So how does a company anticipate consumer needs and behavior without a crystal ball? They use market research – specifically advanced market research – to help them describe, and more importantly predict, future industry events and the consumer behaviors that will follow them.
Put plainly, advanced market research is the process of making inferences from collected data. Whereas simple market research gathers and describes a set of data points, advanced market research (AMR) gathers, describes and then infers significance from them. Using sophisticated statistical analytics (like factor, cluster, conjoint and discriminant analyses, regression methods and other modeling techniques), AMR moves beyond simple summaries of mean, median and mode tendencies within a population and instead projects meaning on an industry-wide scale.
The ability to forecast prospective trends amongst constantly changing technologies and consumer needs allows companies to proactively develop strategies that will enhance customer experience (CX). And studies show that positive consumer interactions, all those events and messages and points of sale, as well as a company’s website and social media posts, directly impact consumer satisfaction. Good CX promotes product demand and loyalty, thereby increasing a company’s revenue and profit while maximizing ROI. With advanced market research, business can better understand how consumer attitudes, opinions and behaviors may change with time and then make any necessary changes to their products, procedures and policies to address and meet those demands.
Advanced market research techniques utilize complex inferential statistics to envision market evolution. It’s a process that is complicated and quickly changing due to artificial intelligence, machine learning, biometrics and a host of other new technologies. Through the use of these advanced research methods, businesses can capture and even quantify human emotion to make decisions that (hopefully) best support their profitability and longevity. Our team at Communications for Research (CFR) has over 20 years professional experience with high-level statistical analysis. Contact us to discuss the best advanced market research methods for your company to use to obtain actionable results.