Kadence Indonesian office has launched an innovative online survey platform called K-OINS (Kadence Online Insight System). With an increasing number of people moving online, there has been a need for a high-quality online survey, and K-OINS is the solution.

The K-OINS Platform can be used free by registering through its website or by downloading the app on Google Play Store. Currently, K-OINS is still under development for iOS users.

K-OINS rewards users for participating in market research surveys on their platform using “Koins,” which can be transferred to the user’s bank account or any preferred e-wallet with a minimum balance of IDR 50,000 free of any administration fee. The incentive doesn’t end here. Every registered K-OINS user also gets a referral code to be shared with new users for more “Koins.”

“With the current digital technology, innovations are carried out by almost all lines of business, and market research is no exception,” Febri Nugraha, Managing Director of Kadence International, said. “While there are many online survey platforms in the market, we continue to focus on providing the best service to our clients through our in-house online survey platform.”

According to Nugraha, K-OINS will allow the Kadence Indonesia market research team to monitor the survey results, support them in providing recommendations to clients, and help them adjust survey results in real-time.

“Additionally, we also complement the K-OINS platform with efficient UI and UX, eye-catching visuals, so that all our users can enjoy K-OINS,” he added.

According to Sebastian Mulia, Quantitative Director of Kadence Indonesia, the company released the K-OINS platform to positively impact the community and help people earn additional income.

“Launched in 2022, we have gone through various processes and research since we first started developing the K-OINS platform in 2019. We have collaborated with third parties, like agencies, to help media placement and boost awareness,” he said.

As the newest entrant in the online survey platform market, K-OINS has already conducted many studies with companies in Indonesia from various industries such as FMCGs, education, finance, automotive, and healthcare.

In the future, K-OINS will continue to innovate in the digital surveys space and will not be limited to online surveys. “Currently, we are doing some development to cover the needs from two perspectives —both from our clients as the party receiving input and the community as the party providing input,” Benediktus Timothy, Senior Manager of Operations, said.

For more information about K-OINS, please check K-OINS Instagram @koins_id or visit the website at https://k-oins.com

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

Data is at the heart of all research, and marketing research is no exception. It is the eyes and ears for a brand’s marketing initiatives. The data you gather — and its quality — will make a massive difference to how successful your research is, how accurate your findings are, and the impact on your business goals and strategies.

As a result, data collection is arguably the most critical market research stage. It can make or break the rest of the process, so it’s vital to do everything you can to make this stage run smoothly and successfully.

In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into why data collection matters in marketing research, the different types of data you should focus on, and all the options available to you when it comes to collecting that data. Let’s start by defining what data collection means.

What is data collection in market research?

Data collection entails gathering all the necessary raw information for your market research. Some people also extend the definition to include analysing that data to extract valuable insights for your research objectives.

It is a detailed, planned search process for all relevant data made by a researcher for a hypothesis.

The most critical purpose of data collection in market research is to ensure that reliable data is collected for statistical analysis so brands can make decisions backed by rich data. Therefore, your data must be high-quality, relevant, and plentiful enough to draw meaningful insights.

Why data collection is so important?

Data collection is a critical step in the research process, often the primary step. You can analyse and store essential information about your existing and potential customers when you collect data. This process saves your organisation money and resources, as you can make data-driven decisions. Data collection also allows you to create a library or database of customers (and their information) for marketing to them in the future or retargeting them.

Three main uses of data collection in market research:

  1. Data collection helps you make informed decisions and analyses, building complete and insightful market research reports that can drive future product launches, market-entry campaigns, marketing strategies, and more. Data collection is the foundational step for various activities that can lead to business growth.
  2. Data collection allows you to build a database of information about your market for future use. While your primary goal might be to create a research report with a specific objective, the data can still be helpful for future activities.
  3. Data collection allows you to target marketing and outreach more efficiently, thereby allowing your organisation to save money and do more with its resources.

The different types of data collection in marketing research

There are several different types of data to consider at this stage — let’s examine them more closely.

We can break down data into two main categories, which makes it easier to understand the types of data we want to focus on and helps us hone in on the research methods and channels that will be most useful.

