Emerging technological advancements are transforming market research forever. As many consumers move online, the way brands identify and understand consumer needs is being reimagined.

Many technology trends disrupt the market research industry —from data collection and new product launches to tracking brand performance. This blog post will focus on the breakthroughs in technology impacting brand tracking and product performance tracking.

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Brand and performance tracking refers to the process of continually measuring brand health over a period within the target audience. It allows brands to measure the performance of a product in relation to its competition. After a new product is launched, market research helps brands gauge performance to stay competitive. 

With consumers increasingly moving online, brands can tap into new, vast, and reliable consumer behavior data in real-time. This has also made Direct to Consumer marketing much more common. Brands like Happy Human (Singapore), Dime Beauty (U.S.A.), Joi (Malaysia), Sleepy Owl (India), Recess (Philipines), Adopt a Cow (China), and Knot (Japan) have eliminated the middleman to create, develop, sell, and distribute their products directly to the end-user. The absence of middlemen and brick-and-mortar stores allows them to maintain quality and reduce prices. But this is not all. These brands also have the added advantage of measuring performance directly without employing market research across several retail outlets. They can discover brand sentiment directly, making them more agile, nimble, and competitive. 

While there is still a place for traditional research methodologies, technologies like machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and chatbots continue to reinvent the market research industry. 

Let’s look at the primary technologies in brand tracking and competition analysis that are changing the face of market research. 

E-commerce brands utilize price monitoring software technology to track competitor pricing.

In the fiercely competitive E-commerce world, the key to outperforming the competition is tracking and monitoring the price competing brands charge for similar products and services. Brands need to keep a keen eye on their competitor’s pricing strategy and price changes over several products to stay competitive, and that’s not an easy task even for larger companies. 

This is where e-commerce price monitoring technology comes into play. 

Ecommerce price monitoring software allows brands to track their competitor’s price changes and dynamically adjust their pricing. 

By employing this type of software, brands can stay abreast with competitor pricing and adjust pricing based on demand, competition, and inventory levels. 

Many such tools are available in the market, including Minderest, Price2Spy, and Prisync, with sophisticated matching technology and high levels of accuracy. 

Market research utilizes machine learning and A.I. for brand and performance tracking to revamp advertising and messaging. 

While some grey areas are associated with A.I. in other fields, the market research industry has embraced this technology.

One of the things brands need to track constantly is how their messaging is resonating with the target audience and how the market perceives their brand. This is because a brand is not just the logo and tagline. It is a sum of all parts and is an overall feeling that tells a narrative and evokes sentiment and emotion in the audience. 

Technology helps brands better understand brand performance and perception to inform better decision-making. It allows brands to measure and bridge the gaps between their intent and how the audiences interpret and perceive their message.

The use of A.I. in brand tracking has allowed market researchers to analyze qualitative surveys at a fraction of the time taken by manual data collection methods. Furthermore, this enables them to ask more open-ended and follow-up questions, find the right panelists faster, eliminate bias, write reports quickly, and significantly improve the quality of their surveys and reports. 

In today’s dynamic digital marketplaces, A.I. is powering brand tracking to gauge the changing consumer perceptions. 

Sentiment analysis is a sub-category of A.I. and N.L.P., which automatically uncovers feelings, emotions, and sentiments behind plain blocks of text. It is extensively used in brand tracking because it is efficient, reliable, and accurate. 

Over 45 percent of the world is on social media. There are about 500 million tweets per day, and about 1.96 billion people worldwide use Facebook every day. Consumers constantly call out brands on these social media platforms and review sites. It would be overwhelming and near impossible to collect data manually. Brands can effectively gauge overall brand sentiment across platforms and channels online using automated tools. 

For instance, when the popular ride-sharing service, UBER, launched a new version of its app, it used social media monitoring and text analytics to measure user sentiment about the new version of the app. Eye-tracking technology works similarly and can track users’ engagement scores and emotions on a website. 

There are several brand tracking tools available for brands. Candymaker Mars used one such tool that combines the standard digital video metrics, like view-through rates and skip rates, with facial expression tracking of the viewers while watching the ad using an A.I. algorithm.

While the tool measures digital behaviors, it puts enormous weight on gauging emotion and sentiment. This technology is essential to track brand performance in a world plagued with minuscule attention spans. It allows brands to obtain a complete picture of consumer perception. 

