• The participation of researchers to study the performance of their brand in the market through existing and available brand measurement research.   

Price changes

You can investigate how your customers accept or not the price changes by using formulas that measure the revenue – multiplying the number of items you sold, by the price of each item. These tests allow you to calculate if your total income increases or decreases after making the price changes by:

• Calculation of changes in the quantities of products demanded by their customers, together with changes in the price of the product.   
• Measure the impact of the price on the demand of the product according to the needs of the client.   

Social media monitoring

Another way to measure feedback and your customer service is by controlling your commitment to social media and feedback. Social networks (especially Facebook) are becoming a common element of the commercialization of many businesses and are increasingly used by their customers to provide information on customer needs, service experiences, share and file customer complaints . It can also be used to run surveys and test concepts. If handled well, it can be one of the most powerful research tools of the client management . I also recommend reading: How to conduct market research through social networks.

Customer Research Questions

Asking the right question is the most important part of conducting research. Moreover, if it’s consumer research, questions should be asked in a manner to gather maximum insights from consumers. Here are some consumer research questions for your next research:

• Who in your household takes purchasing decisions?
• Where do you go looking for ______________ (product)?
• How long does it take you to make a buying decision?
• How far are you willing to travel to buy ___________(product)?
• What features do you look for when you purchase ____________ (product)?
• What motivates you to buy_____________ (product)?

See more consumer research survey questions:

Customer satisfaction surveys

Voice of customer surveys

Product surveys

Service evaluation surveys

Mortgage Survey Questions

Importance of Consumer Research

Launching a product or offering new services can be quite an exciting time for a brand. However, there are a lot of aspects that need to be taken into consideration while a band has something new to offer to consumers.

LEARN ABOUT: User Experience Research

Here is where consumer research plays a pivotal role. The importance of consumer research cannot be emphasized more. Following points summarizes the importance of consumer research:

• To understand market readiness: However good a product or service may be, consumers have to be ready to accept it. Creating a product requires investments which in return expect ROI from product or service purchases. However, if a market is mature enough to accept this utility, it has a low chance of succeeding by tapping into market potential . Therefore, before launching a product or service, organizations need to conduct consumer research, to understand if people are ready to spend on the utility it provides.
• Identify target consumers: By conducting consumer research, brands and organizations can understand their target market based on geographic segmentation and know who exactly is interested in buying their products. According to the data or feedback received from the consumer, research brands can even customize their marketing and branding approach to better appeal to the specific consumer segment.

LEARN ABOUT: Marketing Insight

• Product/Service updates through feedback: Conducting consumer research, provides valuable feedback from consumers about the attributes and features of products and services. This feedback enables organizations to understand consumer perception and provide a more suitable solution based on actual market needs which helps them tweak their offering to perfection.

Explore more: 300 + FREE survey templates to use for your research

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More From Forbes

Six types of research that can unlock consumer insights.

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COO and co-founder at  Maven Road .

Nowadays, the word “insight” is used by many market researchers to describe the means by which companies and brands can understand their customers’ tastes, motivations and needs. These insights allow brands to develop more effective strategies for connecting their audience with their products or services.

Consumer insights interpret customers’ behavior, which is critical to building relationships and connecting, not just making transactions and selling. Insights can help identify the important gap between the consumers’ aspirations and what they perceive a brand is offering. That gap can always be turned into a business opportunity.

I’ve seen through my company — a global business intelligence firm focused on deciphering big data and creating actionable insights — that relevant, valuable intelligence about a target market is only obtained through a deep analysis of data. Below is a guide to the types of research you can consider leveraging to analyze the consumer, as they can help you to gain valuable insights to fuel your business strategy:

• Social listening:  This involves the constant monitoring and tracking of online conversations to determine what consumers are saying about your brands, competitors, market or other topics of interest on different social media channels.

• Audience analysis:  This refers to the identification of demographic characteristics and psychographic information of the audience associated with your brand or company. Audience analysis can be applied to users who follow a brand’s handles or engage with its content across different social media channels.

• Netnographic research:  As an innovative, qualitative online research method, netnographic research adapts ethnographic methods — such as fieldwork, participant observation, interviews and field notes — to study your target audience. I’ve found this type of analysis allows for an immersive experience into online communities that helps you acquire an insider’s perspective and can lead to the development of an online persona for your target audience.

• Online communities:  Researching online communities means you analyze communities created across digital spaces that consist of members who share common interests related to your brand or company. Members, including active and potential consumers, often seek advice or share tips related to a specific interest. Analyzing the interactions and conversations among them can lead to actionable insights applicable to your brand or product. 

• Influencer identification:  This refers to an analysis of users discussing specific topics related to your brand or company on social media. Users who are more relevant to the conversation, either because they allow you to connect to different clusters of users or because they have high brokerage power, should then be selected. The results can help you identify potential influential voices for your brand or company to connect with.

• Trend tracking: “Trend tracking” involves identifying topics that could be of interest to your brand or company. This provides business intelligence to stakeholders about the latest events concerning your brand or company on a 24/7 basis, which can enable them to identify potential crises before they escalate. Trend tracking also monitors historical trends to track how consumer conversations evolve over time, thus leading to actionable insights.

Research can help you understand consumer behavior and brand perception. However, the key is identifying what learnings and insights are the most relevant for business opportunities. Before embarking upon the research process, you should ensure you have clear goals in mind for how the research will be used. Companies traveling through the black hole of data exploration will waste employee time and energy unless they set parameters concerning what they want to achieve. Therefore, always start by defining your business problem and objective before seeking out solutions.

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What Is Consumer Research: Methods, Types, Scope & Examples

Jan 19, 2024

Consumer Research Overview:

Consumer research is an essential aspect of any successful business strategy. Understanding your target audience, their preferences, and behaviours is crucial for making informed decisions, developing effective marketing campaigns, and staying ahead in a competitive marketplace. In this comprehensive guide, we will delve into the world of consumer research, covering key methods, types, and scope, and providing real-world examples of its practical applications.

Introduction to Consumer Research

Consumer research, also known as market research, is the systematic process of gathering and analyzing data about consumers' attitudes, preferences, and behaviours. It is a vital component of strategic planning for businesses and organizations across various industries. The primary goal of consumer research is to gain insights into consumer needs and desires, enabling businesses to make informed decisions and create products and services that meet those needs effectively.

Key Methods in Consumer Research

To conduct effective consumer research, various methods and techniques are employed. These methods can be broadly categorized into two main approaches: quantitative and qualitative research.

Quantitative Research in Consumer Studies

Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and statistical analysis. It often involves surveys, questionnaires, and structured interviews with a large sample of participants. This method provides numerical insights into consumer behaviors , preferences, and trends. Data collected through quantitative research can be analyzed to identify patterns, correlations, and statistical significance. This approach is particularly useful when a business needs to measure consumer satisfaction, evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, or conduct large-scale market studies.

Qualitative Approaches in Consumer Research

Qualitative research, on the other hand, emphasizes understanding the underlying motivations and emotions behind consumer behaviors. It involves methods like focus groups, in-depth interviews, and observational studies. Qualitative research allows researchers to delve deeper into consumers' thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It helps businesses gain a more nuanced understanding of their target audience, enabling them to develop products and marketing strategies that resonate on a deeper level.

Exploring Types of Consumer Research

Consumer research is a multifaceted field with various types, each serving specific purposes:

Demographic Analysis in Consumer Research

Demographic research involves analyzing data related to consumers' age, gender, income, education, and other demographic factors. This type of research helps businesses identify and target specific consumer groups based on their characteristics and preferences.

Psychographic Research Methods

Psychographic research focuses on consumers' lifestyles, values, interests, and personality traits. By understanding the psychological factors that influence consumer behavior, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies to align with consumers' beliefs and aspirations.

Consumer Insight Generation

Consumer insight research aims to uncover unique and valuable insights about consumer behaviors and preferences. It often involves innovative data collection techniques and advanced analytics to discover hidden trends and opportunities.

Brand Perception Research

Brand perception research assesses how consumers perceive a brand and its products or services. It helps businesses understand the strengths and weaknesses of their brand image and make necessary improvements.

Product Testing in Consumer Studies

Product testing involves gathering consumer feedback on new products or prototypes. This research type helps businesses refine their products based on real-world consumer input, ensuring they meet market demands.

Comparative Consumer Analysis

Comparative research involves evaluating a business's performance relative to its competitors. It helps identify areas where a business can gain a competitive edge and better serve its target audience.

Cross-Cultural Consumer Research

Cross-cultural research examines consumer behaviours and preferences across different cultures and regions. It helps businesses adapt their marketing strategies to diverse consumer demographics.

The Broad Scope of Consumer Research

Consumer research is not limited to the products and services themselves; it encompasses various aspects of consumer behaviour and market dynamics. The scope of consumer research includes:

Technology in Consumer Studies

As technology continues to advance, consumer research methods have also evolved. Businesses now have access to big data analytics, AI-driven insights, and social media sentiment analysis, allowing them to gain a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour in the digital age.

Future Trends in Consumer Research

Consumer research is a dynamic field, constantly evolving to keep up with changing consumer preferences and market dynamics. Staying updated with emerging trends in consumer research is essential for businesses to remain competitive.

Data-Driven Consumer Insights

The advent of big data has revolutionized consumer research. Businesses can now harness vast amounts of data to gain valuable insights into consumer behavior, helping them make data-driven decisions and improve their strategies.

Consumer Decision-Making Models

Understanding how consumers make decisions is crucial for businesses. Consumer research explores the decision-making process, including factors like perception, motivation, and cognitive biases, to help businesses influence consumer choices effectively.

Real-world Examples of Consumer Research

Let's look at some practical applications of consumer research in real-world scenarios:

Case Studies in Consumer Research

A leading smartphone manufacturer conducts consumer research to understand what features and specifications consumers prioritize in their smartphones. Based on the findings, the company designs and markets its products accordingly, staying ahead of competitors.

Consumer Satisfaction Measurement

A restaurant chain regularly collects feedback from its customers through surveys and online reviews. By analyzing this data, they identify areas for improvement, make necessary changes to their menu and service, and maintain high levels of customer satisfaction.

Trend Analysis in Consumer Studies

A fashion retailer closely monitors consumer trends and preferences in clothing. They use this information to adapt their inventory, marketing campaigns, and store layouts to align with current fashion trends and consumer preferences.

Retail Environment Studies

A retail giant conducts in-store consumer research to optimize its store layout, product placement, and signage. By creating a more pleasant and efficient shopping experience, they aim to increase customer satisfaction and sales.

Consumer Feedback and Reviews

An e-commerce platform analyzes customer feedback and reviews to identify product issues, improve product descriptions, and enhance customer trust. This research helps them provide a better shopping experience.

Online Consumer Behavior

An online marketplace tracks user behaviour on its website to improve user experience, optimize search algorithms, and personalize product recommendations, ultimately increasing sales and customer satisfaction.

Social Media Impact on Consumer Research

A cosmetics brand monitors social media channels to gauge customer sentiment and feedback. They use this data to adjust marketing strategies and product offerings in real-time, staying responsive to consumer preferences.

Global Consumer Trends

A multinational corporation conducts cross-cultural consumer research to adapt its products and marketing strategies to different regions and cultures, ensuring they resonate with local consumers.

Consumer Preferences and Trends

A food and beverage company studies consumer preferences for healthier options. This research informs their product development and marketing efforts to align with the growing trend of health-conscious consumers.

Lifestyle and Consumer Choices

A fitness equipment manufacturer conducts consumer research to understand how consumers' lifestyles and preferences influence their purchasing decisions. This helps them develop products tailored to specific consumer segments.

Psychological Aspects of Consumer Behavior

A marketing agency delves into the psychological factors that influence consumer decisions. They use this knowledge to create compelling advertisements and marketing campaigns that resonate with consumers on a deeper level.

Cultural Influences in Consumer Research

An international travel agency studies how cultural differences impact travel preferences. They tailor their vacation packages and marketing materials to appeal to diverse cultural groups.

Ethical Considerations in Consumer Research

While consumer research provides valuable insights, it is essential to conduct it ethically and responsibly. Respecting consumers' privacy and ensuring the security of their data should be paramount. Businesses should obtain informed consent, anonymize data when necessary, and adhere to applicable regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA, to protect consumers' rights.

The Evolution of Consumer Research Methods

Consumer research methods have evolved significantly over the years. From traditional face-to-face interviews and paper surveys to online surveys, big data analytics, and AI-driven insights, technology has played a pivotal role in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of consumer research. Businesses must stay current with the latest research tools and techniques to remain competitive in today's fast-paced market.

The Impact of Technology on Consumer Research

Technology has revolutionized consumer research in several ways:

Faster Data Collection

Online surveys and digital data collection methods allow businesses to gather consumer insights more quickly, enabling faster decision-making.

Enhanced Data Analysis

Advanced analytics tools enable businesses to process and analyze vast amounts of data, uncovering hidden trends and patterns that were previously difficult to identify.

Personalization in Consumer Engagement

Technology allows businesses to personalize their interactions with consumers, offering tailored recommendations and experiences based on individual preferences and behaviors.

Data Privacy in Consumer Studies

As technology has evolved, concerns about data privacy have grown. Ethical consumer research practices involve protecting consumers' personal information and respecting their privacy rights.

Integrating AI in Consumer Insights

Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can analyze consumer data more efficiently, providing businesses with valuable insights and predictive analytics.

Practical Applications: How Businesses Use Consumer Research

Consumer research is not just an academic exercise; it has practical applications that directly impact a business's success. Here are some ways businesses use consumer research to their advantage:

Product Development

Consumer research helps businesses identify gaps in the market and develop products that align with consumer needs and preferences.

Marketing Strategies

By understanding consumer behaviors and preferences, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies to effectively reach and engage their target audience.

Customer Experience Enhancement

Consumer research helps businesses improve customer service, streamline processes, and create a positive and memorable customer experience.

Competitive Advantage

By staying updated with consumer trends and preferences, businesses can gain a competitive edge in the market and position themselves as industry leaders.

Risk Mitigation

Consumer research can help identify potential risks and challenges in the market, allowing businesses to proactively address them.

Innovative businesses use consumer research to identify emerging trends and opportunities, leading to the development of groundbreaking products and services.

In conclusion, consumer research is an indispensable tool for businesses seeking to understand their target audience, make informed decisions, and stay competitive in the ever-evolving marketplace. By employing various research methods, understanding different types of consumer research, and respecting ethical considerations, businesses can harness the power of consumer insights to drive growth, innovation, and success. As technology continues to shape the field of consumer research, businesses that embrace data-driven decision-making and prioritize consumer satisfaction will thrive in the dynamic business landscape of the future.

At Market Xcel, we offer a suite of research services to our clients, leveraging our expertise in consumer research to provide valuable insights and drive success in today's competitive business environment.

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The past, present, and future of consumer research

• Published: 13 June 2020
• Volume 31 , pages 137–149, ( 2020 )

Cite this article

• Maayan S. Malter   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0383-7925 1 ,
• Morris B. Holbrook 1 ,
• Barbara E. Kahn 2 ,
• Jeffrey R. Parker 3 &
• Donald R. Lehmann 1  

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In this article, we document the evolution of research trends (concepts, methods, and aims) within the field of consumer behavior, from the time of its early development to the present day, as a multidisciplinary area of research within marketing. We describe current changes in retailing and real-world consumption and offer suggestions on how to use observations of consumption phenomena to generate new and interesting consumer behavior research questions. Consumption continues to change with technological advancements and shifts in consumers’ values and goals. We cannot know the exact shape of things to come, but we polled a sample of leading scholars and summarize their predictions on where the field may be headed in the next twenty years.

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1 Introduction

Beginning in the late 1950s, business schools shifted from descriptive and practitioner-focused studies to more theoretically driven and academically rigorous research (Dahl et al. 1959 ). As the field expanded from an applied form of economics to embrace theories and methodologies from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and statistics, there was an increased emphasis on understanding the thoughts, desires, and experiences of individual consumers. For academic marketing, this meant that research not only focused on the decisions and strategies of marketing managers but also on the decisions and thought processes on the other side of the market—customers.

Since then, the academic study of consumer behavior has evolved and incorporated concepts and methods, not only from marketing at large but also from related social science disciplines, and from the ever-changing landscape of real-world consumption behavior. Its position as an area of study within a larger discipline that comprises researchers from diverse theoretical backgrounds and methodological training has stirred debates over its identity. One article describes consumer behavior as a multidisciplinary subdiscipline of marketing “characterized by the study of people operating in a consumer role involving acquisition, consumption, and disposition of marketplace products, services, and experiences” (MacInnis and Folkes 2009 , p. 900).

This article reviews the evolution of the field of consumer behavior over the past half century, describes its current status, and predicts how it may evolve over the next twenty years. Our review is by no means a comprehensive history of the field (see Schumann et al. 2008 ; Rapp and Hill 2015 ; Wang et al. 2015 ; Wilkie and Moore 2003 , to name a few) but rather focuses on a few key thematic developments. Though we observe many major shifts during this period, certain questions and debates have persisted: Does consumer behavior research need to be relevant to marketing managers or is there intrinsic value from studying the consumer as a project pursued for its own sake? What counts as consumption: only consumption from traditional marketplace transactions or also consumption in a broader sense of non-marketplace interactions? Which are the most appropriate theoretical traditions and methodological tools for addressing questions in consumer behavior research?

2 A brief history of consumer research over the past sixty years—1960 to 2020

In 1969, the Association for Consumer Research was founded and a yearly conference to share marketing research specifically from the consumer’s perspective was instituted. This event marked the culmination of the growing interest in the topic by formalizing it as an area of research within marketing (consumer psychology had become a formalized branch of psychology within the APA in 1960). So, what was consumer behavior before 1969? Scanning current consumer-behavior doctoral seminar syllabi reveals few works predating 1969, with most of those coming from psychology and economics, namely Herbert Simon’s A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice (1955), Abraham Maslow’s A Theory of Human Motivation (1943), and Ernest Dichter’s Handbook of Consumer Motivations (1964). In short, research that illuminated and informed our understanding of consumer behavior prior to 1969 rarely focused on marketing-specific topics, much less consumers or consumption (Dichter’s handbook being a notable exception). Yet, these works were crucial to the rise of consumer behavior research because, in the decades after 1969, there was a shift within academic marketing to thinking about research from a behavioral or decision science perspective (Wilkie and Moore 2003 ). The following section details some ways in which this shift occurred. We draw on a framework proposed by the philosopher Larry Laudan ( 1986 ), who distinguished among three inter-related aspects of scientific inquiry—namely, concepts (the relevant ideas, theories, hypotheses, and constructs); methods (the techniques employed to test and validate these concepts); and aims (the purposes or goals that motivate the investigation).

2.1 Key concepts in the late - 1960s

During the late-1960s, we tended to view the buyer as a computer-like machine for processing information according to various formal rules that embody economic rationality to form a preference for one or another option in order to arrive at a purchase decision. This view tended to manifest itself in a couple of conspicuous ways. The first was a model of buyer behavior introduced by John Howard in 1963 in the second edition of his marketing textbook and quickly adopted by virtually every theorist working in our field—including, Howard and Sheth (of course), Engel-Kollat-&-Blackwell, Franco Nicosia, Alan Andreasen, Jim Bettman, and Joel Cohen. Howard’s great innovation—which he based on a scheme that he had found in the work of Plato (namely, the linkages among Cognition, Affect, and Conation)—took the form of a boxes-and-arrows formulation heavily influenced by the approach to organizational behavior theory that Howard (University of Pittsburgh) had picked up from Herbert Simon (Carnegie Melon University). The model represented a chain of events

where I = inputs of information (from advertising, word-of-mouth, brand features, etc.); C = cognitions (beliefs or perceptions about a brand); A = Affect (liking or preference for the brand); B = behavior (purchase of the brand); and S = satisfaction (post-purchase evaluation of the brand that feeds back onto earlier stages of the sequence, according to a learning model in which reinforced behavior tends to be repeated). This formulation lay at the heart of Howard’s work, which he updated, elaborated on, and streamlined over the remainder of his career. Importantly, it informed virtually every buyer-behavior model that blossomed forth during the last half of the twentieth century.

To represent the link between cognitions and affect, buyer-behavior researchers used various forms of the multi-attribute attitude model (MAAM), originally proposed by psychologists such as Fishbein and Rosenberg as part of what Fishbein and Ajzen ( 1975 ) called the theory of reasoned action. Under MAAM, cognitions (beliefs about brand attributes) are weighted by their importance and summed to create an explanation or prediction of affect (liking for a brand or preference for one brand versus another), which in turn determines behavior (choice of a brand or intention to purchase a brand). This took the work of economist Kelvin Lancaster (with whom Howard interacted), which assumed attitude was based on objective attributes, and extended it to include subjective ones (Lancaster 1966 ; Ratchford 1975 ). Overall, the set of concepts that prevailed in the late-1960s assumed the buyer exhibited economic rationality and acted as a computer-like information-processing machine when making purchase decisions.

2.2 Favored methods in the late-1960s

The methods favored during the late-1960s tended to be almost exclusively neo-positivistic in nature. That is, buyer-behavior research adopted the kinds of methodological rigor that we associate with the physical sciences and the hypothetico-deductive approaches advocated by the neo-positivistic philosophers of science.

Thus, the accepted approaches tended to be either experimental or survey based. For example, numerous laboratory studies tested variations of the MAAM and focused on questions about how to measure beliefs, how to weight the beliefs, how to combine the weighted beliefs, and so forth (e.g., Beckwith and Lehmann 1973 ). Here again, these assumed a rational economic decision-maker who processed information something like a computer.

Seeking rigor, buyer-behavior studies tended to be quantitative in their analyses, employing multivariate statistics, structural equation models, multidimensional scaling, conjoint analysis, and other mathematically sophisticated techniques. For example, various attempts to test the ICABS formulation developed simultaneous (now called structural) equation models such as those deployed by Farley and Ring ( 1970 , 1974 ) to test the Howard and Sheth ( 1969 ) model and by Beckwith and Lehmann ( 1973 ) to measure halo effects.

2.3 Aims in the late-1960s

During this time period, buyer-behavior research was still considered a subdivision of marketing research, the purpose of which was to provide insights useful to marketing managers in making strategic decisions. Essentially, every paper concluded with a section on “Implications for Marketing Managers.” Authors who failed to conform to this expectation could generally count on having their work rejected by leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research ( JMR ) and the Journal of Marketing ( JM ).

2.4 Summary—the three R’s in the late-1960s

Starting in the late-1960s to the early-1980s, virtually every buyer-behavior researcher followed the traditional approach to concepts, methods, and aims, now encapsulated under what we might call the three R’s —namely, rationality , rigor , and relevance . However, as we transitioned into the 1980s and beyond, that changed as some (though by no means all) consumer researchers began to expand their approaches and to evolve different perspectives.

2.5 Concepts after 1980

In some circles, the traditional emphasis on the buyer’s rationality—that is, a view of the buyer as a rational-economic, decision-oriented, information-processing, computer-like machine for making choices—began to evolve in at least two primary ways.

First, behavioral economics (originally studied in marketing under the label Behavioral Decision Theory)—developed in psychology by Kahneman and Tversky, in economics by Thaler, and applied in marketing by a number of forward-thinking theorists (e.g., Eric Johnson, Jim Bettman, John Payne, Itamar Simonson, Jay Russo, Joel Huber, and more recently, Dan Ariely)—challenged the rationality of consumers as decision-makers. It was shown that numerous commonly used decision heuristics depart from rational choice and are exceptions to the traditional assumptions of economic rationality. This trend shed light on understanding consumer financial decision-making (Prelec and Loewenstein 1998 ; Gourville 1998 ; Lynch Jr 2011 ) and how to develop “nudges” to help consumers make better decisions for their personal finances (summarized in Johnson et al. 2012 ).

Second, the emerging experiential view (anticipated by Alderson, Levy, and others; developed by Holbrook and Hirschman, and embellished by Schmitt, Pine, and Gilmore, and countless followers) regarded consumers as flesh-and-blood human beings (rather than as information-processing computer-like machines), focused on hedonic aspects of consumption, and expanded the concepts embodied by ICABS (Table 1 ).

2.6 Methods after 1980

The two burgeoning areas of research—behavioral economics and experiential theories—differed in their methodological approaches. The former relied on controlled randomized experiments with a focus on decision strategies and behavioral outcomes. For example, experiments tested the process by which consumers evaluate options using information display boards and “Mouselab” matrices of aspects and attributes (Payne et al. 1988 ). This school of thought also focused on behavioral dependent measures, such as choice (Huber et al. 1982 ; Simonson 1989 ; Iyengar and Lepper 2000 ).

The latter was influenced by post-positivistic philosophers of science—such as Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, and Richard Rorty—and approaches expanded to include various qualitative techniques (interpretive, ethnographic, humanistic, and even introspective methods) not previously prominent in the field of consumer research. These included:

Interpretive approaches —such as those drawing on semiotics and hermeneutics—in an effort to gain a richer understanding of the symbolic meanings involved in consumption experiences;

Ethnographic approaches — borrowed from cultural anthropology—such as those illustrated by the influential Consumer Behavior Odyssey (Belk et al. 1989 ) and its discoveries about phenomena related to sacred aspects of consumption or the deep meanings of collections and other possessions;

Humanistic approaches —such as those borrowed from cultural studies or from literary criticism and more recently gathered together under the general heading of consumer culture theory ( CCT );

Introspective or autoethnographic approaches —such as those associated with a method called subjective personal introspection ( SPI ) that various consumer researchers like Sidney Levy and Steve Gould have pursued to gain insights based on their own private lives.

These qualitative approaches tended not to appear in the more traditional journals such as the Journal of Marketing , Journal of Marketing Research , or Marketing Science . However, newer journals such as Consumption, Markets, & Culture and Marketing Theory began to publish papers that drew on the various interpretive, ethnographic, humanistic, or introspective methods.

2.7 Aims after 1980

In 1974, consumer research finally got its own journal with the launch of the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ). The early editors of JCR —especially Bob Ferber, Hal Kassarjian, and Jim Bettman—held a rather divergent attitude about the importance or even the desirability of managerial relevance as a key goal of consumer studies. Under their influence, some researchers began to believe that consumer behavior is a phenomenon worthy of study in its own right—purely for the purpose of understanding it better. The journal incorporated articles from an array of methodologies: quantitative (both secondary data analysis and experimental techniques) and qualitative. The “right” balance between theoretical insight and substantive relevance—which are not in inherent conflict—is a matter of debate to this day and will likely continue to be debated well into the future.

2.8 Summary—the three I’s after 1980

In sum, beginning in the early-1980s, consumer research branched out. Much of the work in consumer studies remained within the earlier tradition of the three R’s—that is, rationality (an information-processing decision-oriented buyer), rigor (neo-positivistic experimental designs and quantitative techniques), and relevance (usefulness to marketing managers). Nonetheless, many studies embraced enlarged views of the three major aspects that might be called the three I’s —that is, irrationality (broadened perspectives that incorporate illogical, heuristic, experiential, or hedonic aspects of consumption), interpretation (various qualitative or “postmodern” approaches), and intrinsic motivation (the joy of pursuing a managerially irrelevant consumer study purely for the sake of satisfying one’s own curiosity, without concern for whether it does or does not help a marketing practitioner make a bigger profit).

3 The present—the consumer behavior field today

3.1 present concepts.

In recent years, technological changes have significantly influenced the nature of consumption as the customer journey has transitioned to include more interaction on digital platforms that complements interaction in physical stores. This shift poses a major conceptual challenge in understanding if and how these technological changes affect consumption. Does the medium through which consumption occurs fundamentally alter the psychological and social processes identified in earlier research? In addition, this shift allows us to collect more data at different stages of the customer journey, which further allows us to analyze behavior in ways that were not previously available.

