B2B and Consumer Research are disparate. Businesses and consumers make decisions in very different ways. These differences mean researchers must employ distinct approaches and strategies when trying to gain insights from both groups. This is especially true for qualitative research. 

Audience – B2B Decision-Makers and Consumer

Within businesses, the decision-making process is more complex and demands a more robust analysis. The group of decision-makers is larger and broader than in the consumer context. While consumers can make purchasing decisions based on impulse or emotion, businesses aim to make a strategic, objective decision. 

While the majority of consumers are making buying decisions daily, this is not the case at businesses. Companies only have a select group of decision-makers for purchasing, and they are not as easy to come by. To account for this, market researchers need to ensure that they are speaking to primary or shared decision-makers at a company that will understand the process and, ideally, have insights on the entire process from start to finish. 

Incentives for B2B and Consumers

Given all consumers are making the decisions on their purchasing behavior, there is a larger pool of consumers available to respond to the research when compared to B2B. The pool of people making decisions for a business is smaller and they are often higher up at their company. Therefore, this B2B audience is harder to come by. This makes the research costlier than research conducted among the general population. Higher incentives will drive business decision-makers to participate in interviews. 

Methodology – In-depth Interviews for B2B 

This audience has to be senior in the company to be given the approval to make decisions for the business. Therefore, these senior workers tend to be busier than the average consumer. To account for this, in-depth interviews are often favorable over focus groups. In-depth interviews offer more flexibility for respondents to choose a time that suits their schedule. Therefore, this will increase the likelihood of their participation. 

Moreover, in-depth interviews can be done remotely. This removes the need to travel, which further reduces time barriers for participants. 

Focus groups are not as effective for B2B audiences because all participants need to be available at a pre-decided time. Also, if business owners are in similar fields, they may be wary of sharing their trade secrets with competitors. 

Interpreting Results of B2B Research

As the B2B decision-making process has many complexities. For example:

• There are more people involved;
• There are different levels of influence from each party;
• Internal and external factors play a role;
• And there are different drivers for the need.

As a result, the research often has more intricacies and can be more difficult. This means that the researchers and moderators need to be well versed in B2B research. They also need to have an in-depth understanding of the products and services involved. This will ensure that they gather the insights that the company commissioning the research needs. 

B2B vs. Consumer Research Conclusion

When conducting research among B2B audiences, it is important to take the needs of this group into consideration. The methodologies, incentives, and interpreting of results should differ from B2b and consumer research . 

Read some of our recent case studies and blogs here to learn more about business and consumer research:

1. The Pros and Cons of In-Depth Interviews
2. The Pros and Cons of Online Focus Groups
3. COVID-19 and Conducting Market Research

Thinking about conducting market research?  Check out Provoke Insights research services here.

IF YOU WANT TO, SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS HERE!

and finally, Follow our social media accounts:

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/provoke-insights

What is secondary research?

Secondary research is a type of market research where you compile and analyze information that is already available. You can obtain this information through googling, online databases, and libraries. The data can be from articles, studies, and even past surveys. Secondary research is an essential tool in market research as it can assist in better understanding your industry, competitors, and trends in the marketplace. 

Suppose you are thinking about conducting primary research (research that is not already out there). It can help guide your initiative by not duplicating any efforts (e.g. research information currently out there).

Here are the pros and cons of secondary research. 

The Pros of Secondary Research 

Cost-Effective

Secondary research is often less expensive than primary research. Since the data is out there already, the most considerable expense is usually the workforce to find and interpret the data.  

Wide Range of Information

In this online world, it is pretty easy to gather an extensive amount of information. Secondary research can help find, among other things: 

• The current and projected market. Economic projections, industry reports, and additional information on sales and market performance.
• Competition in your brand’s field. This can include competitors’ brand positioning, sales numbers, website performance, pricing, etc. Primary research is essential for understanding the perceptions of competitors. Still, secondary research can preface that knowledge by giving a detailed perspective of what the competitor’s strategy is in the first place.
• Consumer perspective and perceptions of your product. Although nothing beats primary research when it comes to consumer perceptions, by looking for already available opinions out there, secondary does a great job in informing you prior to conducting primary, and making sure you don’t double up.
• Trends and opportunities in the market. All three of the above combine together to inform your perspective when it comes to the possibilities for your product to succeed. The amalgamation of consumer and economic perspective is a powerful way to understand where your brand/product fits

Prevents Duplicate Information If Planning Additional Research

Using secondary research helps access the best market research strategies to use. Secondary research can be conducted on its own. It is also an ideal methodology to utilize before other phases, as it informs what the best primary research is necessary. This prevents duplicating efforts with research that is already public. 

The Cons of Secondary Research

Because secondary research deals with already available information, that means the research is readily available, including your brand’s potential competitors. It is not data that is uniquely accessible by one person or company. Along those lines, secondary research can not be specialized to a specific individual’s or business’s needs the same way primary research can. You will not be able to get the same distinct knowledge catered to your brand.   

