To stay ahead in a fast-moving market, teams need market research methods that turn data into clear choices. The right market research tool or market research platform can support consumer insights, market analysis, and brand market research with less guesswork and manual efforts. These market research solutions help teams move faster.
From large companies to small startups, insights teams use advanced methods to learn more about their audience, their market, and the competition.
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Understanding market research and advanced methods
Before using advanced methodologies, brands should start by understanding the fundamentals of market research.
Primary vs. secondary market research
When it comes to collecting consumer data, brands have a choice between primary market research and secondary market research.
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Primary market research uses fresh data based on your particular business questions. It often includes online surveys, questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, and observations. It's useful when you need current and exact consumer insights. The tradeoff is cost and time.
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Secondary market research uses data that already exists. It may come from your company's reports, outside studies, government data, competitor reports, or internal files. It's often faster and cheaper, but it may not fit your research goal perfectly.
If time or budget is tight, begin with secondary data, then follow up with primary research.
Quantitative vs. qualitative research methods
Another key difference in market research comes down to quantitative research vs. qualitative research.
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Quantitative research uses numbers and statistics to measure opinions, attitudes, and behaviors. It answers how many or how much, and it often uses large sample sizes. Most quantitative research today runs through online questionnaires with open and closed-ended questions. Many also include customizable survey templates that speed up the market research process. Because these studies run online, they can quickly reach people around the globe.
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Qualitative research looks at the why. It often uses interviews, focus groups, and open-ended questions to learn about behaviors and preferences in a more flexible fashion. Most advanced method research falls in the quantitative category, with rich measurable data that helps guide decisions. Still, it is smart to mix in qualitative feedback from interviews or focus groups when you want more depth or are left with unanswered questions.
What are advanced market research methods?
Advanced market research methods are types of survey questions brands can leverage to learn about customers, rivals, and their market. These methods use behavioral science and complex calculations to turn survey answers into useful insights. Some look at reaction time and forced trade-offs while others look at key drivers and consumer segments.
Businesses use advanced methods for detailed consumer market research related to audience segmenting, pricing strategy, and marketing campaign planning. The result is deeper data that helps brands act with more impact than standard usage and attitude metrics alone. Most modern market research platforms do the complex math for you, with AI-driven tools and solutions streamlining the data gathering, analysis, and reporting processes.
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Market research methods that match your business needs
There are many market research methodologies. quantilope offers 15 methods to fit different goals. Each one helps teams find the why and how behind consumer behavior. Below are few commonly leveraged methods among insights leaders.
A/B Testing
A/B testing, also called split testing, compares two or more versions of an asset, such as a landing page, email, ad, package, or product idea. By showing each version to different groups and tracking responses, teams can make data-driven choices and improve marketing results.
Conjoint analysis
Conjoint analysis helps you see how people value product or service features. This method shows respondents made-up product profiles with different feature levels, then measures which features matter most. This helps predict consumer preferences for new product setups. Common test points include size, price, and scent or flavor.
MaxDiff analysis
MaxDiff analysis ranks the most and least liked items in a set. It asks people to make trade-off decisions, which helps reveal feature likes, brand appeal, and message strength. It also avoids the idea that everything matters equally (the "everything is important" fallacy).
Implicit Association Testing
Implicit Association Testing, or IAT, finds hidden attitudes and links that people may not know they have or may not say out loud. It compares what people say with what they do. By timing responses to concept and attribute pairs, it can uncover hidden bias and preference.
Brands can use a Single Implicit Association Test, or SIAT, for one brand, product, or category. They can also use a Multi-Implicit Association Test, or MIAT, for several brands, products, or categories.
Key Driver Analysis
Key Driver Analysis shows which factors matter most for a given result, such as satisfaction, purchase intent, or loyalty. By linking drivers to the outcome, teams can focus on what has the biggest effect instead of spreading effort too thin.
Mental Availability and Mental Advantage
These two analyses are part of quantilope's Better Brand Health Tracking solution, highlighting which brands come to mind in certain buying scenarios (Mental Availability) and which brands perform better or worse than expected (Mental Advantage - or Disadvantage).
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Choosing the right market research methods
Choosing the right market research methods starts with defining clear goal, developing a strategic plan, and adopting current trends/tools.
Matching methods to business goals
Start by asking yourself what question(s) you need to answer and what decision(s) you're hoping the research will support. Some methods fit best with product research. Others are more suited for pricing, messaging, or brand tracking efforts.
If you want to understand customer views of a new product idea, qualitative methods like focus groups or interviews can be a good first step.
Building a full research plan
Sometimes the best consumer market research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods. Together, they give a more complete view of the market. Using more than one quantitative method in one study can also widen your insights, and quantilope's platform allows you to easily leverage multiple in a single questionnaire.
For example, you might begin with qualitative research to explore consumer views on a new product. Then you could use a quantitative study with MaxDiff and TURF to see which features and channels matter most.
New trends in market research method adoption
Market research keeps changing as tech improves and consumer behavior shifts. This makes it even more useful to choose a method that fits your needs.
Here are three things to look for:
- Automation: Can you use automation and AI-powered tools to collect insights and generate automated data analysis charts? Automation makes advanced market research faster and more efficient than older agency-led work. It can also help streamline brand tracking methods over time.
- Data links: Many market research platforms let you connect other tools and pull in data from social media, social listening, CRM systems, and other consumer behavior apps. Using that data with your market research insights adds more depth to your consumer story.
- Mobile-first research: With the common use of mobile devices, research should be built for mobile. Make sure the study works well on phones without hurting the user experience.
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Implementing advanced research methods with quantilope
Implementing advanced market research methods can feel hard, especially for teams without deep in-house experience.
Automated platforms like quantilope offer an easy and flexible way to capture advanced method insights, even for more complex market research methodologies like Segmentation and Conjoint analysis. The platform's tech-forward market research solutions and methods help teams move from data to action much quicker.
Users of all skill levels can drag and drop methods into quantilope's survey editor, connect to any sample of their choice, and monitor their consumer feedback in real time. From a simple marketing campaign survey to advanced method studies using an A/B test or Key Driver Analysis, quantilope helps teams collect data, summarize consumer feedback, and go from insight to action in a matter of days.
For extra support, researchers can lean on quantilope's integrated AI Research Partner, quinn for on-demand help throughout the entire market research process. quinn is especially useful for advanced method studies, making them accessible for researchers of any skillset.
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