Revisiting the ICABS framework, many of the previous concepts are still present, but we are now addressing them through a lens of technological change (Table 2 )

. In recent years, a number of concepts (e.g., identity, beliefs/lay theories, affect as information, self-control, time, psychological ownership, search for meaning and happiness, social belonging, creativity, and status) have emerged as integral factors that influence and are influenced by consumption. To better understand these concepts, a number of influential theories from social psychology have been adopted into consumer behavior research. Self-construal (Markus and Kitayama 1991 ), regulatory focus (Higgins 1998 ), construal level (Trope and Liberman 2010 ), and goal systems (Kruglanski et al. 2002 ) all provide social-cognition frameworks through which consumer behavior researchers study the psychological processes behind consumer behavior. This “adoption” of social psychological theories into consumer behavior is a symbiotic relationship that further enhances the theories. Tory Higgins happily stated that he learned more about his own theories from the work of marketing academics (he cited Angela Lee and Michel Pham) in further testing and extending them.

3.2 Present Methods

Not only have technological advancements changed the nature of consumption but they have also significantly influenced the methods used in consumer research by adding both new sources of data and improved analytical tools (Ding et al. 2020 ). Researchers continue to use traditional methods from psychology in empirical research (scale development, laboratory experiments, quantitative analyses, etc.) and interpretive approaches in qualitative research. Additionally, online experiments using participants from panels such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and Prolific have become commonplace in the last decade. While they raise concerns about the quality of the data and about the external validity of the results, these online experiments have greatly increased the speed and decreased the cost of collecting data, so researchers continue to use them, albeit with some caution. Reminiscent of the discussion in the 1970s and 1980s about the use of student subjects, the projectability of the online responses and of an increasingly conditioned “professional” group of online respondents (MTurkers) is a major concern.

Technology has also changed research methodology. Currently, there is a large increase in the use of secondary data thanks to the availability of Big Data about online and offline behavior. Methods in computer science have advanced our ability to analyze large corpuses of unstructured data (text, voice, visual images) in an efficient and rigorous way and, thus, to tap into a wealth of nuanced thoughts, feelings, and behaviors heretofore only accessible to qualitative researchers through laboriously conducted content analyses. There are also new neuro-marketing techniques like eye-tracking, fMRI’s, body arousal measures (e.g., heart rate, sweat), and emotion detectors that allow us to measure automatic responses. Lastly, there has been an increase in large-scale field experiments that can be run in online B2C marketplaces.

3.3 Present Aims

Along with a focus on real-world observations and data, there is a renewed emphasis on managerial relevance. Countless conference addresses and editorials in JCR , JCP , and other journals have emphasized the importance of making consumer research useful outside of academia—that is, to help companies, policy makers, and consumers. For instance, understanding how the “new” consumer interacts over time with other consumers and companies in the current marketplace is a key area for future research. As global and social concerns become more salient in all aspects of life, issues of long-term sustainability, social equality, and ethical business practices have also become more central research topics. Fortunately, despite this emphasis on relevance, theoretical contributions and novel ideas are still highly valued. An appropriate balance of theory and practice has become the holy grail of consumer research.

The effects of the current trends in real-world consumption will increase in magnitude with time as more consumers are digitally native. Therefore, a better understanding of current consumer behavior can give us insights and help predict how it will continue to evolve in the years to come.

4 The future—the consumer behavior field in 2040

The other papers use 2030 as a target year but we asked our survey respondents to make predictions for 2040 and thus we have a different future target year.

Niels Bohr once said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” Indeed, it would be a fool’s errand for a single person to hazard a guess about the state of the consumer behavior field twenty years from now. Therefore, predictions from 34 active consumer researchers were collected to address this task. Here, we briefly summarize those predictions.

4.1 Future Concepts

While few respondents proffered guesses regarding specific concepts that would be of interest twenty years from now, many suggested broad topics and trends they expected to see in the field. Expectations for topics could largely be grouped into three main areas. Many suspected that we will be examining essentially the same core topics, perhaps at a finer-grained level, from different perspectives or in ways that we currently cannot utilize due to methodological limitations (more on methods below). A second contingent predicted that much research would center on the impending crises the world faces today, most mentioning environmental and social issues (the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet begun when these predictions were collected and, unsurprisingly, was not anticipated by any of our respondents). The last group, citing the widely expected profound impact of AI on consumers’ lives, argued that AI and other technology-related topics will be dominant subjects in consumer research circa 2040.

While the topic of technology is likely to be focal in the field, our current expectations for the impact of technology on consumers’ lives are narrower than it should be. Rather than merely offering innumerable conveniences and experiences, it seems likely that technology will begin to be integrated into consumers’ thoughts, identities, and personal relationships—probably sooner than we collectively expect. The integration of machines into humans’ bodies and lives will present the field with an expanding list of research questions that do not exist today. For example, how will the concepts of the self, identity, privacy, and goal pursuit change when web-connected technology seamlessly integrates with human consciousness and cognition? Major questions will also need to be answered regarding philosophy of mind, ethics, and social inequality. We suspect that the impact of technology on consumers and consumer research will be far broader than most consumer-behavior researchers anticipate.

As for broader trends within consumer research, there were two camps: (1) those who expect (or hope) that dominant theories (both current and yet to be developed) will become more integrated and comprehensive and (2) those who expect theoretical contributions to become smaller and smaller, to the point of becoming trivial. Both groups felt that current researchers are filling smaller cracks than before, but disagreed on how this would ultimately be resolved.

4.2 Future Methods

As was the case with concepts, respondents’ expectations regarding consumer-research methodologies in 2030 can also be divided into three broad baskets. Unsurprisingly, many indicated that we would be using many technologies not currently available or in wide use. Perhaps more surprising was that most cited the use of technology such as AI, machine-learning algorithms, and robots in designing—as opposed to executing or analyzing—experiments. (Some did point to the use of technologies such as virtual reality in the actual execution of experiments.) The second camp indicated that a focus on reliable and replicable results (discussed further below) will encourage a greater tendency for pre-registering studies, more use of “Big Data,” and a demand for more studies per paper (versus more papers per topic, which some believe is a more fruitful direction). Finally, the third lot indicated that “real data” would be in high demand, thereby necessitating the use of incentive-compatible, consequential dependent variables and a greater prevalence of field studies in consumer research.

As a result, young scholars would benefit from developing a “toolkit” of methodologies for collecting and analyzing the abundant new data of interest to the field. This includes (but is not limited to) a deep understanding of designing and implementing field studies (Gerber and Green 2012 ), data analysis software (R, Python, etc.), text mining and analysis (Humphreys and Wang 2018 ), and analytical tools for other unstructured forms of data such as image and sound. The replication crisis in experimental research means that future scholars will also need to take a more critical approach to validity (internal, external, construct), statistical power, and significance in their work.

4.3 Future Aims

While there was an air of existential concern about the future of the field, most agreed that the trend will be toward increasing the relevance and reliability of consumer research. Specifically, echoing calls from journals and thought leaders, the respondents felt that papers will need to offer more actionable implications for consumers, managers, or policy makers. However, few thought that this increased focus would come at the expense of theoretical insights, suggesting a more demanding overall standard for consumer research in 2040. Likewise, most felt that methodological transparency, open access to data and materials, and study pre-registration will become the norm as the field seeks to allay concerns about the reliability and meaningfulness of its research findings.

4.4 Summary - Future research questions and directions

Despite some well-justified pessimism, the future of consumer research is as bright as ever. As we revised this paper amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it was clear that many aspects of marketplace behavior, consumption, and life in general will change as a result of this unprecedented global crisis. Given this, and the radical technological, social, and environmental changes that loom on the horizon, consumer researchers will have a treasure trove of topics to tackle in the next ten years, many of which will carry profound substantive importance. While research approaches will evolve, the core goals will remain consistent—namely, to generate theoretically insightful, empirically supported, and substantively impactful research (Table 3 ).

5 Conclusion

At any given moment in time, the focal concepts, methods, and aims of consumer-behavior scholarship reflect both the prior development of the field and trends in the larger scientific community. However, despite shifting trends, the core of the field has remained constant—namely, to understand the motivations, thought processes, and experiences of individuals as they consume goods, services, information, and other offerings, and to use these insights to develop interventions to improve both marketing strategy for firms and consumer welfare for individuals and groups. Amidst the excitement of new technologies, social trends, and consumption experiences, it is important to look back and remind ourselves of the insights the field has already generated. Effectively integrating these past findings with new observations and fresh research will help the field advance our understanding of consumer behavior.

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Malter, M.S., Holbrook, M.B., Kahn, B.E. et al. The past, present, and future of consumer research. Mark Lett 31 , 137–149 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-020-09526-8

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Customer Research 101: Definition, Types, and Methods

Pragadeesh Natarajan

Last Updated: 30 May 2024

12 min read

Table Of Contents

What is Customer Research?

Why is customer research important, types of customer research.

• 6 Customer Research Methods
• How SurveySparrow Can Help

Do you want to improve your marketing or product? Then, customer research can help.

Your customer is at the heart of all your business decisions. In fact, everything revolves around a customer. A business is about having a paying customer, and it wouldn’t exist without one.

The effectiveness of your product or marketing depends on how well you know your customers. When you know your customers better, you can make better product or marketing decisions.

In this article, we break down:

• What customer research is
• Why it’s valuable for your business
• Different types of customer research
• Six customer research methods you can use to refine and grow your business

Customer research (or consumer research ) is a set of techniques used to identify the needs, preferences, behaviors, and motivations of your current or potential customers.

Simply put, the consumer research process is a way for businesses to collect information and learn from their customers so they can serve them better.

Businesses typically conduct customer research to uncover new insights on their customers. They then use these newly uncovered insights to improve their product, craft an effective marketing strategy, and more.

Here are 2 key questions customer research helps you answer:

• Who are my ideal customers? Who is the best fit (or worst fit) for our product?
• What channels can I use to find and communicate with my ideal customers?

Online survey tools like SurveySparrow can help you answer these questions. With omnichannel survey distribution, snazzy data visualization, and 1,500+ integrations with your favorite tools, SurveySparrow simplifies customer research for your GTM and product teams.

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A. How well do you know your customers? Not knowing enough about your customers can cost you time and money.

For example, a recent survey revealed that 46% of customers broke up with a brand because they received irrelevant content pushes.

Successful marketers realize that research is necessary to understand and cater to the ever-changing needs of today’s customers. According to a study by Coschedule:

• Successful marketers are 242% more likely to conduct audience research at least once every quarter.
• 56% of the study’s most elite marketers research at least once a month.

B. You shouldn’t make assumptions about your customers’ preferences or needs. You have to go out there and get opinions from real customers.

C. You need to go beyond your general idea about your customers. The more you understand your customers, the better you’ll be able to serve them with your product or service.

D. If you want to make your product the best in the market, you need to identify any unmet needs and learn how well your product serves the needs of your current customers.

E. Customer research helps you learn more about your customers, both the potential and existing ones. Serving your customers better than the alternatives starts with understanding them better and more deeply.

F. Here are other key reasons why you should research customers:

• Know the Why : Your analytics dashboard merely tells you what your customers do. Only research can help you understand why they do that.
• Validate Assumptions and Best Practices : In most cases, guesswork leads to terrible decisions. Your customers might not need what you think they need. And what works for most businesses might not work for you. The only real way to know is to talk to your customers.

Customer research can be done in two distinct ways: primary and secondary.

Primary research

Primary research is research you conduct yourself. In other words, in primary research, you collect the data yourself. Some examples of primary research are face-to-face interviews, surveys, and social media interactions.

Secondary research

Secondary research (or desk research ) is done by someone else. In secondary research, you make use of data that’s been collected by other people. A few examples of secondary research are forums or communities, industry reports, and online databases.

Primary and secondary research can be further broken down into two kinds of data: qualitative and quantitative.

Qualitative data

Qualitative data is descriptive and conceptual. And the nature of the data makes it subjective and interpretive. Examples of qualitative data include descriptions of certain attributes, such as blue eyes or chocolate-flavored ice cream .

Quantitative data

Quantitative data can be expressed using numbers, which means it can be counted or measured. As opposed to qualitative data, it’s objective and conclusive. Examples of quantitative data include numerical values such as measurements , length , cost , or weight .

Customer Research Methods that Work in 2024 (and Beyond)

Now that you know what customer research is and why it’s important, read on to learn the different consumer research methods you can use to make the most of it.

In a survey, you ask a series of questions to your customers regarding a subject or concept.

You can conduct a survey in person, over the phone, through emails, or online forms.

Here are some advantages of conducting customer research through surveys:

• Quickly collect a ton of insightful data without the high costs.
• The data you collect using surveys is simple to analyze.
• You can ask various questions since you get a wide range of question formats.

When it comes to surveys, it’s all about how you ask. Clear and concise questions can help you get reliable information.

An online survey tool is your best bet for quickly gathering customer information. All you need to do is create a survey with a ready-to-use template and send your customers a link to take it.

If you’re in need of a cost-free and easy-to-use solution for conducting customer research surveys and beyond, consider exploring SurveySparrow . This tool aids in gathering essential data by enabling you to conduct thorough data analysis via its user-friendly and conversational survey format.

Check Out SurveySparrow for Free here! 

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In an interview, you speak directly to your customers and ask them open-ended questions.

• Interviews allow you to have deep, one-on-one conversations with your customers and explore a topic in-depth.
• You can go into the details, obtain data beyond surface-level information, and gather deeper insights.

While interviews allow you to probe deeper into a subject, success depends on the expertise and skills of the researcher (or interviewer) conducting the interviews.

Conducting interviews isn’t easy. It’s time-consuming and costly. However, the information you collect can be invaluable for your company’s growth.

You can meet your customers in person to conduct your interviews. Or you can use video conferencing tools such as Google Meet or Zoom to converse with your customers online.

Your analytics dashboard lets you in on your customers’ actions within your product.

Just a glance at it and you’ll know what your customers do and how they engage with your product.

The irony is that customers don’t know what they want or why. They might think they need something but that might not be the case.

What they say they need doesn’t equate to what they do.

The point is that customer-reported behavior is different from actual behavior. That’s why it pays to track and observe your customers’ behavior.

You can use heatmaps, click tracking, scroll mapping, and user-recorded sessions to gain insights into your users’ actions and behavior.

Focus Groups

In this method, you combine a small group based on certain criteria such as demographic, firmographic, or behavioral attributes.

And you ask this group about whatever topic or concept. It could be about your product, marketing message, or something else that’s related to your customers or business.

The idea is to get them to talk to each other and have meaningful conversations.

A moderator helps facilitate the conversations between the individuals in this group. The moderator will try to draw meaningful insights from these conversations and discussions.

You mainly use this technique to understand a certain topic or subject better.

Competitive Analysis

Studying your competitors’ strategies and tactics is a great way to learn more about the target market and the existing solutions.

You can analyze both your direct and indirect competitors depending on the needs you address and the customers you cater to.

You can conduct a competitive analysis from a marketing or product perspective.

If you conduct your analysis from a marketing perspective, you study your competition’s SEO strategy , landing page copy, blog content, PR coverage, social media presence, etc.

You can also conduct your competitive analysis from a product perspective and analyze your competitors’ user experience, features, pricing structure, etc.

Review Mining

The reviews of you and your competitors are another great way to get inside your customer’s head. This method can be especially valuable if you are a SAAS company.

It helps you better understand your competitor’s strengths and weaknesses as well as your own. This understanding helps you improve your own products and better address the needs of your ideal customers.

This kind of data is easy to acquire as it’s publicly available, and you can get them on:

• Review sites such as G2Crowd and Capterra.
• Forums and niche communities such as ProductHunt, Reddit, Quora, etc.

Why SurveySparrow is the Best Customer Research Tool

SurveySparrow facilitates comprehensive customer research by enabling businesses to efficiently collect, analyze, and act on customer feedback, leading to better informed and customer-centric decisions.

• Collect Feedback Easily : Create simple surveys to find out what customers think about your products or services.
• Understand Satisfaction : Use surveys to figure out how happy customers are with what you offer.
• Learn Buying Habits : Find out why customers buy certain products, which helps in planning what to sell.
• Get Product Opinions : Ask customers what they like or don’t like about your products to make improvements.
• See How People View Your Brand : Understand how customers see your brand, which is important for your marketing.
• Keep Up with Trends : Regular surveys help you stay updated on what your customers want or need.
• Group Customers : Identify different types of customers to target them more effectively with your marketing.
• Improve Customer Experience : Learn where you can make the buying process better for your customers.
• Test New Ideas : Before launching new products, check if your customers would be interested.
• Check Customer Loyalty : Find out if customers would keep using your products or recommend them to others.

Sign up for a free trial.

Final thoughts.

Businesses that deeply understand their customers have a huge advantage over the ones that don’t. Period.

Whatever you’re looking to learn or achieve, it becomes a lot clearer with a little research.

When done right, customer research can be your competitive advantage.

Be sure to pick a method that’s right for your situation. What are you looking to learn and achieve? Think through each research method carefully and pick the one that works best for you.

Have you conducted customer research? What did you learn? And how did it go? Tell us about that in the comment section below.

And if you’re looking to conduct customer research through surveys, feel free to check out SurveySparrow .

I'm a developer turned marketer, working as a Product Marketer at SurveySparrow — A survey tool that lets anyone create beautiful, conversational surveys people love to answer.

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Article Contents

• WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF METHODOLOGY IN JCR?

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The Future of Consumer Research Methods: Lessons of a Prospective Retrospective

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Stacy Wood, The Future of Consumer Research Methods: Lessons of a Prospective Retrospective, Journal of Consumer Research , Volume 51, Issue 1, June 2024, Pages 151–156, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucae017

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Looking back at 50 years of Journal of Consumer Research methods and interviewing some of the field’s most respected methodologists, this article seeks to craft a core set of best practices for scholars in consumer research. From perennial issues like conceptual validity to emerging issues like data integrity and replicability, the advice offered by our experts can help scholars improve the way they approach their research questions, provide empirical evidence that instills confidence, use new tools to make research more inclusive or descriptive of the “real world,” and seek to become thought leaders.

Turning 50 is a reflective milestone for people and for journals. We can look back on fifty years of arduous labor, fruitful creation, bitter debate, and hard-won evolution. And, if we ignore theory, simply reflecting on the past, present, and future of consumer research methods , we have more than enough to consider. What does the history of consumer research methodology say about what could (or should) emerge in the next 50 years?

To begin, we can look back to the first episode of the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ), Volume 1(1), published in June 1974 and containing nine articles. The authors’ names are a Who’s Who list that we know primarily from legend (e.g., Katona, Day, Jacoby, Ferber), though one author, the prolific James R. Bettman, retired only this year. The methodologies used in the empirical papers are a pragmatic and effort-intensive collection: a set of four 20–30 minute interviews with 289 school-age boys (1st, 3rd, 5th grades) using independently trained interviewers and coders; personal interviews with 793 heads of household (HOH) in California with sample representative to state demographics and a second follow-up interview with 192 HOHs, a 4 × 4 experimental design of 192 “paid volunteer” Indiana housewives, a set of two interviews after 1 year of marriage and 2 years of marriage of ∼230 Illinois newlyweds, questionnaires about 25 purchases separately presented to husband–wife dyads in Belgium, and a questionnaire to 108 Indiana University students who reported being smokers. One methodological paper proposed a novel statistical analysis of consumer decision nets and verbal decision protocols. For those who believe that it used to be easy to do “just one study” for JCR in the good old days, the effort and deep care put into both the conceptual and external validity of data collection will belie that myth.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF METHODOLOGY IN JCR ?

The very first article in the very first issue of JCR speaks directly to our question of the future of consumer research. Fifty years ago, George Katona argued that the distinction between consumer research and traditional economic research on consumption (as would be appropriate in this then-new journal) was primarily a function of methodology . Katona (1974) sees the origin of true consumer research in the 1940s, saying “The survey method for collecting data on consumer behavior was practically unknown in economics immediately after World War II when the first surveys on the size and distribution of income, asset, and major expenditures were initiated with representative samples. Measures of both consumer attitudes and expectations were then developed” (1). While traditional economists might seek to find a single immutable human tendency underpinning a focal economic phenomenon, the consumer researcher was more interested in a wider descriptive exploration that would yield richer understanding. The consumer researcher, then, needed different data, including subjective reports of satisfaction, expectations, and perceived wealth. With different research questions, Katona explained that consumer research would focus more on micro-data and patterns of small situational moderators. He predicted that many economists would struggle to adopt behavioral research questions and methods but ended by stating “Looking back on three decades of research on consumer behavior, the proponents of behavioral studies of economic affairs have good reason for satisfaction.”

Katona argued that methodologies needed to evolve because the questions being asked about consumers were changing—a phenomenon we see today. Similarly, we can look at the “why and how” of our current labors to predict emergent methodologies and methodological issues. To this end, I conducted interviews with four consumer scholars known for their mastery of method and analysis, John Lynch, Leigh McAlister, Craig Thompson, and Rebecca Ratner, and asked them to reflect on the methodological history of JCR with an eye to the future.

Better Research Questions

A common refrain from our experts was the perennial challenge of starting with a “really good” research question. When asked, “What is the most important thing with methodology?” Leigh McAlister was quick to reply, “We are so obsessed with methodology, we’ve lost track of the questions .” The question, then, is what makes a question good? The answer, as I heard it, was less intuitive than might be expected.

First, we must distinguish between our research question as a program of work and as a particular project. For the former, our research questions are often too small. Good questions require that we sit and listen to real practitioners, that we learn how systems and supply chains work, that we actively explore the perspective from different communities’ lens, that we talk to people we disagree with, that we assume that effects will always be conditional, that we assume that effects are likely to change with time, that we wonder about downstream phenomena, and that we “get meta.” When we have that expansive expertise as our research raison d’etre , then we are better able to see what specific projects are interesting, how they could have impact, and how they might best be tested with confidence.

On the other hand, for the research question that drives any particular project, we are often much too broad. Here, we need focused purpose and focused conceptualization. A bad research question is one that posits an unreasonable generalization and then grudgingly offers a few boundary conditions. One characteristic of good questions is that they seem like something you could nail down with a few studies: (1) the population you need to study is identifiable, accessible, and compelling, (2) the context is specific and consequential, and (3) the conceptualization is clear, logical, and concrete enough to be operationalized closely.

Having invested in a broad research question for our program of study, we have the knowledge base, the long-term perspective, and the time to see the results of any single research question in a project as cumulative, adding to a more nuanced and more confident knowledge about what’s happening (and why) in our domain of interest. I know from experience that having a conceptually diverse portfolio of projects is a dangerously enticing temptation for scholars—so very interesting but requiring an exhausting amount of work to keep from doing each in a superficial way. At some point, scholars must find their one true thing—the research domain where they will invest their bounded resources, build grounded knowledge over years, and establish thought leadership. However, in a long and rich career, many of us will have more than one research focus in that span and that can help keep us motivated—what my old USC colleague, Bill Bearden, called the “fire in the belly.”

It is notable that our experts call us to consider how we choose our questions as two papers appearing in the special issue speak to the outcome. Wang et al. (2024) explore how the impact that any one paper may have is a function of its novelty in either topic, finding, or combinatorial approach—suggesting the core of what is an inherently interesting research question. Looking beyond any one paper, Pham, Wu, and Wang (2024) seek to recognize and conceptualize thought leadership as the combination of the amount of research that scholars publish and the impact of those publications. Their impact metric shows that having a clear focus on one’s work is often a common characteristic of scholars known as thought leaders. These articles offer both guidance to younger scholars seeking to build programs of research and, to more experienced scholars, a way to look at scholarly output through a new lens.

More Critical Consideration of Conceptual Validity

With an appropriately rich research question driving us and a sufficiently specific research question framing a project, are we then ready to talk about methodology? Not so fast, our experts warned; we have not yet emphasized the importance of conceptual validity ( MacKenzie 2003 ). As John Lynch said, “Validity is not a function of research technique, but a function of the inevitable incompleteness of our understanding of the phenomena we study.”

The experts note that, over the years, growing sophistication of analysis in the Journal of Consumer Research (and other journals, to be fair) has led some researchers to mistakenly believe “that fancy analytical models correct for everything.” Yet, others have outlined the danger of overemphasizing analytical sophistication to the detriment of other research basics ( Lehmann, McAlister, and Staelin 2011 ). In any study, what can we say with complete confidence about conceptual validity? We can say that we collected data in the form of specific questions or observations from a specific population under conditions that we altered in specific ways. As readers of scientific papers, we often struggle to understand exactly what these specifics were because they are re-named with conceptual labels assigned by the researcher. Thus, a researcher might require a participant to watch a clock while making a choice and then label that anything from time pressure to temporal salience to cognitive load. Perhaps, then, we need to be more descriptive about our operationalizations and, as our experts emphasize, more aware how stimulus-dependent and context-dependent our studies are. As we assess the nature of our own findings and those of others, we must try to learn from failures to replicate findings that are counter to expectations. It suggests that multi-pronged approaches are natural and necessary in any exploration. It suggests that we stop lamenting “the study didn’t work” but rather say “the study results were different and I’m going to see if I can tell why.”

Replications That Build Knowledge

By prioritizing conceptual reasoning, we accept the hard work of looking at the details of what is happening in any given study, but we also take the pressure off in different ways. Rebecca Ratner notes that “the review process exacerbates the file-drawer problem because researchers hear, ‘Don't include Study X because its findings aren't consistent and it complicates the story.’” And, while a focus on conceptual reasoning increases the difficulty in conducting and reporting replications (as we must consider whether a true conceptual replication is taking place rather than just copying stimuli), it takes the pressure off by reducing knee-jerk rejections of past work. Analyses over time allow for more data and therefore better understanding. This point echoes in our field; Sawyer and Peter (1983) wrote about the significance of significance, reminding us that using p < .05 as a certain and forever way of falsifying hypotheses is a false hope. They write, “Attention should be placed on the data themselves and their descriptions. Instead of relying solely on classical inferential statistics, researchers should make added use of replication, Bayesian statistics, meta-analysis, and strong inference to provide more meaningful examination of theoretical questions in marketing research.” This perspective is increasingly discussed in marketing ( McShane et al. 2024 ) and dominates other fields like biomedical research ( Savitz et al. 2024 ), where more studies of all sorts are simply ways to increase estimation accuracy. Ultimately, prioritizing conceptual validity is both harder and easier—it is harder to do, but easier to live with.

This echoes themes from two papers in the special issue. Eisend et al. (2024) contend that consumer research, as a distinct domain, demonstrates strong knowledge-building and is on an upward trajectory of increasingly distinct and robust effects, largely due to improvements in experimental methods and analysis. And, in moving forward, Urminsky and Dietvorst (2024) address estimation accuracy and the variability commonly observed in consumer research. They describe four types of replications that, when put into regular practice, can benefit researchers and knowledge-building.

New Populations, Methods, and Analyses

When asked what new methods and analyses are on the horizon, our experts had different perspectives. While Craig Thompson said, “new methods certainly arise over time in response to technological shifts—netnographies or more sophisticated QDA packages—but the foundational principles of anthropological, historical, and sociological analyses have remained fairly stable,” in contrast, Leigh McAlister enthused that the internet made so many more types and sources of data available and “new software fast followed” to allow better analysis of it. John Lynch and Rebecca Ratner saw some changes in field and lab studies but allowed they “weren’t that futuristic.” What then can we expect to see?

One overarching similarity our experts raised is a growing disillusionment with convenience samples, arguing that increased access to specific consumer populations suggests we should take greater care with how and where we recruit participants. There are two ways to increase the value of our participant groups; focus more tightly on the group of consumers who best illustrate our research question or cast a very wide net that captures consumer groups one would expect could differ. These strategies suggest different plans for analysis, but both serve to increase the reader’s confidence in the implications of the results. As Lynch (in a 1982 paper on external validity) argues, we don’t aim to “achieve” external validity, but rather to “assess” it by testing for background factor × treatment interactions and, for this, variation on background factors is needed.

Additionally, an increasingly networked and communication-enabled world means that we can share our findings with our participant populations and let them “speak back to the data.” Looking at JCR ’s first articles, while samples were often restricted to a convenience locale (e.g., a population of schoolboys in one town; Illinois newlyweds), they showed a depth of interaction (e.g., four interviews with each schoolboy; two surveys of the newlyweds spaced a year apart) which allowed for more of the participant’s input and interpretation to influence the researcher. That is the paradox of the new world of globally accessible data—we can use the internet to engage with a greater diversity of people, but we must be careful to not engage at the most distant or sterile remove.