Conclusion

Secondary research is a powerful but sometimes limited market research tool. It’s vital to conduct secondary research before the primary stage to understand what you may be missing, what you already know, and what to look for. Secondary is an always-available tool that should be utilized, but also understood for its limitations.

Read some of our blogs from this series here:

1. August 10th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Segmentation Research
2. June 17th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Online Focus Groups
3. February 6th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of In-Depth Interviews
4. July 13th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Online Survey Research
5. June 28th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Message Testing

Thinking about conducting market research?  Check out Provoke Insights research services here.

IF YOU WANT TO, SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS HERE!

and finally, follow our social media accounts:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/provokeinsights

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/provokeinsights/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/provoke-insights

The COVID-19 global pandemic has brought drastic disruption to every industry. Market research is no exception. While the market research industry has already been using multiple online methodologies, the last few months have pushed even more initiatives online that were previously done in-person. And offices have been pushed towards web conferencing.

The internet has already brought most market research methodologies online / virtual. This has been the case for almost all quantitative research (e.g., online surveys), and some qualitative methodologies (e.g., in-depth interviews via video call). As a result, in 2020, none of these methodologies underwent significant makeovers.  

What has changed is the number of people wanting online qualitative research. Companies hoping to conduct market research in-person have switched plans to conduct in-person qualitative research online (in-depth interviews and focus groups). 

While online focus groups existed before COVID-19, they were not as widely used as they are today. In-person you get to see the nuances of how people react – which you lose somewhat when moved online. However, the pandemic has shifted in-person online. Though there are focus group facilities that are open, many participants do not feel comfortable going into a facility. As a result, the data may be biased.  

To meet these new client needs, you can facilitate focus groups using two different ways: 1. Online Focus Group Software 2. Web Conferencing Software (e.g., Zoom). Both tools have both benefits and drawbacks, which are detailed below:            

Why Use an Online Focus Group Software?                    

Benefits                                                             

Backroom: Allows for an unlimited number of members in the backroom. This includes its separate audio line for “behind the glass” discussions. It allows the client to feel like they are in the focus group facility where they would be behind a mirror, viewing the groups. 

Polling Capabilities: The software has both single and multiple-choice polling capabilities.    

Searchable Video: Transcripts from the online focus groups have the capability to click directly to clips of video.                      

Drawbacks

Familiarity: Though there is a technician at hand, most participants are not familiar with using the software. This can cause people not to have technical issues throughout the session. 

Cost: There is an additional cost for using the platform.         

Why Use Web Conferencing (e.g. Zoom) 

Benefits

Familiarity

Since the beginning of the pandemic, web conferencing tools like Zoom have skyrocketed. While people have been stuck inside and unable to see loved ones, they have taken to the platform to stay in touch. Therefore, participants often have experience using web conferencing tools over an online focus group software. Using a commonly used platform allows them to set up and join the group with ease. The technician will call the participants to help them enter the group 10-minutes beforehand to ensure that they do not have any issues. Often, the participants explain that they have already used Zoom and do not need help.

Cost-Effective

Dedicated online focus group software is costly, while Zoom is a software that most market research firms and companies have. It will not cost an additional fee to use. 

Drawbacks

Fewer Capabilities

Clients that would like to view the groups can not be hidden from the group participants. They log in as an observer and keep the video off.

Read some of our blogs from this series here:

1. June 17th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Online Focus Groups
2. February 6th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of In-Depth Interviews
3. July 13th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Online Survey Research
4. June 28th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Message Testing

Thinking about conducting market research?  Check out Provoke Insights research services here.

IF YOU WANT TO, SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS HERE!

and finally, follow our social media accounts:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/provokeinsights

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/provokeinsights/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/provoke-insights

Segmentation is a market research method that is a tried and true way to understand your target audience. A segment is a group that shares one or more characteristics (e.g., demographics and psychographics). It acts as a useful way to split up consumers into separate groups for marketing purposes. 

Whether you are a company that is launching a new brand or re-evaluating a different path forward, segmentation can give your brand insight to inform your marketing strategy. However, like any research method, segmentation has specific use-cases, and it isn’t always the proper thing to do. Continuing our blog series on the pros and cons of research methods, read on for the advantages and disadvantages of segmentation!

Segmentation Research Pros

Creating Personas

One of the most illuminating parts of segmentation is bringing them to life in personas. Segments are split based on their similar answers to questions, which includes demographic questions. A persona consists of similar traits, beliefs, behaviors, values, and attitudes. Visualizing this persona and giving them a descriptive name can make your marketing strategy simpler to understand and implement. This is one example of the power of segmentation. 

Ability to Prioritize Segment Groups

Once you are able to segment the population into separate groups and focus on a particular target audience, you can prioritize the list of segmented audiences. Prioritizing segments can be done in many ways; one way is to order the cohorts based on propensity to purchase your product. 