Many technologies use participants’ webcams to track their facial and emotional responses while viewing ads, providing invaluable data used to inform sales forecasts. 

Chatbots are aggregating vast amounts of consumer data.

The usage of chatbots as a communication channel between brands and consumers has increased by 92 percent since 2019. 

As many consumers shop online, they engage with chatbots, making them the fastest-growing brand communication channel.  

A survey found that up to 80 percent of users answered questions, three times higher than responses from email surveys. 

Brands like IKEA are using chatbots to gather valuable consumer feedback. Companies use Whatsapp and Facebook messenger to measure consumer sentiment and feedback efficiently. 

The use of brand tracking cannot be overemphasized. It allows brands to understand how their current audience perceives the brand. It can also lead brands to uncover until now undiscovered target audiences. 

With brand tracking software, brands can see the true impact of their campaigns. Brand tracking holds the key to insights any brand needs to thrive. Using the right tools and technology, brands can obtain actionable information about the brand perception among the target audience and how it scores against the competition.

A brand is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. It is, therefore, critical to continually measure satisfaction, awareness, and perception. Incorporating brand tracking into their marketing strategy can help brands understand their target audiences and consumer needs and make more profitable marketing decisions. Technology has made it easier to uncover massive data sets to monitor a brand effectively and accurately. By combining this technology with digital metrics, brands can increase their competitive advantage.

Just like we need a GPS to take us from point A to Point B, businesses need to intuitively map their customer’s journey to ensure they are moving through the process. But instead of plotting it physically on a map, brands need to use technology to visualize each touchpoint the customers interact with when they engage with them. 

Today, customers interact with brands multiple times on various platforms, and brands need to funnel them to continue moving forward. 

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What is customer journey mapping?

A customer journey map is a visual plotting or representation of customers’ experiences and touchpoints with a brand. It tells the complete story of a brand’s relationship with a customer, starting with the first engagement and moving toward a path to purchase and becoming a loyal customer. 

Journey mapping is not a single instance or solution; it is a process that integrates every facet of an organization, from marketing to sales to customer service.

Why Customer Journey Mapping is Invaluable for Brands

Today, customers expect a lot from each interaction with a given brand. Personalization, consistency at each touchpoint, and relevance are not just “good to have” anymore; they are necessary to drive conversions and brand loyalty. 

Customer Journey Mapping is beneficial not only for sales and marketing but also for the creative team. Armed with this information, content creators can develop timely, relevant, personalized copy and speaks to the customer at each touchpoint. Designers can derive context from this information and design an elevated customer experience. 

Customer Journey Mapping is helpful for many reasons, and it primarily helps with the following three steps:

1. Identify all touchpoints to understand the customer experience better.

Customer Journey Mapping helps you construct a seamless and intuitive customer experience through every touchpoint. This is often missed by quantitative research.

For instance, a journey map may uncover a tremendous amount of online research in the discovery phase of a particular product or service. This would lead a brand to question how it appears on search engines and the content customers find when researching the product online. 

2. Get in tune with your customers at every step of the way.

Customer Journey Maps are visual aids that help understand the customers better at each touchpoint. It visually reveals patterns in customer behavior and emotions, and once these are identified, brands have an account of the steps that are working and those with gaps.

3. Identify gaps in your CX and lead your customers intuitively through the funnel.

Customer Journey Mapping aims to understand each touchpoint and ensure measurement tools are in place to help monitor each customer interaction. 

For instance, for a travel website, a customer’s journey starts when they search for airline tickets and cover all the steps through research, queries, finding tickets, booking them, making a payment, and receiving confirmations and other travel-related information. It includes signing up for a newsletter, recommendations to book hotels, prompting the user to check-in, and offering additional information. In a retail setting, Customer Journey Mapping would include the signage, lighting, store layout, temperature, smell, comfort, and other physical elements in addition to interactions with the employees. 

Customer Journey Mapping helps you fill gaps and focus on areas that need improvement for an intuitive and seamless customer experience. 

How to Get the Most out of Your Customer Journey Map

The ultimate goal of a Customer Journey Map is to improve the customer journey and move prospects through the funnel. This is because inefficient systems and interactions cause frustration amongst users and prospects, impeding conversions and sales. 

Below are a few tips to keep in mind when researching your customer journey.