If we can reach more or different people to be participants in our studies, we can also access and observe an expanded set of consumer behaviors. For example, we can study how people feel and think by looking at the language they use in public spaces; several of the experts saw textual analysis as a fast-growing and exciting research capability. We can track physiological measures to supplement or substitute for self-reports of affective and cognitive states; some experts saw the ability to better integrate physiological measures like eye-tracking or hormonal assays as a way to build new bridges between choice research and medical research. Online retail offers scope for large-scale field studies. Online choice contexts offer far more with attentional measures, process tracking, identity motivations, and following individuals across multiple platforms over time. The growth of large-scale databases (in both corporate and public policy sectors) over the last decade or two creates a promising opportunity to conduct longitudinal research without waiting years in primary research collection. A new methodological skill for the modern consumer researcher, then, is to become a better self-marketer, translator, and negotiator to those corporations and public organizations so that one is given access to existing longitudinal data. In university contexts, often the access to special populations or data is through grants and cooperative research projects that are common in other fields, but new to many in consumer research where we have long enjoyed the ability to do relatively inexpensive research under our own steam, oversight, and funding. Now, the modern consumer researcher will need methodological skills that improve interdisciplinary connections and serve to make them valued partners on multi-college grants.

Translation, Integration, and Intervention

Another new skill that consumer researchers are likely to need in the next 50 years in JCR is the ability to develop practical interfaces between real consumers/marketers and the knowledge we create. Our “job” in any one publication is to build knowledge, but there are many business school stakeholders (e.g., corporate and nonprofit partners, donors, students, administrators, society at large) who want more for their money; more so than in the past, academics are asked to take their ideas from the “bench” all the way to use. For example, the Journal of Marketing has a special issue that requires the inclusion of a web app designed for public use to help real-world marketers or consumers. This requires the ability to envision and design use-applications, but also to iterate more with practitioners to make sure our help really helps. Will this then lead to a research genre in consumer behavior akin to randomized clinical trial intervention studies? Either way, the ability to provide effective help relies on the rich breadth of knowledge advocated by our experts. As our experts agreed, if you do not know enough about the context of the domain, then you cannot understand whether any one consumer choice or behavior matters in the larger scheme. As with investigations of environmental sustainability, do our results show how shaping consumer choice is important, or rather that any attempt to ideally shape consumer choice is “a drop in the ocean”? When we try to create the intervention, we see how the importance of individual versus structural changes can shift with the cost/effort of the intervention and have a better appreciation for the constraints of the marketer acting in the real world.

Where Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a frequent topic in future-oriented discussions of business and business research. But, perhaps surprisingly, it did not emerge as a leading topic in these interviews. There is increasing research on the use of AI in the marketplace, such as consumer resistance ( Longoni, Bonezzi, and Morewedge 2019 ), but our editorial team believes that we should begin talking more comprehensively about where AI will potentially be in common use by researchers. We can see its use in background research and literature reviews. We can see its use in writing and content creation such as surveys, stimuli, and manuscripts. We can see its use in data collection, data generation, and data analysis. We can even see its use in review and publication. This expansive scope of possibilities and an uncertain timeline may be exactly why many experts are not quick to offer strong predictions, either descriptively or prescriptively. As a field, we should carefully consider a futurecast of AI in research systems and call for more editorial thinking on these issues.

Confidence versus Integrity

One thing that captures attention in the changing world of research is the issue of data integrity. JCR , like many journals, sought to increase the transparency and accountability of research published in the journal by requiring datasets be provided and open to the review team. Readers can see the current policies at https://consumerresearcher.com/research-ethics . But, though any given set of policies may evolve, our experts focused on the two key issues: integrity and confidence. In this distinction, integrity is the table-stakes of research. When a researcher’s integrity is in question, no methodology they offer will matter. This is because there are so many places where consumer research methodologies are vulnerable to bad actors. Where data can be made up or manipulated. Where studies can be analyzed and then hidden in file drawers. Where interviewees can be led. Where meanings can be misinterpreted. Where p s can be hacked. Where outliers can be cleaned from the dataset. Where hands can be waved over problematic inconsistencies. Where best practices change with new abilities. Because most of these vulnerabilities are hard to protect and harder to police, we rely necessarily on the integrity of the researcher—the core belief that the researcher is providing the most unbiased and truthful test of their research question even if that means disproving their theories or having to give up on their idea. In other words, integrity in research is the researcher’s true curiosity about the answer to their research question, convenient or inconvenient to their own ends, and their striving to do all in their abilities to provide that answer.

Confidence is a function of persuasion, as the authors attempt to make a compelling argument for the evidence presented. How confident are we, as readers, that the supporting evidence is strong and accurately interpreted? This is a high hurdle and assumes that the author is acting with integrity. If the researcher is sincere and acts with integrity, we as readers now assess whether the researcher has done a good job. For example, is the focal construct distinct from other related constructs? How has the constructed been measured? How has it been manipulated? Did the instructions prompt participants in a certain direction? Were the authors careful to create clear tests, realistic stimuli, and unbiased contexts? Were the authors careful to shape interview scripts in a way that minimized interviewer influence or social desirability? Were research populations the most relevant for the research question or were they convenience populations? What analyses were used to shape interpretation of the data and were they the most appropriate or up to date?

Thus, there are many ways that a researcher can make their empirical evidence instill confidence through thoughtful design and testing. Other means are emerging. For example, some scholars appreciate preregistration as a means to discourage questionable research practices in overfitting data—something that can give readers confidence in the analysis of the researchers. However, other scholars see preregistration as a practice privileged to researchers with the budget to conduct multiple studies or as performative virtue-signaling. Because of this debate perhaps, preregistration has not been shown to increase trust in findings ( Field et al. 2020 ). In the end, there are many aspects of consumer research analysis (no matter the specific methodology) that are not wrong but still fail to instill confidence in the reader. To this end, JCR has often published work that sets a standard, especially in new or evolving areas, for what constitutes excellent evidence in a methodological domain and these types of papers will continue to be important to our field.

A 50-year retrospective provides a trajectory that we can follow in imagining future changes in methodology. New methodologies may emerge with novel technological capabilities, but their adoption is a function of whether they better answer the questions we are currently asking about consumers. One of the best things we can do for our methodological success is to be more critical in defining our research questions—a skill that requires honing across one’s career. We are well-served by framing different questions for our program of research (pushing ourselves to embrace the rich breadth of a domain) versus a research project (pushing ourselves to focus on one important and answerable question). Next, our work profits by critically considering our construct definition (and operationalization)—this is critical, as poor construct validity cannot be overcome with novel sophisticated analyses. The good news of greater effort in conceptual clarity is that it helps take pressure off any one study and guides replication efforts to focus on increasing estimation accuracy rather than disproving famous effects. There are new types of data to explore (textual, physiological, digital), and best practices will continue to evolve—most conclusively with methodological papers published to propose and teach emerging norms. Importantly, there are new populations of consumers to study and many new means to reach them in a meaningful way. Our methods may shift in our need to be better translators of the behaviors we observe and better able to view those behaviors within the wider systematic context, where practitioners seek to solve big problems and make significant changes to consumer behaviors. Our methods may need to mimic other prescriptive sciences (e.g., public health, medicine, environmental science) if we seek to provide solutions. We must embrace our own integrity and avoid a cynical attitude toward research and the review process. JCR —as an arbiter of integrity—walks the narrow path that protects both the accuser and the accused when breaches of integrity are suspected. Ultimately, however, the larger threat to consumer research is when we fail to have confidence in the empirical support for a project because of vague, convenient, superficial, sloppy, or out-of-date practices in data collection and analysis. In the end, our methodologies lie within a scholarly toolbox that also contains our curiosity, motivation, critical thinking, integrity, and openness.

Stacy Wood ( [email protected] ) is the J. Lloyd Langdon Distinguished University Professor of Marketing at the Poole College of Management, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA.

The author thanks the panel of esteemed consumer scholars—John Lynch, Leigh McAlister, Rebecca Ratner, and Craig Thompson—who shared their experiences, expertise, and love of research in deep and wide-ranging conversations. It is hoped that readers of this article benefit from their insights as much as the author who had the privilege of hearing them firsthand.

Eisend Martin , Pol Gratiana , Niewiadomska Dominika , Riley Joseph , Wedgeworth Rick ( 2024 ), “ How Much Have We Learned about Consumer Research? A Meta-Meta-Analysis ,” Journal of Consumer Research , 51 ( 1 ), forthcoming.

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How to do market research in 4 steps: a lean approach to marketing research

From pinpointing your target audience and assessing your competitive advantage, to ongoing product development and customer satisfaction efforts, market research is a practice your business can only benefit from.

Learn how to conduct quick and effective market research using a lean approach in this article full of strategies and practical examples. 

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A comprehensive (and successful) business strategy is not complete without some form of market research—you can’t make informed and profitable business decisions without truly understanding your customer base and the current market trends that drive your business.

In this article, you’ll learn how to conduct quick, effective market research  using an approach called 'lean market research'. It’s easier than you might think, and it can be done at any stage in a product’s lifecycle.

How to conduct lean market research in 4 steps

What is market research, why is market research so valuable, advantages of lean market research, 4 common market research methods, 5 common market research questions, market research faqs.

We’ll jump right into our 4-step approach to lean market research. To show you how it’s done in the real world, each step includes a practical example from Smallpdf , a Swiss company that used lean market research to reduce their tool’s error rate by 75% and boost their Net Promoter Score® (NPS) by 1%.

Research your market the lean way...

From on-page surveys to user interviews, Hotjar has the tools to help you scope out your market and get to know your customers—without breaking the bank.

The following four steps and practical examples will give you a solid market research plan for understanding who your users are and what they want from a company like yours.

1. Create simple user personas

A user persona is a semi-fictional character based on psychographic and demographic data from people who use websites and products similar to your own. Start by defining broad user categories, then elaborate on them later to further segment your customer base and determine your ideal customer profile .

How to get the data: use on-page or emailed surveys and interviews to understand your users and what drives them to your business.

How to do it right: whatever survey or interview questions you ask, they should answer the following questions about the customer:

Who are they?

What is their main goal?

What is their main barrier to achieving this goal?

Pitfalls to avoid:

Don’t ask too many questions! Keep it to five or less, otherwise you’ll inundate them and they’ll stop answering thoughtfully.

Don’t worry too much about typical demographic questions like age or background. Instead, focus on the role these people play (as it relates to your product) and their goals.

How Smallpdf did it: Smallpdf ran an on-page survey for a couple of weeks and received 1,000 replies. They learned that many of their users were administrative assistants, students, and teachers.

Next, they used the survey results to create simple user personas like this one for admins:

Who are they? Administrative Assistants.

What is their main goal? Creating Word documents from a scanned, hard-copy document or a PDF where the source file was lost.

What is their main barrier to achieving it? Converting a scanned PDF doc to a Word file.

💡Pro tip: Smallpdf used Hotjar Surveys to run their user persona survey. Our survey tool helped them avoid the pitfalls of guesswork and find out who their users really are, in their own words. 

You can design a survey and start running it in minutes with our easy-to-use drag and drop builder. Customize your survey to fit your needs, from a sleek one-question pop-up survey to a fully branded questionnaire sent via email. 

We've also created 40+ free survey templates that you can start collecting data with, including a user persona survey like the one Smallpdf used.

2. Conduct observational research

Observational research involves taking notes while watching someone use your product (or a similar product).

Overt vs. covert observation

Overt observation involves asking customers if they’ll let you watch them use your product. This method is often used for user testing and it provides a great opportunity for collecting live product or customer feedback .

Covert observation means studying users ‘in the wild’ without them knowing. This method works well if you sell a type of product that people use regularly, and it offers the purest observational data because people often behave differently when they know they’re being watched. 

Tips to do it right:

Record an entry in your field notes, along with a timestamp, each time an action or event occurs.

Make note of the users' workflow, capturing the ‘what,’ ‘why,’ and ‘for whom’ of each action.

Don’t record identifiable video or audio data without consent. If recording people using your product is helpful for achieving your research goal, make sure all participants are informed and agree to the terms.

Don’t forget to explain why you’d like to observe them (for overt observation). People are more likely to cooperate if you tell them you want to improve the product.

💡Pro tip: while conducting field research out in the wild can wield rewarding results, you can also conduct observational research remotely. Hotjar Recordings is a tool that lets you capture anonymized user sessions of real people interacting with your website. 

Observe how customers navigate your pages and products to gain an inside look into their user behavior . This method is great for conducting exploratory research with the purpose of identifying more specific issues to investigate further, like pain points along the customer journey and opportunities for optimizing conversion .

With Hotjar Recordings you can observe real people using your site without capturing their sensitive information

How Smallpdf did it: here’s how Smallpdf observed two different user personas both covertly and overtly.

Observing students (covert): Kristina Wagner, Principle Product Manager at Smallpdf, went to cafes and libraries at two local universities and waited until she saw students doing PDF-related activities. Then she watched and took notes from a distance. One thing that struck her was the difference between how students self-reported their activities vs. how they behaved (i.e, the self-reporting bias). Students, she found, spent hours talking, listening to music, or simply staring at a blank screen rather than working. When she did find students who were working, she recorded the task they were performing and the software they were using (if she recognized it).

Observing administrative assistants (overt): Kristina sent emails to admins explaining that she’d like to observe them at work, and she asked those who agreed to try to batch their PDF work for her observation day. While watching admins work, she learned that they frequently needed to scan documents into PDF-format and then convert those PDFs into Word docs. By observing the challenges admins faced, Smallpdf knew which products to target for improvement.

“Data is really good for discovery and validation, but there is a bit in the middle where you have to go and find the human.”

3. Conduct individual interviews

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. They allow you to dig deep and explore their concerns, which can lead to all sorts of revelations.

Listen more, talk less. Be curious.

Act like a journalist, not a salesperson. Rather than trying to talk your company up, ask people about their lives, their needs, their frustrations, and how a product like yours could help.

Ask "why?" so you can dig deeper. Get into the specifics and learn about their past behavior.

Record the conversation. Focus on the conversation and avoid relying solely on notes by recording the interview. There are plenty of services that will transcribe recorded conversations for a good price (including Hotjar!).

Avoid asking leading questions , which reveal bias on your part and pushes respondents to answer in a certain direction (e.g. “Have you taken advantage of the amazing new features we just released?).

Don't ask loaded questions , which sneak in an assumption which, if untrue, would make it impossible to answer honestly. For example, we can’t ask you, “What did you find most useful about this article?” without asking whether you found the article useful in the first place.

Be cautious when asking opinions about the future (or predictions of future behavior). Studies suggest that people aren’t very good at predicting their future behavior. This is due to several cognitive biases, from the misguided exceptionalism bias (we’re good at guessing what others will do, but we somehow think we’re different), to the optimism bias (which makes us see things with rose-colored glasses), to the ‘illusion of control’ (which makes us forget the role of randomness in future events).

How Smallpdf did it: Kristina explored her teacher user persona by speaking with university professors at a local graduate school. She learned that the school was mostly paperless and rarely used PDFs, so for the sake of time, she moved on to the admins.

A bit of a letdown? Sure. But this story highlights an important lesson: sometimes you follow a lead and come up short, so you have to make adjustments on the fly. Lean market research is about getting solid, actionable insights quickly so you can tweak things and see what works.

💡Pro tip: to save even more time, conduct remote interviews using an online user research service like Hotjar Engage , which automates the entire interview process, from recruitment and scheduling to hosting and recording.

You can interview your own customers or connect with people from our diverse pool of 200,000+ participants from 130+ countries and 25 industries. And no need to fret about taking meticulous notes—Engage will automatically transcribe the interview for you.

4. Analyze the data (without drowning in it)

The following techniques will help you wrap your head around the market data you collect without losing yourself in it. Remember, the point of lean market research is to find quick, actionable insights.

A flow model is a diagram that tracks the flow of information within a system. By creating a simple visual representation of how users interact with your product and each other, you can better assess their needs.

You’ll notice that admins are at the center of Smallpdf’s flow model, which represents the flow of PDF-related documents throughout a school. This flow model shows the challenges that admins face as they work to satisfy their own internal and external customers.

Affinity diagram

An affinity diagram is a way of sorting large amounts of data into groups to better understand the big picture. For example, if you ask your users about their profession, you’ll notice some general themes start to form, even though the individual responses differ. Depending on your needs, you could group them by profession, or more generally by industry.

We wrote a guide about how to analyze open-ended questions to help you sort through and categorize large volumes of response data. You can also do this by hand by clipping up survey responses or interview notes and grouping them (which is what Kristina does).

“For an interview, you will have somewhere between 30 and 60 notes, and those notes are usually direct phrases. And when you literally cut them up into separate pieces of paper and group them, they should make sense by themselves.”

Pro tip: if you’re conducting an online survey with Hotjar, keep your team in the loop by sharing survey responses automatically via our Slack and Microsoft Team integrations. Reading answers as they come in lets you digest the data in pieces and can help prepare you for identifying common themes when it comes time for analysis.

Hotjar lets you easily share survey responses with your team

Customer journey map

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows the way a typical prospect becomes a paying customer. It outlines their first interaction with your brand and every step in the sales cycle, from awareness to repurchase (and hopefully advocacy).

The above  customer journey map , created by our team at Hotjar, shows many ways a customer might engage with our tool. Your map will be based on your own data and business model.

📚 Read more: if you’re new to customer journey maps, we wrote this step-by-step guide to creating your first customer journey map in 2 and 1/2 days with free templates you can download and start using immediately.

Next steps: from research to results

So, how do you turn market research insights into tangible business results? Let’s look at the actions Smallpdf took after conducting their lean market research: first they implemented changes, then measured the impact.

Implement changes

Based on what Smallpdf learned about the challenges that one key user segment (admins) face when trying to convert PDFs into Word files, they improved their ‘PDF to Word’ conversion tool.

We won’t go into the details here because it involves a lot of technical jargon, but they made the entire process simpler and more straightforward for users. Plus, they made it so that their system recognized when you drop a PDF file into their ‘Word to PDF’ converter instead of the ‘PDF to Word’ converter, so users wouldn’t have to redo the task when they made that mistake. 

In other words: simple market segmentation for admins showed a business need that had to be accounted for, and customers are happier overall after Smallpdf implemented an informed change to their product.

Measure results

According to the Lean UX model, product and UX changes aren’t retained unless they achieve results.

Smallpdf’s changes produced:

A 75% reduction in error rate for the ‘PDF to Word’ converter

A 1% increase in NPS

Greater confidence in the team’s marketing efforts

"With all the changes said and done, we've cut our original error rate in four, which is huge. We increased our NPS by +1%, which isn't huge, but it means that of the users who received a file, they were still slightly happier than before, even if they didn't notice that anything special happened at all.”

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Market research (or marketing research) is any set of techniques used to gather information and better understand a company’s target market. This might include primary research on brand awareness and customer satisfaction or secondary market research on market size and competitive analysis. Businesses use this information to design better products, improve user experience, and craft a marketing strategy that attracts quality leads and improves conversion rates.

David Darmanin, one of Hotjar’s founders, launched two startups before Hotjar took off—but both companies crashed and burned. Each time, he and his team spent months trying to design an amazing new product and user experience, but they failed because they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the market demanded.

With Hotjar, they did things differently . Long story short, they conducted market research in the early stages to figure out what consumers really wanted, and the team made (and continues to make) constant improvements based on market and user research.

Without market research, it’s impossible to understand your users. Sure, you might have a general idea of who they are and what they need, but you have to dig deep if you want to win their loyalty.

Here’s why research matters:

Obsessing over your users is the only way to win. If you don’t care deeply about them, you’ll lose potential customers to someone who does.

Analytics gives you the ‘what’, while research gives you the ‘why’. Big data, user analytics , and dashboards can tell you what people do at scale, but only research can tell you what they’re thinking and why they do what they do. For example, analytics can tell you that customers leave when they reach your pricing page, but only research can explain why.

Research beats assumptions, trends, and so-called best practices. Have you ever watched your colleagues rally behind a terrible decision? Bad ideas are often the result of guesswork, emotional reasoning, death by best practices , and defaulting to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO). By listening to your users and focusing on their customer experience , you’re less likely to get pulled in the wrong direction.

Research keeps you from planning in a vacuum. Your team might be amazing, but you and your colleagues simply can’t experience your product the way your customers do. Customers might use your product in a way that surprises you, and product features that seem obvious to you might confuse them. Over-planning and refusing to test your assumptions is a waste of time, money, and effort because you’ll likely need to make changes once your untested business plan gets put into practice.

Lean User Experience (UX) design is a model for continuous improvement that relies on quick, efficient research to understand customer needs and test new product features.

Lean market research can help you become more...

Efficient: it gets you closer to your customers, faster.

Cost-effective: no need to hire an expensive marketing firm to get things started.

Competitive: quick, powerful insights can place your products on the cutting edge.

As a small business or sole proprietor, conducting lean market research is an attractive option when investing in a full-blown research project might seem out of scope or budget.

There are lots of different ways you could conduct market research and collect customer data, but you don’t have to limit yourself to just one research method. Four common types of market research techniques include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and customer observation.

Which method you use may vary based on your business type: ecommerce business owners have different goals from SaaS businesses, so it’s typically prudent to mix and match these methods based on your particular goals and what you need to know.

1. Surveys: the most commonly used

Surveys are a form of qualitative research that ask respondents a short series of open- or closed-ended questions, which can be delivered as an on-screen questionnaire or via email. When we asked 2,000 Customer Experience (CX) professionals about their company’s approach to research , surveys proved to be the most commonly used market research technique.

What makes online surveys so popular?  

They’re easy and inexpensive to conduct, and you can do a lot of data collection quickly. Plus, the data is pretty straightforward to analyze, even when you have to analyze open-ended questions whose answers might initially appear difficult to categorize.

We've built a number of survey templates ready and waiting for you. Grab a template and share with your customers in just a few clicks.

💡 Pro tip: you can also get started with Hotjar AI for Surveys to create a survey in mere seconds . Just enter your market research goal and watch as the AI generates a survey and populates it with relevant questions. 

Once you’re ready for data analysis, the AI will prepare an automated research report that succinctly summarizes key findings, quotes, and suggested next steps.

An example research report generated by Hotjar AI for Surveys

2. Interviews: the most insightful

Interviews are one-on-one conversations with members of your target market. Nothing beats a face-to-face interview for diving deep (and reading non-verbal cues), but if an in-person meeting isn’t possible, video conferencing is a solid second choice.

Regardless of how you conduct it, any type of in-depth interview will produce big benefits in understanding your target customers.

What makes interviews so insightful?

By speaking directly with an ideal customer, you’ll gain greater empathy for their experience , and you can follow insightful threads that can produce plenty of 'Aha!' moments.

3. Focus groups: the most unreliable

Focus groups bring together a carefully selected group of people who fit a company’s target market. A trained moderator leads a conversation surrounding the product, user experience, or marketing message to gain deeper insights.

What makes focus groups so unreliable?

If you’re new to market research, we wouldn’t recommend starting with focus groups. Doing it right is expensive , and if you cut corners, your research could fall victim to all kinds of errors. Dominance bias (when a forceful participant influences the group) and moderator style bias (when different moderator personalities bring about different results in the same study) are two of the many ways your focus group data could get skewed.

4. Observation: the most powerful

During a customer observation session, someone from the company takes notes while they watch an ideal user engage with their product (or a similar product from a competitor).

What makes observation so clever and powerful?

‘Fly-on-the-wall’ observation is a great alternative to focus groups. It’s not only less expensive, but you’ll see people interact with your product in a natural setting without influencing each other. The only downside is that you can’t get inside their heads, so observation still isn't a recommended replacement for customer surveys and interviews.

The following questions will help you get to know your users on a deeper level when you interview them. They’re general questions, of course, so don’t be afraid to make them your own.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

How you ask this question, and what you want to know, will vary depending on your business model (e.g. business-to-business marketing is usually more focused on someone’s profession than business-to-consumer marketing).

It’s a great question to start with, and it’ll help you understand what’s relevant about your user demographics (age, race, gender, profession, education, etc.), but it’s not the be-all-end-all of market research. The more specific questions come later.

2. What does your day look like?

This question helps you understand your users’ day-to-day life and the challenges they face. It will help you gain empathy for them, and you may stumble across something relevant to their buying habits.

3. Do you ever purchase [product/service type]?

This is a ‘yes or no’ question. A ‘yes’ will lead you to the next question.

4. What problem were you trying to solve or what goal were you trying to achieve?

This question strikes to the core of what someone’s trying to accomplish and why they might be willing to pay for your solution.

5. Take me back to the day when you first decided you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this goal.

This is the golden question, and it comes from Adele Revella, Founder and CEO of Buyer Persona Institute . It helps you get in the heads of your users and figure out what they were thinking the day they decided to spend money to solve a problem.

If you take your time with this question, digging deeper where it makes sense, you should be able to answer all the relevant information you need to understand their perspective.

“The only scripted question I want you to ask them is this one: take me back to the day when you first decided that you needed to solve this kind of problem or achieve this kind of a goal. Not to buy my product, that’s not the day. We want to go back to the day that when you thought it was urgent and compelling to go spend money to solve a particular problem or achieve a goal. Just tell me what happened.”

— Adele Revella , Founder/CEO at Buyer Persona Institute

Bonus question: is there anything else you’d like to tell me?

This question isn’t just a nice way to wrap it up—it might just give participants the opportunity they need to tell you something you really need to know.

That’s why Sarah Doody, author of UX Notebook , adds it to the end of her written surveys.

“I always have a last question, which is just open-ended: “Is there anything else you would like to tell me?” And sometimes, that’s where you get four paragraphs of amazing content that you would never have gotten if it was just a Net Promoter Score [survey] or something like that.”

What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research?

Qualitative research asks questions that can’t be reduced to a number, such as, “What is your job title?” or “What did you like most about your customer service experience?” 

Quantitative research asks questions that can be answered with a numeric value, such as, “What is your annual salary?” or “How was your customer service experience on a scale of 1-5?”

 → Read more about the differences between qualitative and quantitative user research .

How do I do my own market research?

You can do your own quick and effective market research by 

Surveying your customers

Building user personas

Studying your users through interviews and observation

Wrapping your head around your data with tools like flow models, affinity diagrams, and customer journey maps

What is the difference between market research and user research?

Market research takes a broad look at potential customers—what problems they’re trying to solve, their buying experience, and overall demand. User research, on the other hand, is more narrowly focused on the use (and usability ) of specific products.

What are the main criticisms of market research?

Many marketing professionals are critical of market research because it can be expensive and time-consuming. It’s often easier to convince your CEO or CMO to let you do lean market research rather than something more extensive because you can do it yourself. It also gives you quick answers so you can stay ahead of the competition.

Do I need a market research firm to get reliable data?

Absolutely not! In fact, we recommend that you start small and do it yourself in the beginning. By following a lean market research strategy, you can uncover some solid insights about your clients. Then you can make changes, test them out, and see whether the results are positive. This is an excellent strategy for making quick changes and remaining competitive.

Net Promoter, Net Promoter System, Net Promoter Score, NPS, and the NPS-related emoticons are registered trademarks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

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The Foundations of Consumer Evaluation

Cecilia Y. Saint-Denis

Westfield, New Jersey

Consumer evaluation, also called consumer testing or consumer research, is the process of assessing the properties or performance of existing or new products or services as perceived by the consumers. Many methods have been developed over the past decades with the growth of the consumer goods’ industry. Each section of this chapter describes the methodology (small-scale qualitative, large-scale quantitative and in-depth ethnographic approaches) as well as the important points to consider and pitfalls to avoid for each. It includes concrete and pragmatic case examples (tables, graphs) with types of deliverables covering different types of product categories.

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Consumer and Sensory Evaluation Techniques: How to Sense Successful Products

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Seven Consumer Research Methods; 2022 Version

March 10 2022

• Table of content

1- Quantitative research

2- qualitative research, what method do you need for your consumer research campaign, key takeaways:.

Consumer insights research is the process and practice of tracking down what is motivating the consumers and what their needs and preferences are. There are various methods and techniques to conduct consumer insights research in the marketing world. Every research method, with its own strengths and weaknesses, is used in different situations. This article tells you about:

• Different methods in consumer research
• How to choose the best consumer research technique for your campaign

There are two main types of research and each type consists of different techniques.

