Back in the day, market research consisted mainly of tapping into as big a consumer pool as possible, with little thought given to culturally diverse demographics. In the past few years, as the struggle to achieve social justice and equality has gained prominence, market research experts have begun changing research methodology to more accurately reflect the vast array of consumers, some of who may have been excluded in the past.

This strategy is crucial for companies seeking to expand into international markets. As we have noted before, brands sometimes “fail to appreciate the diversity within a region or indeed a country.” Only by determining the nuances of different geographical areas, cultures, and consumers “can you get an accurate picture of what people value and whether your products and services might succeed.” 

The goal of this form of research is to achieve genuinely inclusive results. It involves reaching out to typically underrepresented minorities, irrespective of gender, age, race, sexual preference, religion, or disability status. 

By casting an increasingly wide net, market research methods can potentially lead to new demand for products or services and the opportunity to break into new markets. At the very least, the process can result in a deeper understanding of customers’ diverse perspectives and needs, which most experts deem crucial for business growth.

What happens if a brand chooses not to adopt an inclusive approach to surveying customers? This will: 

  • Engender resentment among potential survey participants who don’t see their interests represented in the questions.
  • Result in desired participants choosing to opt-out of the survey.
  • Engender a negative association with the brand sponsoring the survey

There is a huge untapped market for a brand’s products and services among under-served communities. It’s up to businesses to shift their focus and take a more inclusive approach to market research.

Engaging with Underrepresented Audiences

Is there any significant difference between “diversity” and “inclusivity” concepts? 

Yes, says Forbes, noting that diversity reflects “a variety of perspectives or customers.” At the same time, an inclusive focus “goes one step further, engaging those perspectives to improve product satisfaction and use, workplace culture and productivity, new product launches and marketing campaigns.”

To benefit from inclusive market research, brands must first acknowledge that all consumers do not view and use their products in the same fashion. It’s a big first step since marketing strategies often focus on tapping into as large a target audience as possible rather than complicate the process by focusing on one or another historically excluded population.

Inclusive research and design “invite more perspectives and uncovers previously unseen consequences of exclusion,” notes Medium. This approach “provides the opportunity to equalize, protect, uplift, connect, foster equity, promote truth, mitigate bias, instil dignity, empower and democratize.”

That may seem like a tall order, but inclusive research with people outside the mainstream can open the floodgates to new growth opportunities—a strategy no brand can afford to ignore.

Benefits of an Inclusive Approach

The more an organization learns about various target audiences, the more it can tailor its products or services to meet those differing needs. Benefits of inclusive research include:

  • Boosting profits. As Medium notes, “Inclusive product development will help to build products that more people can use,” which paves the way towards new sales and revenue.
  • Avoiding legal entanglements. In our litigious era, it’s not unusual for under-represented communities to seek legal redress when they feel their needs are not considered or met. Also, a brand that neglects specific built-in components of inclusive research (such as providing accessibility for disabled customers) runs the risk of being drawn into legal battles that are both costly and time-consuming.
  • Matching a brand’s mission with its actions. Most international brands hold themselves to high standards for “walking the walk” of their mission and value statements. Committing to an inclusive approach to marketing and design can help support those values by broadening the scope and impact of serving previously under-served communities.

Adopting an inclusive approach to market research will likely mean higher costs and use of resources, at least initially. But the potential for breaking into new markets (and reaping the financial rewards of that break-through) is more than justifying the expenses involved.

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Guiding the Way to Genuine Inclusivity

Adopting certain fundamental principles can help make inclusive market research efforts more informative and successful. Here are guides to foster research with a more significant pay-off:

  • Make a personal commitment to inclusivity. Business leaders who publicly advocate an inclusive approach to market research should make sure they reflect that commitment on a personal level. Educating yourself about the benefits of inclusive marketing research makes it easier to understand what these differing demographics hold essential. 
  • Watch your language. When was the last time you and your team looked hard at your marketing materials to determine if non-offensive language is employed? One option: Assign an internal “inclusivity czar” (with at least some rudimentary knowledge of under-represented communities) to closely review all the content on your website and in your marketing materials. If language exists that some communities find offensive or demeaning, chances are they will go elsewhere for their business needs.
  • Be on the lookout for “survey bias.” Be scrupulous in making sure that those individuals charged with creating a market research survey are as “bias-free” as humanly possible. A diverse team of researchers is probably the best way to avoid unintentional biases.
  • Get expert guidance. While there may be a handful of executives who “get” inclusivity right away, it’s likely true that the majority have a lot to learn on the subject. At the outset of an inclusive market research project, consider enlisting the services of experts in the field. This includes experts with knowledge of specific underrepresented communities, experts on the language and terminology popular within those communities, and others who are prominent within these groups of potential consumers who can speak with authority on their needs and challenges. 

RSA recommends that brands “include a diverse perspective at all stages of the research process and product/software/talent life cycle evaluation by incorporating inclusive testing parameters to ensure results are reflective of all users.”

Getting things right at the outset can help when it comes to reaping the rewards of comprehensive, inclusive market research. 

Build a More Inclusive Team

It stands to reason that if a brand seeks to broaden its appeal through inclusive market research, at least some of the people involved represent a diverse range of perspectives. This principle further justifies efforts to take a more inclusive approach to recruiting for the organization. 

As Inc. notes, “If representation only matters in your marketing, and not in your team building, then consumers get the signal that diversity, inclusion, and belonging aren’t as important to you as you would have them believe.” People can sense that brands “are only being representative in their marketing just to get diverse and niche consumers to spend money with them.”

A diverse team is more likely to understand differences in demographics and approach research with respect and sensitivity the process requires.

What Customers Want

Within the past few years, diverse communities have seen themselves reflected in brand marketing strategies. Their response to this change has been overwhelmingly positive, yet another compelling reason to commit time and resources to inclusive market research. 

According to Savy, a digital marketing agency, “a recent study conducted by Accenture found that 42% of ethnically diverse shoppers are more likely to switch to a brand committed to inclusion and diversity.” What’s more, “41% of LGBTQ shoppers would switch to a business dedicated to inclusivity and diversity.”

In other words, committing to inclusive market research paves the way to identifying—and then reaching out to—communities that have waited for generations to see themselves reflected in advertising and marketing. The likelihood of those communities flocking to a brand that emphasizes inclusive marketing is strong and can foster accelerated growth as a result. 

Every customer group is different. In many cases, a third-party research firm can partner with a brand to develop the best approach to inclusive marketing research. At Kadence, we draw upon our extensive toolkit of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to understand the needs of these under-served communities. The result is:

  • More productive research
  • Valuable insights into different demographics
  • Gaining a step on the competition 

By bringing companies closer to their customers, a third-party research firm can embed rich understanding across your organization and promote more effective, customer-centric decision-making. 

For some, 2021 is a year best forgotten. But from a marketers and researchers perspective 2021 certainly revealed some interesting insight into changing consumer behaviours and demands.

Here we have compiled the best of our trend reports and guides from 2021 all in one convenient place.

This report is specially designed for companies looking to grow their presence in Asia and is based on the analysis of local experts across Kadence International’s eight Asian offices.

DOWNLOAD the full report here

Getting the Most from your Research Budget

We developed a framework for getting the most out of your market research budget, which could be useful as you plan your projects for any year.

DOWNLOAD the full report here

The Ultimate Guide to New Market Entry

This guide covers when to consider entering a new market, how best to approach the research you’ll need to support you as well as practical information on the different market entry strategies available to you. 

READ the full guide here

Segmentation in Uncertain Times

The pandemic has caused people’s behaviours, wants and needs to change. Segmentation is an important tool to understand your target better, but also to help identify new or emerging expectations from brands.

WATCH the full 12 minute video here

Harnessing Augmented Reality

In this groundbreaking package testing research, we partnered with Asahi and their signature brand Fuller’s London Pride using augmented reality to garner feedback on new product labeling. This innovative approach resulted in great data, a satisfied client and numerous awards within the research industry.

LEARN more about the test and watch the video here

If there was ever a year when health and wellness was at the forefront of consumers minds, 2021 was it. We looked at some key global trends that are emerging, and the behaviours and expectations fueling these trends.

DOWNLOAD the trend report here

As soon as you think you understand market research, something brand new comes along to challenge everything you thought you knew. With the rapid evolution of technology, those moments seem to be happening more than ever.