Primary data

Primary data is collected directly by your researchers, specifically for your research purposes. This data is primarily collected from interviews, surveys, focus groups, and experiments. In other words, this data did not exist before your team collected it.

Secondary data

Secondary data refers to data that already existed before you started your research. Other researchers have already collected and compiled this data before. You can find this type of data in places like government reports, the analysis of other businesses, polls and surveys, and the work of NGOs. It’s typically cheaper and easier to obtain than your primary data, but it won’t be as relevant to your project.

Qualitative research

Qualitative research is usually the first step in data collection. It’s more textual than statistical and involves collecting non-numerical data like interview transcripts, video recordings, and survey responses.

Qualitative data is typically collected via first-hand observation through focus groups, interviews, and ethnography. It is a way of diving deep into ideas and concepts, allowing researchers to learn more about specific topics that may not be well understood.

Quantitative Research

Where qualitative research is relatively more text-based, quantitative research focuses on numbers and statistics. This data is expressed in charts, graphs, and tables and is typically used to test initial findings.

Methods used to collect quantitative data include more closed-ended survey questions, mobile surveys, and Likert scales. The main benefit of this type of data is that it allows researchers to make more broad generalisations and predictions, but it’s not well-suited for diving deep into particular questions.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

How data collection in marketing research works

There are many steps involved in the data collection process. Some of these steps begin even before you start collecting data.

Prior steps

There are several steps you should take before your data collection begins, such as:

・ Make sure you have all the necessary permission to collect your data. Today, data privacy laws are stronger than ever, so researchers need to take extra care to comply with regulations and have the full consent of their subjects and participants. It’s best to work with a legal compliance team to draft all the required documents, forms, and contracts to share with your research participants from the very beginning.

・ Make sure you have the support of any company decision-makers and stakeholders. It may be helpful at this stage to prepare a preliminary report informing any higher-ups of your plans, goals, sources, and any methods you plan to use.

・ Try to predict and pre-empt any possible challenges or problems, such as privacy regulations, collection methods, infrastructure, or budget. Anticipating any issues now will help you avoid costly problems and make the whole process run more smoothly.

・ Put together a team of skilled and qualified researchers and analysts. Data collection can be a difficult task, and you need to have the right experience and skillsets on your team.

Decide on your data collection methods.

The next stage is to decide which data collection methods you will use to collect data for your marketing research report. You will likely employ various methods here, as each has unique pros and cons. Here are the main methods you should consider:

・ Surveys

There are many ways to conduct surveys — in-person, online, post, email, mobile message, others. Surveys differ in content and structure — from simple Likert scales with just five possible numerical responses to more qualitative open-ended questions.

・ Focus groups

Focus groups allow you to bring multiple participants together to discuss the subject of your research and share their opinions. This format can be a great way to brainstorm ideas, and people can often bring good ideas out of each other. To get the best results, everyone should get a chance to speak, and no one person should dominate the group.

・ Interviews

One-to-one interviews are the best ways to dive deep into a person’s opinions about your brand or a specific product. However, they can be time-consuming and may require much planning.

・Observation and experimental research

This type of data collection involves observing individuals as they interact with specific products or services. It helps get around certain biases that people might have in interviews and surveys and cut right through to their true thoughts. However, it isn’t easy and requires an expert touch to get it right.

Identify and prepare for common challenges with data collection.

During the data collection process, you’re likely to encounter several challenges. The good news is that you can avoid these challenges and mitigate any impacts on your research report with proper preparation.

Here’s what to look out for:
・Bad methodology results in poor quality data

A lot can go wrong with your data collection methods — badly identified participants, poorly designed questions, and choosing the wrong methods are just a few examples. This can result in poor quality data, leading to erroneous conclusions and an unsuccessful research report. Take the time to work with experienced researchers and build the right data collection strategy for your needs.

・Logistical challenges

You will also come across many logistical challenges. For instance, you’ll need a big venue to hold everyone if you’re running a focus group. If you want to conduct a stream of interviews, you’ll need to hire a space for a particular time. You may need to arrange transport, refreshments, and a wide range of other logistical demands. If you fail to plan this properly in advance, your team could find itself in a highly stressful situation.

