In current times, brands can spearhead competition and align their goals to match customers’ preferences using analytics and intelligence tools. Business intelligence systems integrate the data using touchpoints like customer support, market research, intelligent advertising, soft launches, and product performances.
Why is market research needed?
Market research helps in collecting the viewpoints of consumers who are end-users of a product or a service. Their satisfaction and acceptance are ultimate and seal the deal for most product initiations.
It is a vital part of any business strategy and was used by industries for a few centuries. In current times, consumer preference is changing at a rapid pace, and keeping up with relevant and up-to-date technologically advanced products at affordable prices is the biggest challenge for companies. Therefore, relying on all the strategies that will allow companies to achieve organizational goals are required.
Online research communities
Predictive analytic tools that process consumer insights are useful, to stay in tune with changing consumer behavior. The online research community is a facilitator platform that helps in gathering the information required from focused groups that will give answers to companies that help in their decision-making process.
Some of the common benefits of effective market research for business are:
- Data inputs for business decision making
- Helps in eliminating projects that show the least probability of consumer acceptance
- Secures investment and optimizes the use of funds
- Aid in identifying new business opportunities
- Adverse results can be avoided through timely interventions and corrective resources
How does an online community help in market research?
An online research community is a group of people with similar preferences related to the topic of research. They participate in a series of conversations and opine in structured communication and exercises for a given area of the research topic. It is like an online platform that is customized to provide answers to research objectives.
When business intelligence aligns with market research, companies can take actionable decisions that can translate into growth and establish long-term relationships by improving customer experience.
Benefits of using online research communities
Online communities leverage the advantage of the internet and can penetrate any market irrespective of geographical location. It is accessible from anywhere for the participant without the restriction of time, cultural hang-ups, geographical locations, or ethnicity.
Active respondents with higher participation will increase the sample size for research purposes and statistical modulations. The qualitative responses help analysts match it with quantitative data to arrive at the right decisions based on highly skewed information. The qualitative approach also avoids biases and heuristics that often cloud any statistical research.
Unlike in-person physical surveys, the online research community can reach out to more people. As a result, the sample size of the population is large and represents a more accurate result for the research.
There is no physical approach to online communities. It is paperless and can be conducted through web portals or apps. There is no requirement of spending the travel or commute for staff who have to be stationed at a location to gather data. As iterated the sample size is large enough to remove outliers and has thin tails in a statistical extrapolation. In this manner, the cost of conducting research is reduced with better and faster results.
If a business operation has to be featured as a pyramid, the top operations are dependent on the timely decision-making process which in turn depends on business intelligence. Market research is a vital part of the BI and can be effectively carried out through online research communities. So an online research community needs to be cherry-picked with people who have independent views and can give honest opinions about the research topic.
Unlike physical roadshows conducted by traditional focus groups, an online research community has the advantage of speed. As there is no time required to physically send out flyers and announce through broadcasts inviting interested, focused people to gather at one place, online research material can be floated within a few minutes. The outreach is wider and larger, so in no time, the responses start to flow in. Within a day from the time the research questions or activities are conducted, there is a considerable pool of data that can be crunched and used for the decision-making process.
Since data collection is mapped to the unique ID of participants the data collected is not a spinoff result. It is sourced organically and can be used for multiple related research. Surveys and discussions can take place within a platform and information can be secured without any third-party leakages.
Deep diving questions can be initiated to follow up on the research to derive accurate results. In this manner, the quantitative numbers start making sense to the analysts.
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Connects with direct consumers
Brands will be forgotten heroes if they don’t maintain an online research community of consumers who have invested in their goodwill and trademark.
An online tool is the best possible way to stay in touch with consumer sentiments and understand their changing or never changing preferences. Understanding the behavior patterns of paying consumers will help companies create strategies to retain customers and increase brand loyalty value.
Conclusion:
Businesses have different phases of growth. Often they hit a plateau and are not able to surpass their glorious performance of the past years. This is the phase when the focus has to shift to being more inclusive and developing a deeper understanding of existing customers who have stayed loyal to the brand.
Strategies that result in profound comprehension, help brands gain momentum and recalibrate their game to inch back the growth ladder while making a bigger impact on customer experience through online research communities. A few decades ago there was an adage that the customer is the king. With deep learning, it has been established that the customer is a human who is paying his hard-earned money for a service or product and expects his money’s worth to be delivered. Hence, online research communities help in removing even age-old biases.
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