Like any industry, insite research has evolved over the years. How market research is conducted today looks quite different than it did 100 years ago. Even though market researchers use techniques today that weren’t available even 20 years ago, the foundations of market research remain the same: getting a deeper understanding of peoples’ needs, wants, and beliefs. This blog is the first in a two-part series that looks at how market research has evolved over the past 100 years.

There is no doubt that market research has benefited from technology. Data collection used to be a laborious and slow undertaking, taking weeks to collect. Nowadays, researchers can gather more data within hours. Technology also allows market research recruiting teams to access a more culturally, ethnically, and geographically diverse group of people to participate in studies.

A Brief Timeline of Market Research from the 1920s-1960s

1920s: Market research as we know it today can be credited to Daniel Starch, who first developed methodologies for studying and testing market research in advertising. His creation of the Starch Test was the first tool that attempted to measure how effective magazine and newspaper ads were. For the first time, companies could know if people remembered seeing their ads, and what effects (if any) they had on behavior.

1930s: Most Americans are familiar with the Gallup poll, as it’s often referenced when taking the pulse on public opinion on a wide range of topics. George Gallup was a numbers guy and realized that small samples of the populace could generally predict attitudes. The surveys and polls (quantitative research) that are still used today can all trace their origins to George Gallup.

1940s: Most market research involves focus groups. Because focus groups are so ubiquitous, it’s easy to forget that they didn’t exist prior to the 1940s. The impetus for focus groups, or ‘focused interviews’ as they were known, came about during WWII, as a way to measure reactions to anti-Nazi radio broadcasts. What was discovered while testing various messages was that you had to drill down to gain further insights into how participants felt and reacted to the messages. This was the dawn of qualitative research consultant.

1950s-1960s: During this period was the heyday for motivational and consumer behavior research, as well as a leap forward in predictive statistical techniques developed by Paul Green. The developments in market research recruiting firms during this era had a massive impact on advertising. Using in-depth interviews, brands were able to dig deeper into peoples’ desires and create ads that were relevant to the masses.

In our next blog we’ll pick up in the 1970s to our present decade. While the methodologies and tools have evolved over the years, what has remained the same is that market research is the only way companies can gain insights into consumer behavior and motivations.

Wanting to find the best people to participate in your Market Research Study? Contact us Today!

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Sometimes cliches or soundbites take on a life of their own. Take for instance the well-known line, “If you build it, they will come.” Most people know this line from the movie Field of Dreams, and use it to justify building something before there is an audience or known group that actually wants what you’re building. This quote has morphed from the original line from the movie which was “If you build it, he will come.” It almost doesn’t matter what the original quote was because the idea behind it has become such a familiar phrase throughout our culture.While this quote sounds great and inspirational, when it comes to market research recruiting firms, it couldn’t be more wrong.

We have numerous examples of organizations calling us to help them recruit people to fill out a survey. In most of these cases the organizations thought that all they had to do was create a survey and post it to their website or social networks and, bam, people would feel compelled to take the survey. It’s always a disappointment when reality sets in and you discover that most people can’t be bothered to participate in any type of nationwide qualitative research firms or quantitative market research study without being incentivized or specifically recruited.

Some organizations provided feedback and said they thought the costs of recruiting for a large, quantitative study would be too cost prohibitive, which is why they tried to do it themselves. What they failed to understand is that failing to recruit is also cost prohibitive in that the study will be worthless without participation. We’ve delighted and surprised many clients when they learned that recruiting for quantitative studies isn’t as expensive as they feared.

Our trained recruiters have many tricks up their sleeves to get people to participate in market research, from obscure topics to general consumer studies. Each market study is unique and no two studies have the same parameters for recruiting. When it comes to recruiting for large-scale surveys, we work with the client or market research recruitment agencies to figure out the best way to broadcast the survey and what will work best to incentivize people to participate. Our years of experience with market research recruiting informs our recommendations.

There is no such thing as a ‘simple’ market research study. Each study has many components and each are important to get right. Think of market research like a game of Jenga. There are lots of inter-connected pieces and if some of the foundational components get knocked out of place, the whole thing comes crashing down. Recruiting is definitely one of the foundational pieces of any market research study. Don’t move forward with a market research study thinking, ‘if you build it, they will come.’ As with any successful project, there is a lot of strategy and planning involved. Because much of this takes place behind the scenes, it may appear to outsiders that it ‘just happened.’ Market research doesn’t ‘just happen.’ Researchers and recruiting teams work hard to ensure that the important, foundational components are all in place before the first focus group, in-depth interview, or survey is launched. The more appropriate cliché for market research is, ‘The devil is in the details.’

When it comes time to finding the best people for your next study, Contact Us to learn more.

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At Focus Insite, we think about market research recruiting all day, every day. Sometimes we forget that those who don’t work in market research might not understand what market research is and who it helps.