・Using the proper channels

The channels you use to connect with your audience are consequential — what works well for one demographic might completely fail for another. If you choose the wrong media (like Twitter to send surveys to an older demographic), you could have a poor response rate and lack usable data.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

How to collect data effectively

Get to know your audience.

You will need to have an intimate and deep understanding of your audience and the people you collect data from. This will ensure you target the right people, ask the appropriate questions, choose the correct methods and channels, and analyse the data in the proper contexts.

There are many ways to get to know your audience better in advance of data collection:

・ Use social media to spend time in the same spaces and groups as your audience members, chat with them, and find out who they are and what makes them tick.

・ Work with your sales and marketing teams — it’s their job to understand your audience, and they’ll have access to valuable insights.

・ Look at who is using your competitors’ brands and products.

Once you understand whom you target, it often helps create detailed user personas, outlining details about your typical audience members like their age groups, income brackets, and education levels. You can then use this information to tailor your data collection strategy to be relevant and valuable.

Prepare for the analysis of your data.

Collecting data is one thing, but you should always have an eye on the analysis of that data. This is where you extract insights and draw tangible value from the data — allowing you to make informed business decisions and create a valuable and applicable market research report.

When planning your collection methods and recording the results, always remember that someone will be analysing this data. Be organised, clear, and detailed, and work with your analysts to ensure they are aligned with your approach.

Use a wide range of methods and channels.

The best data collection relies on various tools and channels instead of focusing on just one or two. By combining a number of the approaches mentioned in this article, you will connect with a broader part of your market, gaining a better understanding of how different demographics feel and leading to a more valuable and insightful analysis.

For example, if you focus solely on digital channels like social media and online surveys, your responses may skew heavily towards younger people. Some in-person interviews, focus groups, and postal surveys help target a broader range of age groups and accurately reflect your market and their views.

Data collection is a critical part of market research. It serves many important purposes, and it is essential to get it right to create effective research reports and complete a vast range of different business objectives.

At Kadence, we help companies worldwide fine-tune their data collection, laying the foundations for informed and effective market research.

Contact us to learn more about how we can help you do the same.

Data collection comes with a host of unique challenges, and one of the most significant considerations for researchers is the topic of ethics in market research. It is essential to think about the ethical implications of your market research — are you collecting data in the right way without infringing on other people’s right to privacy, security, and the control of their data?

Before you start your data collection work, you need to ensure everyone on the team is aligned and understands their ethical responsibilities. Failing to do this could result in legal woes, a damaged company reputation, and other serious problems.

This article will show you why ethics are so important in data collection, what you need to be aware of, and how to ensure your data collection always falls on the right side of what’s considered ethical.

What are ethics in data collection?

What exactly do we mean when we talk about ethical data collection? Let’s delve into the definition to clear any misconceptions and ensure the rest of the article makes sense.

Data collection ethics is all about the right and wrong in collecting, analysing, processing, and sharing data.

This article will focus on data collection for market research purposes. The data we’re talking about here mainly refers to the personal data of our research participants.

Ethics has been an essential consideration for as long as we’ve been collecting data. By understanding it, you can ensure that the data you collect and the research you produce is ethically sound, respects the rights of your subjects, and avoids landing you in legal trouble.

Why are ethical considerations so important for data collection?

There are several key guidelines market researchers have to follow so they can adhere to ethical norms when it comes to data collection, such as:

・If you prioritise ethics, it usually results in better research.

When you care about the truth, accuracy, and minimising errors, your findings will be more reliable and lead to more valuable conclusions, benefiting your business.

・If you take ethics seriously, it shows that your brand is trustworthy and has integrity.

Conversely, suppose you’re violating ethical norms with your research; this will reflect very poorly on your reputation and (among other things) make it tough to find future participants for market research.

・You want to stay on the right side of the law.

Today there are more data privacy regulations than ever before, like Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA. Unethical data collection can lead to legal trouble and harsh financial penalties.

Guidelines: How to ensure your data collection is ethical.

Follow the guidelines detailed below to ensure your data collection is ethical.

Always obtain the proper consent.

