Market Research Is The New Normal

Technology has given rise to a heterogeneous community of consumers and market research of the future will have to speak to them accordingly to truly understand their mindset.The one size fits all mantra is fast becoming history as researches now need to be more engaging, say experts.According to Greg Clayton (pictured) managing director of Kadence International, this engagement with the target audience can only happen when consumers feel at ease in familiar, real-world situations, rather than "contrived, sterilised research environments". "Research is meant to reflect customers' thinking, and our approach should be to interact with them on their terms," Clayton said."With a Vietnamese businessman having access to the same online product reviews as a Singaporean grandmother, we have to look beyond quantitative generalisations and understand customers on a more individual level," he added.According to Bernice Klaassen is regional director, digital, Asia Pacific at Ipsos, emerging research methods and passive data collection play an important role as it helps free data collection and transform it into an "immersive, unstructured experience.""These methods incorporate social sharing and gamification techniques, making research more relevant, engaging, and fun. They also exploit geo-location and on-the-go technologies so that we can access consumers anytime, anywhere, and in-the-moment," Klaassen said.This, he said, will play a crucial role in unlocking consumer insights that help brands grow in the new normal.