  • Some brands do a great job acquiring customers but are not good at activating. Therefore, brands should include every touchpoint, like packaging, labels, messaging and ads, and social voice.
  • A Customer Journey Map should be a combination of analytics and customer feedback. Therefore, brands must gather quantitative data from multiple sources, including call center and CRM software, QR codes scanned, website and social media analytics, and other metrics.
  • It is essential to include post-purchase components into the Customer Journey Map. The relationship with the customer continues long after they purchase something. This helps you get repeat business, loyal customers, favorable reviews, and raving fans who will refer the product or service to others. 

How Market Research can help brands build Customer Journey Maps

So how do you use market research to help improve the customer experience? 

Let’s examine this with the example of a retail shoe store. You identified the salesperson as a critical touchpoint. You can use a focus group to experience the store just as they would if shopping for shoes. 

Ask them to identify the experiential element of each touchpoint, including what they see, smell, hear, and feel. The focus group will then prioritize what parts of the journey need improvement. They will provide insights on how easy it was to find what they were looking for, the annoying details, how the store stacks up to a competitor, and the customer satisfaction score. The brand can then build an action plan to improve the customer experience at their store. 

This is how the brand identifies gaps, determines development priorities, builds a plan to remedy the issues and bottlenecks, and allocates funds to optimize sales and Return on Investment (ROI). 

Customer Journey Mapping should be a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. 

Market research and building Customer Journey Maps allow brands to compare what they believe the customer journey looks like and what it is like in reality. When you combine the metrics and data with sensory components, you can experience the journey through your customer’s eyes. This “outside looking in” approach will significantly improve the customer experience and revenues.

When launching a new product to market, it’s imperative to be prepared with relevant information. You need a deep understanding of your market, how your products will benefit that market, the potential challenges you might run into, and much more.

This is why it’s so important to write an in-depth, professional, and relevant market research report. Not only to gather and display all the right information but also so that you can share that information clearly and easily with people within and outside your organization. This is important for a wide range of different reasons.

In this article, we’ll look at why market research reports for product launches are so important and show you how to do it as effectively as possible.

Why market research reports are important

Conducting a detailed and relevant market research report before you launch your new product is a good idea for all kinds of reasons. Here are some of the main ones:

  • Get buy-in from senior decision-makers. When launching any product, you’ll always want the full support of the top decision-makers at your organization. This can be a tricky thing to acquire, especially if your team is relatively unproven. A detailed and informative market research report can be the deciding factor in winning their support, convincing them that your product is well-placed to succeed, and making it much easier to achieve your goals.
  • Learn more about your customers and target audience. One of the main reasons to conduct market research is to understand your prospective customers in more detail. The work you do to compile a report will give you a clear and detailed understanding of what your customers want, what they already like, where they conduct their own research, and much more. This will arm you with the insights and knowledge you need to launch your product confidently and successfully.

Discover ideas for new products and how to improve existing ones. When you research your target market, you’ll likely stumble upon inspiration for new products in addition to the one you’re planning to launch. The feedback you get from your research will also be laced with ideas for improving and tweaking existing products

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How to write a market research report effectively

In the rest of this guide, we’ll show you what you need to do to ensure your market research report is as detailed, relevant, and valuable as it possibly can be. Let’s start with the type of information you need to include.

What you need to include:

Buyer personas

This is a crucial part of getting to know your customers and the different groups they fall into. You should start by researching your target market members as much as possible through a range of channels — interviews, social media research, email surveys, and more. Then, divide them into demographics and create a detailed persona to represent each one.

This is an incredibly valuable step because it allows you to break down your market and make broad predictions about each group’s preferences, pain points, habits, and desires. If done right, this helps you target your future marketing much more accurately and effectively.

Understand your competitors

Getting to know your competitors is a key element of market research. It allows you to understand what you will be up against when launching your product and what segments of your market might be easier or more difficult to sway from their loyalty to your competitors.

Your research report should contain detailed information about each of your competitors and what they offer. What do their products lack that yours can provide? Why do your customers go to them? How dominant are they in your market? What kind of loyalty do they command? What are some of the keys to their success? All this will help you understand what you’re up against and strengthen your chances of success.

Who did you talk to?

Much of your market research will involve talking to various people and groups of people in situations like focus groups, interviews, and surveys. It’s important to document this side of your research carefully and include it in your market research report. Be sure to break down the people you spoke to into demographics and be as specific as possible — try to align this with your buyer personas.

