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The Evolution of Market Research: Insights from Veteran Researcher Karine Pepin
The landscape of market research is rapidly evolving, driven by technological advancements, changing client expectations, and a growing emphasis on data quality. To gain insights into these shifts, we spoke with Karine, a seasoned market research professional with over 15 years of experience. In this blog post, we'll explore the current state of market research, emerging trends, and valuable advice for researchers navigating this dynamic field.
The Changing Landscape of Market Research: Shift Towards Impactful and Curated Insights
One of the most significant trends in market research is the increasing demand for impactful, curated insights. Karine emphasizes that clients now expect researchers to go beyond data collection and presentation. "There is an expectation to be impactful, a lot more thoughtful connected dots," she explains. This shift requires researchers to think more like content creators, focusing on delivering bite-sized, emotionally resonant information that stakeholders can easily connect with and act upon.
"I think what we're trying to do at Research Heads is also focusing more on socializing, you know, on supporting the clients in that last smile that is usually just like, okay, bye, we're done."
Collaboration with Clients
Understanding business objectives has become crucial for effective market research. Karine shares an anecdote about a project in Nigeria where close collaboration with stakeholders led to a more focused and impactful research approach. By structuring the final report around three key business questions, the team ensured that clients could easily find answers and determine next steps.
This level of collaboration requires researchers to invest time in understanding not just the research objectives, but the broader business context. As Karine advises, "If it's a new relationship, then I think you need to invest more time trying to understand really what they're trying to do, not just with this piece of research, but just like in general."
The Rise of Flexible Research Solutions
Recognizing gaps in the market, Karine and her colleagues founded Research Heads to offer more flexible research solutions. They aim to address specific client pain points by providing modular services rather than always pushing for large-scale, end-to-end projects. This approach allows clients to get the exact support they need, whether it's moderation, reporting, or any other aspect of the research process.
Participant Experience and Data Quality: Current Challenges in Online Surveys
Karine's personal experiment with online survey panels revealed significant issues with participant experience and data quality. She found that participants often face high screen-out rates and receive very low incentives, especially for quantitative research. In her experience, she screened out of about 70% of survey attempts and earned an average of just $0.72 per hour.
"We've kind of created this system that favors fraudsters and professional respondents, you know, because they're the only people who can be successful at this."
Impact on Data Quality
This poor participant experience leads to serious data quality issues. The current system encourages disengaged participants and attracts those who understand how to game the system. As a result, researchers must rely heavily on fraud detection and quality control measures, which Karine describes as "band-aid solutions" that don't address the root cause of the problem.
Potential Solutions
Addressing these challenges will require significant investment and changes in approach. Karine suggests increasing incentives and improving technology to reduce screen-outs. She also advocates for a shift towards quality over quantity in sample sizes, noting that this may necessitate a return to smaller, more focused studies rather than large-scale surveys with poor-quality data.
The Role of AI in Market Research: AI-Assisted Analysis of Open-Ended Responses
Karine has experimented with using GPT to validate open-ended survey responses. While the
AI showed promise in understanding context and flagging irrelevant responses, Karine cautions that human oversight remains crucial. She notes, "You still can't be, and whether it's my tool or some other tool and still very skeptical that you can just let the whole thing code for you without having any input or reviewing this yourself."
Conversational AI as a Game-Changer
Despite the limitations of current AI tools, Karine sees tremendous potential in conversational AI for market research. She explains, "I think the real game changer is conversational AI, to be honest, because that's something that just did not exist before, that humans could not do." The ability to respond to participants in real-time with contextually appropriate follow-up questions opens up new possibilities for gathering rich, qualitative data at scale.
The Future of Qualitative Research
Looking ahead, Karine envisions a hybrid approach to research methodologies. While traditional quantitative surveys and qualitative methods like focus groups will continue to have their place, conversational AI could create a new category of research that blends elements of both approaches. This hybrid methodology could augment quantitative surveys with qualitative features, providing deeper insights without fully replacing in-depth qualitative research conducted by human moderators.
"I think it's like a third thing, right? It's like hybrid methodologies become a third thing, basically, where you can kind of augment the quant with some qualitative features, but it doesn't replace a whole qualitative project."
Advice for Market Researchers in 2024
As the field of market research continues to evolve, Karine offers valuable advice for professionals looking to thrive in this changing landscape:
- Focus on quality over quantity: Prioritize well-designed research with robust sampling over large-scale studies with questionable data quality.
- Invest in better research design and sampling: Take the time to understand client needs and craft research approaches that deliver meaningful insights.
- Do fewer things right: Rather than spreading resources thin, concentrate on executing a smaller number of high-quality projects.
Karine emphasizes, "I think still focusing on quality over quantity, you just can't go wrong with this, you know, especially if you have limited budget, limited resources, focusing on better design research, better sample will get you better results at the end."
Conclusion
The field of market research is at a crossroads, facing challenges in data quality and participant experience while also benefiting from exciting technological advancements. As researchers navigate this evolving landscape, the key to success lies in adapting to new technologies while maintaining a steadfast commitment to research quality.
By focusing on impactful insights, fostering closer collaboration with clients, embracing flexible research solutions, and thoughtfully integrating AI tools, market researchers can position themselves to deliver greater value in an increasingly complex business environment. As we look to the future, the industry must continue to innovate while never losing sight of the fundamental goal: providing actionable, trustworthy insights that drive business success.
What steps will you take to adapt your research practices in light of these industry trends? Get in touch with us at Reveal AI to learn how you can perform qualitative research at scale with the help of AI-driven conversational surveys.
