Research is a crucial part of the business world. It allows businesses to learn about their competition, their clients, and what people want. Market research examples are one way that companies learn about these things.
If you are looking for examples of market research or market research methods, you have come to the right place. Here you will find examples of how well known companies gather information about the people who use their products.
Intercept surveys
Intercept surveys are a form of quantitative research focused on capturing “in-the-moment” feedback from respondents.
Intercept surveys are typically used after people attend an event or eat at a restaurant to collect perception information. This type of feedback can also be collected before or during a participant’s experience.
The data received from intercept surveys are usually collected via tablets or paper and pencil interviewing techniques.
If utilizing tablets or other electronic devices, be sure the survey platform you are using has offline functionality.
Do not rely on Wi-Fi offered by large venues such as concerts or sporting events, because you will be fighting to connect to the internet with thousands of people.
Intercept survey example
Compared to other market research methods, intercept surveys allow for immediate, top of mind feedback from your customers.
For example, to test the success of a digital billboard at a New York Mets game, an intercept survey company representing Pepsi can conduct market research outside of Citi Field.
After the game, interviewers will approach fans as they are leaving the stadium to ask questions like:
- What billboard(s) did you remember seeing inside Citi Field?
- What type of food or beverage did you consume during the game?
- Are you more likely to choose Pepsi or Coca Cola? What is the reason for this choice?
Drive Research conducted intercept surveys at 5 college football stadiums across the country.
Intercept survey advantages
By approaching an audience remotely after the experience you are trying to test, the context is top of mind.
Interviewers in turn receive a fresh, candid response. Often times online or email surveys aren’t sent until days/weeks/months after an event has taken place.
This space in time can allow for a misguided representation of what actually happened.
Recommended Reading: Key Benefits of Offline Surveys.
Intercept survey disadvantages
With this specific example, Pepsi would need permission from Citi Field to conduct this survey. Without permission, there is no survey and they’re back to the market research drawing board.
Another drawback to intercept surveys is lower participation rates compared to other market research methodologies. If people are leaving a venue, they are ready to go home or to their next destination.
They likely are not prepared or willing to stop and take an unsolicited survey. Rewards or trinkets are important to offer here.
Online surveys
Online surveys are a form of quantitative research aimed to gain feedback and insight on a specific objective. Web surveys are designed, programmed, and administered – you guessed it – online.
With the rise of technology, most surveys online are equipped to be taken on smartphones and tablets as well.
Advantages of surveys online
A major benefit of conducting surveys online is reaching a mass audience at low costs and in little time. Traditional survey methods like phone or mail often require a large budget to achieve successful and accurate results.
An organization can obtain quick feedback from customers with a web-based questionnaire at little to no cost. With plenty of free market research tools, organizations can create, send, and receive results all in a matter of days.
Respondents may be more opt to provide honest feedback with online surveys as well.
Being that there is no moderator or interviewer, survey participants feel more inclined to offer up raw emotions and opinions on a company, products, or services. This eliminates any bias injected by an interviewer.
Online survey disadvantages
As much as technology has progressed through the years, it’s nowhere near perfect. Technical mishaps happen every day and online surveys are no exception.
A poor user experience associated with technical problems such as a slow page load time, or worse timing out, can subsequently affect the online survey data.
Unfortunately, these online glitches aren’t always apparent at first sight. Significant errors within online platforms often don’t show up until the survey results are complete.
It’s also a good rule of thumb to keep your online surveys short and sweet.
Unless informed otherwise, participants are less likely to stay fully engaged for a survey that takes more than 10 minutes to complete. With little real-estate, it’s difficult to obtain detailed answers to key business questions.
Phone surveys
Phone surveys began as a core market research methodology decades ago and still prove to be at the forefront of market research methodologies.
This form of qualitative or quantitative research centers around collecting deeper feedback from a two-way active communication between the interviewer and respondents.