This will help you understand what different demographics want, identify any areas you may have missed, and see any opportunities for segmentation or expansion, as well as providing clear visibility into your research process and allowing you to justify your findings and decisions to other company members carefully.

Clearly show what will happen next — how will you use your findings? 

When you present your market research report to decision-makers in your organization, their primary concern will be what you want to do with it. Research is only valuable if it has a practical application, which should be a key element of your report.

It’s best to be specific — create plans and roadmaps for campaigns, build strategies, and include timelines and carefully researched cost estimates. If you can present a clear and viable plan for your product launch, it will be much easier to gain the support and buy-in of the higher-ups in your company. Be ready to defend and justify these plans.

Primary vs Secondary Market Research

There are two main types of research you’ll need to do when preparing your market research report: primary and secondary. Here is the difference:

  • Primary research. This refers to the first-hand information you have gathered during your research — straight from the primary source. Examples include interviews with individuals, focus groups, surveys, and information from sales teams. It helps add a human touch to your research, incorporating real people’s distinct voices and opinions.
  • Secondary research. This is data that your company didn’t personally collect but is available in the form of things like public records, trend reports, and market statistics. While it lacks the specific human element of primary research, it’s a great way to gain valuable overall insights about your target market without having to conduct huge research projects yourself.

Convincing company decision-makers with your market research report

One of the most essential functions of a market research report is to convince your company’s key stakeholders that you are prepared for a product launch and have everything in place to begin the process successfully.

When creating your report, you should always have this goal in mind. Here are some ways to do that:

  • Always clearly tie your research for business outcomes. For every conclusion your report reaches, explain what this means for the business and what concrete actions you will take as a result.
  • Use as many stats and as much hard data as possible. Clearly express this data in the form of graphs and other visual aids. Show where your data came from, how you collected it, and how your findings will impact your product launch.
  • Consider using Porter’s 5 Forces Model. This business model is aimed at understanding and explaining the fundamental market forces at work in any given industry. It can be illuminating to tie your research into this model.

A well-researched and detailed market research report is an essential part of a successful product launch strategy. It allows you to clearly understand your market, formulate concrete plans and strategies, and gain the support of your organization’s decision-makers.

Without one, you’ll be plunged into the dark, facing the monumentally challenging task of launching a product without the support of extensive research and data.
To find out more about how Kadence can help you prepare a market research report and launch your product with confidence, contact us.

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Online research has taken off at a faster rate in China compared to other Asian countries. Network coverage across the country is good and as one of the first markets to facilitate social media commerce, Chinese consumers tend to be digitally savvy. This, combined with their familiarity with multi-functional apps like WeChat, means there’s real scope to use more complex digital platforms for research in the country. Even older consumers can be reached through these means. Relative to other markets, there is a better chance of getting respondents aged 55+ years to participate in online research, due to their steadfast refusal to be left behind by the ‘digital divide’. 

The impact of COVID-19 has further accelerated the adoption of online methodologies. As a result of the introduction of social distancing measures, companies have had to embrace alternative ways of doing research, which have brought with it a number of benefits. 

Firstly, China is vast. We have 660 cities, including 36 first-tier cities and 237 second-tier cities. Whereas offline research can only be conducted in 2 – 3 cities, the geographical scope of an online project can be much broader, allowing for greater representation of the different areas within China, that extends beyond advanced urban centers. This can be incredible valuable, given the fast pace of eco-nomic development in Tier 3 cities and more rural areas. 

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What’s more online research has the benefit of being anonymous, allowing respondents to talk more freely than they might in a face-to-face situation. This makes online particularly good for exploring topics that a respondent may not want to discuss in public, but it’s also a great tool for product or concept testing. Because of the Chinese habit to moderate answers and avoid causing offence, doing this in group settings can be tricky. In contrast, exploring views one-on-one as part of an online community will help you understand what Chinese consumers really think about products or ads.

When, it comes to designing your approach, there are a number of things to bear in mind to make sure you get the most out of online research. Firstly, do ensure the platform that you are using is mobile-first. China as a market experienced the technological ‘leap frog’, so be wary of assuming that everyone has a personal computer or laptop. Also be mindful of the fact that the firewall can make implementing any form of online research a little trickier than usual, especially if you’re launching it from outside of China. Don’t forget to keep testing the viability / stability of your platform. This will ensure that you end up spending more time on the insights, rather than troubleshooting.