Today’s market research campaign looks very different from how it would ten or even five years ago, and technology is one of the major driving forces behind the evolution of market research. Every year brings a slew of new tools, techniques, and platforms built to make research more accessible and more effective.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most important things that have changed in market research due to technology, and we’ll also explore what new changes could be lying in wait in the near future.

Market research technology: what has changed?

Over the last several years, there have been several significant technological changes that have impacted market research. 

Technology has changed how industries operate, and market research is no exception. Advancements in technology have seen a rise in the self-service model, where brands can implement their own short surveys. But perhaps the most significant impact technology has had on the market research industry is agility. Market research technology allows researchers to quickly test, measure, and pivot projects.

Technology allows traditional research briefs to move past online surveys. For example, eye-tracking technology enables researchers to observe shoppers exhibiting their natural behaviours while walking around a real or virtual store, making note of fixation and gaze points. This can be highly revealing in usability studies, product and package testing, and shopping research.

Here are some of the main forces driving the evolution of market research.

Social media

It’s hard to believe that social media has only been around since the early 2000s. In the two decades since its inception, social media has transformed our lives, and market research is no exception.

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more offer unique insights into your market and customers. These platforms are home to enormous reservoirs of data on your audience, providing unfiltered and direct feedback around how they’re feeling, what they want, their pain points, and hopes and desires. It’s also easier than ever to share surveys and questionnaires, collect attendees for focus groups, and much more.

Another benefit of social media is more accessible competitor analysis, allowing you to gain an easy glimpse into what other companies in your space are doing and saying, what marketing techniques they are using, and what’s working.

Observing customer behaviour

The explosion in personal technology devices like smartphones, IoT gadgets, Alexa, smart cars, and wearables make it far easier to observe the behaviour of your audience members and collect valuable insights in real-time. Even mobile apps can collect customer data and establish behaviour patterns.

Wearable technology is one of the most recent developments in this area. Gadgets like the Oura Ring, Fitbit, Apple Watch, Rayban stories, and much more allow researchers to observe customer behaviour as it takes place naturally in the real world. This gives a unique insight into how customers behave that can never be truly replicated in experimental conditions and can pick up on responses that customers themselves might not even notice.

Automation

It’s never been easier to analyze data and draw valuable conclusions, thanks to the vast leaps made in automation technology in recent years. The growing amount of audience data available to marketers can now be processed and analyzed much more efficiently, allowing you to gain valuable insights and learn as much as possible about your customers and how they behave.

Chatbots are another example of the power of automation in market research. These tools can ask questions and conduct basic surveys from social media apps and websites, allowing you to communicate with customers and collect valuable information in seconds without relying on time-consuming manual work by human staff.

Increased reliance on video and remote collaboration

Spurred on by the pandemic, video collaboration tools, and remote meetings have skyrocketed in popularity and ease of access. There are many advantages to this for market research, such as a shift away from in-person focus groups. 

Researchers no longer need to hire a venue, convince large numbers of people to take the time out of their day to attend, employ multiple staff on the ground, and do all the other logistical tasks involved in a physical interview. Instead, the whole thing can occur via a Zoom call, saving enormous amounts of time and resources for both interviewer and interviewees. This also allows you to contact a much broader sample of participants without being bound by geographic location.

Reach much larger and more diverse audiences 

Not so long ago, market researchers were confined to methods like postal surveys, local interview sessions, and phone calls. Technology — specifically the internet — has allowed researchers to radically expand their horizons, reaching audiences in far-flung parts of the country and even distant parts of the world.

It’s now easy to conduct real-time interviews and focus groups with people several timezones away, allowing companies to gain a much bigger and richer picture of their audiences. This is especially important for international market research but is also helpful to achieve a complete understanding of your audience as a whole.

Build richer buyer personas

As it becomes increasingly easier to collect data from your audience and analyze it in vast amounts, it becomes possible to build much richer and more detailed profiles for your audience members.

The buyer personas of the past were often vague, two-dimensional things, often built around vague generalizations and assumptions. The small amount of data available to researchers decades ago made it challenging to construct genuinely accurate and useful personas.

Today, with the enormous amount of data made available by technology and the internet, you can learn a lot about the people in your audience and build genuinely valuable and richly detailed buyer personas to inform your marketing decisions, product development, and much more.

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What the future holds for market research technology

As time goes on, market research will likely continue to evolve, driven by entirely new advancements in technology. Some of these developments will come as a surprise and may be unexpected side-effects of existing or planned technology. We can also predict some future trends based on what we already know.

Tools like AR and VR

Virtual reality and augmented reality open up a whole host of exciting new possibilities for market research. Both tools allow for much more interactive research where participants can use products and experience services in a completely immersive way without leaving their homes.

This makes it much easier to gauge responses, observe behaviour, and collect meaningful feedback without shipping large amounts of physical products to participants’ homes or asking them to travel to a research site.

One example is how Kadence worked with Asahi, using augmented reality to research a new packaging design. Participants used AR to generate models of beer bottles, allowing them to visualize what the bottle would look like in their own homes and provide more accurate and detailed feedback around specific details.

More use of voice assistants

Today, voice assistants are already popular, with tools like Siri and Alexa quickly becoming a central part of people’s everyday lives. These voice tools allow a unique insight into customers’ daily experience and behaviour, and if this data can be collected ethically, it has excellent value for market researchers.

More agility

Increased agility is a fascinating prospect for market researchers as technology advances. In the past, researchers were forced to take risky gambles instead of using a more flexible approach and making adjustments as needed.

With the ubiquity of data in today’s world, businesses can now take a more agile approach to market research, making quick and frequent changes and course corrections in response to the feedback they get from various channels. This trend could mark one of the most significant changes in how we conduct research over the coming years and suggests a step away from over-reliance on guesswork and individual opinion.

Technology has had an enormous impact on how businesses conduct market research, and as time goes on, that impact is likely to increase. The best thing market researchers and companies can do is be open-minded and prepared to embrace new technologies as they evolve.

At Kadence, we can help you harness all the newest and future technologies to conduct market research most productively and effectively, gaining valuable insights into your audience and getting ahead of the competition. Find out more.

This summary of the report, “The Asian Consumer: 4 Key Trends for the Next Normal,” examines the purchasing trends, consumer characteristics, and brand preferences of major Asian markets that embody a unique national and cultural identity.

If you want to grow your company’s presence in Asia, make sure you read the full report here. 

This report is based on the analysis of local experts across Kadence International’s eight Asian offices: China, India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan.

In this summary, let’s look at how four driving forces are changing the consumer landscape in major Asian markets.

Read the full report to determine what drives consumer interest and engagement in individual countries in the region. 

Trend One: Changes in food and shopping patterns

Since the beginning of 2020, wet markets have taken a hit in popularity and accessibility throughout the Asia Pacific region, just like the rest of the world. This trend is unlikely to change substantially in the coming years, and therefore, Asian consumers are starting to look for food and grocery alternatives.

Read the full report to learn more about the impact of COVID19 on wet markets across major South Asian countries, including China, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia. 

There is a burgeoning demand for meal kits and prepared foods. Asian consumers are lured toward meal kits not only due to their convenience and simplicity but also the healthy food options and the high-quality food products included in these popular “Next Gen TV Dinners.”

Read the full report to discover the key players in the Meal Kits market in China. 

While most industry experts don’t predict the demise of wet markets and wildlife trade any time soon, changes in Asian consumer behaviors and preferences in what food they eat and how they purchase it continue to evolve.

Adopt a Cow, a new entrant in dairy within China, capitalized on these changes to capture the dairy market that two leading Chinese dairy brands previously dominated. Adopt a Cow connected with China’s consumers in a way that spoke to their evolving tastes and behaviors. 

Read this intriguing case study to discover how this new dairy brand broke into the market and faced its competition head-on, ultimately becoming the leading dairy company in China. 

Trend Two:  In the age of Zoom, work from home has altered how we work and live at home. 

The WFH employment trend is destined to stay in some form well into 2022 and beyond. Even after the pandemic, the Asian workforce will continue working 80% from home in some hybrid form. For Asian consumers, this translates into not just the way they work, but even more so, a new relationship with the space in which they now both live and work.