When you collect data for market research, you’re using the personal data of your participants. When someone answers survey questions, takes part in an interview or focus group, or participates in an experiment, the data they share with you is protected by law in many jurisdictions.

From an ethical standpoint, an individual’s data is their personal property. As a result, you have to ensure you have the right to collect and use that data. Make sure to draft a consent agreement that informs your participants about your research and clearly outlines how you intend to use their data. This refers to asking for informed consent — in other words, your participants should know what they’re consenting to instead of being asked to give a blanket agreement.

In short, always get explicit consent from your research subjects before you collect or use any of their data, and always make sure they are given all the facts upfront about how you will use it. This is one area to work with an experienced legal team.

Always be clear about privacy and confidentiality.

You should be clear from the beginning about how private and confidential your participant’s data will be. For example, when publishing a market research report, will you use the names of your subjects or provide any information that could be linked back to their identity? If so, it’s essential to let them know before you collect any data.

You also need to consider technical capabilities in this area. Are your systems secure enough, or are they vulnerable to hacks and data breaches? You can still be legally punished if you lose sensitive user data due to a cyberattack in many cases.

Personally identifiable information (PII) covers many different data types, like a person’s full name, address, credit card information, or identification number.

Avoid bias.

As an experienced researcher will tell you — it’s all too easy to rig research in your favour. Wording specific questions in a certain way, focusing on some areas over others, guiding your subject in a particular direction with verbal nudges and body language — all these things can impact the result of your research.

This isn’t just unethical; it also leads to less accurate data. Pushing your research subjects towards specific answers might fulfill short-term goals, but in the long-term, it leads to a poorer understanding of your market and a shaky foundation for future research. Ensure all your moderators and researchers are aware of this and trained to avoid even subconsciously leading people in a specific direction.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

Nine ways to reduce bias in your market research

1. Minimise confirmation bias.

It’s common for teams to embark on a research project with a clear idea of what they want to discover. Maybe you want to know that all your participants love your planned products, your latest marketing campaign is destined for success, or a specific demographic is a big fan of your brand.

This can lead to confirmation bias, where researchers hone in on answers they like and gloss over ones that don’t support their favourite hypothesis, leading to skewed results that sound encouraging at first but ultimately don’t benefit the company. Be aware that your expected or desired outcome may not happen, and train your research teams to be level-headed and impartial.

2. Be aware of question order bias.

Question order bias is when the order of your questions can influence participants to give a specific answer or be more favourable to a particular idea. For example, if you ask the following questions:

  1. What do you like about the new iPhone?
  2. Can you give an example of a great tech company?

Here, the participant is already thinking about iPhones and Apple after the first question, and this could lead them to give a similar answer to question two, even if they might have said something else had the order of questions been different. Be aware of the order of your questions, and always try to word them as neutrally as possible.

3. Be transparent about your data collection methods.

When you publish your research, you should make your methodology available to anyone who wants to read it. Be clear about what data collection methods and sources you used, whom you spoke to (being careful to avoid sharing personally identifiable information), your goals, the sample size, how you selected participants, and more. This helps people check your findings’ accuracy and shows that you’re credible and professional.

If there are any limitations or anything you’re uncertain about, disclose this. Don’t state something as a clear fact when it isn’t. Certain parts of your findings might need future research to confirm them, and you should clearly state this.

4. Maintain integrity

It may seem obvious, but it’s paramount to collect data with honest intentions and hold yourself to these standards. If you collect data for reasons that might negatively impact others, this is unethical, even if your collection methods and other factors are legitimate.

Make sure the questions you ask are relevant to your research goals. Asking questions — particularly personal ones — about your subjects that don’t inform your research is unethical.

5. Don’t cause harm to your participants.

You should always identify and avoid anything in your research process that could cause harm to your subjects. This could be physical harm — for example, asking participants to sample food to which they may be allergic — or emotional trauma, like asking people to revisit uncomfortable memories or placing them in situations where they might not feel at ease.

Anything that could harm your participants in any way is unethical. Make sure they understand the process from the beginning, regularly check in on them, and be sure to disclose anything that could potentially cause problems.