• Quantitative research: It includes numbers and answers the questions of "how much" and "how many".
• Qualitative research: It consists of non-numerical data and answers the questions starting with "how", "what", "when", "where" and "who".

The following paragraphs talk about different consumer research methods in those two different categories.

is more statistically valid. It is used on larger samples and is a great tool to spot the trends in the consumers' behavior or profile.

• Surveys in various forms: Surveys can include open-ended or close-ended questions. They can be given to respondents in different forms, such as email, telephone, online form or in person. It is essential to know beforehands what kind of information is needed from the consumers and what is going to be the objective of the survey.

One of the best ways to use this method is when combined with product sampling. Peekage, as a product sampling platform, sends out product samples to targeted consumers and then collects feedback from them.

• Social media listening: is monitoring the online reputation of your brand or a specific product. It can be used both in quantitative and qualitative research . Social media listening tools help you extract first-hand data from the posts your consumers have published and shared with the world.

Also read : How much does product sampling cost?

aims to understand why consumers behave in a certain way or how they would react to a change or a new product. In order to perform productive qualitative consumer insights research it is important to get the right people, instead of a high number of them.

• User interviews: one on one interviews that can be either face to face or conducted remotely by online chat or telephone. These interviews can vary from structured to semi-structured or unstructured and allow you to get first-hand information about a consumer's experience.
• Field studies : involves direct observation of consumers in their own surroundings. What consumers say is usually different from what they do. Therefore, it is a very helpful consumer research method in order to collect data that is usually difficult to extract from surveys.
• Contextual inquiry: is a mix of the last two methods, interviews in the users' context. The consumers are asked a set of questions in the format of a standard interview and then they're asked a second round of questions while they're being observed.
• Diary studies: in this longitudinal method, the behavior and interactions of the consumer are observed indirectly while they are accomplishing a task, e.g. using a whole face wash bottle on a daily basis for two month. This kind of data is directly reported by the consumers and could be used to check how loyal they stay to the brand and to see how their behavior and experience changes through time.
• Focus groups: a group of six to nine people discuss different topics in a session that might last about two hours. Focus groups are monitored by a moderator who gives feedback to the members through the discussions and collects data for the consumer research.

You may also be interested: Measuring a product sampling Campaign

There is no definite answer to that question. It only depends what the objective of the consumer insights research campaign is and what kind of data you’re looking to collect. However, the table below guides you on how to choose the best method.

• There are two main research methods of studying consumer behavior: quantitative and qualitative.
• Quantitative methods gather insights with numerical data.
• Qualitative techniques get insights on consumers' behavior and interactions with a product.
• Surveys are used to collect both types of data. They can be given out in different ways such as telephone, email, online form and in person.
• The best consumer insights research method is chosen by the data needed and the available resources.

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Consumer Research: Definition, Methods and Benefits (+ Templates)

Nemanja Jovancic

Sep 02 2020

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Launching a new product? Considering whether you should offer new services or tweak the current ones? Such moments can be challenging both for established brands and those just trying to break into the market.

Whenever you have something new to offer to your customers, there are numerous factors to be taken into account if you want to make well-informed decisions that would increase the chances of a successful launch, instead of stumbling in the dark and hoping for the best.

This is where consumer research kicks in.

What is consumer research?

Consumer research is the aspect of market research that focuses on identifying the motivation, preferences, and purchase behavior of (potential) consumers.

Companies rely on consumer research to analyze and better understand consumer psychology so as to improve their products or services, making them more customer-oriented, and ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and the number of sales.

Having a deep understanding of consumer decision-making and purchase behavior allows brands to build products that will find their market fit more easily, put the optimal price tag onto them, and establish the right distribution and promotion channels.

Let’s say a beauty industry company wants to launch a new skincare product. In order to de-risk their production and product placement, they could launch a skincare quiz to find out what it is that their consumers actually need:

And then they could do additional market research to find out more about their ideal customer’s demographics and purchase habits. Conducting this kind of consumer research is expected to facilitate a successful launch for the new product and ensure that there’s actual demand for such a product on the market.

Before we dig any deeper into consumer research, here’s a survey template you could easily use to do your own market research.

Consumer research survey template

Just here for an easy way to conduct your own consumer research? No worries, we’ve got you covered – grab this market research template and learn more about your consumers right now.

If you would like to learn more about how and why you should conduct the research using the template above, keep on reading.

Why you should conduct consumer research

Often, people do research just because they’ve been told to do so. But if you’re looking to better understand your consumers and their needs, you need to know why you should be conducting consumer research in the first place. Even though there are plenty of benefits, here are the top three I’d like to point out:

Understand market readiness

No matter how good you think your products or services are, there’s a fair chance you’re not completely objective nor representative of your ideal target consumer.

When launching a new product, there’s a lot of investments going around and, naturally, you’d expect adequate ROI. However, if there’s not enough market potential, your investment might fail. This is where consumer research kicks in.

Identify target consumers

Another important benefit of conducting consumer research is the ability to identify and analyze your target customers. In other words, this allows you to determine who might be interested in buying your products or using your services.

For example, you can use a demographic survey  to obtain various information on your customers such as age, gender, geographic location, employment, marital status, and more. Or you can rely on different types of market segmentation  to reach your ideal customer. This would allow you to customize your marketing efforts to better appeal to particular customer sets.

Get feedback on existing products or services

Finally, consumer research can help you obtain valuable feedback on your current business offer. Such feedback can help you update or improve your current products based on the valuable information from the actual consumers.

Getting feedback is important because it helps brands and businesses better understand the consumers’ standing point and come up with an improved product that would help address the challenges they’ve been having and fully meet the actual market needs and requirements.

Main consumer research methods

There are two main types of consumer research – quantitative and qualitative . Both types rely on different research techniques that we’ll explore in more detail down below.

Quantitative consumer research

By 2025, the global data pool is expected to rise up to 175 zettabytes . That’s why meaningful data has become more valuable than ever and the way companies collect data  can either make or break their business success.

Quantitative research is a data collection method that revolves around numbers and stats. It’s an essential part of consumer research that can provide businesses with measurable data on their customers. Such data can be mathematically and statistically analyzed in order to gain more insight into consumer behavior.

The most effective and most popular techniques for obtaining quantitative data are different types of online questionnaires such as surveys and polls.

Surveys and polls

Nowadays, the easiest way to obtain consumer data is through online surveys, questionnaires, and polls. Thanks to highly-advanced and intuitive survey tools , it’s now easier than ever to create your own data collectors, either from scratch or using professionally written templates.

All the LeadQuizzes users, for example, gain free access to 78 professionally written and beautifully designed survey, quiz, and form templates. This includes market and consumer research survey templates such as the ones shown in the image below:

To access the LeadQuizzes templates, just log in to your account (or sign up for a free trial  if you don’t have an account yet) and select your preferred template from the selection of pre-made templates . You can use the templates as they are or easily customize them to meet your specific needs.

One of the easiest ways to obtain quantitative customer data is by using an NPS (Net Promoter Score) survey . This customer research technique allows you to easily evaluate the satisfaction of your current users and express it through numbers for easy analysis. With just one single question – “How likely are you to refer our business?” – you can easily measure consumer satisfaction and loyalty.

To preview (or use) an NPS survey template, just click on the image below:

Qualitative consumer research

Unlike quantitative research, which relies on numbers, qualitative consumer research is descriptive in nature. To obtain qualitative data, you need to be using open-ended questions with no predefined answer options. While this means that you can still be using online surveys to obtain qualitative data as well, there are a few more options to choose from.

Focus Groups

A focus group is a small group of people who are experts on a particular subject matter and whose job is to analyze a particular aspect of consumer research – e.g. a new update, feature, product, and so on.

Ideally, focus groups contain somewhere between 3-10 people, including an obligatory moderator. Depending on the research topic and goal, the members of a focus group should be brought together around certain common denominators.

For example, if you’re doing research on the use of birth control pills, all the members of your focus group need to be sexually active females. The remaining parameters like age, education, employment, and so on, may or may not be relevant here.

1-to-1 interviews

In most cases, this is a conversational method that presupposes an interviewer and an interviewee. During this type of consumer research, the researcher (the interviewer) asks questions (that are equivalent to the open-ended survey questions) related to products and services.

There are two main limitations to this method. Firstly, it’s very time consuming and might become overwhelming if you have to interview an excessively large number of consumers. And secondly, it very much relies on the researcher’s expertise and ability to extract the relevant information from interviewees.

Social media monitoring

This type of consumer research could also be described as content or text analysis but, in recent years, it primarily refers to the analysis of consumer behavior on social media. Here, the researchers analyze consumers’ social life by decoding their social media posts and interactions to draw inferences related to their consumer behavior and habits.

After the research

Above, we’ve introduced you to consumer research – what it is, why you need to conduct it, and what are some of the best ways to do so. Once you’ve managed to conduct your research, gather the necessary data, analyze it, and come to certain conclusions, you should have a better insight into the exact needs and pain points of your customers.

This will allow you to adapt your business, update, tweak or completely revamp your products and services, and develop a better marketing plan that would allow you to attract more consumers, determine the optimal price, increase the number of sales, and reduce costs.

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• Library of Congress
• Research Guides

Doing Consumer Research: A Resource Guide

Primary market research.

• Introduction
• Generations
• Books and Journals
• Government Data Sources
• Subscription Sources
• Internet Sources
• Using the Library of Congress

Most of the resources in this guide focus on published surveys and studies, also known as secondary sources. The data available may not cover a particular demographic or niche industry so companies or researchers will often need to conduct their own surveys and focus groups to get feedback from their specific market for an existing or potential product or service. The resources on this page offer guidance on best practices for conducting this primary market research. 

• Marketing Research Glossary, Insights Association External The Insights Association, a market research and business intelligence advocacy group, has compiled an A-Z glossary of terms with short definitions.

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog . Links to additional online content are included when available.

Directories

Use directories to find market research companies.

• Quirk's Media External Use the SourceBook to search over 6,000 market research companies based on services, geography, or industries. Quirk's also has articles, links to market research associations and data on the market research industry.
• GreenBook Directory External Discover top market research firms, facilities, consultants, tools, resources, and case studies. GreenBook was founded in 1962 as a membership directory of the American Marketing Association’s New York chapter.

Market Research Associations

• Association for Consumer Research External Formed by a group of consumer behavior researchers, their mission is to facilitate the growth and advancement of the field of consumer research. On their website, access their conference proceedings and the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.
• Insights Association External Insights Association has a number of resources including articles, best practices, a marketing research glossary, and IA Code of Standards and Ethics for Marketing Research and Data Analytics External
• Qualitative Research Consultants Association External Through their website, learn about qualitative research, use the QualBook directory to find a qualitative consultant, and read articles about topics in qualitative research from their blog and magazine.
• << Previous: Internet Sources
• Next: Using the Library of Congress >>
• Last Updated: Jul 3, 2024 11:51 AM
• URL: https://guides.loc.gov/consumer-research

• Guide to consumer research

An Introductory Guide to Consumer Research And How to Conduct One

Consumer research is used across industries in order to gain key insights into consumer behavior and needs. In this article, we will explore the key aspects of consumer research, namely what it is and how to do it. 

What Is Consumer Research? 

Consumer research is research undertaken to gain an idea of customers' preferences, attitudes, motivations, and buying behaviors. This information can enable you to categorize customers into groups or segments, and tailor marketing efforts (or other aspects of the business, such as product development) to those who are most likely to spend their money on your product or service. 

Research can take many different forms - such as surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. All of which enable you to gain answers to questions that your business is struggling to find through other means. 

For example, most businesses have some kind of customer service department. Through consumer research, you can find out what methods of customer service are most preferred by your customers and invest more in these methods resulting in greater customer satisfaction.   

Consumer research enables you to group customers into customer segments. A customer segment is simply a collection of individuals with similar consumer data - possibly in terms of the personal demographics such as age, gender, or location, or it could be that their spending habits, AOV , and preferences are similar. 

These customer segments can be targeted in different ways, enabling you to maximize revenue from each individual.

2 Types of Consumer Research

There are two basic types of research, both of which apply to consumer research. 

Quantitative Research

Quantitative research produces quantifiable data. This means that it can be considered directly in numbers and percentages and, as a result, is usually easier to analyze. 

For example, perhaps you want to evaluate your quality assurance strategies . In order to gain quantitative data for this, you might ask yes/no questions or ask customers to rank statements on a scale from 1 to 10, such as “I frequently come across bugs in X software”. 10 would indicate all the time, and 1 would be never. The responses can then be added together to create a percentage. 

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is often more in-depth, and questions enable responders to explore their answers in full detail. In 2021, 67% of researchers agreed that online or virtual qualitative research is helpful to consumer research. Qualitative research enables a much deeper understanding of the customer experience and opinion but is harder to analyze. 

For example, returning to our example of experiencing bugs in software, a qualitative researcher may approach this question as follows: 

Q: How often do you experience bugs when using our software? Explain in detail when and where this occurs. 

A: I only experience bugs when using the accounting tool of the application. Whenever I try to export a report of my accounts, the app glitches and deletes my data. 

This answer provides specific examples to the researcher and would make solving the problem much simpler. This is reflected in how business practices and software development intersect, as business needs are shaping new technology, a response that is driven through research. 

However, if you are dealing with hundreds of responses, getting through them all can be challenging. 

3 Benefits of Consumer Research 

1. provides valuable market insight.

Consumer research provides insights that you cannot get from analytics alone, as it gives you insight into the thoughts and feelings of the consumers. These insights are extremely valuable, as if you know how to use customer analytics , you can apply these skills to implementing the data gathered from your consumer research. 

2. Improve Marketing and Business Decisions 

Once you have gained these insights, consumer research can actually be used to inform your marketing and business decisions and can even help the creation of brand marketing reports . For example, your research could suggest that your business lacks organization across its teams. This could lead to your business investing in WFM tools and ultimately revolutionizing its reputation. 

3. Assists in Determining Market Position

Another benefit of consumer research is that it can provide insights into where your business sits within the market. You can find out whether you are preferred to your competition or vice versa, and why. It helps your business define its market position and make adjustments to improve this or solidify its brand identity. 

5 Methods of Consumer Research 

There are many different methods of conducting customer research. In this section, we will go through some of the key options available. 

Interviews are a great way to conduct consumer research. The nature of spoken conversation often enables previously unconsidered ideas to come up naturally and opens up opportunities for discussions that reveal deeper insights. Furthermore, if you have access to software offering a free video call online , these interviews no longer need to be done in person. 

• Focus Groups

Interviews can be conducted in focus groups where a select group of individuals discuss and offer their opinions on a matter together. These individuals might be from the same customer sectors or may represent different perspectives. How you choose to structure these is up to you. 

• One-on-one Interviews

Alternatively, you may prefer to approach these with one-on-one interviews. This form of interview can often lead to a more in-depth conversation but, for logical reasons, are less time-efficient and can miss out on the group dynamic spurring new ideas. 

Surveys are a written alternative to interviews and do not require a researcher to be present at the time of research. They can also be sent to a much larger group of respondents (meaning a more detailed set of data) and can be a combination of quantitative and qualitative responses. 

Analytics is nothing new to anyone working in marketing, and it can be an excellent tool for conducting consumer research. Analytics will provide quantitative insights into consumer behavior, such as conversion rates and average sale values, and can contribute to consumer research. 

Review Mining

Review mining can be a great way to gain consumer insights, and it doesn’t involve actively pursuing new research. 

Previous reviews can often provide a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research through written descriptions and “star” system reviews. However, this method limits you to what is already available, and these reviews may not specifically target areas you are keen to research. 

Secondary Research

Secondary research refers to looking at previously created research in your industry. Lots of this can be accessed online, and even if this isn’t the method you primarily choose to use, it can be a great starting point to guide your own research. 

5 Steps to Conduct Consumer Research

1. set smart research goals and objectives.

SMART goals should be set before any business pursuit. Standing for specific, measurable, agreed, realistic, and time-bounded, these goals can help guide your research and avoid going off topic.

2. Determine the Research Methodology and Audience

As previously mentioned, there are several different methods of conducting consumer research. Choosing from the list above (and you are not limited to only one method), you should cover both quantitative and qualitative data for the best insight. 

Develop a Buyer Persona

Develop a buyer persona in order to determine who your audience will be for the research. Buyer personas can be seen somewhat like “characters” in a story. They have certain wants, motivations, and behavior patterns. They make up your customer segments and who the research will target. 

3. Conduct Research and Compile Data Findings

Put the research into action: send out surveys, schedule interviews, review your google analytics. Put all your findings into a spreadsheet, and begin to group responses logically. With qualitative data, it may be useful to identify “themes” in responses and categorize them according to these. 

Once data is compiled, it is recommended to present it in a visually effective report , including charts or graphs depending on the content. 

4. Analyze and Interpret Data Results

Take your data and consider what the information is telling you. Are you seeing frequent negative responses in one area? Do customers feel like you are overpricing your service? Interpret the data and come to conclusions as to what your business may need to do. 

5. Take Action in Response to the Findings

Put your findings into action! If you are seeing consistent weaknesses in one area, this is a great time to bring the team together and brainstorm ideas to work around this and improve your business. When you implement changes that benefit the customers, you will see results coming back around to you in the form of increased engagement. 

Key Takeaway

Consumer research is a brilliant way to ensure the success of any business. Enabling you to see how your customers view your company and gain key insights into how your business can improve. Provided your research has clear goals and gathers in-depth data, there is no reason your research shouldn’t be a raging success! 

Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad , an AI-powered cloud communication platform that fosters better team collaboration and boosts lead generation strategies . She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Here is her LinkedIn .

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From Idea to Insight: The 7-Step Market Research Process

• by Alice Ananian
• September 4, 2024

In today’s fast-paced business world, guesswork is a luxury no one can afford. Enter market research: your secret weapon for making bold, informed decisions that propel your business forward. Whether you’re an ambitious entrepreneur, a savvy small business owner, or a cutting-edge marketing professional, mastering the market research process is the key to unlocking unprecedented growth and staying ahead of the competition.

Ready to transform raw data into golden opportunities? This guide will walk you through seven essential steps that turn the complex art of market research into a streamlined, powerful tool for success. From defining laser-focused objectives to leveraging cutting-edge AI analysis, you’re about to embark on a journey that will reshape how you understand your market, your customers, and your business potential.

Ask the Right Users at the Right Time

The 7-Step Market Research Process: An Overview

Before diving into the details, let’s take a quick look at the seven steps that comprise an effective market research process:

• Define Your Research Objectives
• Develop Your Research Plan
• Collect Relevant Data
• Analyze and Interpret the Data
• Present Your Findings
• Make Informed Decisions
• Monitor and Iterate

Following this structured approach ensures that your market research is comprehensive, focused, and yields valuable insights. It’s worth noting that modern tools, such as AI-powered market research platforms like Prelaunch.com’s AI Market Research feature , can significantly streamline this process, making it more efficient and accessible for businesses of all sizes.

Now, let’s explore each step in detail.

Step 1: Define Your Research Objectives

The first and perhaps most crucial step in the market research process is defining your research objectives. This step sets the foundation for your entire research effort and ensures that you’re asking the right questions to get the information you need.

Identifying the problem or opportunity

Start by clearly articulating the business problem you’re trying to solve or the opportunity you’re looking to explore. Are you considering launching a new product? Trying to understand why sales are declining? Or perhaps you’re looking to enter a new market? Clearly defining the issue at hand will help focus your research efforts.

Setting clear, measurable goals

Once you’ve identified the problem or opportunity, set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your research. For example, instead of a vague goal like “understand customer preferences,” you might set a goal to “identify the top three features that 70% of our target market considers essential in a new product within the next two months.”

Formulating research questions

Based on your goals, develop a set of research questions that will guide your data collection efforts. These questions should be specific and directly related to your objectives. For instance, if your goal is to understand customer preferences, you might ask questions like:

• What features do customers value most in similar products?
• How much are customers willing to pay for these features?
• What unmet needs exist in the current market?

By clearly defining your research objectives, you’ll ensure that your market research efforts are focused and yield the insights you need to make informed business decisions.

Step 2: Develop Your Research Plan

With your objectives clearly defined, the next step is to develop a comprehensive research plan. This plan will serve as your roadmap, outlining how you’ll gather the information needed to answer your research questions.

Choosing research methodologies

Decide whether qualitative research, quantitative research, or a combination of both will best serve your objectives:

• Qualitative research : This method explores the “why” and “how” of consumer behavior through in-depth interviews, focus groups, or observational studies. It’s excellent for gaining deep insights into customer motivations and perceptions.
• Quantitative research : This approach focuses on numerical data and statistical analysis. Surveys and polls are common quantitative methods that can provide measurable data on consumer preferences and behaviors.

Often, a mixed-method approach combining both qualitative and quantitative research can provide the most comprehensive insights.

Determining your target audience

Identify the specific group of people from whom you need to gather information. This could be based on demographics, psychographics, or behavioral characteristics. The more precisely you define your target audience, the more relevant and valuable your research findings will be.

Selecting appropriate data collection methods

Choose the most suitable methods for collecting data from your target audience. Some options include:

• Surveys (online, phone, or in-person)
• Interviews (structured or unstructured)
• Focus groups
• Observational studies
• Secondary data analysis

Consider factors such as cost, time constraints, and the type of information you need when selecting your methods. AI-powered tools like Prelaunch.com’s AI Market Research feature can be particularly helpful in this stage, offering efficient ways to gather and analyze data from various sources.

By developing a thorough research plan, you’ll ensure that your data collection efforts are efficient, targeted, and aligned with your research objectives.

Step 3: Collect Relevant Data

With your research plan in place, it’s time to gather the data that will form the basis of your insights. This step involves implementing the data collection methods you’ve chosen and ensuring that you’re gathering high-quality, relevant information.

Primary research methods

Primary research involves collecting original data directly from your target audience. This can include:

• Conducting surveys: Use online platforms, email, or in-person methods to gather quantitative data from a large sample of your target audience.
• Performing interviews: Engage in one-on-one conversations with key individuals to gain in-depth qualitative insights.
• Organizing focus groups : Bring together small groups of people to discuss your research topics in a moderated setting.
• Observational studies: Watch and record how people interact with products or services in real-world settings.

Secondary research sources

Secondary research involves analyzing existing data from various sources. This can be a cost-effective way to gather background information and supplement your primary research. Sources may include:

• Industry reports and market studies
• Government databases and publications
• Academic research papers
• Competitor websites and annual reports
• Trade association publications

Leveraging AI for efficient data collection

Modern AI-powered tools can significantly enhance your data collection efforts. These tools can:

• Automate the process of gathering and organizing secondary research data
• Analyze large datasets quickly to identify trends and patterns
• Generate survey questions based on your research objectives
• Provide real-time insights as data is collected

By leveraging both traditional methods and advanced AI tools, you can ensure that you’re collecting a comprehensive and diverse set of data to inform your market research.

Step 4: Analyze and Interpret the Data

Once you’ve collected your data, the next crucial step is to analyze and interpret it. This process involves transforming raw data into actionable insights that can guide your business decisions.

Data cleaning and preparation

Before analysis can begin, it’s essential to clean and prepare your data:

• Remove any duplicate or irrelevant entries
• Check for and correct any errors or inconsistencies
• Standardize data formats for easier analysis
• Organize data into a structure that facilitates analysis

Statistical analysis techniques

Depending on the type of data you’ve collected and your research objectives, you may employ various statistical analysis techniques :

• Descriptive statistics: Calculate means, medians, modes, and standard deviations to summarize your data.
• Inferential statistics: Use techniques like hypothesis testing and regression analysis to draw conclusions about larger populations based on your sample data.
• Correlation analysis: Identify relationships between different variables in your dataset.
• Segmentation analysis: Group your data into meaningful segments based on shared characteristics.

Identifying patterns and trends

As you analyze your data, look for patterns, trends, and insights that address your research objectives:

• Compare results across different demographic groups or market segments
• Identify common themes in qualitative data
• Look for unexpected or surprising findings that challenge your assumptions
• Consider how different data points relate to each other and what story they tell together

Remember that the goal of this step is not just to summarize data, but to derive meaningful insights that can inform your business strategy. Be open to unexpected findings and be prepared to dig deeper into areas that seem particularly relevant or intriguing.

Step 5: Present Your Findings

After analyzing your data, it’s time to communicate your findings effectively to stakeholders. The way you present your research can significantly impact how it’s received and acted upon.

Creating clear and visually appealing reports

• Organize your findings logically, starting with an executive summary of key insights
• Use charts, graphs, and infographics to visualize data and make it easier to understand
• Include relevant quotes or case studies from qualitative research to bring your data to life
• Ensure your report is well-structured with clear headings and subheadings

Tailoring presentations to different stakeholders

• Consider the specific interests and needs of your audience (e.g., executives, marketing team, product developers)
• Adjust the level of detail and technical language based on your audience’s expertise
• Focus on the findings most relevant to each stakeholder group

Highlighting key insights and actionable recommendations

• Clearly state the main takeaways from your research
• Connect your findings directly to your initial research objectives
• Provide specific, actionable recommendations based on your insights
• Include potential implications of your findings for different areas of the business

Remember, the goal is not just to share information, but to tell a compelling story with your data that motivates action and informs strategy.

Step 6: Make Informed Decisions

The true value of market research lies in its ability to inform better business decisions. This step is where you translate your research findings into strategic action.

Connecting research findings to business objectives

• Revisit your initial research objectives and evaluate how your findings address them
• Identify which insights are most critical for achieving your business goals
• Consider both the opportunities and potential risks highlighted by your research

Assessing risks and opportunities

• Use your research to evaluate the potential success of new products, services, or marketing strategies
• Identify potential obstacles or challenges that your research has uncovered
• Consider how your findings might impact different scenarios or future market conditions

Developing data-driven strategies

• Create action plans based on your research insights
• Set specific, measurable goals for implementing changes or new initiatives
• Assign responsibilities and timelines for acting on your research findings
• Ensure that all strategic decisions are directly supported by your research data

Remember that while your research should guide your decisions, it’s also important to balance data with experience, intuition, and other business considerations.

Step 7: Monitor and Iterate

The market research process doesn’t end with implementation. Continuous monitoring and iteration are crucial for long-term success.

Implementing decisions based on research

• Put your data-driven strategies into action
• Ensure that all team members understand the research findings and their role in implementing changes

Tracking results and KPIs

• Set up systems to monitor the impact of your decisions
• Track relevant key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your research objectives
• Regularly review performance against your goals and expectations

Conducting follow-up research for continuous improvement

• Plan for periodic follow-up research to assess the effectiveness of your strategies
• Be prepared to adjust your approach based on new data and changing market conditions
• Consider implementing ongoing research methods, such as customer feedback loops or regular market surveys

By viewing market research as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event, you can ensure that your business remains agile and responsive to market changes.

Mastering the market research process is essential for making informed business decisions in today’s competitive landscape. By following these 7 steps – defining objectives, developing a plan, collecting data, analyzing results, presenting findings, making decisions, and monitoring outcomes – you can gain valuable insights that drive business growth and innovation.

As markets evolve and consumer preferences change, ongoing market research will be key to staying ahead. Embrace this process as a fundamental part of your business strategy, and you’ll be well-equipped to make decisions that resonate with your target audience and drive your business forward.

Alice Ananian

Alice has over 8 years experience as a strong communicator and creative thinker. She enjoys helping companies refine their branding, deepen their values, and reach their intended audiences through language.

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Consumer Research Techniques

Small businesses and larger corporations conduct marketing research to determine the needs of customers and consumers in general. Companies do research on existing customers to determine their satisfaction levels with current products or the interest level in new products. Consumer research is extremely important, because consumers may purchase competitive products if a company fails to garner customer feedback. Companies employ varied techniques to garner important consumer information.

Focus Groups

Companies observe focus group responses behind a one-way mirror. A focus group is usually run by a moderator or experienced focus-group interviewer. Companies use focus groups to gather initial information about consumers. For example, a small food manufacturer may be introducing a new drink. Company marketing professionals may want to get help naming the product or narrowing their choice flavors down to two. Hence, the marketing department may conduct focus groups with individuals from different demographic groups, such as people who make over $75,000 per year or women between the ages of 35 and 54. Most focus groups are conducted with eight to 10 participants, according to Microsoft. Companies will sometimes run multiple sessions of focus groups.