Unlike workers in both China and Japan, employees in India prefer video conferences rather than in-person meetings. It is also interesting that companies in Asia do not embrace remote working options for their employees as readily as businesses in the West.

Japan has some of the lowest WFH employees in all of Asia. Like many households throughout the region, Japanese remote workers deal with small, overcrowded home environments and cramped spaces that are less conducive to productivity. In many parts of Japan, space has always been tight and comes at a premium. 

Savvy homebuilders in Japan knew it was time to rethink the Tiny House model into Tiny Home Office structures.

Read the case study to learn how a real estate company found a market among those struggling to work in tight spaces at home with Tiny Home Office. 

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Trend Three: Gen Z and the demand for customizable consumer goods.

Gen Z is poised to set market trends for many years to come.

According to McKinsey & Company, Asia’s consumerism is rapidly growing and expected to reach 3 billion by 2030, a 50 percent increase from today’s consuming class.

Discover how the convergence of personalization and social media influencers drives consumer engagement for Gen Z Asian consumers in the full report here.

To build a personal brand on TikTok, Gen Z Asian consumers feel the need to create a unique personal online identity. This is why they gravitate toward products that allow room for personalization, customization, and exclusivity.

While many major luxury brands have jumped on the customization trend, the best example of the popularity of personalization comes from a rubber shoe company.

Learn how Crocs exploded in the Asian Marketplace through customization and celebrity influencers.

India is among the top five nations globally in beauty and cosmetics manufacturing and distribution. Mass beauty in India possesses a market value of more than $11 billion, with an additional $3 billion if you add hair care and personal hygiene products. There is also a growing market for customizable beauty products.

Discover the exceptional opportunities for industry innovators entering the Indian beauty market in the case study when you download the full report here.

Trend Four: The rise of Electric Vehicles. 

China is the global leader in electromobility, with a 5.75 percent market share of electric cars in the Asia Pacific region.

Even though September 2021 car sales in China took a 17 percent dip year over year, electric automobile sales in the country trended up with a jaw-dropping 355,000 registered electric vehicles that month. The year-over-year growth rate was more than 170 percent, and these Chinese consumer buying trends are expected to continue to grow well into the future. 

Japan is lagging in this category with a 0.64% market share. India follows Japan occupying the seventh position with a relatively low 0.06% market share.

On the other hand, Singaporean consumers welcome the onset of the age of electric cars. 

Sales of Teslas in Singapore have also substantially increased throughout 2021, rising from just 30 cars sold in the first six months of the year to nearly 500 in Q3 alone, even though these cars cost more than three times the cost of the US sticker price.

Read the full report to discover EV trends and consumer demand in all major countries in the region. 

Entering a domestic market is one thing, but expanding overseas is something else entirely. Moving to a new, international market comes with a range of unique challenges that require a strategic approach with empirical methods.

It’s crucial to understand and anticipate these differences to avoid nasty surprises and give yourself the best chance of success when entering a foreign market. This article will explore the key differences between market research in international and domestic markets.

How are international and domestic market research similar?

While the differences are vast, there are also some areas where domestic market research is similar to its international counterpart.

For example, certain research methods work well in both environments. Interviews, surveys, focus groups, secondary research, and experiments work well domestically and internationally. The way you analyse and process the data you collect will also stay roughly the same.

That said, the actual day-to-day process of market research in an international environment can sometimes be drastically different from what you’re used to back home.

What are the differences between domestic and international market research?

1. It’s a different culture.

No matter how similar, every international market has nuances in its culture. This culture may be akin to your home market, like the US and Canada, or radically different, like the UK and Japan. But even with very similar cultures, there will still be significant differences to consider.

Here are some ways cultural differences can impact market research:

  • Language. Interacting with the people in your market, understanding the culture, and conducting research are all much harder in a foreign language. You’ll often need to hire translators to communicate effectively, and it’s easy for crucial details to get lost in translation. Note – this also includes different dialects within the same language.
  • Expectations and preferences. A product or service that works exceptionally well in your domestic market may fail dismally abroad simply due to different tastes and cultural norms. Understanding this will need to be a key part of your research.
  • Causing offence. It’s essential to respect the local culture in your target market and avoid offending with your research techniques. Everything from linguistic choices to the clothes you wear should be considered and researched beforehand.

Your research must be carefully designed to address these concerns and also work within them — certain types of research may not work very well in an overseas market.

2. There may be infrastructure issues.

If your business is based in a developed, industrialised part of the world, you may take some aspects of market research for granted. Things like reliable postal services, easy access to large venues for focus groups, and widespread internet connectivity are not a given in many parts of the world, which can significantly impact your research.

Working in a new overseas market entails new infrastructure challenges. For example, in a country with poor smartphone coverage, you’re unlikely to have much success with in-app surveys or SMS questionnaires. These challenges can quickly mount up and lead to unexpected delays or setbacks in your research.

3. International market research involves higher risk.

Overseas markets involve more variables than domestic ones, so there is more scope for failure. The good news is that you can tap into more potential growth in an international market, but this extra reward comes at a higher risk.

Many overseas market entry attempts fail because there is so much more to be aware of and so much that can go wrong. Failing to anticipate certain conditions or challenges, like slower transport and shipping, can lead to major delays and significant losses.

You’re entering what might be a completely different market from anything you’ve known before, with a huge amount to prepare and consider. This means research is essential and must be much more rigorous than your home market. It would help if you did everything possible to anticipate risks and minimise your chances of failure.

4. International market research comes with a higher cost.

Conducting market research always costs money, and that cost can be substantially higher in a foreign market than at home. There are several reasons for this:

  • You need to do more research in general to gain a solid understanding of a completely new and different market.
  • You need to hire a range of staff on the ground like translators and people to carry out various research tasks. Unlike in your home market, where you can repurpose some of your employees, you need to vet and hire entirely new people in a new country.
  • You need to hire venues. Again, you can’t just use your premises if you haven’t established a presence in your target market, which means you’ll need to hire and pay for venues like conference centres for research activities like focus groups.
  • You need to build an entirely new research infrastructure from scratch. This includes planning postal campaigns, building software for in-app surveys, collecting email addresses, and much more.
  • Setbacks will happen. Doing anything in a new foreign market is complex, and you’ll encounter many delays, unexpected problems, and barriers at first. These can significantly disrupt your research efforts, costing time and money.

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5. You need to understand your competitors more than ever.

It’s always necessary to understand your competition, which is a key component of any market research process. Unlike a domestic market, many of your competitors may be completely unknown to you in a new international market.

To stand a chance of success in your target market, you need a firm understanding of why your competitors are successful. Who do they appeal to? What needs do they address? What have they done recently? What are their vulnerabilities? And, of course, what can you do better? Understanding your competitors should be a central part of your market research when entering an international market.

One of the most important factors to consider when conducting international market research is the legal framework in your target market. For example, many countries legally require you to have research permits, and going ahead with your research without obtaining the correct permission can lead to costly penalties and setbacks.

In some cases, you may be required to provide a copy of survey questions to governments beforehand. And in many parts of the world, bureaucracy slows things down significantly, and it can take weeks for permits to be approved, which is something you have to anticipate.

7. You need to analyse and process results the right way.

In international market research, it’s not just collecting the data that matters. It’s also essential to process your results correctly, ensuring you draw the right insights and reach accurate conclusions about your target market.

To do this right, you need to understand the cultural context. For example, some cultures like America tend to be more extreme on surveys, gravitating towards one end of the Likert scale. Other cultures like China and Japan tend to prefer more neutral answers.

These differences impact not only the way you design surveys — for example, opting for a four-point scale with no middle option — but also the way you analyse results. A set of results in one culture may have different implications for your business than the same set of results in another part of the world.

8. It’s more important to work with the right research partner.

Research partners are an essential part of all market research. Their teams consist of skilled and experienced professionals with a firm grasp of research and analysis methods and how to apply them to gain valuable insights for your business. In an international market, it’s even more important to select the right research partner who already knows the new market.

Take the time to research all your options. Your chosen partner should have experience working in your target market and should have an in-depth knowledge of the various cultural, economic, legal, and social conditions.

International market research is an entirely different process from the research you’ll do at home. It comes with countless new challenges, hurdles, and risks. If you work with the right people, with the right set of skills and experience, you’ll maximise your chances of success and give your business the best possible chance in your target market.

