The world is rapidly changing. Innovations in the past 100 years have arguably outpaced the progress made in the previous 2,000+ years! Consider these facts about 1917 (compiled by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis): airplanes were just beginning to take off; only 23% of the world’s population could read and only 6% of Americans had a high school diploma; Americans earned 22 cents per hour and the average U.S. home cost $5,000. Today, travelers can board a plane and reach any destination in a day or less; an estimated 86% of the world is literate and more than 80% of Americans finish high school; the average U.S. wage is $26 per hour and the average house costs $272,900. It’s not hard to see the trend. The world is getting faster and cheaper (relatively speaking), with access to education becoming the norm, rather than the exception.
Businesses of the 21st century have unprecedented advantages because marketing research technologies have similarly evolved to provide opportunities like never before – we can now get cost-effective data, and we can get it quickly. But just because marketing research opportunities are present and can potentially offer sound results, it doesn’t mean they are applicable in every situation. Don’t make the following mistakes:
Failing to Use the Data Gathered for More Than Direct Marketing Campaigns
With all the new ways to collect data, it’s easy to gather it and then forget to use it. Maybe businesses aren’t sure how to translate results into more than advertising catalysts. Maybe they don’t like what they discovered in the research process. Maybe the amount of information just seems too massive. Whatever the case, it’s important to move past your inhibitions and apply data in a variety of ways. Especially with the rise of the Internet and social media, businesses have access to a plethora of quick and easy marketing research opportunities with which they can amass a great deal of information. Don’t waste data, particularly the social intelligence gathered so abundantly these days, only on a marketing strategy. Your data can do more than help you promote your product. It can help predict emerging markets, suggest new offerings and identify new trends. Be creative, and use your data in multiple ways.
Thinking Social Media and the Internet are Always Superior Data Sources
The Internet has opened up a new and exciting realm for marketing researchers. After all, the World Wide Web is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s cheap and can provide instantaneous and continuous information about customers, competition, emerging innovations and potential political, economic and social threats. Businesses must recognize, however, the inherent weaknesses of a platform that feeds off its own anonymity. Part of the appeal of the Internet is the fact that people can expose as much or as little of themselves as they wish. This makes it hard for researchers to be confident in the honesty of responders in certain situations. Companies might also wish to tap into the minds of people who are not savvy with computers. In these instances, it makes sense to broaden your list of data sources.
Forgetting the Importance of Human Interaction
Another great marketing research opportunity is automation. Automation has allowed researchers to increase productivity, enhance accessibility and boost precision by removing time-consuming human manipulation for a variety of tasks. But while a computer can do a lot of things, it can not replace human interaction, interpretation and feedback. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a computer can predict meaning from statements. It takes a skilled researcher to review and interpret results.
Learn More
Are you ready to learn more about the various marketing research opportunities available to you and how you can make them work for your business? Contact us at Communications for Research (CFR). We have 20 years experiences navigating the changing landscape of market research and know how to get quality results!
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