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Marketing tips for a new product, six steps of new product planning, grocery store company objectives, product strategy planning, marketing research reports & industry analysis, phone surveys.

Telephone surveys are usually conducted in large volume, which makes the results more representative of the population. For example, a small food manufacturer may survey 300 or more customers in several markets to determine how much it is willing to pay for a new cereal. Statistically, the results of the 300 surveys would be similar to how the entire population would respond to the survey.

Observation

Companies may observe the behavior of consumers rather than talk to them on the phone or in person. For example, a small manufacturer may observe whether consumers choose a particular product on the shelf because of special packaging. A company may use cameras or have researchers stand in the aisles and record actions of customers.

Market Segmentation

Companies use market segmentation to identify consumers that are most likely to purchase their products. For example, a marketing research manager may study demographic information from customers to determine the average age, income level and attitudes of his company's customers. The marketing manager may then identify where these clusters of customers reside within certain markets and target his advertising toward them.

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Consumer Behavior Research

Exploring the Depths of Consumer Insights for Strategic Business Growth

In an era where understanding consumer behavior is more than a competitive edge, it’s a survival imperative, NielsenIQ (NIQ) and GfK emerge as pivotal allies. This expertise is essential for businesses in B2C commerce, retail, and beyond, aiming to navigate the complex consumer landscape for informed, strategic decision-making.

Definition and Importance of Consumer Behavior Research

Consumer behavior research is the study of how individuals make decisions to spend their resources on consumption-related items. It involves understanding the what, why, when, and how of consumer purchases. This field is crucial for businesses as it sheds light on consumer preferences, buying patterns, and decision-making processes. By understanding these aspects, companies can tailor their products and marketing strategies effectively, ensuring alignment with consumer needs and market trends, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Overview of the Impact of Consumer Behavior Research on Marketing Strategies

The insights from consumer behavior research are instrumental in shaping targeted marketing strategies. By understanding consumer motivations and behaviors, businesses can create more relevant and engaging marketing messages, leading to improved customer engagement and retention. This research helps in segmenting the market, identifying potential customers, and understanding the factors that drive consumer decisions. It also aids in predicting future trends, enabling companies to stay ahead of the curve. Effective use of consumer behavior research can lead to the development of products and services that meet the evolving needs of consumers, thereby enhancing brand loyalty and market share.

Consumer and shopper insights

Understand consumer and shopper behavior, demographics, and loyalty with modern, representative consumer panels and customer survey capabilities.

Understanding Consumer Behavior

These diverse influences combine to form unique consumer profiles, which businesses must understand to effectively target their marketing efforts..

Factors Influencing Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is influenced by a complex interplay of psychological, social, cultural, and personal factors. Psychological factors include perceptions, attitudes, and motivation, which guide consumers’ emotional and cognitive responses. Social factors encompass family, friends, and societal norms that shape buying habits through peer influence and social trends. Cultural factors involve the broader societal beliefs, values, and customs that dictate consumer behavior in a particular region. Personal factors such as age, occupation, lifestyle, and economic status also significantly impact consumer choices. These diverse influences combine to form unique consumer profiles, which businesses must understand to effectively target their marketing efforts.

The Role of Consumer Behavior in Decision Making

Consumer behavior plays a critical role in the decision-making process. It involves understanding how consumers decide upon their needs and wants, choose among products and brands, and determine their purchase methods. This knowledge is vital for businesses to design and position their offerings in a way that resonates with the target audience. Understanding consumer behavior helps in predicting how consumers will respond to marketing messages and product features, enabling businesses to tailor their strategies to meet consumer needs effectively. It also assists in identifying opportunities for new product development and market expansion.

Consumer Behavior Theories and Models

Consumer behavior theories and models provide frameworks for understanding and predicting consumer actions. The Stimulus-Response Model, for instance, illustrates how marketing stimuli and environmental factors influence consumer responses. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs explains consumer motivation in terms of fulfilling basic to complex needs. The Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior focus on the relationship between attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. The Consumer Decision Model outlines the cognitive process involving need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior. These models help businesses in developing strategies that align with consumer psychology and behavioral patterns. They also assist in segmenting the market and targeting consumers with personalized marketing approaches, enhancing the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and product offerings.

Research Methods in Consumer Behavior Research

Customer analytics is vital for businesses across various sectors, including FMCG, sales, and e-commerce. It enables companies to create personalized experiences, improve customer engagement, and boost retention, ultimately leading to increased revenue. By understanding consumer behavior through data analysis, businesses can make informed decisions that resonate with their target audience.

Quantitative Research Methods

Quantitative research methods in consumer behavior research involve structured techniques like surveys and questionnaires to collect numerical data. These methods are useful for gauging consumer attitudes, preferences, and behaviors across larger populations. Statistical analysis of this data helps in identifying trends, testing hypotheses, and making generalizations about consumer behavior. Quantitative research is valuable for businesses as it provides measurable and comparable insights that can guide strategic decision-making. It helps in understanding the magnitude of consumer responses to various marketing stimuli and in assessing the potential market size for new products or services.

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative research methods in consumer behavior focus on understanding the deeper motivations, thoughts, and feelings of consumers. Techniques like in-depth interviews, focus groups, and observational studies provide rich, detailed insights that are not typically captured through quantitative methods. This approach is crucial for exploring the underlying reasons behind consumer choices, preferences, and attitudes. Qualitative research helps businesses in gaining a deeper understanding of consumer experiences, emotions, and perceptions, which can be invaluable in developing more effective marketing strategies, product designs, and customer service approaches. It allows companies to explore new ideas and concepts with consumers, gaining insights that can lead to innovation and differentiation in the market.

Experimental Research in Consumer Behavior

Experimental research in consumer behavior involves manipulating one or more variables to observe the effect on another variable, typically consumer behavior or attitudes. This method is used to establish cause-and-effect relationships, providing insights into how changes in product features, pricing, or marketing strategies might influence consumer behavior. Controlled experiments, often conducted in laboratory settings or as field experiments, allow researchers to isolate the effects of specific variables. This type of research is particularly valuable for testing new products, pricing strategies, and marketing messages before full-scale implementation. It helps businesses in making informed decisions based on empirical evidence, reducing the risks associated with new initiatives.

Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior

Psychological factors.

Psychological factors play a significant role in shaping consumer behavior. These include individual motivations, perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs. Motivation drives consumers to fulfill their needs and desires, influencing their buying decisions. Perception, how consumers interpret information, can significantly impact their choices, as it shapes their understanding of products and brands. Attitudes and beliefs, formed through experiences and social influences, guide consumer preferences and loyalty. Understanding these psychological factors is crucial for businesses as they influence how consumers view and interact with products and services. By aligning marketing strategies with consumer psychology, businesses can more effectively influence purchasing decisions and build stronger customer relationships.

Social Factors

Social factors significantly influence consumer behavior, encompassing the impact of society, family, and peer groups. Family members and friends can influence buying decisions through recommendations or shared experiences. Social groups, including social networks and communities, also play a role in shaping consumer preferences and behaviors. The influence of social media has become particularly significant, as it not only connects consumers but also serves as a platform for sharing opinions and experiences about products and services. Understanding these social dynamics is important for businesses as they can leverage social influences through targeted marketing strategies, influencer partnerships, and social media campaigns. Recognizing the power of social factors can help businesses in building brand awareness and loyalty among consumer groups.

Cultural Factors

Cultural factors are deeply ingrained elements that influence consumer behavior, including values, beliefs, customs, and traditions. These factors vary across different regions and societies, affecting how consumers perceive and interact with products and services. Cultural influences can determine consumer preferences, buying habits, and brand perceptions. For instance, color symbolism, dietary preferences, and language can all vary significantly between cultures, impacting marketing strategies and product development. Businesses must understand and respect these cultural nuances to effectively cater to diverse consumer markets. Adapting products and marketing messages to align with cultural values and norms can significantly enhance a brand’s appeal and acceptance in different markets.

Personal Factors

Personal factors, including age, gender, occupation, lifestyle, and economic status, also significantly influence consumer behavior. These factors determine individual needs, preferences, and purchasing power. For example, younger consumers may prioritize trendy and innovative products, while older consumers might value functionality and durability. Lifestyle choices, such as health consciousness or environmental awareness, can also drive consumer preferences and choices. Economic factors, such as income and economic conditions, influence consumers’ ability to purchase and their sensitivity to price changes. Understanding these personal factors is crucial for businesses to segment their market effectively and tailor their products and marketing strategies to meet the specific needs of different consumer groups.

Consumer Purchase Decision Making

Stages of the consumer purchase decision-making process.

The consumer purchase decision-making process typically involves several key stages: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post-purchase behavior.

In the problem recognition stage, consumers identify a need or desire.

During the information search, they seek out information about products or services that can fulfill their need. In the evaluation stage, consumers compare different options based on attributes such as price, quality, and brand reputation.

The purchase decision involves choosing a product and making the purchase. Finally, in the post-purchase stage, consumers evaluate their satisfaction with the purchase, which can influence future buying decisions and brand loyalty.

Understanding these stages is essential for businesses to effectively influence consumers at each step, from raising awareness to ensuring post-purchase satisfaction.

Influences on Consumer Purchase Decisions

Consumer purchase decisions are influenced by a multitude of factors, including product attributes, brand reputation, marketing messages, social influences, and personal preferences. Product features such as quality, price, and usability are key determinants of consumer choices. Brand reputation, built over time through consistent quality and marketing efforts, also significantly impacts purchase decisions. Marketing messages and advertising play a crucial role in shaping consumer perceptions and driving demand. Social influences, including recommendations from family and friends, as well as online reviews and influencer endorsements, can sway consumer decisions. Personal factors such as individual needs, preferences, and financial constraints also play a critical role. Businesses must consider these diverse influences when developing products and crafting marketing strategies to effectively appeal to their target audience.

Impulse Buying Behavior

Impulse buying behavior refers to unplanned purchases made by consumers, often driven by emotional factors rather than rational decision-making. This type of behavior is typically triggered by external stimuli such as attractive product displays, promotional offers, or persuasive sales tactics. Emotional responses, such as excitement or the desire for instant gratification, also play a significant role in impulse buying. Retailers often leverage this behavior by strategically placing impulse items near checkout areas or using limited-time offers to create a sense of urgency. Understanding the triggers of impulse buying can help businesses in designing marketing strategies and store layouts that encourage such purchases, potentially increasing sales and customer engagement.

Online Shopping and Consumer Behavior

Impact of online shopping on consumer behavior.

The rise of online shopping has significantly impacted consumer behavior, offering convenience, a wider selection of products, and often competitive pricing. Online shopping has changed the way consumers research products, compare prices, and make purchasing decisions. The ease of access to a vast array of products and the ability to shop at any time have increased the frequency and diversity of purchases. Online reviews and ratings have also become important factors in the decision-making process, as consumers increasingly rely on the opinions of others. Additionally, the personalized shopping experiences offered by many online retailers, through targeted recommendations and tailored marketing messages, have further influenced consumer buying habits. Understanding these shifts in consumer behavior is crucial for businesses to adapt their strategies for the digital marketplace, ensuring they meet the evolving needs and expectations of online shoppers.

Factors Influencing Online Buying Behavior

Several factors influence online buying behavior, including website usability, product variety, pricing, customer reviews, and the overall shopping experience. A user-friendly website with easy navigation and a seamless checkout process is crucial for attracting and retaining online shoppers. A diverse product range and competitive pricing are also key factors in attracting consumers. Customer reviews and ratings significantly impact purchase decisions, as they provide social proof and reduce perceived risk. The overall shopping experience, including customer service, delivery options, and return policies, also plays a vital role in influencing online buying behavior. Security and privacy concerns are additional considerations, as consumers are increasingly aware of data protection and online fraud. Businesses must address these factors to create a compelling online shopping experience that meets consumer expectations and drives online sales.

Comparison of Online and Offline Consumer Behavior

Online and offline consumer behaviors exhibit distinct differences, influenced by the unique aspects of each shopping environment. Online shopping offers convenience, a broader selection, and often more competitive pricing, leading to different purchasing patterns compared to offline shopping. Consumers tend to spend more time researching and comparing products online, while offline shopping is often driven by immediate needs and sensory experiences. The tactile experience and instant gratification of offline shopping are not replicable online, but the online environment offers personalized recommendations and a wealth of product information. Offline shopping also provides opportunities for personal interaction and immediate problem resolution, which can enhance customer satisfaction. Understanding these differences is crucial for businesses to tailor their strategies for each channel, ensuring a cohesive and complementary shopping experience that meets the needs and preferences of consumers in both online and offline environments.

Consumer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Importance of customer satisfaction in consumer behavior research.

Customer satisfaction is a critical component of consumer behavior research, as it directly impacts repeat purchases and brand loyalty. Satisfied customers are more likely to become repeat buyers, recommend the brand to others, and provide positive reviews. Customer satisfaction is influenced by various factors, including product quality, customer service, and overall shopping experience. Understanding and measuring customer satisfaction helps businesses identify areas for improvement, enhance customer experiences, and build long-term relationships with consumers. High levels of customer satisfaction lead to increased customer loyalty, which is essential for business growth and sustainability.

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is influenced by a range of factors, including product quality, price, service quality, brand image, and customer expectations. Product quality is a primary determinant of satisfaction, as consumers expect products to perform as advertised. Price also plays a role, as consumers evaluate the value they receive relative to the cost. Service quality, encompassing customer service interactions and the overall shopping experience, significantly impacts satisfaction levels. A positive, helpful, and efficient service experience can enhance satisfaction, while negative experiences can lead to dissatisfaction. Brand image, shaped by marketing communications and past experiences, influences consumer expectations and perceptions. Meeting or exceeding these expectations is key to achieving high levels of customer satisfaction. Additionally, personal factors such as individual needs, preferences, and past experiences also influence satisfaction. Businesses must consider these diverse factors to effectively meet consumer needs and enhance satisfaction levels.

Relationship Between Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

The relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty is strong and direct. Satisfied customers are more likely to develop a sense of loyalty to a brand, leading to repeat purchases and positive word-of-mouth recommendations. Loyalty is not just about repeat buying; it also involves an emotional connection and a preference for the brand over competitors. Satisfied customers are also more likely to be forgiving of minor issues and are less sensitive to price changes. Conversely, dissatisfied customers are more likely to switch to competitors and share negative experiences with others. Building customer loyalty requires consistently meeting or exceeding customer expectations, providing high-quality products and services, and maintaining positive customer relationships. Loyal customers are valuable assets to businesses, as they tend to have a higher lifetime value, lower acquisition costs, and can become brand advocates, promoting the brand through their networks.

Consumer Research and Marketing Strategies

Utilizing consumer research to develop effective marketing programs.

Consumer research is a vital tool for developing effective marketing programs. By understanding consumer needs, preferences, and behaviors, businesses can create targeted marketing strategies that resonate with their audience. Consumer research helps in identifying market segments, understanding consumer pain points, and uncovering opportunities for product development or enhancement. It also provides insights into the most effective channels and messages for reaching the target audience. Utilizing consumer research in marketing program development ensures that strategies are data-driven and customer-centric, increasing the likelihood of success. It enables businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to the specific needs and preferences of different consumer segments, improving engagement and response rates. Additionally, ongoing consumer research allows businesses to adapt their marketing strategies in response to changing consumer trends and market conditions, ensuring continued relevance and effectiveness.

Targeting Specific Consumer Segments Based on Research Findings

Targeting specific consumer segments based on research findings is a key strategy for effective marketing. Consumer research provides detailed insights into different consumer groups, including their demographics, psychographics, behaviors, and preferences. By analyzing this data, businesses can identify distinct segments within their target market, each with unique needs and characteristics. Targeting these segments with tailored marketing messages and product offerings increases the relevance and appeal of the brand to each group. For example, a segment characterized by health-conscious consumers would respond more positively to marketing messages emphasizing the health benefits of a product. Segment-specific targeting allows businesses to allocate marketing resources more efficiently, focusing on the most promising segments with the highest potential for conversion and loyalty. It also enhances the customer experience by providing consumers with products and marketing messages that are more closely aligned with their individual needs and preferences.

Adapting Marketing Strategies to Consumer Behavior Trends

Adapting marketing strategies to consumer behavior trends is essential for businesses to stay relevant and competitive. Consumer behavior is constantly evolving, influenced by factors such as technological advancements, cultural shifts, and economic changes. By staying attuned to these trends, businesses can anticipate changes in consumer needs and preferences, and adjust their marketing strategies accordingly. This may involve adopting new marketing channels, such as social media or influencer marketing, to reach consumers where they are most active. It could also mean developing new products or services that align with emerging consumer trends, such as sustainability or personalization. Adapting marketing strategies to consumer behavior trends requires a proactive approach, with ongoing research and analysis to identify emerging patterns. Businesses that successfully adapt to these trends can capture new market opportunities, enhance customer engagement, and maintain a competitive edge.

Case Studies in Consumer Behavior Research

Analysis of real-life examples and their implications.

Real-life case studies in consumer behavior research provide valuable insights into the practical application of theoretical concepts and the effectiveness of different marketing strategies. For example, a case study in the automotive industry might analyze how consumer preferences for eco-friendly vehicles have influenced car manufacturers’ product development and marketing strategies. In the retail sector, a case study could examine the impact of online shopping on brick-and-mortar stores and how these businesses have adapted to the digital era. These case studies offer concrete examples of how businesses have successfully navigated changes in consumer behavior, providing lessons and strategies that can be applied in other contexts. They also highlight the importance of consumer research in identifying market trends, understanding consumer needs, and developing effective marketing strategies. By analyzing real-life examples, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, learn from the successes and challenges of others, and apply these insights to their own strategies.

Examination of Successful Marketing Campaigns Based on Consumer Behavior Research

Examining successful marketing campaigns that are based on consumer behavior research can provide valuable insights into effective marketing practices. These case studies demonstrate how a deep understanding of consumer needs, preferences, and behaviors can be leveraged to create impactful marketing campaigns. For instance, a campaign that effectively uses consumer data to personalize messages and offers can result in higher engagement and conversion rates. Another example might be a campaign that taps into current consumer trends, such as sustainability or wellness, to resonate with the target audience. Analyzing these successful campaigns can reveal key strategies and tactics that businesses can adopt, such as the use of specific channels, messaging techniques, or promotional offers. These case studies also highlight the importance of data-driven decision-making in marketing, showing how consumer research can inform and guide successful marketing initiatives.

Motivating Consumers and New Product Adoption

Strategies to motivate consumers to adopt new products.

Motivating consumers to adopt new products is a critical challenge for businesses. Effective strategies for encouraging new product adoption include leveraging social proof, offering free trials or samples, and creating educational content. Social proof, such as customer testimonials or influencer endorsements, can reduce perceived risk and increase consumer confidence in trying a new product. Free trials or samples allow consumers to experience the product firsthand, reducing barriers to adoption. Educational content, such as how-to guides or product demonstrations, can help consumers understand the value and benefits of the new product. Additionally, businesses can use targeted marketing campaigns to reach early adopters and innovators who are more likely to try new products and spread the word to others. Creating a sense of urgency or exclusivity around the new product, through limited-time offers or exclusive access, can also motivate consumers to adopt the product more quickly.

Innovations in Consumer Behavior Research for New Product Development

Innovations in consumer behavior research are playing a crucial role in new product development. Advanced analytics and data mining techniques allow businesses to analyze large datasets and uncover deep insights into consumer needs and preferences. Social listening tools enable companies to monitor social media and online conversations, gaining real-time insights into consumer opinions and trends. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies are being used to test consumer reactions to new products in simulated environments, providing valuable feedback before market launch. Behavioral economics principles, such as understanding cognitive biases and decision-making processes, are also being applied to better predict consumer responses to new products. These innovations in consumer behavior research provide businesses with more accurate and comprehensive data, enabling them to develop products that are closely aligned with consumer needs and preferences, increasing the likelihood of market success.

Social Media and Consumer Behavior

Influence of social media on consumer behavior.

Social media has a profound influence on consumer behavior, shaping how consumers discover, research, and share information about products and services. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter serve as important channels for brand communication and engagement. Consumers use social media to seek recommendations, read reviews, and gather opinions from their networks, which significantly influences their purchasing decisions. Brands leverage social media for targeted advertising, influencer partnerships, and content marketing, creating opportunities for direct interaction and engagement with consumers. Social media also facilitates the spread of trends and viral content, quickly influencing consumer preferences and behaviors. The interactive and dynamic nature of social media means that consumer opinions and trends can rapidly change, requiring businesses to be agile and responsive in their social media strategies. Understanding the influence of social media on consumer behavior is essential for businesses to effectively engage with their audience and influence purchasing decisions.

Role of Social Media in Shaping Consumer Perceptions and Purchase Decisions

Recap of the importance of consumer behavior research.

Consumer behavior research is essential for businesses seeking to understand and effectively respond to the evolving needs and preferences of their target audience. It provides valuable insights into why consumers make certain choices, what influences their purchasing decisions, and how they interact with brands. This research is crucial for developing effective marketing strategies, creating products that meet consumer needs, and enhancing the overall customer experience. By staying informed about consumer behavior trends and applying these insights, businesses can improve customer engagement, increase brand loyalty, and drive growth. In today’s competitive marketplace, a deep understanding of consumer behavior is a key differentiator, enabling businesses to create more personalized, relevant, and impactful marketing initiatives.

Future Directions and Emerging Trends in Consumer Behavior Research

The future of consumer behavior research is marked by rapid advancements in technology and data analytics, leading to more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of consumer preferences and behaviors. Emerging trends include the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to analyze consumer data, providing deeper and more predictive insights. The integration of biometric data, such as eye tracking and facial recognition, offers new ways to understand consumer responses to marketing stimuli. The growing importance of sustainability and ethical considerations is also influencing consumer behavior, leading to increased demand for eco-friendly and socially responsible products. Additionally, the rise of the experience economy is shifting focus from product features to customer experiences, requiring businesses to create more immersive and engaging customer interactions. Staying abreast of these trends and continuously innovating in consumer behavior research will be crucial for businesses to remain relevant and competitive in the changing market landscape.

How NIQ and GfK Can Help

In the complex world of consumer behavior, NIQ and GfK offer the expertise and tools necessary to navigate this landscape effectively. With comprehensive solutions like:

• NielsenIQ’s Homescan : Track, diagnose, and analyze consumer behavior from more than 250,000 households across 25 countries.
• Consumer analytics : Go deeper and create more clarity around shopper behavior with custom surveys and segmentation.
• Consumption moments : Reveal the true motivations behind customer consumption behavior and usage to guide product innovation and marketing strategy .
• gfknewron marke t : Create the right opportunities with gfknewron market
• gfknewron predict : Plan your future using the world’s most comprehensive sales tracking data for Tech & Durables.
• gfknewron Consumer : Understand your consumers’ behavior to redefine your success

By leveraging these tools, businesses can gain a competitive edge, adapting to market changes and consumer trends with agility and precision.

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9 Best Marketing Research Methods to Know Your Buyer Better [+ Examples]

Published: August 08, 2024

One of the most underrated skills you can have as a marketer is marketing research — which is great news for this unapologetic cyber sleuth.

From brand design and product development to buyer personas and competitive analysis, I’ve researched a number of initiatives in my decade-long marketing career.

And let me tell you: having the right marketing research methods in your toolbox is a must.

Market research is the secret to crafting a strategy that will truly help you accomplish your goals. The good news is there is no shortage of options.

How to Choose a Marketing Research Method

Thanks to the Internet, we have more marketing research (or market research) methods at our fingertips than ever, but they’re not all created equal. Let’s quickly go over how to choose the right one.

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1. Identify your objective.

What are you researching? Do you need to understand your audience better? How about your competition? Or maybe you want to know more about your customer’s feelings about a specific product.

Before starting your research, take some time to identify precisely what you’re looking for. This could be a goal you want to reach, a problem you need to solve, or a question you need to answer.

For example, an objective may be as foundational as understanding your ideal customer better to create new buyer personas for your marketing agency (pause for flashbacks to my former life).

Or if you’re an organic sode company, it could be trying to learn what flavors people are craving.

2. Determine what type of data and research you need.

Next, determine what data type will best answer the problems or questions you identified. There are primarily two types: qualitative and quantitative. (Sound familiar, right?)

• Qualitative Data is non-numerical information, like subjective characteristics, opinions, and feelings. It’s pretty open to interpretation and descriptive, but it’s also harder to measure. This type of data can be collected through interviews, observations, and open-ended questions.
• Quantitative Data , on the other hand, is numerical information, such as quantities, sizes, amounts, or percentages. It’s measurable and usually pretty hard to argue with, coming from a reputable source. It can be derived through surveys, experiments, or statistical analysis.

Understanding the differences between qualitative and quantitative data will help you pinpoint which research methods will yield the desired results.

For instance, thinking of our earlier examples, qualitative data would usually be best suited for buyer personas, while quantitative data is more useful for the soda flavors.

However, truth be told, the two really work together.

Qualitative conclusions are usually drawn from quantitative, numerical data. So, you’ll likely need both to get the complete picture of your subject.

For example, if your quantitative data says 70% of people are Team Black and only 30% are Team Green — Shout out to my fellow House of the Dragon fans — your qualitative data will say people support Black more than Green.

(As they should.)

Primary Research vs Secondary Research

You’ll also want to understand the difference between primary and secondary research.

Primary research involves collecting new, original data directly from the source (say, your target market). In other words, it’s information gathered first-hand that wasn’t found elsewhere.

Some examples include conducting experiments, surveys, interviews, observations, or focus groups.

Meanwhile, secondary research is the analysis and interpretation of existing data collected from others. Think of this like what we used to do for school projects: We would read a book, scour the internet, or pull insights from others to work from.

So, which is better?

Personally, I say any research is good research, but if you have the time and resources, primary research is hard to top. With it, you don’t have to worry about your source's credibility or how relevant it is to your specific objective.

You are in full control and best equipped to get the reliable information you need.

3. Put it all together.

Once you know your objective and what kind of data you want, you’re ready to select your marketing research method.

For instance, let’s say you’re a restaurant trying to see how attendees felt about the Speed Dating event you hosted last week.

You shouldn’t run a field experiment or download a third-party report on speed dating events; those would be useless to you. You need to conduct a survey that allows you to ask pointed questions about the event.

This would yield both qualitative and quantitative data you can use to improve and bring together more love birds next time around.

Best Market Research Methods for 2024

Now that you know what you’re looking for in a marketing research method, let’s dive into the best options.

Note: According to HubSpot’s 2024 State of Marketing report, understanding customers and their needs is one of the biggest challenges facing marketers today. The options we discuss are great consumer research methodologies , but they can also be used for other areas.

Primary Research

1. interviews.

Interviews are a form of primary research where you ask people specific questions about a topic or theme. They typically deliver qualitative information.

I’ve conducted many interviews for marketing purposes, but I’ve also done many for journalistic purposes, like this profile on comedian Zarna Garg . There’s no better way to gather candid, open-ended insights in my book, but that doesn’t mean they’re a cure-all.

What I like: Real-time conversations allow you to ask different questions if you’re not getting the information you need. They also push interviewees to respond quickly, which can result in more authentic answers.

What I dislike: They can be time-consuming and harder to measure (read: get quantitative data) unless you ask pointed yes or no questions.

Best for: Creating buyer personas or getting feedback on customer experience, a product, or content.

2. Focus Groups

Focus groups are similar to conducting interviews but on a larger scale.

In marketing and business, this typically means getting a small group together in a room (or Zoom), asking them questions about various topics you are researching. You record and/or observe their responses to then take action.

They are ideal for collecting long-form, open-ended feedback, and subjective opinions.

One well-known focus group you may remember was run by Domino’s Pizza in 2009 .

After poor ratings and dropping over $100 million in revenue, the brand conducted focus groups with real customers to learn where they could have done better.

It was met with comments like “worst excuse for pizza I’ve ever had” and “the crust tastes like cardboard.” But rather than running from the tough love, it took the hit and completely overhauled its recipes.

The team admitted their missteps and returned to the market with better food and a campaign detailing their “Pizza Turn Around.”