At Kadence, we have experience doing international market research for clients worldwide. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you. 

Want more information on conducting international research? Read The Essential Guide to Conducting International Research here.

A successful product is one that not only looks great but also solves a real problem. Ticking off both boxes requires understanding your customers’ motivations, goals, and behaviours—and user research is the best method for gaining those insights.

User studies are conducted in person traditionally, but it’s possible to accomplish the same goals in an online environment.

Remote user studies can provide rich data. They’re ideal if you work with a global audience, need alternatives due to lockdown or distancing requirements, or face budget and time constraints.

This article will examine how to conduct user studies in an online environment. We’ll discuss the benefits of usability studies, compare lab studies vs. online studies, and share essential research methods and tools.

What is a User Study?

User research is the study of target customers’ needs and their behaviours in achieving them. The aim is to uncover insights that will assist in designing products that best meet user expectations.

There are two broad categories of user research:

● Quantitative: What’s happening; measurable, numerical results (ex: how many people clicked a button?).

● Qualitative: Why it’s happening; motivations behind the behaviour (ex: why didn’t some people click a button?).

Researchers usually start with qualitative research to discover customer needs and motivations and test their initial designs using quantitative measures.

There are also two basic approaches to user research:

● Attitudinal: Listening to users’ words (ex: interviews, surveys).

● Behavioural: Watching their actions (ex: card sorting, usability testing).

The best user research applies quantitative and qualitative research and attitudinal and behavioural approaches.

The Benefits of Usability Testing

Used correctly, user research should lead to a product, service, or website that better meets the specific needs of your customers. 

When people feel like you “get them,” they’re likely to:

● Buy more quickly the first time.

● Spend more money.

● Make more repeat purchases.

● Remain customers for longer.

● Tell others about your product, service, or website.

Increasing customer acquisition, retention, loyalty, and referrals will positively impact your bottom line. User studies can also improve ROI by minimizing design and development costs and reducing support calls.

The more complex your product, service, or website, the greater the risk of skipping user research. 

Unfortunately, many companies bypass user studies. They don’t want to invest time or money, or believe they already know what their customers want.

Basing design on unvalidated assumptions can lead to wasting time, resources, and money on a product, service, or website that flops—and you won’t know if you’ve missed the mark until after launch.

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How to Conduct User Studies

While user studies are most effective and efficient when performed early in the development process, it’s never too late to conduct this type of research.

To begin, set concrete goals. What are you trying to learn? What do you want to understand about your users? What problem are you trying to solve? Write a research brief that asks straightforward questions that lead to definitive, measurable answers.

Next, choose your research method or methods wisely (more on the most common methodologies next). Don’t simply pick what you know best. Take time to consider which methods are most applicable to your specific project.

After completing the user studies, share your findings. The results are only helpful if clearly communicated with key stakeholders, including product or website designers and developers, marketing managers, and C-suite leaders.

It’s vital that these colleagues understand, believe in, and know how to act on the data.

Finally, remember that user research should never end. It’s important to continue learning from your users. The marketplace and technology evolve, so must your product, service, or website.

Research Methods

The most common user study methods include interviews, focus groups, surveys, card sorting, A/B testing, and usability testing. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each research methodology.

●     Interviews

Asking non-leading, open-ended questions with a user to learn about their attitudes, desires, and experiences. 

Pros: Provides the most detailed information, can see non-verbal cues

Cons: Expensive and time consuming to conduct and analyse

●     Focus Groups

Interviewing several people at the same time. 

Pros: Increased reach, reduces time and expenses

Cons: Potential for moderator bias, loudest users can influence others, difficult to analyse

●     Surveys

Gathering quantitative and qualitative information from users via (typically anonymous) questionnaires.

Pros: Easy, inexpensive, most expansive reach

Cons: Low response rates, poorly worded questions can skew results, limited ability for follow up

●     Card Sorting

Asking users to categorize a set of terms to understand how they organize information.

Pros: Quick, simple, and inexpensive to perform

Cons: Provides limited information; analysis can take time

●     A/B Testing

Showing two different concepts to an equal number of users to determine which better accomplished a specific goal.

Pros: Conclusive answers to specific questions

Cons: Limited use cases, limited data, time-consuming

●     Usability Testing

Observing users perform predefined tasks.

Pros: Measures actual behaviours (not perceived preferences)

Cons: Expensive and difficult to run

Online Studies vs. Lab Studies

Many types of user research can be conducted remotely. In fact, online user research has key advantages over traditional testing.

● Reach: Access to an unlimited geographic area allows for a larger pool of participants.

● Environment: Users are in their space using their hardware and software, which creates a greater comfort level.

● Cost: Eliminating travel expenses and reducing logistical challenges makes remote studies quicker and less expensive to complete.

● Neutrality: Less potential for bias introduced by a lab setting and/or a moderator’s body language.

● Flexibility: Online research bypasses potential barriers, such as lack of transportation or a global pandemic.

Despite these myriad benefits, there are reasons that online user studies may not be feasible or preferred.

● If information security is paramount, it’s generally more challenging to maintain control over online proprietary information (and user data).

● If your user base is mainly rural or lower-income, you may find it challenging to find participants who have reliable high-speed internet connections.

● If your study depends heavily on tracking a user’s movements or interaction with a product, it may not be possible in a virtual setting.

Moderated vs. Unmoderated User Studies

Remote research is divided into two categories—moderated and unmoderated.

In moderated sessions, a facilitator speaks directly to participants and guides them through questions and/or tasks. 

This type of qualitative research provides the most in-depth insights into precisely what users think and do and why. They are also more expensive and limited to the availability of a trained moderator.

Unmoderated studies are conducted online at the user’s convenience. Participants follow on-screen instructions and are encouraged to speak their thoughts aloud, which are recorded. 

This type of research doesn’t allow for explanation or follow-up questions, which can create confusion and limit the quality of feedback. On the upside, you can run unlimited sessions at all times using a variety of online technology solutions at a lower cost per participant.

Recruiting for Online User Studies

Whether you choose moderated or unmoderated studies, it’s important to ensure that participants fit your user base or target audience. The right users make all the difference in the quality and usability of your results.

Generally, the most reliable recruitment will happen using your database of customers. If that doesn’t exist or doesn’t produce enough participants, however, you can also try:

● A recruitment agency or panel company can find specific participants but will be costly.

● User testing software companies that specialize in recruiting, which will generate a list of participants who applied for your project through a project board or email blast.

● Posting on social media outlets like Reddit, Craigslist, and Linkedin. In this case, it’s important to screen potential candidates because almost anyone could see and apply.

● Asking family and friends is a low-cost solution, but could be create issues of bias and mismatches with your actual user base.

How to Choose the Best Research Method

Some types of user research (interviews, usability studies) are easier to recreate online than others (focus groups, card sorting). 

The ideal situation is to combine insights from multiple types of user research methods and testing rounds. However, it can be time and cost prohibitive to implement several methods in the real world.

Generally, in-person moderated studies are the best choice if your study requires hands-on participation and has a lot of room for confusion. To conduct these studies online, it’s imperative to consider all potential challenges and to thoroughly test the study before recruiting actual participants.

If you’re most concerned with asking open-ended questions that elicit a great depth of insights, a moderated study conducted online will be a great choice.

If your budget is tight or you’re most concerned with getting a larger quantity of responses, a remote unmoderated study is probably the best option.

Best Practices for Moderated Remote Studies

Moving from moderating in-person research to remote research can feel like a big shift, but by and large, a lot of the practices stay the same. 

Here are some best practices for conducting remote moderated testing.

Study design

Shifting from in-person to remote moderated research requires thoughtful preparation. Start with the problem you want to solve or the hypothesis you want to test, and create questions or tasks that address it.

Qualitative methods can generate a lot of information. When every question or task has a clear purpose, you’ll waste less time, reduce participant fatigue, and avoid “analysis paralysis.”

Knowing exactly what you’ll ask also helps identify where you’ll need tools to support your online research (read more about virtual research tools below).

Also, decide who will observe sessions. Allowing developers, project managers, marketers, and others to witness (and even engage with) the research can increase the likelihood that the results will be understood and put to use.