Phone survey advantages
The advantage of conducting a phone survey lies in the high quality of data it provides. As opposed to other market research methodologies, phone surveys allow for an active and personable conversation between the interviewer and participant.
In comparison to online surveys, interviewers are able to receive additional feedback from respondents.
In other words, you are at the mercy of how much or how little participants are going to answer a question online – whereas phone surveys allow interviewers to ask respondents to explain their answer in greater detail.
Respondents are more likely to answer the questions in greater detail because it takes less time to voice your opinion than it would be to type or write.
Phone surveys are also at no mercy of locale. Especially with the move from landline to mobile phones, phone survey companies are able to connect with respondents whether they are traveling, on their lunch break, taking a walk outside, etc.
Phone survey disadvantages
Where phone surveys may provide high quality and immediate results, it is not as cost-effective or time-efficient as other market research methodologies.
Phone survey companies must collect a long list of participants to speak to, to then spend hours having detailed conversations or leaving voicemails.
Phone surveys may also be constrained by time. This meaning, phone survey participants will likely only be available to speak outside of business hours.
Other factors such as taking care of children, going to the gym, running errands can limit the available time respondents have to complete a phone survey.
Omnibus surveys
Omnibus surveys or piggyback surveys are a type of online survey. However, instead of one company sponsoring the market research, the survey includes questions from multiple different organizations.
This type of market research allows several brands and businesses to purchase a few questions as part of a much larger survey.
- Company A wants to ask respondents about their recent car purchases
- Company B wants to ask respondents about home mortgages
- Company C wants to ask respondents about coffee preferences
A market research company, like Drive Research, takes these different objectives to create an online survey. When the survey is complete, each company is only given access to results from the questions they sponsored.
This type of market research typically take 3 to 7 days to complete. The length of the timeline depends on how quickly the survey draft is signed off on and how difficult the target audience is to reach.
Advantages of omnibus surveys
Omnibus surveys carry many of the same advantages as online surveys: cost-effective, timely results, large sample of respondents.
These aspects become even more advantageous being that only a handful of questions are asked in most cases. Responses from a general population can be gathered in minutes.
If you are looking for a low-budget market research methodology, omnibus surveys are as cheap as they come. It is a common approach for brands that want to use exclusive research for public relations.
Disadvantages of omnibus surveys
Because several organizations are purchasing questions to create an omnibus survey, the questionnaire can become quite unruly.
There is no guarantee that your questions will be asked at the beginning of a survey when respondents are most engaged. There is a chance respondents will have answered 50 questions, before answering yours.
At this point, many respondents are disengaged and are not providing quality feedback. Realistically, they’re rushing to complete the omnibus survey to receive an incentive.
To avoid this, find an omnibus survey company like Drive Research that creates shorter surveys and can guarantee a goal number of responses.
Oftentimes when a client is looking to conduct an omnibus survey, our market research firm does not wait till other organizations join in. We can field your survey questions within 24 to 48 hours.
Mail surveys
Emails, text messages, voicemails. Our inboxes are flooded with them. What about physical mail? What once was labeled as an antiquated form of communication, mail surveys are back with a vengeance.
Mail surveys are a quantitative marketing research data collection method in which respondents complete questionnaires on paper and return them via the mail.
Mail survey advantages
Depending on the industry, say banks and credit unions, businesses cannot reach their audience through online outlets due to organizational restrictions. Mail surveys offer a personalized, credible solution to this problem.
Direct mail surveys also earn a good response rate.
Where most think direct mailers receive a 1-2% response rate, a mail survey company like Drive Research has seen an average response rate of 10-15%. When potential participants actually open and hold the mail survey in their hands, many will opt to reply.
An email or online survey is much easier to ignore.
Mail surveys may seem like an archaic methodology, but they do offer some intriguing benefits.
Mail survey disadvantages
Before you run to the post office, it should be noted that the average data quality and time invested in mail surveys deter non-restricted industries from choosing this market research methodology.