The result? The brand won a ton of praise for its willingness to take feedback, efforts to do right by its consumers, and clever campaign. But, most importantly, revenue for Domino’s rose by 14.3% over the previous year.

The brand continues to conduct focus groups and share real footage from them in its promotion:

What I like: Similar to interviewing, you can dig deeper and pivot as needed due to the real-time nature. They’re personal and detailed.

What I dislike: Once again, they can be time-consuming and make it difficult to get quantitative data. There is also a chance some participants may overshadow others.

Best for: Product research or development

Pro tip: Need help planning your focus group? Our free Market Research Kit includes a handy template to start organizing your thoughts in addition to a SWOT Analysis Template, Survey Template, Focus Group Template, Presentation Template, Five Forces Industry Analysis Template, and an instructional guide for all of them. Download yours here now.

3. Surveys or Polls

Surveys are a form of primary research where individuals are asked a collection of questions. It can take many different forms.

They could be in person, over the phone or video call, by email, via an online form, or even on social media. Questions can be also open-ended or closed to deliver qualitative or quantitative information.

A great example of a close-ended survey is HubSpot’s annual State of Marketing .

In the State of Marketing, HubSpot asks marketing professionals from around the world a series of multiple-choice questions to gather data on the state of the marketing industry and to identify trends.

The survey covers various topics related to marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and challenges that marketers face. It aims to provide benchmarks to help you make informed decisions about your marketing.

It also helps us understand where our customers’ heads are so we can better evolve our products to meet their needs.

Apple is no stranger to surveys, either.

In 2011, the tech giant launched Apple Customer Pulse , which it described as “an online community of Apple product users who provide input on a variety of subjects and issues concerning Apple.”

"For example, we did a large voluntary survey of email subscribers and top readers a few years back."

While these readers gave us a long list of topics, formats, or content types they wanted to see, they sometimes engaged more with content types they didn’t select or favor as much on the surveys when we ran follow-up ‘in the wild’ tests, like A/B testing.”  

Pepsi saw similar results when it ran its iconic field experiment, “The Pepsi Challenge” for the first time in 1975.

The beverage brand set up tables at malls, beaches, and other public locations and ran a blindfolded taste test. Shoppers were given two cups of soda, one containing Pepsi, the other Coca-Cola (Pepsi’s biggest competitor). They were then asked to taste both and report which they preferred.

People overwhelmingly preferred Pepsi, and the brand has repeated the experiment multiple times over the years to the same results.

What I like: It yields qualitative and quantitative data and can make for engaging marketing content, especially in the digital age.

What I dislike: It can be very time-consuming. And, if you’re not careful, there is a high risk for scientific error.

Best for: Product testing and competitive analysis

Pro tip:  " Don’t make critical business decisions off of just one data set," advises Pamela Bump. "Use the survey, competitive intelligence, external data, or even a focus group to give you one layer of ideas or a short-list for improvements or solutions to test. Then gather your own fresh data to test in an experiment or trial and better refine your data-backed strategy."

Secondary Research

8. public domain or third-party research.

While original data is always a plus, there are plenty of external resources you can access online and even at a library when you’re limited on time or resources.

Some reputable resources you can use include:

• Pew Research Center
• McKinley Global Institute
• Relevant Global or Government Organizations (i.e United Nations or NASA)

It’s also smart to turn to reputable organizations that are specific to your industry or field. For instance, if you’re a gardening or landscaping company, you may want to pull statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

If you’re a digital marketing agency, you could look to Google Research or HubSpot Research . (Hey, I know them!)

What I like: You can save time on gathering data and spend more time on analyzing. You can also rest assured the data is from a source you trust.

What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs.

Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch, adding factual support to content

Pro tip: Fellow HubSpotter Iskiev suggests using third-party data to inspire your original research. “Sometimes, I use public third-party data for ideas and inspiration. Once I have written my survey and gotten all my ideas out, I read similar reports from other sources and usually end up with useful additions for my own research.”

9. Buy Research

If the data you need isn’t available publicly and you can’t do your own market research, you can also buy some. There are many reputable analytics companies that offer subscriptions to access their data. Statista is one of my favorites, but there’s also Euromonitor , Mintel , and BCC Research .

What I like: Same as public domain research

What I dislike: You may not find data specific to your needs. It also adds to your expenses.

Best for: Companies under a time or resource crunch or adding factual support to content

Which marketing research method should you use?

You’re not going to like my answer, but “it depends.” The best marketing research method for you will depend on your objective and data needs, but also your budget and timeline.

My advice? Aim for a mix of quantitative and qualitative data. If you can do your own original research, awesome. But if not, don’t beat yourself up. Lean into free or low-cost tools . You could do primary research for qualitative data, then tap public sources for quantitative data. Or perhaps the reverse is best for you.

Whatever your marketing research method mix, take the time to think it through and ensure you’re left with information that will truly help you achieve your goals.

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How the experts get results: 8 examples of consumer research

What are the goals of consumer research, 8 consumer research examples (and how to get better insights from your research), what are the benefits of conducting consumer research, best practices for seamless consumer research, conduct better consumer research with the right tools.

Ever look at a brilliant move from a brand and think: how did they nail that so seemingly effortlessly?

The answer often involved customer research.

At its core, consumer research is the gathering and analysis of information about target markets, consumers, and potential customers. It’s not just about numbers and graphs—though they have their place—it’s about understanding people. And with understanding people, you’ll get to understand what tactics and campaigns will win for your brand.

Your research can shape products, influence marketing strategies, and even drive innovation. Whether it’s understanding how customers feel, what they think, or how they behave, consumer research offers a blueprint for brands to build deeper, more meaningful connections with their audience.

There are countless tools at your disposal to crush your customer research. From the ever-popular to the more niche, here are some of the key research methods brand like yours use:

• Online surveys : Tap into real-time feedback and broad audiences with just a few clicks.
• Phone surveys : Engage in deeper, personal conversations and get nuanced insights.
• Focus groups : Dive into group dynamics and gain qualitative insights from lively discussions.
• Field observations : Observe consumers in their natural habitat to glean non-verbal cues and real-world behaviors.
• In-depth interviews : Get detailed, in-depth feedback on specific topics.
• Product testing : Put your product in the hands of consumers and see it through their eyes.

Consumer research is used by businesses to understand their audience more deeply, and to adapt their strategies accordingly—minimizing risks and maximizing revenue. It provides valuable data and insights that influence decisions at every level—from product development to marketing strategies. By digging into the why and how of consumer behavior, brands can make informed choices that truly resonate with their audience, without having to fear they’ll completely miss the mark.

When diving into consumer research, a brand might have several goals in mind, such as:

• Uncovering consumer needs : What are the unsaid (and said!) desires or pain points of your audience?
• Predicting market trends : Where is the market headed? What are significant patterns?
• Enhancing product development : How can your product evolve to serve your customers better?
• Crafting effective marketing campaigns : What messages will truly resonate with your target audience?
• Understanding purchase decisions : Why do consumers choose one brand over another? When and why do people buy?
• Measuring brand perception : How do consumers view your brand compared to competitors?
• Identifying growth opportunities : Are there untapped markets or segments to explore?

1. Bloom & Wild learned from their target market how to make Valentine’s Day fresh again

Bloom & Wild , a direct-to-door flower company from London, wanted to shake things up—but not without doing their due diligence with market research first. They were over the red roses game on Valentine’s Day and wanted to see if their customers were too. Let’s just say, things got bloomin’ interesting.

Key takeaways:

• Challenge assumptions : Just because it’s tradition doesn’t mean it’s right. Bloom & Wild suspected red roses were kinda old news for V-Day. Attest showed a lot of folks felt the same.
• Dig for the real story : Thanks to Attest, they found out 79% of people prefer thoughtful gifts over the same-old. And red roses? 58% found them too cliche.
• Make waves with your data : Strong data makes strong campaigns. Bloom & Wild said goodbye to red roses and launched the “No Red Roses” campaign. A bold move that gave them loads of press.
• The results? Mega blooms : No red roses, no problem. Valentine’s Day sales quadrupled and press coverage went up by 51%.
• Feedback = fab conversations : It wasn’t just about sales and press. Their social channels lit up with folks sharing heartwarming love stories. When you listen to your customers and take risks, people notice (and love it).

What’s the best consumer research software

Picking the right consumer insights software for your needs is super important – here’s our list of the top providers so you can see what each has to offer…

2. Little Moons tapped into their true target customers thanks to customer research data

Little Moons , those yummy Japanese mochi ice cream bites, went big on TikTok. But they didn’t just want to be a 15-second sensation; they wanted to scoop up the long game. Let’s unpack how they didn’t just melt away after the TikTok frenzy, thanks to the coolest customer research.

• Find out who your customer is : If you think TikTok, you think teens. Customer research surprised them: it’s the 30+ audience that found out they were the ones buying their treats.
• Widen the stage : Just being a TikTok sensation isn’t the endgame. Little Moons wanted EVERYONE to know their name. So, they aimed for big newspaper names—think Telegraph, Express, Sun—to make their mochis more mainstream.
• Customers build brands : It’s not just brand managers and marketers. Working with consumer research insights meant their brand awareness shot up.

3. Penfold combined conducting customer research with brand tracking — a smart move

Penfold , the fresh face in digital pensions, saw huge growth in a short time. But growth can be a double-edged sword. With all these new customers, they wondered: “Who are we really connecting with?” They didn’t have any past metrics to compare to, and customer research with brand tracking seemed the way to go. They just needed a tool that was both budget-friendly and user-friendly.

• The growth conundrum : Penfold’s growth was impressive, tripling pension transfers in just a year. But they were navigating without a map, lacking historical brand metrics. Good news: even when that’s lacking, you can still dig into customer research.
• Tracking over time : Brand tracking and market research with Attest delivered some clear messages. Engaging the younger crowd in pensions? Easier said than done. But after a year of tracking and customer research, Penfold is better equipped. They now tailor their messaging to resonate more effectively with their audience.
• Customers and competition : Using Attest, Penfold can keep tabs on their competitors, not just their customers. They can gauge who’s getting attention and strategize on distinguishing their brand, to turn the attention back to themselves.

4. psLondon redefined university marketing through Gen Z insights

psLondon, a seasoned creative and brand consultancy, faced a challenge. Many universities seemed to echo similar messages. And they didn’t resonate. They needed fresh insights, especially from the Gen Z perspective, to help each university carve its distinct identity . Their customer research with Attest helped them formulate stellar campaigns.

• Ask consumers about core values : psLondon sought to understand the unique values students associated with their universities. Their research led to distinct insights, like a university standing out for its emphasis on “freedom”, which then translated to a compelling tagline: “the freedom to achieve”.
• Replicating success : The value-based rebranding approach was not a one-off success. Post its initial triumph, psLondon applied the strategy to four more UK universities, and kept that ball rolling.
• Using customer research beyond aesthetics : This method is not just about a fresh coat of paint. It’s about understanding and communicating intrinsic values that resonate deeply with students. Their approach to customer research has not only made them sought-after in university marketing, but has also led them to share their insights at conferences and in white papers.

5. Evive Nutrition’s used customer insights to guide them on their American journey

Evive Nutrition, after having garnered immense success in Canada with its innovative frozen smoothie cubes, took a bold leap into the US market last year . Consumer research played a key role in this expansion journey.

• Value of subscriptions : Evive’s unique business model hinges on their subscription-based approach. While they boast a strong presence in physical stores, their customer research revealed the growing trend and value of direct-to-door deliveries, especially amidst the modern consumer’s quest for convenience.
• Adapting to America : The significance of customer research can’t be overstated, especially when venturing into unfamiliar territory. Through Attest, Evive was able to gather crucial insights into American consumer preferences, from preferred flavours to feedback on their communication strategies.
• Tailored messaging for the US : Armed with these insights, Evive meticulously tailored its content strategy for the American audience and US consumer trends for 2023 . This went beyond mere promotional materials and trickled down to their website, content creation, and even product packaging.

6. Organic Valley’s used customer insights to create breakfast bites nobody can resist

Organic Valley knows a thing or two about great breakfast snacks, but working together with their target audience really elevated their game . Their approach underscores the importance of customer insights not just in product development but even in nuanced elements like naming.

• Fueling innovation with feedback : They didn’t just aim to create a new product; they wanted one that was both innovative and well-received. By leveraging consumer research insights via Attest, Organic Valley could accelerate the innovation process, optimize messaging, and refine product iterations.
• The name game : It became evident that while flavor was crucial, naming played an equally vital role in the consumers’ perception. A flavor’s name could conjure memories, emotions, and expectations, and Organic Valley was keen on ensuring that these names reflected the product accurately and appetizingly.
• Efficiency and cost-savings : One of the standout benefits of this early-stage consumer feedback was the significant cost savings for Organic Valley. Prompt learnings through Attest saved the brand between 10 to 20 times the potential costs they might have incurred from late-stage adjustments or missteps.

7. GoCardless tapped into customer research to make payments painless

Ever faced a hiccup at the online checkout? GoCardless sure noticed. Intent on understanding the very essence of these hiccups, they delved into their customers’ payment woes to make their sales and marketing efforts truly resonate.

• Zooming in on payment pain points : Online checkouts can be tricky. Sometimes, they’re even downright frustrating. GoCardless wasn’t content to just acknowledge that—they wanted to know the ins and outs. Their goal was to tailor their offerings in a way that directly addressed these prevalent payment challenges and expressed their brand’s value proposition.
• Research-backed solutions : No longer does GoCardless roll out a solution based on mere assumptions. Each of their product launches now stands on a solid foundation of customer research, ensuring it’s not just another feature but a real answer to a genuine customer need.
• A value proposition that sticks : By tapping into direct consumer insights, GoCardless sharpened their value proposition, making it more compelling.

8. DRY Soda Co. harnessed consumer research to drive an impressive 170% revenue surge

DRY Soda Co. didn’t let themselves be stopped by restrictions people faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. With their traditional launch methods now inaccessible, they harnessed the power of consumer research through Attest and saw big wins .

• The challenge of conventional approaches : With COVID-19 throwing a wrench in the works, DRY’s initial “try and buy” strategy of in-store and bar demos for their DRY Botanical Bitters & Soda was halted.
• Pivoting to alternative consumer research methods : Rather than giving in to the setback, DRY channeled their energy into gathering customer research insights. Small focus groups set the initial tone, and these findings were then magnified using Attest.
• Tailored design from direct insights : Consumer feedback obtained through Attest played a pivotal role in product branding. The design effectively embodied the sophistication of a zero-proof cocktail. Furthermore, the emphasis on the “zero-sugar” element, a prime attraction for many consumers, stemmed directly from these insights.

Always doing the same in a market where things change rapidly is a recipe for disaster. Consumers drive trends and changes in every industry, and brands should be following them—it’ll rarely work the other way around.

So, gaining insights from consumer research is crucial for brands aiming to understand, adapt, and evolve. Depending on the specific goals and questions a brand has, they may opt for quantitative or qualitative customer research methods, each with its own unique advantages.

The importance of quantitative research

Definition : Quantitative research involves collecting numerical data to understand patterns, frequencies, and trends. Quantitative consumer research often employs structured surveys to gather data from a larger sample size for primary research, but secondary sources can be used too.

• Broad insights : Provides a wider view of consumer behaviors and opinions.
• Statistical significance : Offers data that can be statistically analyzed for more reliable conclusions.
• Clear trends : Easily identify dominant patterns in consumer behaviors or preferences.
• Speed and efficiency : Online tools and platforms can quickly reach a large number of respondents.

The importance of qualitative research

Definition : Qualitative market research delves deep into consumer behaviors, emotions and reasons behind certain choices. Qualitative consumer research often involves primary research methods like focus groups or video interviews to gain more detailed insights.

• In-depth understanding : Offers deeper insights into the “why” behind consumer decisions.
• Flexibility : Allows for adaptive questioning based on responses.
• Rich data : Gathers detailed anecdotes, stories, and reasons that can provide context.
• Uncovering nuances : Captures the subtleties in consumer emotions and preferences.

By understanding the strengths of both quantitative and qualitative customer research, brands can select the right approach for their specific needs, ensuring they obtain insights that are both broad in scope and deep in understanding.

Consumer research can be a game-changer for brands, but to truly harness its power, it’s crucial to approach it with the right strategies. Here are some expert-recommended best practices to ensure you get the most out of your research efforts:

Use consumer research tools to conduct customer research

Conducting market research at scale and with depth is best done using consumer research tools . They can significantly streamline the process and provide more accurate results. These tools offer a structured way to gather, analyze, and interpret data, making the entire process more efficient and effective.

Prioritize clear objectives

Before you conduct market research of any type, it’s essential to define clear objectives. What are you trying to achieve with this research? Whether it’s understanding consumer preferences, identifying market gaps, or measuring brand perception, having a clear goal ensures your efforts are directed effectively.

Be open to unexpected insights

While it’s essential to have clear objectives, it’s equally important to be open to unexpected insights. Sometimes, the most valuable information comes from unplanned findings. By being receptive to these, you can uncover new opportunities or areas of improvement.

Ensure diversity in your sample

It’s crucial to ensure that your sample represents a diverse set of consumers. This helps in capturing a wider range of perspectives, leading to richer insights. Make sure that your participants vary in age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and other demographic factors relevant to your study. The right consumer insights software helps you diversify your samples, but makes sure to check.

Validate and re-test

Once you’ve gathered your initial insights, it’s always a good practice to validate them with your entire consumer insight team . This could mean conducting a follow-up study, re-testing your hypotheses, or analyzing the data through another lens, making sure all teams are aligned. This ensures that the insights are robust and not just a one-off anomaly.

If you’re looking to conduct customer research and really want to dig deep—and not just scratch the surface of customer satisfaction numbers or basic personas—try Attest.

Our research platform help you get a deeper understanding of what moves your target consumers, leaving you with all the data you need to inform your strategies. You’ll get a dedicated research expert to support you along the way, and it’s an easy start from our templates .

Ready to get to know your customers?

Consumer research is the process of gathering, analyzing and interpreting information about a company’s target audience. This research helps brands understand consumer needs, preferences, behaviors, and motivations, allowing them to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and other business areas.

It’s always customer research ‘o clock somewhere. Consumer research should be conducted at various stages of a product or service lifecycle. This includes before a product launch (to understand market needs), post-launch (to gather feedback and refine), and periodically thereafter (to stay updated with changing consumer behaviors). It’s also crucial during brand repositioning, entering new markets, or when addressing specific challenges in the market.

It does depend on your specific goals and the tools you will use, but there is a general framework that you can draw inspiration from. Different consumer insight companies will follow slightly different processes, but the best consumer research process involves a series of structured steps: 1. Defining clear research objectives. 2. Selecting the appropriate research method (quantitative, qualitative, or a mix). 3. Designing the research tool (e.g., survey or focus group). 4. Collecting data from a representative sample (both qualitative data and quantitative data) 5. Analyzing and interpreting the data. 6. Presenting the findings in a comprehensible manner to stakeholders.

The specific questions in consumer research will vary based on objectives. However, some common questions include: – What factors influence your purchase decision? – How satisfied are you with our product? – What improvements would you like to see? – How does our brand compare to competitors? It’s essential to ask open-ended questions to capture comprehensive insights and ensure questions are unbiased to get genuine response

Consumer research provides brands with insights into their target audience’s needs, behaviors, and preferences, which is the guiding light for any successful brand. It enables them to create products and services that resonate with their audience, craft effective marketing strategies, identify market opportunities, and address challenges proactively.

Elliot Barnard

Customer Research Lead 

Elliot joined Attest in 2019 and has dedicated his career to working with brands carrying out market research. At Attest Elliot takes a leading role in the Customer Research Team, to support customers as they uncover insights and new areas for growth.

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How Market Research Tools are Transforming Consumer Insights

Unlocking consumer insights is the secret sauce to any successful marketing strategy in 2024. As the market rapidly evolves, so do consumer behaviors, presenting a puzzling landscape for marketers. This is where cutting-edge market research tools come into play, acting like a magnifying glass on consumer preferences and motivations. Imagine having a tool that not only collects vast amounts of data but also helps interpret it into actionable insights. Platforms like Discuss do just that, making sense of complex data through AI-powered qualitative research methods. You invest time and energy understanding these tools because they are game-changers—transforming mountains of raw data into crystal-clear strategies tailored to your consumers’ needs. Say nothing else.

Market research tools transform consumer insights by providing in-depth data analysis, enabling brands to understand consumer motivations, preferences, and behaviors. These tools empower companies to make data-driven decisions, tailor products and marketing campaigns, optimize the customer experience, and gain a competitive edge.

The Role of Market Research Tools

Market research tools form a bridge between brands and consumers, shedding light on valuable information that drives strategic decision-making. These tools are crucial for collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to reveal critical consumer insights. By harnessing advanced qualitative research methods powered by AI, platforms like Discuss facilitate a deeper understanding of consumer motivations, needs, and preferences.

Furthermore, the real-time nature of these insights is particularly beneficial; they enable brands to adapt swiftly to changing consumer behaviors and preferences. Armed with real-time insight, the brand can quickly pivot its marketing strategy to emphasize its commitment to sustainability, enhancing its resonance with environmentally conscious consumers.

Market research tools enable brands to make informed, data-driven decisions that resonate deeply with their target audience. As such, they play an indispensable role in shaping marketing strategies that are not only effective but also genuinely resonate with consumers’ needs and aspirations.

In essence, market research tools act as a compass guiding brands through the complexities of consumer behavior, steering them towards tailored strategies that foster meaningful connections with their audience.

Data Collection Methods

When it comes to understanding consumer behavior and preferences, effective data collection methods are crucial. Let’s explore some of the primary ways businesses gather crucial insights:

Surveys & Questionnaires

Surveys and questionnaires act as the friendly neighborhood detectives of market research. They ask targeted questions and await responses from willing participants. These structured inquiries help gather quantitative data, providing statistically significant insights when administered to a large, representative sample.

Realizing key aspects about surveys and questionnaires is crucial. First, clear and unbiased questions are essential to avoid influencing the responses received. Second, ensuring that the sample group closely represents the target audience is vital for accurate insights into consumer behavior.

Focus Groups

Imagine sitting in a room with a small group of your potential customers, listening to their thoughts, opinions, and ideas about your products or services. That’s what focus groups are all about. These live discussions provide qualitative insights into consumer attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions.

The interpretation of live discussions from focus groups is critical. Discuss’s video-first approach seamlessly hosts and analyzes these groups—enabling businesses to gain valuable insights while engaging directly with consumers.

Each of these data collection methods plays a crucial role in helping businesses gain deep insights into consumer behavior and preferences—an invaluable asset when it comes to developing effective marketing strategies.

Utilizing Advanced Analytics

In 2024, marketing has evolved beyond throwing out a message and hoping it sticks. It’s about ensuring that you’re reaching the right audience, at the right moment, and in the right way. This is where advanced analytics comes into play; it takes collected data and transforms it into invaluable insights.

Predictive models and machine learning algorithms act as personalized fortune-tellers. They analyze your data to forecast future trends. For instance, if a certain group of people purchases a specific product, these tools can help predict potential similar buyers, enabling better targeting.

By harnessing advanced analytics in this manner, businesses move away from guesswork. Instead, they gain a profound understanding of what truly resonates with their customers. Importantly, this isn’t confined to tech jargon; it heralds significant implications for marketing.

Advanced analytics processes raw data into insights that would be strenuous to uncover manually. This denotes the trajectory of marketing in 2024—it’s not just about possessing copious amounts of data; understanding how to smartly utilize it is paramount. In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital technology, innovative breakthroughs continue to redefine our interactions with the virtual sphere. Let’s journey onward to explore how these innovations are reshaping our digital experiences.

Innovations in Digital Technology

In our current digital age, technological advancements continue to reshape the way businesses conduct market research and gather consumer insights. Let’s take a closer look at some of the cutting-edge innovations that are revolutionizing this field.

AI and Machine Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning have become game-changers for market researchers. These powerful tools can rapidly process and analyze enormous volumes of data with remarkable speed and accuracy, far exceeding the capabilities of traditional methods. By leveraging AI, marketers can uncover hidden patterns, identify emerging trends, and anticipate future consumer behaviors with unprecedented precision.

Additionally, machine learning algorithms can continuously learn from new data, enabling them to adapt and evolve their analytical models over time. This dynamic capability empowers businesses to stay ahead of shifting market dynamics and make informed strategic decisions based on real-time insights.

Mobile Research Platforms

The widespread adoption of mobile technology has ushered in a new era of flexibility and convenience for data collection in market research. Mobile research platforms enable respondents to participate in surveys, interviews, and feedback sessions at their convenience, transcending geographical barriers and time constraints.

The portability of mobile devices empowers consumers to engage with research activities on-the-go, resulting in higher response rates and a more diverse pool of data. This accessibility fosters richer and more representative insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and opinions, thereby enhancing the overall quality and relevance of market research findings.

Heatmaps and Eye-Tracking

Visual feedback tools such as heatmaps and eye-tracking technology offer invaluable insights into consumer behavior and interaction with digital content. By generating visual representations of user attention and engagement patterns, these tools illuminate which elements of marketing materials capture audience interest and which areas are overlooked or ignored.

The data derived from heatmaps and eye-tracking studies empower marketers to optimize their digital content, websites, and advertisements for maximum engagement and impact. By understanding how consumers visually navigate through digital interfaces, businesses can tailor their marketing strategies to align closely with user preferences, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of their outreach efforts.

These innovative technologies exemplify the ongoing transformation in market research tools – empowering businesses to dive deeper into consumer insights, strengthen their understanding of behavior patterns, and craft more personalized marketing strategies that resonate with their target audiences.

As businesses continue to capitalize on these advanced technologies to unlock invaluable consumer insights, let’s now explore how these insights form the bedrock of a successful marketing strategy.

Strategy Built on Consumer Insights

Crafting a marketing strategy based on consumer insights is like using a map to navigate uncharted territory. Think of consumer insights as the compass guiding you toward success in engaging and retaining your target audience. It’s not just about throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks; it’s about precisely targeting your efforts where they’re most effective.

Consumer insights are like puzzle pieces that help you understand your audience — their preferences, needs, behaviors, and trends. By collecting and analyzing this data, you gain valuable knowledge that enriches every aspect of your marketing strategy, from product development to customer experience design.

Consumer insights serve as the cornerstone for resonating with your target market, almost like speaking their language.

More than ever before, consumers aren’t just looking for products; they’re seeking experiences and connections. Crafting a strategy built on consumer insights allows you to tailor your message and offerings to genuinely resonate with your audience.

For instance, imagine having deep knowledge about what excites and engages your consumers. This insight could inspire the creation of personalized products, relevant content, or immersive experiences that tap into their desires and aspirations. By leveraging these insights, you weave a more robust and authentic connection with your audience.

Not only does this build trust and loyalty, but it also lays the foundation for long-term relationships with consumers who genuinely believe in what your brand represents.

Instead of relying solely on guesswork or assumptions, brands that use consumer insights can make more informed decisions. Understanding consumer preferences directs resources to areas where they will have the greatest impact. This may mean refining product features, optimizing marketing channels, or tailoring customer service approaches to fit consumers’ expectations more closely.

As we continue our exploration of how market research tools transform marketing strategies in 2024, it’s fundamental to appreciate the pivotal role of consumer insights in shaping initiatives that truly resonate with your audience.

Future Trends and Applications

The future of market research is rapidly evolving as new technologies continue to shape the industry. One significant trend gaining momentum is the rise of AI-driven insights platforms like Discuss that utilize advanced algorithms to process and analyze vast amounts of data. These platforms are revolutionizing market research by providing faster, more cost-effective, and better insights.

Furthermore, the continued integration of big data analytics is transforming the way companies approach market research. With the sheer volume and variety of data available today, big data analytics allow businesses to uncover complex patterns, trends, and correlations within large datasets

For instance, tools like Discuss stand at the forefront of these developments, offering scalable solutions that deliver deep, actionable consumer insights. By utilizing an advanced AI system, Discuss empowers businesses to extract valuable information from diverse sets of qualitative data..

Staying ahead of these trends isn’t just about being innovative; it’s about enabling businesses to remain adaptable and responsive in an era of rapid change. Embracing AI-driven insights platforms, virtual reality for immersive research experiences, and big data analytics will be essential for businesses looking to thrive in the dynamic market environment of 2024.

