The speed at which brands have to make decisions based on consumer opinions is faster than ever. This means they need data and insights at their fingertips, guiding them to quick actions in order to meet consumer needs and demands.
Something we often hear when we speak directly to clients and brands is how cumbersome it is to involve the insights team in a project. When they finally receive a report, the data often feels inaccessible or irrelevant, or the moment has passed and the decisions have already been made. This laughably slow process is not enough.
Making research accessible
Another challenge is the perception that insights teams hoard their data and don’t provide findings in a meaningful way to stakeholders. When insights are not optimised for wider audiences in the business, it becomes difficult to make research seem relevant.
Software such as SurveyMonkey has made market research accessible to a wider audience. These programmes put market research tools straight into the hands of product owners, marketing managers and entrepreneurs who can’t necessarily afford an insights team, don’t have time to wait or don’t want to go through the hassle of securing budget, conducting internal communication and fitting research into existing business priorities. But SurveyMonkey is far from alone in its pursuit of reshaping how companies and brands get access to, and engage with, consumers for insights.
Automating processes, valuing humans
Over the past few years, more and more young companies have disrupted the research industry by offering fully automated tools directly to the end client, whether it is Zappi facing clients or internal R&D delivering data to Amazon’s internal recommendation engine with third-party data sources.
In the market research space, there are many companies that are innovating with the help of technology and those that are developing the technology itself. Alongside this rapid technology boom, the need for the skill-sets of market researchers, and their very “human” approach to insights, continues in spades. It’s when market research companies don’t consider both factors – technology and humans – and fail to marry them together to create real value, that they risk becoming irrelevant.
Brands need to understand their audiences and make informed business decisions about product launches and campaigns. To do this, they must be armed with information, and fast. The traditional process of collecting respondent data is resource-heavy, expensive, time-consuming and very inefficient. By automating this process, market research companies are able to better deliver on the promise of speed and accuracy. Cint provides the foundation for insights companies to do just this, by using automation and the world’s largest sample exchange platform to connect insights professionals to millions of engaged consumers around the world. Collecting data from respondents has never been easier, or faster.
Once technology like this is put to work, brands can uncover insights quickly; share those insights with the right people in the organisation; and accomplish more complex, continuous data collection to enhance recommendation engines. When all these processes are automated, then researchers and agencies can do what they do best: understand client needs, dig into the data to find the right insights, and provide a full spectrum of value to their clients – quickly. What’s more, in this field, as in many others, AI will help market research professionals to be more creative and strategic. Largely free from repetitive tasks, insights professionals can solve problems and uncover solutions.