When choosing to participate in mail surveys, respondents are less likely to provide detailed answers as they would on the phone or online because it takes less time to talk or type a response, than it is to write one.
The process behind conducting mail surveys can be long and strenuous.
Only after you create and format the survey for mail, return for postage, fill and send the direct mail piece, and finally wait for responses to return are you able to start entering data.
One-on-One Interviews
One-on-one interviews are conducted in a similar manner to focus groups, but with one person. One-on-one interviews go a step beyond typical personal interviews. Company managers use these interviews to watch someone actually use their product.
For example, a computer software firm may want to test a new program, so they set up a computer and watch as individuals use the software. Like focus groups, managers observe behind one-way mirrors. Moderators then sit in the room with each person and ask them questions, including how they like the software, or how easy it is to use. Companies then determine whether they need to make changes to the software, based on actual consumer usage.
Observation
Watching how customers use your products or services is a quick way to spot potential problems, such as how difficult it is for customers to navigate your online store. Observation spans a huge range of applications – from browsing habits on a website to watching the flow of traffic into and out of a car park.
How does observation work?
Observation is a type of qualitative market research, where you gather insights and information by watching people go through a series of activities. Observation is usually hidden – for example using online customer monitoring software such as LuckyOrange or through security cameras – though some might be overt, such as walking with a customer around a store. They don’t have to take place in special rooms or labs; observing customers in shops, restaurants or even out-and-about are all valid approaches.
Advantages of observation – While you always need permission and full consent from a subject, if you’re able to watch them covertly subjects often behave more naturally and show their true actions, rather than their ‘ideal selves’ that they typically show to strangers.
Disadvantages of observation – Observation is time-consuming and expensive. Researchers have little control over the situations and environments typically used in observational research, and sometimes the act of observing can bias results or influence the situation. Someone who knows they’re being observed may act less naturally.
Using Test Marketing
Companies often take marketing research one step further with test marketing. For example, the restaurant company may actually roll its chicken meal out into five of its 10 local restaurants, advertising the meal on local television and radio and through coupon magazine ads. Corporate marketing managers may then track sales and profits to validate the success of the new meal. The restaurant would then know if its marketing research was an accurate indicator of success.
Testing
Testing focuses on learning about people’s experiences. Often used in later stages of product development, it’s a chance for potential customers to test out your product or service. It can be used to ensure a product is fit for market – such as being robust enough when handled – to getting feedback on how a product works.
Any time that your customers try a new product or service is technically a test – for example, a restaurant chain may place a new dish on the menu, advertising the dish with discounts and money-off coupons. Sales of the new dish can then be tracked to validate its success, and feedback sought from customers as to whether they liked it.
Advantages of testing – Testing can result in specific feedback that can help hone a product. By letting customers test a product, any rough edges can be refined before rolling it out on a larger scale. Testing also puts the product in a real-world environment, which can throw up usability issues that otherwise wouldn’t have been spotted.
Disadvantages of testing – It can sometimes be expensive and time-consuming, and some companies can often overlook this stage because it happens quite far into the development cycle.
The Use of Focus Groups
Focus groups are usually conducted at focus group facilities. These facilities have one-way mirrors so managers can listen to consumers’ feedback about their products and services. A moderator, or special interviewer, usually runs the focus group. She develops a discussion guide of five to 10 questions related to the product. She then asks participants various questions about the product. The ideal size for a focus group is six to 10 people.
A moderator may speak to customers about a small restaurant’s new chicken sandwich meal. She may ask them if they like the idea of a new chicken sandwich, how much they would pay for it and whether or not they would purchase it. Companies often use focus groups to narrow several versions of a product down to the best offering.
Conclusion
The knowledge you gain from learning about market research can help guide your product or service development to a profitable package. Market research examples companies have seen have proven to be helpful to understanding the competitive edge of a business person.