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The past, present, and future of consumer research

Maayan s. malter.

1 Columbia Business School, Columbia University, New York, NY USA

Morris B. Holbrook

Barbara e. kahn.

2 The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA USA

Jeffrey R. Parker

3 Department of Marketing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL USA

Donald R. Lehmann

In this article, we document the evolution of research trends (concepts, methods, and aims) within the field of consumer behavior, from the time of its early development to the present day, as a multidisciplinary area of research within marketing. We describe current changes in retailing and real-world consumption and offer suggestions on how to use observations of consumption phenomena to generate new and interesting consumer behavior research questions. Consumption continues to change with technological advancements and shifts in consumers’ values and goals. We cannot know the exact shape of things to come, but we polled a sample of leading scholars and summarize their predictions on where the field may be headed in the next twenty years.

Introduction

Beginning in the late 1950s, business schools shifted from descriptive and practitioner-focused studies to more theoretically driven and academically rigorous research (Dahl et al. 1959 ). As the field expanded from an applied form of economics to embrace theories and methodologies from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and statistics, there was an increased emphasis on understanding the thoughts, desires, and experiences of individual consumers. For academic marketing, this meant that research not only focused on the decisions and strategies of marketing managers but also on the decisions and thought processes on the other side of the market—customers.

Since then, the academic study of consumer behavior has evolved and incorporated concepts and methods, not only from marketing at large but also from related social science disciplines, and from the ever-changing landscape of real-world consumption behavior. Its position as an area of study within a larger discipline that comprises researchers from diverse theoretical backgrounds and methodological training has stirred debates over its identity. One article describes consumer behavior as a multidisciplinary subdiscipline of marketing “characterized by the study of people operating in a consumer role involving acquisition, consumption, and disposition of marketplace products, services, and experiences” (MacInnis and Folkes 2009 , p. 900).

This article reviews the evolution of the field of consumer behavior over the past half century, describes its current status, and predicts how it may evolve over the next twenty years. Our review is by no means a comprehensive history of the field (see Schumann et al. 2008 ; Rapp and Hill 2015 ; Wang et al. 2015 ; Wilkie and Moore 2003 , to name a few) but rather focuses on a few key thematic developments. Though we observe many major shifts during this period, certain questions and debates have persisted: Does consumer behavior research need to be relevant to marketing managers or is there intrinsic value from studying the consumer as a project pursued for its own sake? What counts as consumption: only consumption from traditional marketplace transactions or also consumption in a broader sense of non-marketplace interactions? Which are the most appropriate theoretical traditions and methodological tools for addressing questions in consumer behavior research?

A brief history of consumer research over the past sixty years—1960 to 2020

In 1969, the Association for Consumer Research was founded and a yearly conference to share marketing research specifically from the consumer’s perspective was instituted. This event marked the culmination of the growing interest in the topic by formalizing it as an area of research within marketing (consumer psychology had become a formalized branch of psychology within the APA in 1960). So, what was consumer behavior before 1969? Scanning current consumer-behavior doctoral seminar syllabi reveals few works predating 1969, with most of those coming from psychology and economics, namely Herbert Simon’s A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice (1955), Abraham Maslow’s A Theory of Human Motivation (1943), and Ernest Dichter’s Handbook of Consumer Motivations (1964). In short, research that illuminated and informed our understanding of consumer behavior prior to 1969 rarely focused on marketing-specific topics, much less consumers or consumption (Dichter’s handbook being a notable exception). Yet, these works were crucial to the rise of consumer behavior research because, in the decades after 1969, there was a shift within academic marketing to thinking about research from a behavioral or decision science perspective (Wilkie and Moore 2003 ). The following section details some ways in which this shift occurred. We draw on a framework proposed by the philosopher Larry Laudan ( 1986 ), who distinguished among three inter-related aspects of scientific inquiry—namely, concepts (the relevant ideas, theories, hypotheses, and constructs); methods (the techniques employed to test and validate these concepts); and aims (the purposes or goals that motivate the investigation).

Key concepts in the late - 1960s

During the late-1960s, we tended to view the buyer as a computer-like machine for processing information according to various formal rules that embody economic rationality to form a preference for one or another option in order to arrive at a purchase decision. This view tended to manifest itself in a couple of conspicuous ways. The first was a model of buyer behavior introduced by John Howard in 1963 in the second edition of his marketing textbook and quickly adopted by virtually every theorist working in our field—including, Howard and Sheth (of course), Engel-Kollat-&-Blackwell, Franco Nicosia, Alan Andreasen, Jim Bettman, and Joel Cohen. Howard’s great innovation—which he based on a scheme that he had found in the work of Plato (namely, the linkages among Cognition, Affect, and Conation)—took the form of a boxes-and-arrows formulation heavily influenced by the approach to organizational behavior theory that Howard (University of Pittsburgh) had picked up from Herbert Simon (Carnegie Melon University). The model represented a chain of events

where I = inputs of information (from advertising, word-of-mouth, brand features, etc.); C = cognitions (beliefs or perceptions about a brand); A = Affect (liking or preference for the brand); B = behavior (purchase of the brand); and S = satisfaction (post-purchase evaluation of the brand that feeds back onto earlier stages of the sequence, according to a learning model in which reinforced behavior tends to be repeated). This formulation lay at the heart of Howard’s work, which he updated, elaborated on, and streamlined over the remainder of his career. Importantly, it informed virtually every buyer-behavior model that blossomed forth during the last half of the twentieth century.

To represent the link between cognitions and affect, buyer-behavior researchers used various forms of the multi-attribute attitude model (MAAM), originally proposed by psychologists such as Fishbein and Rosenberg as part of what Fishbein and Ajzen ( 1975 ) called the theory of reasoned action. Under MAAM, cognitions (beliefs about brand attributes) are weighted by their importance and summed to create an explanation or prediction of affect (liking for a brand or preference for one brand versus another), which in turn determines behavior (choice of a brand or intention to purchase a brand). This took the work of economist Kelvin Lancaster (with whom Howard interacted), which assumed attitude was based on objective attributes, and extended it to include subjective ones (Lancaster 1966 ; Ratchford 1975 ). Overall, the set of concepts that prevailed in the late-1960s assumed the buyer exhibited economic rationality and acted as a computer-like information-processing machine when making purchase decisions.

Favored methods in the late-1960s

The methods favored during the late-1960s tended to be almost exclusively neo-positivistic in nature. That is, buyer-behavior research adopted the kinds of methodological rigor that we associate with the physical sciences and the hypothetico-deductive approaches advocated by the neo-positivistic philosophers of science.

Thus, the accepted approaches tended to be either experimental or survey based. For example, numerous laboratory studies tested variations of the MAAM and focused on questions about how to measure beliefs, how to weight the beliefs, how to combine the weighted beliefs, and so forth (e.g., Beckwith and Lehmann 1973 ). Here again, these assumed a rational economic decision-maker who processed information something like a computer.

Seeking rigor, buyer-behavior studies tended to be quantitative in their analyses, employing multivariate statistics, structural equation models, multidimensional scaling, conjoint analysis, and other mathematically sophisticated techniques. For example, various attempts to test the ICABS formulation developed simultaneous (now called structural) equation models such as those deployed by Farley and Ring ( 1970 , 1974 ) to test the Howard and Sheth ( 1969 ) model and by Beckwith and Lehmann ( 1973 ) to measure halo effects.

Aims in the late-1960s

During this time period, buyer-behavior research was still considered a subdivision of marketing research, the purpose of which was to provide insights useful to marketing managers in making strategic decisions. Essentially, every paper concluded with a section on “Implications for Marketing Managers.” Authors who failed to conform to this expectation could generally count on having their work rejected by leading journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research ( JMR ) and the Journal of Marketing ( JM ).

Summary—the three R’s in the late-1960s

Starting in the late-1960s to the early-1980s, virtually every buyer-behavior researcher followed the traditional approach to concepts, methods, and aims, now encapsulated under what we might call the three R’s —namely, rationality , rigor , and relevance . However, as we transitioned into the 1980s and beyond, that changed as some (though by no means all) consumer researchers began to expand their approaches and to evolve different perspectives.

Concepts after 1980

In some circles, the traditional emphasis on the buyer’s rationality—that is, a view of the buyer as a rational-economic, decision-oriented, information-processing, computer-like machine for making choices—began to evolve in at least two primary ways.

First, behavioral economics (originally studied in marketing under the label Behavioral Decision Theory)—developed in psychology by Kahneman and Tversky, in economics by Thaler, and applied in marketing by a number of forward-thinking theorists (e.g., Eric Johnson, Jim Bettman, John Payne, Itamar Simonson, Jay Russo, Joel Huber, and more recently, Dan Ariely)—challenged the rationality of consumers as decision-makers. It was shown that numerous commonly used decision heuristics depart from rational choice and are exceptions to the traditional assumptions of economic rationality. This trend shed light on understanding consumer financial decision-making (Prelec and Loewenstein 1998 ; Gourville 1998 ; Lynch Jr 2011 ) and how to develop “nudges” to help consumers make better decisions for their personal finances (summarized in Johnson et al. 2012 ).

Second, the emerging experiential view (anticipated by Alderson, Levy, and others; developed by Holbrook and Hirschman, and embellished by Schmitt, Pine, and Gilmore, and countless followers) regarded consumers as flesh-and-blood human beings (rather than as information-processing computer-like machines), focused on hedonic aspects of consumption, and expanded the concepts embodied by ICABS (Table ​ (Table1 1 ).

Extended ICABS Framework after 1980

ICABS	Explanation
—information	Product categories hitherto neglected by marketing scholars, such as the arts, entertainment, and other cultural offerings.
—cognitions	Various dreams, daydreams, and subconscious thoughts lumped under the headings of “fantasies.”
—affect	A broader range of emotions such as joy, sorrow, love, hate, fear, anger, attraction, and disgust encompassed under the heading of feelings.
—behavior	Forms of consumption that go well beyond purchase commitments, including the expenditure of time as well as money on leisure products, games, playful activities, entertainment, and so forth, under the heading of “fun.”
—satisfaction	Consumer value broadly defined and represented by multiple interacted preference experiences (e.g., efficiency, excellence, status, esteem, play, esthetics, ethics, spirituality)

Methods after 1980

The two burgeoning areas of research—behavioral economics and experiential theories—differed in their methodological approaches. The former relied on controlled randomized experiments with a focus on decision strategies and behavioral outcomes. For example, experiments tested the process by which consumers evaluate options using information display boards and “Mouselab” matrices of aspects and attributes (Payne et al. 1988 ). This school of thought also focused on behavioral dependent measures, such as choice (Huber et al. 1982 ; Simonson 1989 ; Iyengar and Lepper 2000 ).

The latter was influenced by post-positivistic philosophers of science—such as Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, and Richard Rorty—and approaches expanded to include various qualitative techniques (interpretive, ethnographic, humanistic, and even introspective methods) not previously prominent in the field of consumer research. These included:

• Interpretive approaches —such as those drawing on semiotics and hermeneutics—in an effort to gain a richer understanding of the symbolic meanings involved in consumption experiences;
• Ethnographic approaches — borrowed from cultural anthropology—such as those illustrated by the influential Consumer Behavior Odyssey (Belk et al. 1989 ) and its discoveries about phenomena related to sacred aspects of consumption or the deep meanings of collections and other possessions;
• Humanistic approaches —such as those borrowed from cultural studies or from literary criticism and more recently gathered together under the general heading of consumer culture theory ( CCT );
• Introspective or autoethnographic approaches —such as those associated with a method called subjective personal introspection ( SPI ) that various consumer researchers like Sidney Levy and Steve Gould have pursued to gain insights based on their own private lives.

These qualitative approaches tended not to appear in the more traditional journals such as the Journal of Marketing , Journal of Marketing Research , or Marketing Science . However, newer journals such as Consumption, Markets, & Culture and Marketing Theory began to publish papers that drew on the various interpretive, ethnographic, humanistic, or introspective methods.

Aims after 1980

In 1974, consumer research finally got its own journal with the launch of the Journal of Consumer Research ( JCR ). The early editors of JCR —especially Bob Ferber, Hal Kassarjian, and Jim Bettman—held a rather divergent attitude about the importance or even the desirability of managerial relevance as a key goal of consumer studies. Under their influence, some researchers began to believe that consumer behavior is a phenomenon worthy of study in its own right—purely for the purpose of understanding it better. The journal incorporated articles from an array of methodologies: quantitative (both secondary data analysis and experimental techniques) and qualitative. The “right” balance between theoretical insight and substantive relevance—which are not in inherent conflict—is a matter of debate to this day and will likely continue to be debated well into the future.

Summary—the three I’s after 1980

In sum, beginning in the early-1980s, consumer research branched out. Much of the work in consumer studies remained within the earlier tradition of the three R’s—that is, rationality (an information-processing decision-oriented buyer), rigor (neo-positivistic experimental designs and quantitative techniques), and relevance (usefulness to marketing managers). Nonetheless, many studies embraced enlarged views of the three major aspects that might be called the three I’s —that is, irrationality (broadened perspectives that incorporate illogical, heuristic, experiential, or hedonic aspects of consumption), interpretation (various qualitative or “postmodern” approaches), and intrinsic motivation (the joy of pursuing a managerially irrelevant consumer study purely for the sake of satisfying one’s own curiosity, without concern for whether it does or does not help a marketing practitioner make a bigger profit).

The present—the consumer behavior field today

Present concepts.

In recent years, technological changes have significantly influenced the nature of consumption as the customer journey has transitioned to include more interaction on digital platforms that complements interaction in physical stores. This shift poses a major conceptual challenge in understanding if and how these technological changes affect consumption. Does the medium through which consumption occurs fundamentally alter the psychological and social processes identified in earlier research? In addition, this shift allows us to collect more data at different stages of the customer journey, which further allows us to analyze behavior in ways that were not previously available.

Revisiting the ICABS framework, many of the previous concepts are still present, but we are now addressing them through a lens of technological change (Table ​ (Table2 2 ). In recent years, a number of concepts (e.g., identity, beliefs/lay theories, affect as information, self-control, time, psychological ownership, search for meaning and happiness, social belonging, creativity, and status) have emerged as integral factors that influence and are influenced by consumption. To better understand these concepts, a number of influential theories from social psychology have been adopted into consumer behavior research. Self-construal (Markus and Kitayama 1991 ), regulatory focus (Higgins 1998 ), construal level (Trope and Liberman 2010 ), and goal systems (Kruglanski et al. 2002 ) all provide social-cognition frameworks through which consumer behavior researchers study the psychological processes behind consumer behavior. This “adoption” of social psychological theories into consumer behavior is a symbiotic relationship that further enhances the theories. Tory Higgins happily stated that he learned more about his own theories from the work of marketing academics (he cited Angela Lee and Michel Pham) in further testing and extending them.

ICABS framework in the digital age

ICABS	Explanation
—information	Consumers get their get information from different source-social media, peer to peer reviews, and websites for every product and have access to far more information (admittedly of greatly varying degrees of veracity) than before.
—cognitions	How does technology impact consumer cognition. For instance, attention is divided more than ever across our myriad devices and multi-tasking is the norm for most people.
—affect	Increasing effective polarity and stark mood swings arising from the combination of (1) never-ending streams of media and news exposing consumers to very positive and negative ideas and events and (2) the increased prevalence of confirmation biases arising from “fake” sources/news.
—behavior	The consequences for moral/ethical actions and perceptions of outsourcing decisions and responsibilities to technology, the replacement of intimate interpersonal relation sips of relationships with one’s phone, online game person/ avatar, and the like.
—satisfaction	The dramatic shift in satisfaction from a personal to a shared experience, industries, and firms (e.g., Yelp) built solely on markets of consumer satisfaction ratings.

Present Methods

Not only have technological advancements changed the nature of consumption but they have also significantly influenced the methods used in consumer research by adding both new sources of data and improved analytical tools (Ding et al. 2020 ). Researchers continue to use traditional methods from psychology in empirical research (scale development, laboratory experiments, quantitative analyses, etc.) and interpretive approaches in qualitative research. Additionally, online experiments using participants from panels such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and Prolific have become commonplace in the last decade. While they raise concerns about the quality of the data and about the external validity of the results, these online experiments have greatly increased the speed and decreased the cost of collecting data, so researchers continue to use them, albeit with some caution. Reminiscent of the discussion in the 1970s and 1980s about the use of student subjects, the projectability of the online responses and of an increasingly conditioned “professional” group of online respondents (MTurkers) is a major concern.

Technology has also changed research methodology. Currently, there is a large increase in the use of secondary data thanks to the availability of Big Data about online and offline behavior. Methods in computer science have advanced our ability to analyze large corpuses of unstructured data (text, voice, visual images) in an efficient and rigorous way and, thus, to tap into a wealth of nuanced thoughts, feelings, and behaviors heretofore only accessible to qualitative researchers through laboriously conducted content analyses. There are also new neuro-marketing techniques like eye-tracking, fMRI’s, body arousal measures (e.g., heart rate, sweat), and emotion detectors that allow us to measure automatic responses. Lastly, there has been an increase in large-scale field experiments that can be run in online B2C marketplaces.

Present Aims

Along with a focus on real-world observations and data, there is a renewed emphasis on managerial relevance. Countless conference addresses and editorials in JCR , JCP , and other journals have emphasized the importance of making consumer research useful outside of academia—that is, to help companies, policy makers, and consumers. For instance, understanding how the “new” consumer interacts over time with other consumers and companies in the current marketplace is a key area for future research. As global and social concerns become more salient in all aspects of life, issues of long-term sustainability, social equality, and ethical business practices have also become more central research topics. Fortunately, despite this emphasis on relevance, theoretical contributions and novel ideas are still highly valued. An appropriate balance of theory and practice has become the holy grail of consumer research.

The effects of the current trends in real-world consumption will increase in magnitude with time as more consumers are digitally native. Therefore, a better understanding of current consumer behavior can give us insights and help predict how it will continue to evolve in the years to come.

The future—the consumer behavior field in 2040 1

Niels Bohr once said, “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.” Indeed, it would be a fool’s errand for a single person to hazard a guess about the state of the consumer behavior field twenty years from now. Therefore, predictions from 34 active consumer researchers were collected to address this task. Here, we briefly summarize those predictions.

Future Concepts

While few respondents proffered guesses regarding specific concepts that would be of interest twenty years from now, many suggested broad topics and trends they expected to see in the field. Expectations for topics could largely be grouped into three main areas. Many suspected that we will be examining essentially the same core topics, perhaps at a finer-grained level, from different perspectives or in ways that we currently cannot utilize due to methodological limitations (more on methods below). A second contingent predicted that much research would center on the impending crises the world faces today, most mentioning environmental and social issues (the COVID-19 pandemic had not yet begun when these predictions were collected and, unsurprisingly, was not anticipated by any of our respondents). The last group, citing the widely expected profound impact of AI on consumers’ lives, argued that AI and other technology-related topics will be dominant subjects in consumer research circa 2040.

While the topic of technology is likely to be focal in the field, our current expectations for the impact of technology on consumers’ lives are narrower than it should be. Rather than merely offering innumerable conveniences and experiences, it seems likely that technology will begin to be integrated into consumers’ thoughts, identities, and personal relationships—probably sooner than we collectively expect. The integration of machines into humans’ bodies and lives will present the field with an expanding list of research questions that do not exist today. For example, how will the concepts of the self, identity, privacy, and goal pursuit change when web-connected technology seamlessly integrates with human consciousness and cognition? Major questions will also need to be answered regarding philosophy of mind, ethics, and social inequality. We suspect that the impact of technology on consumers and consumer research will be far broader than most consumer-behavior researchers anticipate.

As for broader trends within consumer research, there were two camps: (1) those who expect (or hope) that dominant theories (both current and yet to be developed) will become more integrated and comprehensive and (2) those who expect theoretical contributions to become smaller and smaller, to the point of becoming trivial. Both groups felt that current researchers are filling smaller cracks than before, but disagreed on how this would ultimately be resolved.

Future Methods

As was the case with concepts, respondents’ expectations regarding consumer-research methodologies in 2030 can also be divided into three broad baskets. Unsurprisingly, many indicated that we would be using many technologies not currently available or in wide use. Perhaps more surprising was that most cited the use of technology such as AI, machine-learning algorithms, and robots in designing—as opposed to executing or analyzing—experiments. (Some did point to the use of technologies such as virtual reality in the actual execution of experiments.) The second camp indicated that a focus on reliable and replicable results (discussed further below) will encourage a greater tendency for pre-registering studies, more use of “Big Data,” and a demand for more studies per paper (versus more papers per topic, which some believe is a more fruitful direction). Finally, the third lot indicated that “real data” would be in high demand, thereby necessitating the use of incentive-compatible, consequential dependent variables and a greater prevalence of field studies in consumer research.

As a result, young scholars would benefit from developing a “toolkit” of methodologies for collecting and analyzing the abundant new data of interest to the field. This includes (but is not limited to) a deep understanding of designing and implementing field studies (Gerber and Green 2012 ), data analysis software (R, Python, etc.), text mining and analysis (Humphreys and Wang 2018 ), and analytical tools for other unstructured forms of data such as image and sound. The replication crisis in experimental research means that future scholars will also need to take a more critical approach to validity (internal, external, construct), statistical power, and significance in their work.

Future Aims

While there was an air of existential concern about the future of the field, most agreed that the trend will be toward increasing the relevance and reliability of consumer research. Specifically, echoing calls from journals and thought leaders, the respondents felt that papers will need to offer more actionable implications for consumers, managers, or policy makers. However, few thought that this increased focus would come at the expense of theoretical insights, suggesting a more demanding overall standard for consumer research in 2040. Likewise, most felt that methodological transparency, open access to data and materials, and study pre-registration will become the norm as the field seeks to allay concerns about the reliability and meaningfulness of its research findings.

Summary - Future research questions and directions

Despite some well-justified pessimism, the future of consumer research is as bright as ever. As we revised this paper amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it was clear that many aspects of marketplace behavior, consumption, and life in general will change as a result of this unprecedented global crisis. Given this, and the radical technological, social, and environmental changes that loom on the horizon, consumer researchers will have a treasure trove of topics to tackle in the next ten years, many of which will carry profound substantive importance. While research approaches will evolve, the core goals will remain consistent—namely, to generate theoretically insightful, empirically supported, and substantively impactful research (Table ​ (Table3 3 ).

Future consumer behavior research questions

Future research questions	Explanation
1. How does the new generation of consumers differ from past generations?	Consumers are digitally native; many enact purchase behavior through their mobile phones first.
2. Where do consumers go for information and how do they weight information from different sources?	Consumers rely more on social media for their information; so, brands must learn how to promote through those channels, which include bloggers and influencers. Given the digitally connected world, peer-to-peer evaluations and reviews are increasingly influential in preference formation, perceptions, and choice.
3. What values drive consumer decisions?	Consumers have increasing concern about sustainability, healthy lifestyles, and fair labor practices—in sum, social responsibility—factors that have a growing influence on their purchase decisions. This means that although consumers remain brand loyal, they are now loyal to different brands from those favored by previous generations.
4. What do consumers expect from retailers?	Consumers think about retailers as an omni-channel entity. They expect seamless integration of information and marketing across all channels—brick-and-mortar, online, and mobile.
5. How have computational advances changed the retailer-consumer relationship?	Omni-channel retailing creates “Big Data,” which more sophisticated retailers can and do use to personalize and customize the shopping experience. By using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), marketers can predict consumers’ attitudes and, in turn, recommend products based on individual preferences. Savvy marketers can mix a consumer’s past behavior with information from other consumers and expert advice in making recommendations. Recommendation systems have greatly changed the shopping journey in that consumers are offered “ideal” options without having to search. This technological advancement also allows consumer researchers to study the customer experiences during the whole customer journey, and not just on product transactions.
6. What implications do these changes have for personal data privacy and security?	Discourse over answering this question is and will remain a critical central debate between policy-makers, firms, and individuals in the years to come.
7. How will major global shifts change how and what we consume?	The COVID-19 pandemic is still unfolding, but we already see that it will have a major impact on every aspect of life. We are just beginning to see how it is affecting consumption during the crisis and can only take wild guesses as to what its long-term influence will be. Now that the world is so interconnected, this and other global events can have impacts that drive change in consumer behavior.

At any given moment in time, the focal concepts, methods, and aims of consumer-behavior scholarship reflect both the prior development of the field and trends in the larger scientific community. However, despite shifting trends, the core of the field has remained constant—namely, to understand the motivations, thought processes, and experiences of individuals as they consume goods, services, information, and other offerings, and to use these insights to develop interventions to improve both marketing strategy for firms and consumer welfare for individuals and groups. Amidst the excitement of new technologies, social trends, and consumption experiences, it is important to look back and remind ourselves of the insights the field has already generated. Effectively integrating these past findings with new observations and fresh research will help the field advance our understanding of consumer behavior.

1 The other papers use 2030 as a target year but we asked our survey respondents to make predictions for 2040 and thus we have a different future target year.

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Essential Market Research Techniques for Businesses

Nathan Thompson

Nathan is a revenue-focused marketing leader. By day he manages Demand Gen right here at Copy.ai, by night he enjoys family time in the Rocky Mountains!

What is Market Research?

Making informed decisions is crucial for success. Market research is your secret weapon for gathering valuable insights about your target audience, industry trends, and competitors. Understand your customers' needs and preferences, and you'll develop products, services, and marketing strategies that hit the mark.

Market research involves collecting and analyzing data about your target market, competitors, and industry. Its purpose? To help you make data-driven decisions that minimize risks and maximize opportunities. Techniques like surveys, focus groups, and data analysis offer a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and the competitive landscape.

In any industry, market research is your ticket to staying ahead of the curve. Whether you're a small startup or a large corporation, understanding your market is essential for growth and profitability. Conduct regular market research to identify new opportunities, anticipate challenges, and adapt to changing market conditions. It helps you develop effective pricing strategies, identify new customer segments, and create targeted marketing campaigns.

Moreover, market research boosts business success by enabling better alignment across go-to-market (GTM) teams. When sales, marketing, and product development teams access the same customer insights and market data, they collaborate more effectively towards common goals. Misalignment across GTM teams can lead to missed opportunities and wasted resources. Leverage market research to foster collaboration and ensure all teams work towards the same objectives.

The benefits of market research are numerous and far-reaching. From improving decision-making to gaining a competitive edge, market research is an invaluable tool for businesses of all sizes and industries. In the next section, we'll dive into these benefits in more detail and discuss how market research can help your business thrive.

Benefits of Market Research

Market research can be your secret weapon for business success. Dive into the data pool, and here's what you'll fish out:

Improved decision-making: Market research hands you the golden ticket to understanding consumer behavior, market trends, and competitor strategies. With this intel, you can make decisions that hit the bullseye of your audience's needs and preferences. This isn't just guesswork; it's a strategy shield against costly mistakes, ensuring your business plans are rooted in reality.

Better customer understanding: Use surveys, focus groups, and interviews to become a customer whisperer. You'll uncover their pain points, motivations, and buying habits. This treasure trove of insights lets you craft products, services, and marketing campaigns that strike a chord with your audience, boosting satisfaction and loyalty.

Competitive advantage: Peek into your competitors' playbooks to spot their strengths, weaknesses, and market positions. Market research reveals the gaps they've missed, giving you the chance to swoop in with unique value propositions and snag that untapped market share. Plus, staying clued-in on your competitors' moves helps you pivot swiftly in the ever-changing market landscape.

Effective market research isn't just a broad business boon; it supercharges areas like content marketing . By tuning into your audience's preferences and pain points, you can create content that not only attracts but also engages potential customers, driving conversions and building long-term relationships.

Key Components of Market Research

Market research is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle; each piece offers a unique glimpse into your target market, competitors, and industry trends. Let's break it down into primary research, secondary research, qualitative research, and quantitative research.