6. Don’t waste people’s time.

Your participants are busy people. They don’t have vast amounts of time to dedicate to your research, and they’re helping you out by agreeing to take part. Be respectful of your participants’ time and don’t keep them waiting longer than necessary. Aim to keep your research process tightly organised and always inform people about delays and other time constraints as soon as possible.

7. Be aware of unexpected outcomes.

Even the most meticulously conducted research can sometimes have unexpected consequences. It can be deemed unlawful if individuals suffer harm due to your study.

As a result, you need to take extra care to anticipate and prevent any unexpected adverse outcomes from your research. You won’t know for sure until the study is published, but you can minimise the chances of unintended consequences by being cautious and diligent.

8. Correct errors.

It’s normal for research to contain one or two errors. In itself, that’s not unethical, nor does it necessarily mean your research isn’t valuable. However, it is imperative to correct the mistakes as quickly as possible and edit your research report to make this clear.

If you don’t correct errors when you become aware of them, this is unethical as you’re knowingly publishing misleading information.

9. Work with an experienced research team.

The best way to ensure your data collection is ethical is to work with a team of experts. Research professionals understand the ins and outs of data ethics, and they know what to do and what to avoid. They also have an in-depth and current understanding of the legal aspects of market research. At Kadence, we have years of experience helping companies worldwide conduct market research, and ethics is always a priority. Get in touch with us to find out more.

Businesses strive daily to provide what customers want. Their success depends mainly on how well they understand the needs and motivations of their target audience. 

In the past, this frequently translated into a scattershot approach to meeting customer demands—build more products, design more features, and so on—with, at best, a goal of growing sales. 

But this slapdash strategy occasionally resulted in overspending, overcommitment of resources, and other strains on business operations that could threaten the business’s existence. 

The organised process of data collection in market research has changed all that. Now the focus is on collecting and analyzing high-quality data—information relevant to meeting customer demands—and how this data is obtained. The goal is the “systematic method of collecting and measuring data gathered from different sources of information,” as Medium notes, adding that an “accurate evaluation of collected data can help researchers predict future phenomenon and trends.”

Broadly speaking, there are two chief forms of data:

  • Primary data refers to first-hand information gathered straight from a primary source. 
  • Secondary data encompasses information found in public records, trend reports, market statistics, etc. 

Armed with high-quality data, businesses can better understand their prospective customers—what they want, what they already like, where they conduct their research, and much more. Companies come away with a deeper grasp of their markets, how their products will benefit that market, and the potential challenges they may face later. 

At its best, market research offers a blueprint of how a brand can move forward while avoiding the pitfalls it might otherwise encounter (without the benefit of high-quality data). 

It’s helpful to remember that a wealth of relevant data may already exist in your company. Information gleaned from business analytics and customer service scores offer vital insights into why consumers act the way they do. It’s an excellent place to begin research and avoid any duplication in data mining. 

What sources of data collection work best? What should brands know about the methodologies employed to acquire and measure such data?

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

The Value of Quantitative and Qualitative Data

Within the broader scope of primary and secondary data, there are other aspects of data collection worth noting:

  • Quantitative research relies on hard facts and numerical data to gain an objective view of consumer opinion. In general, this approach focuses on uncovering insights about large groups of consumers or the population as a whole. It enables brands to easily compare purchasing and other behaviours of different groups (age, gender, market) and to identify potential buying trends on the horizon. 
  • Qualitative research is less concerned with statistics and trends and more focused on the “human” aspect of buying. This research digs deep into the more intangible and subjective reasons why customers behave the way they do. 

As we have noted before, “People are complex and often unpredictable,” so qualitative research “means getting to know your customers and their motivations better.” As a result, brands can more effectively study customer pain points and barriers to consumer use while also guiding the way to a more personalised approach to marketing.

Where Qualitative Data Comes From

So, what are the sources of data collection? Here’s a quick rundown:

Focus groups. A group consisting of a small number of customers (usually no more than 15) meets to discuss a specific issue. Information derived from this approach often leads to rich insights around consumer attitudes and behaviours, underlying motivations, and perceptions about a brand. 

One-to-one, in-depth interviews. Researchers talk to consumers directly, seeking to understand participant opinions better. This method can be in the form of face-to-face interviews and phone or online interviews. 