Make sure observers know in advance of the research session what’s expected of them. Should they mute themselves? What types of questions, if any, can they ask and when? How should they communicate with you or each other during the session?

Session management

Before jumping into your research, create a welcoming atmosphere. Let participants know that you appreciate their time and value their input, and review confidentiality measures.

Disclose upfront whether there are observers and if they will also ask questions. Share the session length, the types of questions or tasks they can expect, the desired answer complexity. 

Confirm that users have—and know how to use—anything necessary for the session. Let them know what to do in case of technical difficulties.

Ask permission to record video and/or audio, and both the moderator and user should turn off any potential distractions.

During the session, observers should take notes on any insights they have about what the participant says or does

End the session by thanking participants for their time and insights, and letting them know how they’ll receive any compensation.

Stop the recording when participants leave or leave it on if your team plans to stay and compare notes about the session.

Data analysis

After all of your remote research sessions, gather all observers’ notes and work together to distill the findings. Look for and discuss patterns and themes and how the team will apply the information to your product, service, or website.

Any tools you’ve used may also produce data, which may need to be aggregated before analysis and compilation with your team’s findings.

Best Practices for Remote Unmoderated Studies

Instead of having a human direct the study, unmoderated research relies on a software application to instruct users, ask questions, and record their actions or answers.

By and large, remote unmoderated studies share the same best practices as those above for moderated research. However, there are a few unique considerations to keep in mind.

Study design

Start with your problem or hypothesis and create questions or tasks that address it. Beware that clarity is paramount without a moderator offering explanations or answering questions. 

Make instructions explicit, so users know exactly what to do. If you’re asking participants to record themselves, include clear triggers so they know when they should start and stop. Be specific with open-ended questions to avoid rambling responses unrelated to your goals.

Run a trial session to uncover any ambiguous instructions, questions, or potential problems with the study design or technology. Replicate actual testing situations by using real participants with their equipment.

Finally, a 10 to 15 per cent drop-off rate is typical in unmoderated studies, so plan to recruit more participants than you need.

Session management

Lower your drop-off rate by recording or writing a warm welcome that thanks participants for their time and insights.

Also, be clear up front with instructions and expectations. Let the user know exactly what they will be doing and how long the session will take. 

Before they log off, include a final thank-you message and any information about compensation or follow-up they may receive.

Data analysis

Unmoderated studies can accumulate a lot of data and typically require extra manpower to analyse. 

Quantitative data is straightforward. The testing tool will automatically collect and generate data visualizations for metrics like success rate, task time, and ratings.

For qualitative data, however, you’ll need to review interview questions and session recordings to take notes on user behaviour and identify positive and negative reactions.

Unmoderated testing tools with robust video analysis features can help by aggregating, exporting, sharing, and visualizing any notes you add to recordings and creating compilations of important moments.

Tools for Remote User Studies

Conducting user studies online necessarily requires software or apps. There are many options available (at a wide range of price points) for every type of research task.

● User Recruitment (Respondent, Ethnio)

● Video Conferencing/Recording (Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, GoTo Meeting)

● Note-Taking (ConfirmKit, Pear Note)

● Transcription (Rev, Reduct, Otter.ai, Trint)

● Surveys (Alchemer, Typeform, Survey Monkey, Survey Legend, YesInsights, Survicate)

● Usability Testing (Lookback, PingPong, UserTesting, Loop11, Userbrain, Userlytics, UsabilityHub, UserZoom, FocusVision, Qualtrics, InVision)

● A/B Testing (Optimizely, VWO)

Conclusion

User research is a crucial method for validating assumptions about your users’ needs and experiences. Done well, remote user testing can provide rich data that will help you understand how your target audience interacts with your product, service, or website.

Unfortunately, user studies are not “one size fits all.” There are many methods, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages. The choice depends on your goals for the type of data you want to gather.

Conducting user studies in the online environment isn’t always the best option. Still, it can be incredibly helpful if you’re working with a global audience, are under budget or time constraints, or face limitations due to the COVID pandemic.

When designing a new product or service, or upgrading existing ones, probably the most crucial question brands can ask themselves is: What will our customers think about this? 

Companies that plough ahead without undertaking relevant research up-front can sometimes miscalculate what will satisfy the users of that product or service—thereby placing their company’s prestige and sales track record at risk.

User studies (also known as “user research” or “UX research”) play a crucial role in significantly minimizing that risk for organisations. 

The objective is to understand how well your product or service meets current needs and help make informed decisions on new product upgrades or launches before committing vast amounts of time and resources to the venture. 

Through user studies, “we can validate or disprove [a] hypothesis early on in a product/service development,” notes Medium. Since the “cost of this would be much less than developing something which no wants to use after,” it’s clear that user studies have “an invisible ROI: the spared cost of doing something useless.”

In the end, the desired outcome of user studies is a closer alignment between what a brand has to offer and the needs and expectations of its targeted customers.

How User Studies Benefit Brands

A wide array of beneficial results grows out of expertly crafted user studies. The key, as we have noted before, is knowing “what you’re looking for with each type of user study.” 

In many cases, companies frame their goals around:

  • Getting clarity about brand positioning to build a firm foundation for what is planned next 
  • Leveraging fresh user experience data that challenges long-held assumptions
  • Creating a clear benchmark for new product development or planned expansion into new markets

Also, a user study can help organisations “measure the impact of events or major changes—not just after a marketing campaign or change to a product, but in the wake of shifts in the environment”—including such world-altering events as the global Covid-19 pandemic.  

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User Studies and Product Design

Product designers depend upon user research to help guide them towards adding or modifying features that best suit consumer needs. The data acquired through these studies enables designers to avoid these critical errors:

  • Potential technological glitches
  • Gaps between what an existing product does and the state of current consumer needs and pain points
  • Manufacturing products that turn out to have minimal market demand

Design teams often “design for how they want the user to act,” notes MentorMates. By using consumer behaviour data gained through user studies, “designers can instead design for how [customers will] actually act.” This leads to a final product that “feels less like an artifact” and more like what customers genuinely need. Both product designers and the ultimate end-user benefit from the results in this process.

Effective user research for product design includes these methodologies:

Conduct an online survey. With a testing survey, you can reach large audiences of targeted customers and get an informed idea about what’s important to them. This is an excellent way to test various concepts, better understand their appeal, and determine which concepts should be moved forward for further testing.

Use conjoint analysis to see what consumers value. Conjoint analysis measures the value consumers place on a product’s specific features. Usually, data emerges from survey questions in which participants are shown a combination of product attributes and asked to compare or rank them. 

Employ qualitative methods such as guided group discussions. In online communities or through face-to-face focus groups, groups of potential consumers enable researchers to drill down into product features genuinely favoured by the target audience. Qualitative research can also uncover unforeseen customer needs, inspiring further rounds of innovation, with the bonus of getting a jump on the competition.  

Sometimes designers and product teams become too enmeshed in the development process to make the most effective decisions about how to proceed. UX research enables them to assess authentic feedback from target customers, so no crucial elements are overlooked in the design process. 

Added Benefits of User Studies

Brands can benefit from tapping into the user experience in numerous additional ways. 

Let’s say a design team has come up with a half-dozen “great” ideas about a new product. In general, many of these design ideas will fall short of expectations or prove too costly to implement all at one time. But the chances of success (and acceptance by consumers) sharply increase when user research methods identify the most promising of those ideas. 

Design teams are very good at what they do. But they can’t succeed in a vacuum. Without pinpointed UX research, they may rely too much on their instincts and miss out on what consumers really want. An organisation can benefit enormously when its design team learns to incorporate a steady input of user experience data into further research and design.

As with any scientific endeavour, there’s always the chance that an “aha moment” can dramatically shift the focus of research into more promising avenues. Extensive user studies facilitate the greater likelihood of encountering those “aha moments” around design features and attributes that might otherwise be overlooked.  

Tips to Get the Most from User Studies

As discussed, the importance of user studies—for new product development, customer satisfaction, and retention, etc.—can’t be overstated. To gain the most benefit from the process, keep these tips in mind:

  • Determine ahead of time whether you want general background information on consumer needs and preferences or if you’re seeking specific, in-depth usage patterns
  • Define what is possible to alter in the development phase based on the results of a user study. 
  • Be sure to ask specific questions when surveying targeted users so everyone has the same reference points for the survey. 
  • Identify a baseline, or neutral starting point, for people’s assumptions and ratings, thus enabling an objective interpretation of results.
  • Incorporate research into competitor brands (even smaller or niche brands) when assessing user research findings.

