To many, market research conjures a distinctly old fashioned image. Bespectacled advisors with clipboards waiting in supermarkets and shopping centres to ambush shoppers with questionnaires and scribble down hastily given answers. The only thing in it for the shoppers is the promise of a free sample of a new product, while businesses have to make do with the rushed insights given by respondents who’d really rather be elsewhere.
In the digital age, market research shows a different face. It’s become a vital resource for businesses. Selling has become easier than it ever has been, through eBay, Shopify and other online outlets, and the stores that survive and prosper are the ones that pay attention to what consumers like, need and respond to, and prioritise optimising their offering to meet the market.
Working with a market research company like Attest could give you the edge you need over the competition, and today we’re going to look at how.
Brand Strength
Your brand is your most important asset. If you’re not paying attention to what it’s conveying to customers, you’re potentially losing out on a vast number of extra sales. Think of your brand as a signpost – it needs to look attractive to the people who are trying to find you! If it’s the wrong colour, the wrong size, or the wording is too small or in the wrong language, you may as well not have a sign post at all.
Brand tracker surveys can show you how people are responding to your brand, and how that stacks up against your competition. If you’re doing the right thing, you should see your strength and influence grow. If it declines, that’s a signal that it’s time to change something.
Testing Changes
If you do decide to make some changes to your branding, whether it’s as subtle as a change of font, or as in your face as a whole new advertising campaign, you need to feel confident that your news efforts are going to have the right effect: that they’re going to engage consumers as you needs.
A market research company can test this for you! There are traditional methods, where surveys are sent out with samples of different branding giving consumers the chance to rate them and provide comments, so you can optimise for what really engages consumers, but the most interesting options are specific to the digital age. Running small scale advertising tests, one with your new branding and one without, then tracking which brings more browsers to your site, and converts more into paying customers is the sort of insight you really need to drive success, and get the most out of your resources. It’s results like this that will help you learn to love market research.