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It is undeniable that the China today is a stark difference from the China of recent decades. The rapid pace of change means that research methodologies need to evolve to ensure ways of harvesting insights continue to stay relevant, up to date, and effective. That said for brands, and for market researchers, offline research does continue to provide ways into the cities and allows for the experiential aspect of research to really come to life, particularly if it is ethnographic in nature. ‘Lived experiences’ of consumers are best expressed and understood when offline research is applied. But at the same time, the digital dominance in China presents a real opportunity to leverage this medium as means to communicate and reach the hearts of where consumers are today by speaking their language and connecting with them where they are – their digital world.  

How to conduct online market research in Asia: The Go-To Guide
Interested in understanding how to approach online research across other Asian countries? Download the guide here

I’ve been a market researcher for more than 15 years, during which I’ve done countless projects conducted through online and offline methodologies, both in Singapore, and across Asia. It’s a common research cliché to say that ‘one size fits all’ does not apply in Asia, and that the only unifying factor across all Asian markets is their very uniqueness. As such, I’m happy share my view on why Singapore is a market where brands stand to benefit from online research alongside offline research. 

Singapore is one of the most technologically-advanced countries in the world, with internet penetration not that drastically different from the US and indeed higher than many European nations such as Spain, Portugal and Austria. The government’s ‘smart nation’ ambitions are laid out in a masterplan that constantly gets revisited and progress against it tracked. Digital device ownership is high, and digital literacy is something that’s improving, even amongst elderly Singaporeans. It is becoming a common sight in the suburbs to see older Singaporeans making their way to the local community centre for regular lessons on smartphone usage or getting online, while savvier ones conduct video calls with distant loved ones across time zones, with a smile plastered on their faces. 

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What’s more online research has the benefit of being anonymous, allowing respondents to talk more freely than they might in a face-to-face situation. This makes online particularly good for exploring topics that a respondent may not want to discuss in public, but it’s also a great tool for product or concept testing. Because of the Chinese habit to moderate answers and avoid causing offence, doing this in group settings can be tricky. In contrast, exploring views one-on-one as part of an online community will help you understand what Chinese consumers really think about products or ads.

Online quantitative surveys have always been the norm in Singapore, so it’s good to see an increasing willingness on the part of clients to adopt a similar way to engage and understand local consumers qualitatively. 

From these experiences, we have honed best practices that guide every piece of online work that comes our way. For example, because Singaporeans are generally quite experienced and savvy with tech platforms, we are able to make our task introductions concise, thereby focusing on what we want them to complete or achieve. Also, culturally we may not be as open to casual acquaintances, but the right tonality on the mobile platform will definitely encourage very effusive inputs when it comes to tasks, sometimes even through the form of videos and images! On top of that, working with the right recruiters / fieldwork managers is even more crucial for online fieldwork compared to offline, as they are the crucial link to ensure sustained participation, especially for longitudinal studies (i.e. more than 10 days).

Despite Singapore’s position as a digital leader, over the past 5 years, there have been sporadic episodes of data breaches, even at government agencies, which have affected the daily lives of average Singaporeans. This is on top of the occasional ‘phishing’ instances and increasingly common episodes of white-collar crimes conducted on the digital / mobile platform. 

Though not catastrophic in nature, these instances do reduce overall consumer confidence in digital platforms to a certain degree, while highlighting increasing consciousness amongst consumers about their rights to personal data and digital privacy. This needs to be considered when implementing any form of online research. 

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The impact of this is that we need to think carefully about how we set up a study and what we say to reassure respondents participating in online research. Clarity around what kinds of information will be collected, how it will be used, and giving people the option to opt in and out of some of these, will definitely work towards reducing reluctance to participate, as well as increasing willingness to be even more open towards sharing their thoughts and the data points that we ask of them. It can’t just be a ‘blanket’ set of generic text filled with jargon, because that will not sufficiently explain the importance of them sharing their information, and of us respecting what they have shared. 

As mentioned, offline research is still a popular option in the Singapore and there are a number of reasons for this in spite of the efficiencies that online alternatives can offer. The small size of this ‘red dot’ island nation means that it can be easier and quicker to track hard-to-reach individuals in person rather than online. Offline is often favored by government-related agencies, because more Singaporeans are choosing to forgo having a landline in their homes, instead relying on a mobile phone number. That means while it used to be possible to achieve representativeness on a neighbor level via the home telephone, going face-to-face is now a more effective method. 