With the necessary parameters in place, it will more effectively translate the results of UX research into concrete product design and development efforts. 

Where to Go Next with User Studies

A user study should never be a “one-off” proposition. After all, the customer journey isn’t a static experience. User studies differ widely from one segmented audience to another, and over time can alter dramatically due to unexpected external factors. 

For these reasons, forward-thinking brands commit to ongoing research into customer needs and pain points. They can benefit from gaining insights into shifts in market trends well before the competition does, enabling them to be first in addressing emergent consumer needs. That’s one effective way of capturing market share before your competitors do. 

Finally, it would be best to communicate any changes you make to your product or service based on consumer research to the target audience. Don’t hesitate to share the story of how your focused research identified the challenges customers face and the efforts you took to address those challenges. This alone demonstrates the depth of your commitment to a valuable customer experience—which in turn generates more trust and engagement with your brand in the long run. 

Feedback loops that incorporate user research data also help ensure that your brand’s unique selling proposition is consistently re-validated and that everyone within the organisation sees the importance of serving customers’ needs. There may be no more effective tool to add to your brand’s arsenal today and in the future. 

Singapore has reigned supreme as a lucrative market for domestic and international businesses, and according to many economists, it is the best country to do business. 

So, what makes Singapore a favourable market for international companies?

Singapore’s location makes it an ideal place for foreign investments. The world’s busiest port and a pro-business environment position Singapore as an attractive market for foreign companies to expand into the Asia Pacific. 

#1. Singapore presents an excellent balance of East and West. 

Given Singapore’s colonial past and diverse population, there is much familiarity with many Asian, European, and American cultures. As a former British colony, Singapore’s legal, administrative, and taxation models are similar to those in the UK and the US.  

“Singapore builds itself on this position of being kind of like a trading post,” said Philip Steggals, Managing Director at Kadence International Singapore. 

Furthermore, English is widely spoken, and adopting a Western lifestyle has made Singapore an ideal international market. At the same time, Singaporeans are proud of their heritage, so it’s an excellent market for other Asian countries to enter. Therefore, Singapore is an ideal mix of the east and west and embraces everyone. 

#2. Singapore’s economy is very business-friendly. 

Geographically, the island of Singapore is small and lacks natural resources. Therefore, the economy relies on international operations. It has also focused on building a large manufacturing industry, making it a significant export market for the US. 

“The Government very much has that mantra of helping people either come into the country or helping people in the country expand regionally to grow their business and improve everybody’s lives,” Philip said. 

The government has also implemented economic policies to promote international trade and has a friendly business model. Foreign businesses are subject to the same laws as local businesses. 

Businesses can also use agencies to get the help they need to secure capital and set up their Singapore entities. 

“IE Singapore or Enterprise Singapore sits under the administrative trade, and it facilitates overseas growth of Singapore-based companies, regardless of nationality,” Philip said. 

There’s another entity called Spring, which plays a similar role in growing enterprises. 

“Spring is the place to go where you get quite a lot of government grants as well — the sort of tech investments and grants, which any small-to-medium-sized company can benefit from,” he added. “Then there is the Economic Development Board that also helps businesses. So the message is that if you are in Singapore and you want to grow, then we will help facilitate that process.”

If you have a good product or service, you could quickly expand it in Singapore. And if you’ve got a product or service that you’ve replicated quite well, Singapore is a great, safe, predictable market to grow it. 

The legal help you get in Singapore is very transparent and secure. With sound finance systems, it is easy to get loans. If you are an SME, you can walk into one of the local banks and set yourself up with all the business accounts you need, likely on the same day. Many banks accept digital signatures and allow opening bank accounts online. 

 “You can also easily find advisors who will help you grow into other markets or advise you on how to grow your business in Singapore,” Philip added. 

There is a massive opportunity for external investment, and international businesses own their companies 100% when they expand to Singapore. 

Geographically, being a small market, it’s easy to meet people, even in times of a pandemic, because everyone lives in a small area. “You can network quite easily, and you can find somebody that will have the right skillsets or advice for what you need,” Philip said. 

fitness-tech-trends

#3. Singapore also offers attractive tax laws to international companies entering the City, State. 

The government offers attractive tax incentives to businesses in Singapore. 

#4. Access to ASEAN.

Despite the small market, Singapore is well-known globally for its IP strengths and easy access to the broader ASEAN region. 

Top industries in Singapore

Tech, fintech and cryptocurrency, cyber security, and mobile payments are some of the fastest-growing industries in Singapore. FMCGs and food franchises from well-established brands overseas do very well. 

“Singapore is a centre for tech and innovation excellence. We have a lot of people that would typically be involved with big multinational companies setting up innovation hubs here or bringing their regional headquarters into Singapore,” Philip said. 

Main challenges of doing business in Singapore

More than 99% of all imports enter Singapore duty-free as a free port. It levies high excise taxes on distilled spirits and wine, tobacco products, motor vehicles, and gasoline.

Other industries that pose challenges for international companies include livestock, and services barriers that restrict satellite dishes, pay television, legal services, banking, and healthcare procedural transparency.

Philip listed three main obstacles for companies trying to build a subsidiary in Singapore.

“While it’s fairly easy to set up a business in Singapore, it’s a challenge to bring in mid-to-low-level employees, which then gives you two options. You either have to come in with some top trainers, or you have to come in and know that much of the work will be done by people that aren’t necessarily familiar with the business,” he said. 

“If you want to set up a business, you should be able to show that you are going to employ locals and, you’re going to train them so that they can eventually take over running operations and have more senior roles.”

“The job creation equation is what Singapore is looking for when you set up a business, so you should have a plan on employing Singaporeans,” he added. 

There is also fierce competition with other countries trying to enter Singapore, so international companies should be aware of this. 

Impact of covid 19 restrictions

Singapore has had some of the most stringent lock-downs during the pandemic. 

As a result, some businesses have shut down during the pandemic, and others have accelerated in Singapore, despite strict COVID-19 restrictions.  

“I think the pandemic has just accentuated what was going on beforehand,” Philip said. “However, one of the issues has been a shortage of labour force coming in from other countries. Many expats have also left the country due to stringent COVID-19 restrictions.”

keeping-up-with-Gen-z

What do Singaporean consumers want?

Price, quality, and service are essential factors for consumers in Singapore. International companies entering Singapore must know that the buyers are discerning and that the competition in the market is intense. Singaporean consumers also like products and services that are well established in their home countries and have a story or history behind them. 

So from a consumer standpoint, what are the key considerations Singaporean consumers have? 

According to Philip, that depends on the category. 

“We did some research on the luxury purchases made in Singapore and Asia. Consumers want to see some heritage and a well-defined story of where the brand is from and why it exists when it comes to the high-end market,” he said. 

“The German manufacturers do very well in the automotive market, and there’s a sense of prestige associated with the well-known European luxury car manufacturers. There’s also a significant segment of people that are very practical and go for Hondas and Toyotas.”

Food and beverage outlets do very well if they are well-established in their home market. Brands with their roots in China or Taiwan for some novelty-type items and popular brands in Japan also do very well, as do Korean skincare brands. 

In a nutshell, Singaporean consumers like understanding the brand’s roots, why it’s now Singapore, and what it’s doing. They are a discerning populous and are looking for quality products and services. 

Selling and distributing products and services in the Singaporean market.

Selling techniques utilized in Singapore vary by product and are similar to sales practices in sophisticated western markets. Social media and online marketing are growing in Singapore, and it is essential for international companies that use agents in Singapore to visit them regularly. 

“A lot of our clients at Kadence have their regional offices in Singapore because of a very transparent legal system. The government is also very predictable and pro-business, so if you’re going to set up a regional base, Singapore is the perfect place for it,” Philip added. 

A favorable time zone gives it another advantage and makes it suitable for business. The commerce or the distribution networks from Singapore to the Southeast Asia and North Asia markets is pretty straightforward.

