The 2 vital things you need when conducting agile consumer research
The most successful brands over the past 100 years have one thing in common - they have a deep understanding of what their consumers want. When developing new product ideas and adapting their go-to-market strategies, these brands connect with their consumers to ensure their decisions are led by consumers instead of senior leaders in a boardroom.
Historically, when companies needed to better understand their consumers, the two main approaches were (1) Quantitative Research – ie. collecting numerical data, most frequently by running online surveys, and (2) Qualitative Research – ie. running focus groups or consumer interviews.
Many companies relied on full service research suppliers to do this work – and often paid more than $50k on a study that took 6-8 weeks to complete.
A decade ago, this worked well enough. The insights from these large projects could typically be used for several years – so a large investment was worth it in the long run.
…and then the pandemic hit.
Plenty of things that companies learned about consumers in 2019 were no longer relevant in 2020. I distinctly remember a senior leader asking my team to hold off on a large project in June 2020, asking us to wait until the world ‘stabilized’.
Here we are over two years later. Between the Russian-Ukrainian war, high inflation, and recession concerns…things don’t appear to be stabilizing.
As the world becomes more volatile, the last thing companies should do is invest less in understanding their consumers’ needs – or wait for this mythical date when the world stabilizes.
Instead, what smart companies have done in the last few years is adopt an agile approach to understanding consumers. Instead of running a one-and-done $100k project, and hoping to use the learnings for years, they subscribe to a tech platform that allows them to run many micro-studies throughout the year and keep a pulse on how their consumers’ needs and behaviors are changing over time.
Taking an agile approach to consumer learning takes two things – Platforms and People:
Platforms
In the last 10 years, there has been an explosion of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) platforms that allow companies to run quick surveys, set up consumer interviews, and analyze online ‘big data’ for a fraction of the price of hiring a full-service research supplier.
Many of these platforms can be game-changers. However, figuring out which ones to add to your toolkit can be a challenge – the companies that have the best sales people aren’t always the ones that give you the best ROI on your learning budget. Vetting the platform can be tricky, but it’s a vital step when moving the insights function to more agile and iterative approaches.
People
The benefit of DIY platforms is that you can learn about consumers very quickly and without spending much money. However, you need smart and capable people to actually run the studies.
Many companies that offer DIY platforms are in the business of selling technology. Some offer support in actually helping companies use these platforms to uncover consumer insights – but that takes a large investment and isn’t what many tech companies are interested in.
To take advantage of these new platforms, you need people who understand (1) what it takes to build a successful brand, (2) how to execute consumer research in a valid way, and (3) how to use these DIY platforms. You can either train your internal team or find people externally who can do this.
At Jumpspark, we’ve seen companies struggle with the shift to agile learning. Some companies are paralyzed at figuring out which platforms to adopt, others struggle to retain and motivate employees who now need to learn how to use these DIY platforms, and others have teams that just don’t have the time to do this work themselves.
If you need help figuring out which platforms to add to your learning toolkit, or if you need smart people to lead these studies to the highest quality standards, reach out to us - we can help.