In Singapore we see a matrix of reasons why considering both online and offline research is important. From demographic shifts and technological adoption, to legislation and daily behaviour, we see that the market houses consumers that can be optimally reached through a mix of methodologies. This is the key takeout from my years of experience running both kinds of research across Asia, and underlies my belief that any brand that wants to truly understand Singapore as a market will stand to maximize that understanding if it starts by recognizing the value that combined methodologies can bring.

How to conduct online market research in Asia: The Go-To Guide
Interested in understanding how to approach online research across other Asian countries? Download the guide here

Kadence Boston, in partnership with 2020 Research, has been running an online community to understand the impact COVID-19 is having on US consumers. Before we launched this community one month ago, we thought long and hard about whether this was the right thing to do. We didn’t want this research to be perceived as taking advantage of the situation for our own marketing purposes. In the end, we decided to go for it, because we are market researchers and our job is to study, and help our clients understand, consumers. As expected, we are learning a lot, but what we didn’t anticipate was just how much our participants would also benefit from this community.

Participants in our COVID Community have been exceptional, in terms of the level of effort they put into their responses, as well as the time they have put into reading and responding in thoughtful, considerate ways to other participants’ posts. We expected participation in the community to be slightly more active than normal, given how many Americans are out of work and staying home due to COVID-19, but we’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of commitment and involvement we’ve seen.

After nearly everyone enthusiastically accepted our invite to extend the community into a third week, we decided to ask what they like about being part of this community. Their responses verify many of the benefits of communities and other online qualitative research methods, not only for researchers but also for research participants.

  • Expressing thoughts and feelings in writing requires greater introspection and thought, which fosters deeper levels of insight.

“By recording how I’m feeling or what I did today, I’m able to see patterns of behavior and thought in myself. I also like having questions that make me think of months ahead since that’s been tough to really visualize lately.” 

– Abby, NYC
  • Being remote and not knowing other participants provides enough anonymity where people feel they can be more open and honest than they might be with their usual circle of friends and family.

“Feel a bit freer to speak my mind on some subjects more honestly. With family or friends, it can be more difficult if they are having a hard time now or have very strong opinions that vary from mine.”

– Ralph, LA
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  • It can be difficult to navigate COVID-19 conversations with friends and family without venturing into polarizing issues, like politics. In highly emotional times like now, communities can provide a therapeutic outlet for consumers to express their thoughts and feelings without fear of damaging relationships. This would also be the case when researching a sensitive, personal topic.

“It’s therapeutic to share [my opinion] without having to hear an argument about why I may be wrong.”

– Patrick, LA
  • Like our obsession with reality TV, we enjoy sneaking a peek into the daily lives of others. Through the community, consumers can see how others are living and coping through COVID-19, which can be reassuring, inspiring, helpful, even entertaining.

“It’s also been so helpful reading everyone else’s responses, tips, tricks and stories. You can really get stuck in a pattern talking to the same types of people in your life.”

– Abby, NYC
  • Similarly, consumers are curious to hear first-hand accounts of others’ feelings and perspectives around the country. Exposure to other community members’ written and video responses each day can elicit feelings of connection and empathy. Realizing your similarities, and better understanding your differences, can bring about feelings of comradery and hope.

“It’s also good to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Everyone has a different perspective. They look at things from different angles and looking through the responses, you see the different fears. Their different beliefs, the different struggles that people have in how they’re dealing with them.”

– Michael, Chicago

“I was surprised to see that I have more in common with other people in this group than I thought.” 

– Diego, Houston

Especially now, at a time when we are craving human connection more than ever, online communities and other online qualitative methods are ideal for understanding consumers’ thoughts, feelings, behaviors, needs, expectations and for exploring new ideas.

If you are interested in learning more about these methods, tune into our webinar on April 15th at midday EDT. It’s not too late to register, just click here.

In the recent weeks we’ve been inundated with announcements by what seems like every company in America, large and small, announcing their approach to the COVID-19 pandemic. With much of the country at home, following the news, shopping online, viewing content and using social media more than before, American consumers are paying close attention to how brands are making them feel. Social media is swarming with consumer commentary on corporations’ responses. Brands have never been more in the spotlight and under such scrutiny. Now is a key moment for brands to define their identity and core values to consumers through their response.