“Moreover, the ease of commuting makes Singapore the perfect base for operations. It’s also typically relatively easy to get visas for higher-paid staff members here, and it’s not considered a hardship posting to be based in Singapore, regardless of your home country,” Philip said. 

How to strategize market entry into Singapore

If you have a successful product or service in your home country, expanding into Singapore is a good idea. One cannot emphasize the importance of a concrete market strategy and solid business plan for market entry into Singapore. 

Over 4,500 US firms have launched business enterprises in Singapore. Many international exporters use agents and distributors to enter Singapore. These agents and firms aggressively represent new products and services in Singapore. Therefore, it is invaluable to find suitable partners and utilize agents.

The top three strategies that subsidiaries can utilize when planning entry into Singapore are:

1. Identify your growth plan. Singapore as a market is not very large unless you are a McDonald’s type company. But for most industries, your potential is relatively small. The population is 5.7 million, so you must identify where else you can go. It would help to calculate your maximum potential returns based on your target audience. For companies entering Singapore, knowing that growth plan would be substantial.

2. You need to have a sound training system. As a small company with one or two people set up like a distribution hub, you will probably be fine, but as soon as you start growing, you will be expected to recruit more Singaporeans. Therefore, you will need to have training in place. 

3. Do your commercial research. The government is pro-business, so you must research who to ask for help and what benefits you can receive. 

Political and economic stability in Singapore

Singapore has had the same government since its foundation. 

One of the reasons behind Singapore’s massive growth over the past five decades is the consistency of government. “You can put long-term visions in place without your political parties, flipping it as a political winning system to get elected,” Philip said. 

Singapore has shown phenomenal growth in the last ten years and will continue to grow as it is a great place to live, and do business and is devoid of red tape or bureaucracy. 

The next 50 years will present new challenges to Singapore in the form of an ageing workforce, a maturing economy, social media’s growing influence, and increasing competition from other trade agreements and ASEAN partners. However, it remains an attractive market to enter and shows phenomenal potential in years to come.

We would welcome the chance to discuss your next market research project. Learn more about our Singapore Office here.

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Like virtually all aspects of modern life, the market research industry has undergone an explosive change in our COVID-19 pandemic era. While most of the principles of market research remain intact, brands worldwide have had to refine and modify their research methods as part of this “new reality.” 

Generally speaking, market research starts with a “wide-angle” look at the spheres of influence upon a market (including new and changing customer behaviours, emerging industry trends, etc.), then zooms in on specific nuances within a target audience. 

The data collection and analysis gained from in-depth market research offer brands “a clear and detailed understanding of what your customers want, what they already like, where they conduct their own research, and much more.” Understanding the broader context of a market enables companies to:

  • Gain insights into how customers use their products or services
  • Differentiate their offerings from competitors
  • Lay the groundwork for successful product upgrades or launches
  • Identify new opportunities for growth

These insights gained can set the tone and messaging for a brand’s marketing efforts both now and in the year to come. 

Here’s a look at key trends in the market research industry today and what lies ahead on the horizon for 2022.

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Trend #1: Agility and Technology

Despite the changes wrought by the pandemic and other global forces, one factor remains constant: the continual evolution of technology underpinning advanced market research.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, for example, enable researchers to gather information from an increasingly wide range of distinct sources. These advances also contribute to a new emphasis on agile research and speed of insight. Various elements include:

Automation of routine research practices. Automating the more routine facets of research facilitates a speedier analysis and interpretation of findings. This helps researchers save considerable time and effort while winnowing down to what’s truly essential in their work. 

Shorter and smarter polls and surveys. Employing surveys that can be positioned and distributed quickly (and which take respondents only a short time to fill out) are a further boon to the speed of analysis and insight. This approach involves identifying a “mobile-reliant” population that will actively engage in a poll or survey upon request, and within a brief period of time. 

Ongoing research. Agile research equals ongoing research. In a global marketplace that’s continuously in flux, the insights garnered from one survey can dramatically change by the time a new survey is undertaken. In the same respect, researchers can expand on findings garnered from one survey to craft a new, more specialized survey that focuses on changing factors in the marketplace.

As we have stated before, “when you know your offerings suit current and emerging customer needs, your business will develop a reputation for being wholly customer-centric that your competitors can’t match.”

Trend #2: AI, Machine Learning, and Emotion

If 2021 is any guide, we can expect the avalanche of raw data to keep increasing in the year to come. The vast array of sources promises to generate more information than researchers can ever hope to compile and analyze on their own. That’s why AI and machine learning are invaluable for research purposes.

Emotion AI, for example, seeks to “decode” human emotion by analyzing voice patterns, eye movements, facial expressions, and a range of non-verbal cues—all designed to generate data that enhances a brand’s capacity for linking emotion to consumer behavioural patterns. By evaluating consumer responses to a proposed upgrade or new product launch, emotion AI can more precisely “read” human feelings and gauge the success or failure of a new venture.

As MIT Sloan notes, “New artificial intelligence technologies are learning and recognizing human emotions, and using that knowledge to improve everything from marketing campaigns to health care.”

Trend #3: Social Listening

Interacting directly with customers often yields the most pertinent data for marketing trends. But engaging in social listening can be an equally effective research method.

Social listening involves analyzing social media conversations and trends related to your brand to your industry. This extends beyond monitoring basic metrics such as “likes” or “mentions” or “followers,” with a focus instead on the buyer’s mood behind the data.

Customers frequently express their sentiments about products and services on popular social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.). Market researchers can look at this as real-time feedback about customer preferences, brand awareness, the inroads made by competitors, etc. 

In this respect, social listening offers a beneficial way of gauging customer sentiment (what they like and don’t like about the purchasing experience, preferences regarding how a purchase is made, and so on). 

For effective social listening, research methodology can include the following actions:

  • Search on the most popular social platforms for branded keywords, phrases, or product names.
  • Explore customer review sections on platforms. 
  • Learn about customer sentiments regarding competitors.
  • Anticipate potential new trends using Google Trends or other social media listening tools.
  • Identify relevant or industry-specific social media influencers.

Social listening should be “a critical component of any company’s marketing strategy, as it allows you to react and respond to customer sentiment — and gather data to make improvements in the way your business runs,” notes Reputation.com. In essence, social listening is like “your very own perpetual focus group, rich with constantly updated and actionable business intelligence.”

Trend #4: Longitudinal Studies

There has been a steady increase in longitudinal studies for long-range market research, and the trend will continue in 2022. This approach works most effectively when a brand wishes to continuously monitor a fixed sample of its target audience over a pre-determined timeframe.

Longitudinal studies, also known as continuous research, tracks consumer and market attitude trends over extended periods. To do so, researchers gather information from the same sources through a long-term methodology that yields insights into buying habits or consumer response to a new product or service launch. 

Trend #5: DIY

Another emerging trend is the do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to market research. The proliferation of agile or smart research tools enables in-house teams to conduct surveys and other research activities, often using a centralized online platform. Types of DIY market research include:

  • Interviews with existing and potential customers through surveys, questionnaires, or focus groups
  • Segmentation of the target audience into clearly defined groups (demographic, behavioural, psychographic, and geographic)
  • Product testing, in many cases, before a brand reaches the initial production stage
  • Measuring satisfaction with loyal customers

DIY research should aim for gaining “insights into how happy your customers are and any specific areas they like or dislike.” This enables brands to:

  • Identify any areas of current (or potential) concern.
  • Drill down to core issues by identifying (and then interacting with) dissatisfied customers.
  • Determine what’s needed to improve customer attitudes and experiences. 

One caveat worth mentioning regarding DIY marketing. As Forbes notes, “if you go to a third party [for market research], you’re going to likely get a different perspective than what you would get from your own team. There’s also a greater chance that the perspective you receive is an unbiased one, which is healthy” and potentially more insightful about what a target audience truly cares about.”

Trend #6: Aligning Brand Mission and Values with Customers

In 2022 and beyond, market research will continue to explore the value of aligning a company’s mission statement and the values of its customer base. 

Gone are the days when a brand could tell consumers what it stands for and leave it at that. Today’s savvy customers do their research to determine if a brand “walks the walk,” particularly concerning those values consumers hold dear—be it the environment and sustainability, income inequality, racial harmony, and so on. 

