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. Show
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. 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 issues 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. Consumer Research ObjectivesWhen 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. Consumer Research ModelAccording 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 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. 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. 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 ProcessThe 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. The consumer research process can be broken down into the following steps:
After Consumer Research ProcessOnce 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 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:
Consumer Research MethodsConsumers 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:
The 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:
Proof of concept Businesses can test how well accepted their marketing ideas are by:
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:
Branding tests and user experience You can determine how your customers feel with their brands and product names by:
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:
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 QuestionsAsking 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:
See more consumer research survey questions: Customer satisfaction surveys Voice of customer surveys Product surveys Service evaluation surveys Mortgage Survey Questions Importance of Consumer ResearchLaunching 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. 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:
Explore more: 300 + FREE survey templates to use for your research What are the 4 types of personal selling?The four types of selling. Transactional selling.. Solution selling.. Consultative selling.. Provocative selling.. What are the 4 types of customers?4 Customer Personality Types & How To Handle Them. The Analytical. People who possess this personality look for facts and figures in a sales presentation. ... . The Amiable. The Amiable are respectful, sociable, and trustworthy. ... . The Expressive. ... . The Driver.. What are the types of selling?The 9 types of selling that define today's sales landscape. Transactional selling.. Solution selling.. Consultative selling.. Provocative selling.. Collaborative selling.. Social Selling.. Partnership Selling.. High-Pressure Selling.. What is crossExamples of cross selling include: Fast food restaurants asking: “Do you want fries with that?” eCommerce websites showing “customers also bought” A mobile phone retailer suggesting a customer buys a new case for their new phone.
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