1. Primary Research

Primary research is your direct line to the consumer. Think of it as a backstage pass to their thoughts, preferences, and behaviors. Here are some ways to get that VIP access:

• Surveys: These are your go-to for gathering data from a large crowd, whether online or offline.
• Focus Groups: Imagine a roundtable chat with handpicked participants to dive deep into specific topics.
• Interviews: One-on-one conversations with customers or industry experts to uncover nuanced insights.
• Observations: Watch and learn from consumer behavior in real-world settings like retail stores or online platforms.
• Field Trials: Test your products or services with a select group to gather feedback and make tweaks.

2. Secondary Research

Secondary research is your treasure hunt through existing data. It's often quicker and cheaper than primary research but no less valuable. Here’s where to dig:

• Competitive Analysis: Study your competitors' strategies, offerings, and market positioning to spot opportunities and threats.
• Public Data: Tap into government stats, industry reports, and academic research to get the lay of the land.
• Purchased Data: Buy data from market research firms or data aggregators for specialized insights.
• Sales Data Analysis: Dive into your own sales data to identify patterns, customer segments, and areas for improvement.

Understanding influencer marketing can also be a goldmine in secondary research. Analyzing influencers' reach, engagement, and impact in your industry can reveal consumer preferences and trends.

3. Qualitative Research

Qualitative research is all about the stories behind the numbers. It's your chance to get up close and personal with consumer attitudes, motivations, and experiences. Here’s how to do it:

• In-depth Interviews: These semi-structured conversations let you explore individual thoughts and feelings in detail.
• Focus Groups: Group discussions that reveal how consumers interact and influence each other’s opinions.
• Observational Research: Study consumer behavior in natural settings, like homes or workplaces, to understand their daily routines and decision-making processes.

Combine these market research components to get a 360-degree view of your target market. Armed with this knowledge, you can make informed decisions that drive growth and success. Next up, we'll dive into how to implement these market research techniques effectively to supercharge your business strategy.

How to Implement Market Research

Implementing market research effectively is like nailing a stand-up routine—you need strategy, timing, and a keen sense of your audience. Ready to dive in? Here’s your step-by-step guide to making your market research not just effective, but also a bit of fun:

Step-by-Step Guide

• Define objectives: Think of this as your opening joke—it sets the tone. Clearly outline what you aim to achieve through your market research. Are you identifying target customers, assessing market potential, or evaluating competitor strategies? Well-defined objectives guide your research process and ensure you gather relevant data.
• Choose methods: Select market research methods that align with your objectives. Mix it up with primary research (surveys, focus groups, interviews) and secondary research (competitive analysis, public data). Decide whether qualitative or quantitative methods, or a mix of both, will provide the insights you need.
• Collect data: Time to hit the streets (or the spreadsheets). Execute your chosen research methods to gather data. For primary research, design surveys, conduct interviews, or moderate focus groups. For secondary research, analyze existing data sources such as industry reports, government statistics, or competitor websites. Ensure data accuracy and representativeness of your target market.
• Analyze data: Once you’ve got the goods, analyze the information to uncover patterns, trends, and insights. Use statistical techniques for quantitative data and thematic analysis for qualitative data. AI tools can streamline data analysis, identifying key findings more efficiently.
• Report findings: Compile your market research findings into a comprehensive report. Highlight key insights, trends, and recommendations. Use data visualization techniques to make the information easily digestible for stakeholders. Present the report to relevant teams and decision-makers to inform business strategies.

Best Practices and Tips

To ace your market research game, let's dive into some best practices and tips:

Ensure data accuracy: Accurate data is your golden ticket to smart decisions. Double-check your sources, survey questions, and data entry to keep errors at bay. And don't just take any secondary data at face value—verify its reliability and credibility before it makes the cut.

Maintain objectivity: Keep your personal biases in check. Your research design, data collection, and analysis should be as impartial as a referee at a championship game. Gather diverse opinions to get a well-rounded view of your target market.

Use appropriate tools: Equip yourself with the right tools to streamline your market research and boost data accuracy. Enter Copy.ai, your GTM AI Platform hero, ready to provide insights and automate the boring stuff so you can focus on the big decisions.

Now, let's talk about some common market research blunders to steer clear of:

• Leaning too hard on a single data source or method
• Crafting leading or biased survey questions
• Skipping the step of defining clear research objectives
• Overlooking the importance of segmenting your target market
• Ignoring the limitations of your research methods
• Overinterpreting or generalizing from a tiny sample size

Stick to these best practices and dodge these pitfalls, and your market research will churn out reliable, actionable insights that drive your business forward.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Market research can feel like navigating a minefield, but knowing the common pitfalls can save you from stepping on a data disaster. Let's dive into these traps and how to dodge them.

Bias in data collection tops the list of frequent errors. Imagine a researcher with a hidden agenda—sounds like a bad movie plot, right? But it happens. Researchers sometimes let their own preconceptions sneak into the questions they ask or how they interpret responses. The antidote? Use neutral language in surveys and interviews, and have multiple researchers review the data. Think of it as a bias-busting team effort.

Next up, the inadequate sample size blunder. Picture trying to understand a forest by examining just one tree. A too-small sample won't represent the larger population, leading to skewed results and poor decisions. To sidestep this, calculate the right sample size based on your research goals and target market. It's like making sure you have enough ingredients before cooking a feast.

And then there's the trap of ignoring secondary data. While primary research like surveys and focus groups is your bread and butter, don't forget the side dishes—industry reports, government stats, and competitor analysis. These secondary data sources provide essential context and can either validate or challenge your primary findings. Mixing both primary and secondary data gives you a full-course meal of market understanding.

Luckily, you don't have to go it alone. Tools like Copy.ai, the premier GTM AI platform, can help you gather and analyze data with precision, reducing bias and ensuring a robust sample size. In the next section, we'll dive into these tools and resources, showing you how to conduct market research like a pro.

Tools and Resources

To turbocharge your market research, dive into these top-notch tools and resources:

Survey Tools

• SurveyMonkey: Create, distribute, and analyze surveys with ease on this user-friendly platform. With a plethora of customizable templates and question types, SurveyMonkey fits businesses of all sizes like a glove.
• Google Forms: As part of the Google Suite, this free, intuitive tool makes survey creation and sharing a breeze. Its seamless integration with other Google products ensures smooth data collection and analysis.

Data Analysis Tools

• SPSS: IBM's SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is your go-to for advanced statistical analysis. It offers a robust set of tools for data management, analysis, and visualization. Think of it as your data's best friend.
• Tableau: Create interactive, shareable dashboards and reports with this data visualization software. Tableau's user-friendly interface lets you explore and analyze data without needing a Ph.D. in computer science.

Social Media Listening Tools

• Hootsuite: Known for social media management, Hootsuite also excels in social listening. Monitor brand mentions, track sentiment, and extract valuable insights from social media chatter.
• Brandwatch: This AI-powered tool helps you decode consumer sentiment, identify influencers, and keep tabs on competitors. Brandwatch's advanced analytics and data visualization features make it a market research powerhouse.

For an extra edge, check out AI-powered solutions for sales prospecting . These tools not only identify potential customers but also streamline your research process by gathering relevant data efficiently.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is market research.

Market research is the art and science of gathering and analyzing data about target markets, customers, and competitors to inform business decisions. Think of it as your business's detective work. Using a mix of surveys, focus groups, and data analysis, you can uncover consumer behavior, market trends, and the competitive landscape. This intel helps you understand your customers' needs, preferences, and pain points, allowing you to craft products, services, and marketing strategies that hit the bullseye with your target audience.

How do I choose the right market research method?

Choosing the right market research method is like picking the right tool from a toolbox—it depends on your objectives, budget, timeline, and the type of data you need. Want to dive deep into customer attitudes and motivations? Go for qualitative methods like focus groups or interviews. Need to gather heaps of quantitative data? Surveys or data analysis are your best friends. Consider the complexity of your research question, the level of detail required, and the resources at hand. Often, a combination of methods gives you a well-rounded view of your market.

What are the benefits of market research?

Market research is like a Swiss Army knife for businesses, offering a plethora of benefits:

• Improved decision-making: Data-driven insights help you make informed choices about product development, pricing, marketing, and more.
• Better customer understanding: Learn what makes your customers tick—their needs, preferences, and behavior—so you can tailor your offerings and communication.
• Competitive advantage: By analyzing the competitive landscape, you can spot opportunities to stand out and gain a market edge.
• Reduced risk: Validate market demand and feasibility with data, minimizing the risk of launching flops or entering dead-end markets.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction: Create products and services that meet customer expectations, boosting satisfaction and loyalty.
• Increased efficiency: Optimize your resources by identifying the most effective marketing channels, product features, and target segments, leading to smarter allocation of time and budget.

And let's not forget the tech twist. Emerging technologies like AI-powered sales calls can offer invaluable insights into customer behavior and preferences. By analyzing customer interactions, you can gain a deeper understanding of your audience and fine-tune your offerings.

In a nutshell, market research is your go-to tool for making informed decisions, understanding your customers, and gaining a competitive edge. By picking the right methods and leveraging the benefits of market research, you can fine-tune your strategies and drive long-term success. Ready to dive in? Start by defining your research objectives, exploring various methods, and seeking guidance from market research pros or resources.

Final Thoughts

Market research isn't just a nice-to-have; it's your secret weapon for making smart decisions, understanding your customers, and staying ahead of the competition. Dive into primary and secondary research, mix in some qualitative and quantitative methods, and you've got a recipe for insights that drive growth and profitability.

We've journeyed through the essentials of market research: surveys, focus groups, interviews, competitive analysis, and data crunching. Setting clear objectives, picking the right methods, gathering accurate data, and reporting findings effectively are all part of the game.

Market research isn't a one-and-done deal; it's an ongoing commitment to understanding your customers and market trends. Make it a cornerstone of your business strategy to boost customer satisfaction, develop better products and services, and achieve long-term success.

Want to supercharge your market research? Explore how AI can streamline and optimize your efforts. AI-powered tools like Copy.ai's GTM AI Platform can help you analyze mountains of data, spot patterns, and generate actionable insights faster than ever.

Ready to elevate your business with market research? Download our comprehensive guide, packed with templates, checklists, and case studies to get you started. If you have questions or need guidance, our team of market research experts is just a call away.

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University Libraries

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COM 3310 Communication Research Methods

Communication research methods, journal articles, newspaper articles, market research reports, how to judge credibility of sources and find peer reviewed articles, literature search: sources and tips, data, statistics, and scales search, related research guides.

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• Video Tutorials & Online Courses

• Communication Methods and Measures 
• Communication Reports
• Communication Research Reports
• International Journal of Qualitative Methods
• International Journal of Social Research Methodology 
• International Review of Qualitative Research
• Journal of Methods and Measurement in the Social Sciences  
• Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research
• Methodology: European Journal of Research Methods for the Behavioral & Social Sciences  
• Social Science Research
• Qualitative Inquiry
• Qualitative Research: QR

An excellent tool on social science research methods includes over 1000 methods books, 1100 case studies, reference works, journal articles, and instructional video tutorials by world-leading academics from across the social sciences. In addition, the full-text titles from the Sage’s Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences series(“The Little Green Books”) and Qualitative Research Methods Series ("The Little Blue Books”) books are available.

Video tutorials on the SAGE Research Methods Online database

• Access to research methods books from the Sage publisher, along with video tutorials, case studies, and more 
• Questionnaire/survey design
• Survey Monkey 
• Google Forms  
• NVivo 
• Tableau (information visualization tool) training 
• Self-paced and instructor-led online courses on research methods, comprising an engaging mix of content, video, interactives, and formative assessments. Register or sign in to your personal account to access Sage Campus.  
• Qualtrics Survey Tutorials from Purdue University 

Journal Articles

Communication & Mass Media Complete (CMMC) offers full-text and cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, rhetoric, language, logic, and other closely related fields. Content includes more than 440 full-text journals, Cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for 670 journals, and 5,500 author profiles.

Abbreviation: cmmc Vendor: EBSCO Subjects: Communication, Communication Disorders, Marketing Type: E-Journal Collections

• FSU OneSearch (the library catalog)
• Google Scholar

Newspaper Articles

Nexis Uni offers a simple, intuitive research experience with flexible search options and tools to help guide students through common research tasks. Nexis Uni offers the same trusted content collection of more than 15,000 news, legal and business sources that students and librarians alike have come to expect from LexisNexis, while also providing a better research experience.

Content : Briefs, Pleadings and Motions Cases Company and Financial Directories Law Reviews and Journals Legal News News Statutes and Legislation Abbreviation: nexis Vendor: LexisNexis Subjects: Business, Business Legal Studies, Communication, Hospitality, Law, Psychology, Public Administration and Policy, Sociology Type: Directories, Historical / Primary Sources, Newspapers and Newswires, Proceedings

Find current and archived state, national, and international full-text articles on issues, events, people, government and more with over 4,500 newspapers and other news sources including the Miami Herald (5/19/82–Current), Orlando Sentinel (4/1/85–Current), and USA Today (7/1/87–Current). Also includes: Access Business News, Access International News, Access Military, Government, and Defense, Access Newswires & Transcripts, and Acceda Noticias.

Log into NewsBank and create an account to save your search history, save articles, save searches, and create Email alerts. To Create an Alert  

• Enter a search that you're interested in.
• On the results page click on Set up an Alert.
• Choose to create the alert as a registered user or without registering.
• Specify the frequency by which you'd like to receive your alerts.
• If there are new results, NewsBank will send them to you in an email.

Please note that FSU does not having a data-mining subscription with Newsbank, downloading entire series or papers is prohibited . Abbreviation: awn Vendor: NewsBank Coverage: 1903-Current Subjects: Communication, Hospitality Type: Newspapers and Newswires

Market Research Reports 

• Mintel Academic This link opens in a new window Mintel Reports offers product and industry market research reports covering US and International marketplaces. Each report combines data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles. Complex demographic issues are broken into easy-to-understand sections, explaining consumer behavior and demonstrating the structure of the market. more... less... Industries covered include : Automotive Beauty Consumer Electronics Digital Media Drink Financial Services Food Foodservice Health & Wellness Household Personal Care Packaging Retail Sport & Entertainment Travel & Tourism Tutorials : Interactive Databook Training (10:39) A 10-minute tutorial video on how to navigate Interactive Databook, how to explore demographics, and customize your own consumer data report. Abbreviation: mintel Vendor: Mintel International Group Coverage: 2001Current Subjects: Business, Communication, Hospitality, Marketing Type: Datasets / Statistics, Reports
• Questions to Ask
• How to Find Peer Reviewed Articles
• Fact Checking

Evaluating the sources you find on a topic is an important part of your research activity. Not all information you find is valid, useful, or accurate. Some questions you need to ask while searching for and reading an information source are:

• Is the information relevant and valid for my research?
• Is my topic covered in enough depth that the source will be helpful?
• Is the content of the source fact, opinion, or propaganda?
• How current is the information provided? 
• If for a journal article, is the article peer-reviewed? 

• FactCheck.org: A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center
• SPJ Toolbox: Presented by the Society of Professional Journalists
• How to Connect Terms
• Search Example: Quantitative Research Articles
• Search Example: Qualitative Research Articles

Use the Boolean Operators and Modifiers to connect your search terms. 

• AND narrows your search by combining two or more terms      “rural planning” AND “food desert”
• OR broadens your search by including either of the terms      “city planning” OR “urban planning”
• NOT excludes specific terms from your search      “environmental disasters” NOT “pollution”
• Phrase searching: “ “ to find exact matches for a specific sequence of words                    “smart cities” planning practices
• Truncation and wildcards: * ? ! to handle spelling variations                    Affordab* AND housing
• Nesting search terms: ( ) for a long, complicated search query                   (“autonomous OR “self-driving” OR robotic OR automated OR unmanned OR “remote-controlled” OR independent) AND (vehicle* OR car*)
• Field Code search: Search by Title, Abstract, Author, Company, Publication Title, etc.

Quick video tutorials (from McMaster University) :

• How Library Stuff Works: Boolean Operators (AND OR NOT) (3m:43s)
• How Library Stuff Works: Boolean Modifiers "", *, ( ) (3m:34s)

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Library Databases

• Statista This link opens in a new window Statista is a leading provider of market and consumer data. Statista consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources. more... less... Abbreviation: stati Vendor: Statista Subjects: Business, Communication, Demography and Population Studies, Economics, Hospitality, Marketing, Public Health, Urban and Regional Planning Type: Datasets / Statistics
• DemographicsNow (Gale Business) This link opens in a new window Demographics Now has been developed by SRC, LLC to bring you the data you need to make sound business decisions. With DemographicsNow you can analyze the demographic and market potential of any geography in the U.S. more... less... Abbreviation: demnow Vendor: Gale Subjects: Communication, Demography and Population Studies, Geography, Hospitality, Public Health Type: Datasets / Statistics, Maps
• RKMA Market Research Handbooks This link opens in a new window Richard K. Miller & Associates (RKMA), founded in 1972, publishes handbooks focused on marketing and the consumer marketplace. more... less... Abbreviation: rkmabk Vendor: Richard K. Miller & Associates Subjects: Business, Communication, Hospitality, Management & Strategy, Marketing, Sport Management Type: E-Book Collections
• Library books on marketing scales

Public Opinions

IPOLL, from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, is a full-text database of 500,000 questions from national public opinion surveys since 1935 and updated daily. iPOLL includes survey results data from academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, ABC, CBS, Wall Street Journal and many more. Many data sets are available for download in ASCII or SPSS format.

Tutorials : iPOLL Quick Guide (pdf) Introduction to New Roper iPoll (02:01) Conducting a Search in Roper iPoll (04:59) Abbreviation: ipoll Vendor: Cornell University Coverage: 1935-Current Subjects: Anthropology, Communication, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Demography and Population Studies, Economics, Geography, Human Development & Family Science, Information Studies, International Affairs, Law, Political Science, Psychology, Public Administration and Policy, Public Safety and Security, Retail Entrepreneurship, Social Work, Sociology, Urban and Regional Planning Type: Datasets / Statistics

• Pew Research Center (explore topics)

Health Statistics 

• National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
• MedlinePlus Health Statistics
• World Health Organization (WHO)’s Global Health Observatory
• U.S. Census Bureau
• The premier source for detailed population and housing information about the U.S. 
• Data on expenditures, income, and demographic characteristics of consumers in the United States.

FSU Student Statistics

• FSU Office of Institutional Research

Statistics on College Students

• Almanac of Higher Education (from The Chronicle of Higher Education)
• Open Doors (for international students in the U.S. and American students studying abroad)

• You can get some stats on college students from academic journals or news articles (e.g., Chronicle of Higher Education , or Inside Higher Ed ). Depending on your research topics, you may search PsycINFO for psychology, ERIC for education, or CINAHL for public health and health communication. 
• Sometimes, but not always, research articles have the questionnaire they used in the appendix or supplementary materials. 
• Dissertations and theses are great if you want the full scoop on a research project. They often have survey questionnaires, interview transcripts, and more. 
• Last Updated: Sep 9, 2024 12:46 PM
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JSmol Viewer

Integrating sustainability and circular economy into consumer-brand dynamics: a saudi arabia perspective.

1. Introduction

1.1. research question, 1.2. research objectives.

• Objective 1: Assess Consumer Perceptions of Brand Personality
• Objective 2: Examine the Impact of Self-Congruence on Consumer Choices
• Objective 3: Investigate the Relationship between Brand Loyalty and Sustainability

2. Literature Review

2.1. conceptual foundation of brand personality, functional and symbolic aspects, 2.2. theoretical perspectives on brand loyalty, 2.3. self-congruence theory in marketing, self-congruence and brand loyalty, 2.4. sustainability and ce, 2.4.1. global sustainability trends, 2.4.2. sustainability in consumer markets, 2.4.3. principles of ce, 2.4.4. ce in developing economies, 2.4.5. ce and consumer engagement, 2.5. consumerism in saudi arabia, 2.5.1. the intersection of luxury and sustainability, 2.5.2. emergent consumer trends and economic crises, 2.5.3. consumerism and societal transformation, 3. materials and methods, 3.1. theoretical framework, 3.2. population, sample, and sampling technique, 3.3. survey instrument and data collection, 3.4. hypothesis, 3.5. data analysis, 3.5.1. non-parametric principal component analysis (pca), 3.5.2. non-parametric tests for group comparisons, 3.5.3. partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem), 4.1. the demographic distribution of the participants, 4.2. brand personality.

• Gender Analysis: The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare ABPS scores between males and females. The test revealed no significant difference in ABPS between genders (U = 37,276.0, p = 0.7629), indicating that gender does not significantly influence perceptions of brand personality [ 56 ].
• Age Groups: Differences in ABPS across age groups were analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis H test. The results showed significant variations in ABPS across different age groups (H = 41.05, p < 0.0001), with the 36–45 age group exhibiting the highest median ABPS and the 76+ age group the lowest [ 55 ]. This suggests that age plays a significant role in shaping brand personality perceptions.
• Qualification Levels: The Kruskal–Wallis H test was also applied to compare ABPS across different qualification levels. The analysis revealed significant differences (H = 25.88, p = 0.00023), indicating that educational background influences how participants perceive brand personality.
• Correlation with Age: The relationship between ABPS and age was further explored using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. The analysis found a significant negative correlation (rho = −0.173, p = 0.0000132), suggesting that as age increases, alignment with brand personality tends to decrease [ 59 ].

4.3. Brand Loyalty

4.3.1. factors influencing brand loyalty, 4.3.2. brand engagement, 4.3.3. comparative brand engagement, 4.4. consumer sustainability orientation, 4.4.1. sustainability metric.

• X is an individual’s response on the Likert scale.
• min ( X ) represents the minimum value of the Likert scale responses in the dataset, which is 1 in this context.
• max ( X ) denotes the maximum value of the Likert scale responses, which is 5 for this dataset.

4.4.2. Demographic Influence on Sustainability Metrics

4.5. brand personality and sustainability purchase decisions, 4.6. brand loyalty and sustainability purchase decisions, 4.7. influence of circular practices on brand loyalty, 4.8. the impact of demographics on sustainable purchasing, 4.8.1. impact of gender on sustainable purchase components, 4.8.2. impact of age on sustainable purchase components, 4.8.3. impact of qualification on sustainable purchase components, 4.8.4. impact of job status on sustainable purchase components, 4.8.5. impact of income level on sustainable purchase components, 4.8.6. impact of marital status on sustainable purchase components, 4.9. impact of preferred brand on sustainable purchase behavior, 5. discussion, 5.1. brand personality and sustainable choices, 5.2. brand loyalty’s influence on sustainable consumption in saudi arabia, 5.3. ce’s role in enhancing brand loyalty, 5.4. demographic determinants of sustainable consumer behavior, 5.5. theoretical alignment, 5.6. implications of research, 6. conclusions, future research, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest, appendix a. survey questionnaire.

• Prefer not to answer
• High school or less
• Vocational certificate
• Some college, did not complete degree
• Bachelor’s degree
• Master’s degree
• Unemployed, looking for work
• Unemployed, not looking for work
• Self-employed
• Part-time employed
• Full-time employed
• Less than 25,000
• 26,000–49,999
• 50,000–74,999
• 75,000–99,999
• 100,000–149,000
• More than 150,000
• Less than a year
• More than 10 years
• Only use free products/services
• Once a year
• Every 4–6 months
• Every 2–3 months
• Once a month
• Once a week
• Several times a week
• Product or service quality
• Brand reputation
• Brand’s sustainability efforts
• Customer service
• Social responsibility initiatives
• Strongly disagree
• Strongly agree
• I feel that my favorite brand aligns with my personality.
• I see my favorite brand as a reflection of the person I aspire to be.
• I think my favorite brand represents the type of person I want to become.
• Reducing usage
• Reusing products
• Repairing products
• Refurbishing products
• Remanufacturing
• Repurposing
• I support the concept of the circular economy or resource recycling.
• I am familiar with the circular economy concept and its practices in Saudi Arabia.
• When considering purchasing a product from my favorite brand, I am concerned about the durability and lifespan of the product.
• I support purchasing used products in Saudi Arabia.
• I prefer to contribute with friends in buying products and services together rather than buying them alone.
• I am willing to pay more for a product if I know it is environmentally friendly and sustainable.
• I often discard products that still work or contain useful parts.
• I am very interested in the Saudi government setting policies and regulations to encourage the circular economy or recycling.
• I prefer to buy expensive branded products and replace them when they break or wear out, rather than buying products I can keep, repair, and reuse.
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Click here to enlarge figure

Test	Variable	Statistic	p-Value
Kruskal–Wallis H Test	Age Groups	41.05	<0.0001
Kruskal–Wallis H Test	Qualification Levels	25.88	0.00023
Mann–Whitney U Test	Gender	37,276.0	0.7629
Spearman’s Rank Correlation	Age	−0.173	0.0000132

Survey Question	Weighted Mean Percentage	Standard Deviation
I will consider switching for more sustainable brand	0.55	1.0966
I support the CE Concept in Saudi Arabia	0.67	1.2204
I have good CE knowledge in Saudi Arabia	0.54	1.1435
I care about the product’s durability and lifespan when purchasing	0.69	1.2423
I favor purchasing used products in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia	0.52	1.1628
I prefer buying products and services with friends rather than alone	0.53	1.1693
I will pay more for an eco-friendly product	0.52	1.1855
I often discard a still-functional product	0.39	1.2592
I strongly support the Saudi government in implementing CE and recycling policies	0.66	1.1853
I choose repairable, high-cost brands over disposable ones	0.47	1.2156

Circular Practice	Coefficient (β)
Downcycling	0.0047
Product Refurbishment	0.0580
Product Repair	0.0163
Recycling	−0.0214
Reduce use	−0.0021
Re-manufacturing	0.0121
Reuse	0.0199
Upcycling	−0.0051

Hypothesis	Description	Result	Supporting Results
H0-1	Brand personality traits have no significant impact on sustainable purchase decisions among Saudi consumers.	Rejected	PLS-SEM showed that brand personality explains 16.8% of the variance in sustainable purchasing decisions, indicating a significant influence.
H1-1	Brand personality traits significantly influence sustainable purchase decisions.	Accepted	The positive relationship between brand personality and sustainable purchasing was statistically significant (p-value < 0.001).
H0-2	Brand loyalty components do not significantly influence sustainable purchase decisions among Saudi consumers.	Rejected	PLS-SEM analysis revealed a significant coefficient (0.1661, p = 0.007) between brand loyalty and sustainable purchasing, although with a low R-squared value of 1.17%.
H1-2	Brand loyalty components significantly affect sustainable purchase decisions.	Accepted	The model’s results confirmed the influence of brand loyalty on sustainable purchasing behaviors, despite the modest R-squared value.
H0-3	CE practices have no significant impact on brand loyalty among Saudi consumers.	Partially Rejected	The analysis showed that while CE practices do influence brand loyalty, the overall impact is minimal (R-squared = 0.0051), with specific practices like product refurbishment showing some positive impact.
H1-3	Specific CE practices significantly impact brand loyalty.	Partially Accepted	Although the overall effect of CE practices on brand loyalty is low, some practices like product refurbishment demonstrated a positive association, indicating selective influence.
H0-4	Demographic variables (such as age, gender, and income level) do not significantly affect sustainable purchase decisions among Saudi consumers.	Rejected	The PLS-SEM analysis revealed significant impacts of demographic variables like age and gender on sustainable purchasing decisions, particularly highlighting generational differences.
H1-4	Demographic variables significantly influence sustainable purchase decisions.	Accepted	Age, gender, and income level were found to influence sustainable purchasing decisions, with younger consumers and higher-income groups more likely to engage in sustainable behaviors.

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Share and Cite

Abu-Bakar, H.; Almutairi, T. Integrating Sustainability and Circular Economy into Consumer-Brand Dynamics: A Saudi Arabia Perspective. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 7890. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16187890

Abu-Bakar H, Almutairi T. Integrating Sustainability and Circular Economy into Consumer-Brand Dynamics: A Saudi Arabia Perspective. Sustainability . 2024; 16(18):7890. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16187890

Abu-Bakar, Halidu, and Tariq Almutairi. 2024. "Integrating Sustainability and Circular Economy into Consumer-Brand Dynamics: A Saudi Arabia Perspective" Sustainability 16, no. 18: 7890. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16187890

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Assistant Professor Position in Sociology: Open Research Specialty, Quantitative Methods Apply now to Assistant Professor Position in Sociology: Open Research Specialty, Quantitative Methods

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