Consumers who prefer brands aligned with their values often become very loyal once they identify that brand. However, if and when customers detect a lack of consistency between what’s expressed in a mission statement and what actions a brand takes, they may abandon that company and seek out more compatible businesses to support.

In 2022, brands are encouraged to take a fresh look at their mission and values and how these are communicated to a target audience. Monitoring social media conversations around these values can illuminate the process of refining a company’s mission statement. It’s also an excellent opportunity to look into making a fresh commitment to support the causes and initiatives that a brand’s audience considers most valuable in their own lives.

Market research trends come and go, but the end result remains consistent from the past to the future. The primary objectives are always:

  • Improving products or services
  • Generating more sales
  • Delivering expected results
  • Enhancing customer service
  • Boosting customer retention

Market research supports the need for brands to maintain agility in an ever-shifting marketplace. Customer needs never remain static. If a brand meets current needs—and, better yet, anticipates future customer needs—its place in the global market will be stronger and more durable than that of its competitors.

Each year, an average of 30,000 new products enter the marketplace (that’s enough to fill the average grocery store!), and 70% will fail to sustain or grow sales in the first two years. 

How does a brand ensure that a new product stands out in the sea of competition? How does it increase the odds of success? 

The key is to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and instead get the correct product in front of the right customers at the proper time.

To achieve this level of specificity, brands must use proper market segmentation. This practice allows a company to focus its product development and marketing efforts narrowly.

What is market segmentation?

At its most basic, market segmenting is breaking a broad swath of potential customers into smaller customer groups with similar characteristics. A company can then design products and marketing campaigns tailored to the needs and interests of a particular target market.

Few companies have the resources to sell to a mass market. Most must focus their efforts to meet more limited budget constraints. 

Market segmentation identifies the many different reasons people purchase products to help companies make smaller investments with more significant returns.

The more that a brand can narrow the audience for a new product, the more likely it can successfully sell to them. Rather than trying to persuade a generic customer base to buy a product they may or may not want, you can place the product in front of people who need it.

Benefits of market segmentation

Market segmentation provides valuable customer insights that can be used to create many positive business outcomes. 

●     Product development: By identifying narrow market segments and researching their specific needs, brands can create products that satisfy those exact pain points. These specialized offers will have little to no competition.

●     Business growth: The more a company understands various market segments, the more it can expand by moving into new geographic areas, offering complementary products to existing customers, or creating new products to appeal to a previously uninterested audience.

●     Optimized marketing: Using the insights from segmentation research, marketing teams can create highly targeted messages on the most relevant platforms. Even 

better, they can make calculated decisions about media spend to reduce costs.

●     Better distribution strategies: Knowing where and when your customers shop can help you change or tweak your distribution strategies to streamline and save money while improving customer satisfaction.

●     Customer retention: Done well, market segmentation can create brand loyalty. When you’re able to anticipate and address a customer’s needs at every turn, they are far more likely to become repeat buyers and brand advocates. 

A company that takes the time and energy to cultivate a deep understanding of its customers is almost guaranteed to have a competitive advantage. It’s far more likely to expand its market share and profits.

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Types of market segmentation

There are four main types of market segmentation, each of which offers a different method for identifying clear attributes unique to a particular group of customers.

Geographic segmentation

It can be helpful to group customers by a specific area—from a country down to a neighbourhood. 

This approach is particularly effective for products and services that address localized concerns. This may include items affected by the weather (lawn care, clothing) or regional preferences (cuisine, sports, or other recreational activities).

To use geographic segmentation, break down potential customers by identifying characteristics such as state, county, zip code, climate, primary language, or population density. 

Demographic segmentation

It’s helpful to group customers by quantifiable factors like age, income level, family size, religion, race, nationality, language, educational level, marital status, occupation, home ownership, political party affiliation, or income.

Demographic information is generally easy and affordable to access, which makes this type of segmentation one of the simplest to use. 

A product may use demographic segmentation to position itself as the best solution for a specific type of person (for example, married men, 30 to 40 years old, who have a full-time job earning $100,000 or more and own a home).

Demographic segmentation may not be detailed enough to create distinct product differentiation. That’s why it’s often combined with another type of segmentation to narrow the customer group further.

Psychographic segmentation

One of the most detailed forms of market segmentation divides customers based on qualitative traits. These details can’t be easily measured like demographics and include things like values, habits, attitudes or opinions, personality, lifestyle or social status, and hobbies or activities.

Gathering psychographic information requires more effort and can be achieved using surveys, focus groups, interviews, and social media monitoring.

Once you’ve identified shared psychographics for a particular market segment, turn it into a statement. For example, “we help busy moms who want to serve their young children a home-cooked meal in 30 minutes or less.” Then, ask your target audience whether the statement resonates with them.

Very often, marketers like to combine psychographic segmentation with demographic segmentation to create very distinct customer groups.

Behavioural segmentation

Finally, another popular method of market segmentation is based on customer behaviour during the buying journey. 

Behavioural segmentation considers actions like when shoppers become customers (acquisition), how customers use the product or service (user journey), how frequently they use it (engagement), how long they continue to use it (retention), and how often they make new purchases (loyalty).

This method can be complicated to execute but is likely to generate beneficial insights. It’s often the best way to identify opportunities for new products or markets and for improving existing offerings.

How to validate a segment

To be worthwhile, a segment must be clearly defined and unique. To test whether your potential market segment makes the grade, ask yourself these questions:

  1. What does this segment value most about a product like ours?
  2. What is the number one reason this segment chooses to buy a product like ours?
  3. What is the buying journey for this segment (what content, platform, features are crucial)?

The answers to these questions must be based on data from actual research, not just your intuition or anecdotal experiences. 

If you can easily and with great detail answer each of these questions, then your segment has great potential to be actionable and profitable.

If you don’t have clear answers, however, then you likely need to do more research or further refine the segment.

How to segment the market for a new product

The market segmentation process isn’t complicated. There are two major components—creating segments and executing a go-to-market plan—and a few significant considerations at each stage:

Customer Segments

  1. Set an objective for what you hope to achieve through market segmentation (create a new product, better serve existing clients, find more profitable customers, etc.).
  2. Identify which segmentation type or combination of types you’ll use, and assess the viability of your proposed market (Is it too large? Is it large enough?)
  3. Conduct research by collecting hard data and anecdotal evidence related to your preferred segment. Avoid rushing this stage because it is the most crucial component of quality segmentation. 
  4. Compile your research and use it to determine which new products or marketing approaches you’ll use to target this segment. 
  5. Validate the offer or messaging with a representative sample of the segment using surveys, focus groups, and polls.

Go-To-Market Plan

  1. Develop a launch plan using marketing and sales strategies relevant to the target segment. 
  2. Test the effectiveness of your strategy by implementing conversion tracking early.
  3. Continue to execute the plan and monitor the results over time, adjusting as necessary.

To ensure the best results, companies may want to invest in marketing software. Many products will automatically segment customers into relevant groups, analyze the segments using interactive charts, and provide third-party data to improve results.

Market segmentation best practices

As you execute a market segmentation plan, watch out for these common mistakes that can negatively affect your results:

●     Unaligned segments: The markets you target must harmonize with your company’s strategy and structure, rather than trying to conform your brand and offer to suit the segment.

●     Segments that are too broad: Failing to make the segment narrow enough will allow the competition to gain an advantage by targeting a more clearly defined and like-minded portion of your segment.

●     Segments that are too narrow: Focusing on too small of a segment will significantly limit the return on investment of your time and money.

●     Too many segments: It’s tempting to pursue all of the potentially profitable segments you identify, but this can dilute resources and negatively affect revenues.

●     Targeting people, not money: A perfectly aligned and well-sized segment is useless if its members don’t possess sufficient buying power. Focus on market segments that will create a positive ROI, even if they aren’t the largest or most glamorous.

●     Never updating segments: People change, and those changes can come quickly in today’s global, tech-savvy world. Frequently revisit your segments and adjust as needed to remain relevant and competitive.

Market segmentation is a highly effective strategy, and it isn’t complicated. It can be time-consuming, however, and may be challenging if it’s a new approach for you and your marketing team. Expect mistakes as you execute this new approach.

Stick with it, though, because segmentation is an incredibly valuable process that shows customers that you genuinely understand them. Providing tailored products and messages that resonate with your customers’ specific needs will help your brand grow exponentially.