In a nutshell, market research (sometimes called marketing research) is any set of techniques or methodologies used to collect information to gain insights and understanding about a company’s target market. Businesses hire market research recruiting firms to conduct studies to help them design better services or products; improve UX designs, position their brand within a competitive landscape, and craft marketing messages that resonate and increase conversion rates.

Why your organization should consider market research

You can’t really understand your users without conducting research. You may have a broad idea of your customers and what they need, but you can’t, and shouldn’t, take their loyalty for granted, or count on it always being there. Qualitative market research studies help your company understand how and why your customers think and behave the way they do with regards to their purchasing decisions. Qualitative studies are an assured way to learn about customers’ motivations, impressions and reasons why they’re drawn to certain brands.

Why does qualitative market research matter?

· Quantitative Research gives you the 30,000 foot view. Qualitative research gives you the close-up view. If you want to understand how many people within a sample population think or behave the way they do, you’d conduct a quantitative study. Dashboards, big data, and surveys are the right tools for telling you what users/customers do at scale, but if you’re wanting to know what they’re thinking and why they behave in certain ways, then a qualitative study is what you’ll need.

· Research always beats suppositions and trends. There are plenty of examples of product launches or new-business ideas that end up in dead-ends. Ideas that fail to gain traction are often the result of assumptions, guesswork, and emotional reasoning. When you spend time with your customers in focus groups or in-depth interviews, you’ll learn about what motivates and compels them and aren’t as likely to get pulled in the wrong direction.

· Market research prevents ‘corporate myopia’. Even ‘A’ teams are susceptible to mis-reading what their customers want. Insiders will never experience a product the way your customers do. It’s easy to become myopic to your service or product and have loads of built-in biases and misconceptions. Market insite research are great ways to learn more about how your customers really use or perceive your product. Features that seem clear to your team might be perplexing or irrelevant to your customer. When you don’t test your assumptions, you run the risk of wasting money, time, and effort. Making changes, or scraping an idea altogether, is way more costly than doing the research up front.

Every market research study requires the appropriate and best qualified participants. Focus Insite works closely with market research recruitment consultants around the world to help recruit the ideal study participants.

Wanting to fill a study? Contact Us Today.

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For those of us who work in the market research industry, we sometimes forget that those on the outside of our industry don’t realize the many steps required to take a qualitative market research project from concept to finished product.

There are many steps involved in conducting market research, and we work with market research recruitment agencies AND DIY clients. For clients who are undertaking a market research project on their own, in order to be successful, it’s first important to understand the various facets of tackling a market research study.

No two studies are alike, but there is a basic framework that most market research studies are built upon.

1. Hypothesis: before you can design a market research study, you must first clarify the hypothesis, or essential question to be answered. This will vary widely depending on the subject matter, but generally a company wants to know ‘how’ and ‘why’ consumers make the decisions they do. Once the essential question has been determined, you can then decide which qualitative or quantitative methodologies to use in the study.
   
   
2. Screener: Once the hypothesis of the study has been determined, next up is deciding who should participate. Screeners help weed out participants who don’t qualify, either because they are in the wrong demographic or because they aren’t familiar with the product or concept being studied. Screening guides are an important tool for researchers, and can make or break a study. Ultimately, you want a representative sample of consumers who meet the criteria of the study.
   
   
3. Recruiting: Once a number of qualified people have been identified to participate in a study, next up is scheduling and managing the participants. Insite research and recruiting takes a lot of time and energy, and it’s a task that is best left to market research recruiting firms.
   
   
4. Focus Groups, and more: If the study is qualitative, rather than quantitative, then it’s likely that you’ll be conducting focus groups or in-depth interviews. While there are many methodologies for examining what governs consumer behavior, focus groups and in-depth interviews remain popular choices for market research.
   
   
5. Transcription: Once all the data has been collected from focus groups or interviews, next you’ll need to have all the conversations transcribed. This step is important, as it allows the researcher to read through the many transcripts and enter the data into coding spreadsheets.
   
   
6. Coding: There are many ways to code data, but a common way is to input the questions posed to the participants into a spreadsheet and then capture the various responses to each question. By doing this, the researcher can begin to identify patterns between responses. It’s not uncommon for many participants to have similar responses, albeit in their own words. Think of coding as a distillation process. You want to begin to consolidate all the data into a concise report that provides insights to what drives consumer behavior.
   
   
7. Report: With the tedious job of coding behind you, it’s now time to focus on the report. Write your report with a story arc in mind. Reports that have a beginning, middle, and end are easier to follow. Depending on who the report is going to (C-suite personnel, or strategic or marketing teams) will help you know what to emphasize in the report. Recommendations or call-outs are always appreciated.

With this framework in hand, you can think about conducting a market research study on your own. We recommend using professionals who are well-versed in market research, but sometimes budgets don’t allow for this. Consider that you can outsource various aspects of the above listed to professionals, which may ultimately save you money, not to mention a lot of time.

To learn more about how to get started on your next market research study, Request a Proposal today!

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