The Need for Dynamic Research
Things have been strange lately. The speed of change in the world and the need for companies to be super adaptable has become increasingly clear. While avoiding talk of unprecedented times, I'm sure you've noticed that many businesses have changed how they do things recently. Of course, much of this can be contributed to the pandemic - however COVID has only accelerated and brought to our attention the underlying rate of change.
Shopping trips have become next day online delivery, TV schedules have become on demand streaming, and the weekly publication has become an untethered access to content online. Digitally enabled conveniences have resulted in consumers that are increasingly impatient. As millions of intricate processes in our society evolve to prioritise speed, it would be naive to think that the research landscape will remain unaffected.
The Old Research Model
Research has traditionally been viewed as a one time event. The budget is allocated, the research is conducted and the insights are used to inform future strategy. This made sense in a world where things generally remained the same from one year to the next. 1960 didn't look a million miles different to 1965. The same cannot be said looking even two years back today.
The New Research Model
As the world changes, so too should research processes. This means dropping long-held assumptions, being open-minded and conducting research more frequently. To ensure that you are keeping pace with customers' expectations, you first need to know how fast your customers are moving.
But research is expensive and time consuming…
I hear you, traditional research is expensive and time consuming. Most companies cannot afford to assign a new position for a full time market researcher or hire boutique market research agencies to apply the latest industry research trend to your company's context.
The solution
The same force that has accelerated customer expectations can help you to better understand their perspectives; technology. Technology has democratised advanced research methods that were once only accessible to expensive specialists and the big budget companies that could afford to put them on retainer.
Next-generation research tools like OpinionX blur the traditional lines of qualitative exploration and quantitative validation in one easy to use tool without breaking the bank. To ensure that you are keeping pace with customers' expectations, you first need to know how fast your customers are moving - time to check in on them, don't you think?