Expert interviews. Industry experts are another rich source of data collection. Leveraging their knowledge through expert interviews can help brands explore the impact of emerging trends, thus helping to “future-proof” their business. 

Ethnography. In this realm, researchers immerse themselves in customers’ worlds to learn more about the role brands and products play in their daily lives. This can entail visiting consumers and accompanying them as they go about their day or through self-ethnography, where consumers take on video tasks to show us how they live. 

Online communities. Through an online platform, consumers undertake individual or group tasks that enable researchers to explore potentially sensitive issues and better grasp the attitudes and values that lead to that all-important decision to purchase a product or service. 

The personalized focus of qualitative research goes hand-in-hand with more quantitative research methods, adding context and depth to more numerical and data-based metrics.  

Survey Research Plays a Key Role

Sending out surveys is another key method for drawing insights to understand target customers or explore a new market. Surveys can be conducted in a variety of ways, including:

  • Email. This approach offers the benefit of reaching many people at an affordable cost.
  • Phone. Phone surveys are helpful for researchers seeking feedback from a particular demographic, i.e., older consumers who may not use online resources. 
  • Post. Postal surveys are another option, though of increasingly limited use. Prohibitive costs and a long time lag for responses often rule out this approach.
  • In-person. This method is useful when researchers want to know more about how consumers physically interact with a product or a similar situation. Again, the costs and logistics of this approach make it a less appealing process in general.  

These days, online surveys are often the primary method for collecting quantitative data. Existing customers can complete online surveys or respondents sourced from online panels (groups of people matching a brand’s target market who agree to participate in online research). Based on the results, brands can build accurate representative samples and extrapolate findings to the broader population. 

When it comes to quantitative research, survey questions usually include closed rather than open questions. For example, a survey participant being asked, “How satisfied are you with our delivery policy?” would be restricted to answers such as “Very satisfied/Satisfied/Don’t Know/Dissatisfied/Very Dissatisfied.” This method generates data that can be categorized and analyzed in a quantitative, numbers-driven way. 

How Technology Facilitates Data Collection  

Social media has emerged as a valuable source for insights into consumer perceptions and behaviours. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others have potentially vast data reservoirs on a target audience. 

On social media, consumers provide direct, unfiltered feedback about their needs, emotions, pain points, and hopes for the future. These platforms offer a relatively easy and inexpensive way to share surveys and questionnaires and enlist participants for upcoming focus groups.

In this respect, “social listening” offers an expedient method of gauging customer sentiment—what they like and don’t like about the buying experiences, preferences regarding how a purchase is made, and so on. 

Technology also makes it possible for researchers to dramatically expand their horizons, connecting with audiences in far-flung areas of a brand’s home country and around the world. Researchers can conduct real-time interviews and focus groups with consumers in multiple time zones using tools like Zoom and Skype. In this way, data collection for international research often yields a more powerful and richer understanding of consumer behaviour. 

Working with a Research Partner

It’s crucial to remember that every customer group is different. Some brands have a strong command of their markets and may conduct research on their own.

For many other brands, partnering with a professional research firm is the best approach to broad-based marketing research. At Kadence, we draw upon our extensive toolkit of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for a deep understanding of 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 organisation and promote more effective, customer-centric decision-making. This understanding often leads to more informed marketing strategies and greater success with untapped consumer populations.

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.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

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.

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.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

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.

Concept and pack testing is an area that’s ripe for innovation – a need made ever more pressing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Watch this 15 minute video to hear how we worked with Asahi UK to pilot the use of augmented reality for this purpose, testing pack designs for Fuller’s London Pride.

We’ll share our key findings, focusing specifically on what we discovered about the value of using AR versus static 2D images. These insights will have value to any researcher looking to broaden their toolkit and harness new technologies in the “new normal”.

This is is the first of Kadence International’s Micro Masterclasses, 15 minute videos designed to provide fresh thinking and a new perspective on research methodologies.

A usage and attitude study (U&A) is a brilliant way to understand the market for a given product, brand or category. It gives you a snapshot of how things stand, particularly for brands that people are aware of and use. But it’s also a technique that can help you understand what brands they might consider using – revealing important information about the competitive landscape.