As part of our COVID-19 qualitative market research study with 2020 Research, we asked our community of 30 Americans from Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York City to weigh in with their thoughts on how brands have responded to this pandemic.

Here are 10 key insights from our community for companies to consider as they strategize their ongoing response and communication in this new reality.

HOW SHOULD BRANDS COMMUNICATE TO CONSUMERS?

1. Avoid Email Overload

Early emails communication was appreciated but by mid-March consumers quickly became annoyed as corporate communication routinely flooded their inboxes day after day. Consumers have stopped reading them all because many seem to include a “blanket response”, explaining that companies are following CDC guidelines. Companies who sent their first email late into the crisis risk getting noticed for the wrong reasons. They come across as a disingenuous, “purely PR” response.

“I’ve been up to my navel in ‘response’ emails, seems like it’s anyone I’ve ever ordered from or used. I was fine with them at first but they’re getting a bit irritating as they continue to try to keep you updated.” – Boomer, Houston

Consumers do appreciate emails that personally affect them, like updates from local grocery stores and restaurants notifying customers of their closing, shopping hours, new safety measures and sales notifications for needed items.

2. Actions speak louder than ads

Brands that have made a memorable, positive impression on consumers have responded by taking real action and implementing change, not through passive communication. Consumers recall hearing about companies’ positive actions in the news, social media, radio, or podcasts. They find secondary reports more credible than hearing about a company’s response through ads or direct marketing communications. However, consumers’ first-hand experience with brands, in store or online, can completely derail or reinforce their perceptions of a company’s response.

HOW SHOULD BRANDS RESPOND TO COVID-19?

Consumers expect companies to be aware of how this pandemic is impacting our lives and empathetic to how this crisis is making us feel. They appreciate brands that have responded in ways that align with their prioritized values, putting people first and contributing in helpful ways.

3. DO: Prioritize people over profit

Above all else, consumers appreciate company leaders that have shown they care about their employees, like paying them though the shutdown, distributing executive salaries, giving raises to front-line workers, providing protective gear to staff.

“Patagonia and other retailers are continuing to pay employees while stores are closed…I think Patagonia’s response to COVID-19 will continue to motivate me to shop there more and support their brand.” – Millennial, Chicago

4. DON’T: Put business first

In contrast, consumers have negative perceptions of companies that put off closing or implementing equipment and efforts to protect the health of their employees and customers.

“[One shipping company] have kept regular all day business hours, they are not providing their front line staff that deals with the public proper cleaning or safety gear…They haven’t implemented any social distancing rules and at any moment it gets crowded.” – Gen X, Chicago

Consumers are especially critical of major corporations that, despite rising stock prices, are not increasing compensation for their over-extended employees, or paying employees for extended time off due to COVID-19. Some even go out of their way to investigate workers’ perspectives and will write off companies for not treating employees right.

“I’m frustrated that many lower wage workers are getting screwed over when they need the most protection. It’s difficult to see [some delivery] companies … rising in the stock markets.” – Gen Z, NYC

5. DO: Contribute to the solution

Companies and wealthy individuals that have donated generous resources to support the greater goal of saving lives have made a very positive impression on consumers, stimulating feelings of optimism, hope and American pride.

Consumers are most impressed by company leaders that are repurposing their operations to produce or acquire much-needed medical supplies, like Microsoft, Tesla, Apple, GM, Dyson, Medtronic, MyPillow.com and Gap.

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“Corsair turned their gin bottling process into making hand sanitizer … I love the ingenuity, creativity, and response in a time of need. I had never tried their liquor products before, I went straight out and bought a bottle of their gin and one of their whiskey products.” – Millennial, LA

They also admire brands in hard-hit industries, like Hotels.com, that are proactively supporting the greater cause despite their losses.

6. DON’T: Be passive

Consumers are critical of major corporations and moguls that have not donated money or resources towards sourcing medical supplies, judging them as greedy, unethical, and reassessing their relationship with these brands.

Similarly, many are angered by brands that are not taking any action or trivializing the pandemic.

“One specific company that I buy from weekly did not say anything about it. I had to ask via Instagram comments. The owner finally did answer after many comments…called it a “virus scare” which was annoying and turned me off from her company. I felt like she was downplaying what is actually a pandemic.” – Gen Z, LA

7. DO: Adapt to customer needs

Consumers applaud companies that quickly recognized people’s changing needs and adapted to meet these needs in creative and thoughtful ways. These businesses have revamped their operations processes to protect customers and employees and created innovative new services and solutions to help customers. While other companies are adopting these trends, the early adopters and innovators made a memorable impression.   