Usage and attitude study objectives

We see that brands looking to embark on a U&A study tend to want to achieve one of the following objectives:

1) To inform what to do next

A usage and attitude study is often commissioned by a marketing team that wants to get some real clarity around the position of their brands in order to build a firm foundation for what they’re going to do next. It’s hard to feel confident about big decisions – such as promotions, product changes, advertising or even brand extensions – when you don’t have an up-to-date view of awareness, usage patterns or perceptions of the brand against competitors. Any of these factors could be pivotal in key marketing decisions.

2) To challenge assumptions

We also often see new management teams or marketing leads coming into a group or a brand management role who are keen to test the temperature around usage and attitudes before weighing up their own strategies. It’s extremely useful for senior decision-makers to have fresh data from a usage and attitude study to challenge long-held assumptions within their team.

3) To create benchmarks

A third use-case is running a usage and attitude study as the first phase of a wider project that might include additional waves of research. Here, we’re creating a clear benchmark for the follow-on work. This is often the case with new product development, for example, or a planned expansion into a new or international market. The U&A study can provide valuable background and context for everything that follows.

4) To understand how changes impact your organisation

One other interesting usage and attitude study objective is to 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. Clearly the Covid-19 pandemic is a perfect example. The dislocation to consumption patterns may have lasting effects for particular brands and products, so a fresh usage and attitude study is a valuable tool for resetting baseline assumptions. But we might also be talking about the entry of a new player into the market, or a shift in infrastructure (such as 5G network roll-out or other innovative tech).

This gives us a useful list of applications:

  • Create a snapshot of consumer attitudes to your brand ahead of key decisions.
  • Assess the current and potential size of the market.
  • Place your brand in a competitive context.
  • Challenge assumptions about your brand and products.
  • Set a benchmark and context for deeper research.
  • Measure the impact on brand or product of major change.
  • Test opportunities for brand extension such as new products or markets based on consumer behaviour.
  • Spot gaps in the market allied to target consumer attitudes.
  • Develop a deeper appreciation for consumer engagement.

There are other applications – but at its heart a U&A study is designed to give you a firm foundation for almost any decision around a brand or a product.

Kicking off a usage and attitude study

For us as a market research agency, the first phase of a U&A project is something we call ‘immersion’. We spend time looking at what the client already knows about their customers and markets, exploring any data they have so we can either benchmark the study we’re going to conduct, or identify gaps in their understanding of usage and awareness ahead of the new study.

Immersion can sometimes highlight areas where previous research conducted by the organisation has missed crucial aspects of brand awareness; or where they can’t explain sales patterns showing strengths or weaknesses in key areas. The more detailed the immersion process, the better: it will help shape and focus the brief for the research to come.

Of course, sometimes a huge data dump isn’t available, or it’s a little out of date. That doesn’t mean a fresh U&A project will be less valuable. Far from it: while it’s true a decent picture of the situation can inform how we run a U&A study, starting fresh can be even more valuable, setting a new, up-to-date baseline for the marketing team and creating a foundation for future research projects and performance evaluation.

The phases of usage and attitude research

Just as a usage and attitude study can often set a baseline for further research or marketing decisions, the starting point for a U&A study is also creating a baseline – asking respondents for the products and brands that come to mind in a given category, entirely unprompted.

Clearly U&A research is designed to explore how consumers feel about, or use, specific brands too. So the next stage is to test their awareness of those brands. That ‘prompted recall’ phase might also include information about what brands in the category the respondents have used – or even have considered using. It creates a more colourful picture of usage and attitude patterns in the category.

At this point, you can dive into more detail: which brands are perceived as ‘premium’? Which brands excel in certain areas, and which perhaps aren’t so highly regarded? The aim in this phase is to get an idea of the relative strength of the competition. And it’s here your own brand’s place in the larger landscape probably comes into focus.

You can also ask in more abstract terms about product categories or even specific SKUs to get a more granular picture – which can be very useful as context for insights centred on your own brand.