“With contactless shopping services.  I’ve always enjoyed shopping at CVS over Walgreens but this move that they’ve made has made me take another look at them.” – Gen X, Chicago

8. DO: Support non-customers

Brands that are also extending their services and offers to non-customers are bringing in more potential customers and improving their overall brand image. Consumers view these companies as caring, generous, thoughtful and report intentions to support them in the future.

“CorePower Yoga made a number of their on-demand videos free for anyone so people who do boutique classes can still keep active. I usually can’t even afford yoga normally in NYC, but I’ve been using it! It makes me want to invest in them in the future when I can!” – Gen Z, NYC

9. DON’T: Disregard customer needs

Consumers are put off by companies that have been insensitive to their needs. Grocery stores and retailers that were slow to follow the changes and safety measures taken by their competitors are seen as uncaring and profit-driven. Large retailers that have increased prices in the wake of COVID-19 anger consumers who now view them as greedy and profit-driven. Communication that is irrelevant or insensitive to consumers’ feelings and needs in this new reality negatively affects consumers’ perceptions of the brand. 

“I have received a few emails about “you need to schedule an appointment for us to upgrade/install new HVAC” to protect your air quality.  I found this unprofessional and unethical…trying to play on people’s fears to earn some extra bucks is wrong.”  – Gen X, Chicago

10. Remember, we’re all human.

While consumers recognize that companies are run by people who, like all of us, have never experienced this amount of change and uncertainty; in a matter of weeks, we set expectations for how brands should and should not respond during this unprecedented crisis. Now, more than ever, consumers crave connection and they are connecting most with companies that have shown they care more about people than profit, through their actions, not just their words.

In this highly emotional time, consumers are likely to remember brands that really stood out through their response, both positively and negatively. How brands are responding to COVID-19 is influencing consumers’ perceptions, awareness, consideration, usage, loyalty, and their future intentions with brands.

But it’s not too late to take action to improve brand perceptions. It is critical that companies stay aware of what consumers are currently feeling, thinking, needing and expecting from them right now. Play offense and engage in conversations with consumers. When companies care enough to respond directly to critical consumer feedback in places like social media, perceptions can shift. Connect at the human level in ways that demonstrate empathy, care and support, not just for your customers, but for everyone in the country, for humans around the world.  

For additional insights by industry, or additional information on our community or capabilities, reach out to [email protected].

Disclaimer:  Quotations from community participants have not been fact-checked and are not necessarily representative of the views of Kadence International.

As you put the Halloween decorations away for another year, are you one of the many people thinking twice about that age old tradition of carving a pumpkin? 

#pumpkinrescue is trending on social media as organizations and consumers alike raise awareness of unnecessary food waste that the Halloween tradition creates. According to Hubbub, in the U.K., 18,000 tons of pumpkin go to landfill every year (that is the equivalent of 360 million portions of pumpkin pie) and many people have had enough, using the hashtag to encourage consumers to eat the remains of their pumpkin instead. 

Concerns around food waste are no fad. Our latest research, The Concerned Consumer, found that food waste is a key issue globally, with 63% of consumers telling us they do their bit to address food waste. This is particularly important for consumers in the UK and the US, where the figure rises to 71%. 

Keen to explore this topic in more detail, we’ve been digging into the conversations around food waste on Twitter, using a comparative analytics tool called Relative Insight. 

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So aside from discussions around #pumpkinrescue, how is food waste being discussed online?

Freezing food is a key topic of conversation. It is seen as a sustainable way to keep food fresh for longer, minimizing food waste overall. And while thinking about pumpkins (which is a fruit by the way – yes, we googled it), we found that consumers are generally confused about whether they can or can’t freeze certain vegetables and fruit.

Another popular topic around food waste is finding a purpose for food scraps. Consumers are calling for more recipe suggestions incorporating vegetable scraps, or ways of composting it. Take a pumpkin as an example; the flesh can be used in pies and bread, the guts can be used for broth and mulled wine, the skin is edible in small varieties, and the seeds can be roasted. 

Want to discover more about the environmental, ethical and health concerns driving purchase behaviour in food and drink? Download our Concerned Consumer research.