So the sequence for exploring usage and attitude is pretty straightforward, and actually maps nicely onto traditional conversion models, such as the classic sales funnel:

  1. Unprompted recall of brands or products in the category.
  2. Level of awareness when prompted.
  3. Level of consideration of the brand or product.
  4. Levels of agreement with various statements about the brand.
  5. Usage of the brand or product.
  6. Repeat usage or promotion of the brand.

In most cases, it’s also useful to build out the same funnel – levels of awareness, consideration, usage and advocacy – for competitor brands too. Understanding how they compare – not least in terms of demographics – with the brands in question can be among the most valuable insights for your marketing team.

And for many clients, usage and attitude research can be an essential tracker study, measuring the change in usage and awareness at regular intervals. This is especially useful when you’re conducted major projects such as new product launches or marketing and advertising efforts. Usage and attitude research is a superb way to measure their effectiveness.

Methodology: “measure twice, cut once”

While the questionnaires for usage and attitude research might seem formulaic, there is a good deal of market research expertise that goes into optimising the value of the resulting insights.

A great example is the importance of sampling. In any survey, the sample should be genuinely representative of the population you’re interested in. You need to avoid skewing the demographics towards a younger, more brand-conscious audience, for example, if you’re going to secure a valid perspective of attitudes across your market.

But for very specific categories, sample selection is even more important. We worked recently on a usage and attitude study for a well-known manufacturer of farm machinery. Taking a general sample here is a little pointless. But even if you’re selecting for a particular group – in this case, farmers – you still need to carefully calibrate the sample. We looked at their primary crop types, the size of farms, regional representation and much more – so that the sample was as representative within that group as possible.

The old carpenter’s adage “measure twice, cut once” is the rule here. Getting the sample right (and using proven methodologies more generally) will secure much more compelling and reliable insights later on.

Online methodologies were already an option for usage and attitude studies prior to Covid-19 lockdowns, and obviously they have been critical during 2020 and 2021 when access to people face-to-face has been limited. They’re very efficient, too, but for usage and attitude studies it’s often sensible to augment with CATI (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing) – not least in situations where a highly targeted and representative sample is needed. That’s particularly true, for example, in business-to-business environments.

Remember that research projects can be modular. We worked with one company that wanted to understand where they sat in the range cooker market – and how they stacked up against their rivals. We built a sample of people who already own that kind of cooker – then weaved a net promoter score (NPS) question set into a wider usage and attitude study. It was a good example of how a U&A study can dovetail with other research methodologies and objectives.

One other methodological point: by definition, some of the U&A questions will ask consumers or business decision-makers to be highly subjective and even emotive. That places additional emphasis on qualifying questions and careful analysis of the results.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.

Top tips for usage and attitudes studies

  • Know exactly what you want to learn from the research – it could be general background or highly specific, in-depth usage patterns.
  • Know what you can change as a result of the research – as well as realistic idea of how the research my shape decision-makers’ thinking. This will help prevent the research becoming unwieldy or over-generalised.
  • Unambiguous questions are valuable – people should have the same reference point for the survey. A usage and attitudes study should be conclusive, not a topic for never-ending debate about what people meant.
  • Find a neutral starting point – a baseline – for people’s assumptions and ratings. This will help frame a solid interpretation of the results.
  • Thinking carefully about the competitor brands you need to understand – it can be risky to ignore smaller brands or niche products.
  • Think about results presentation – visualising the results (showing brand strengths in different parts of the conversion funnel, say) or making under- and over-indexing against rival brands very clear.

That might mean the translation of survey questions has to be tweaked to be more practical or accessible to users depending on the format or technology being used in the field. It’s another reminder that having a single, integrated agency working on the project – handling the research design as well as the fieldwork and analysis – will bring many benefits.

Looking for support with usage and attitude research?

At Kadence, we have conducted usage and attitudes surveys for a host of brands. Take a look at our capabilities in this space or get in touch to discuss a project.

In the present circumstances, many of our clients are asking us questions about online research, both in the short and the long-term, in addition to more traditional techniques. Across our offices we’re experienced in a range of methodologies including online communities, video depth interviews and digital ethnographies. In this short video our Global Head of Qualitative Research explains some of the options available and how they work.

Stay ahead

Get regular insights

Keep up to date with the latest insights from our research as well as all our company news in our free monthly newsletter.