You can also project the size of each segment to determine if this audience warrants the investment. This can also help to prioritize segments and create a marketing map based on each group. Most importantly, this can indicate which segments to leave out and focus energy elsewhere. 

Augment Segmentation Research with Secondary

Segmentation is the type of research that pairs very well with outside sources and databases. Supplementary information can bring new information to your personas, such as media habits, geographic information, and more. The addition of external information to your survey data is robust and leads to great results. 

Segmentation Research Cons

Cost 

Segmentation research is typically more costly than other survey methodologies. Segmentation isn’t as easy as it looks. To segment the data, you will need a significant amount of sample- often having over a thousand participants completing the research. The advanced analytical process is not simple. Typically a segmentation study uses a factor analysis to uncover themes followed by a cluster analysis to create sizable cohorts. 

Other Issues

When you develop a segmentation, you need to make sure:

• You do not exclude prospects simply because they are not your key targets.
• You understand that consumers’ attitudes and beliefs may not be fixed. That being said, it’s vital to know how psychographics can change over time. As a result, you may need to refresh the segmentation after a certain number of years or have significant changes to your business. 
• Finally, you have a way to target or reach the segment that you created. In other words, a bad segmentation is when you have a robust study but have no way to identify who is each group in your prospect and customer database. 

Read some of our blogs from this series here:

1. June 17th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Online Focus Groups
2. February 6th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of In-Depth Interviews
3. July 13th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Online Survey Research
4. June 28th, 2020: The Pros and Cons of Message Testing

Thinking about conducting market research?  Check out Provoke Insights research services here.

IF YOU WANT TO, SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS HERE!

and finally, follow our social media accounts:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/provokeinsights

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/provokeinsights/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/provoke-insights

Knowing a company’s current brand equity compared to the competition is essential for success. You need to know how it is growing, stagnating, or diminishing and what is causing these changes (or lack of variance). To gain a full picture of your brand is not always as simple as it may seem. A myriad of factors influences equity and perceptions over time. As a result, any brand that invests in extensive marketing efforts should have brand tracking research in place. Read below to learn more about the pros and cons of brand tracking research. 

A brand tracker is a survey that is conducted at a regular cadence (e.g., every quarter, annually, or even continually) that evaluates a company and its competitors’ performance. The research allows you to consistently understand all activities that impact awareness, consideration, purchase, and retention. 

Pros

A Deeper Understanding About Your Brand & the Competition 

Consistently evaluating your brand allows a detailed understanding of your brand overall performance in the market.  When you are tracking, you know your awareness, market share, profits, and retention and why they are at the current levels that they are at. 

Understanding KPIs, Performance, and Goals

How do you know if your advertising and public relation efforts are working?  Every company has specific metrics that they look at to help determine success. Brand trackers are a way to monitor if your marketing is meeting its expectations consistently. 

Brand tracking include performance-based questions, typically including measurements such as unaided/aided recall, perception, purchase intent, and likelihood to recommend.

Comparisons Over Time

A tracker is like a snapshot of a brand’s continuous health. What makes brand tracking research powerful is this ability to differentiate what may influence your company’s performance. For instance, if there was negative (e.g. bad PR, a recession) or something positive ( product development, new good commercial) you get feedback in the current moment, and compare it to past performance.

Continuity

Developing brand tracking research takes time, but maintaining the survey for the next round is simpler after the first study. While some questions will change from iteration to iteration of the tracker to address particular concerns in a moment, the vast majority remains the same. This continuity streamlines the process of understanding and evaluating your brand equity.

Competitive Analysis

The key to any robust brand tracker is competitive analysis. The brand is evaluated alongside its primary competition to see who stands out and how. Learning how your competitors’ image evolves is informative and instrumental to brand strategy. It also gives a view of how your competitors may be strategizing in a particular moment, or how plans change over time.

Cons

Need to be Consistent 

Trackers need to be conducted consistently.  Some brands may find that there has not been much change from quarter to quarter and then only track when they feel an issue comes up.  Regardless of what the cadence is, consistency is crucial.  If too much time has lapsed, there can be many factors that cause variation in results. 

Get Too Complicated

It is vital to keep trackers streamlined and simple. Evaluating too many competitors or asking too many detailed questions may cause boredom during survey taking.  Also, the results may get too much into the weeds. Therefore, the end-user is not looking at what the bigger picture is saying. 

Too Generic

Often research companies have standard tracker templates.  Provoke Insights disagrees in a one size fit solution.  It is essential to make sure that the tracker is looking at your company’s individual goals when developing the tracker.  Also, the research should take into consideration the specific industry needs and trends. For example, some sectors are entirely transactional online, while other industries in-person sales may be more critical. A tracker needs to take this type of consumer behavior into account. 

If your company is interested in a brand tracker study, please reach out to [email protected], and we will be happy to schedule a call to discuss the research objectives with you and decide on the best methodology to achieve the goals. 

Read some of our blogs from this series here:

1. Online Survey Research – The Pros and Cons
2. Online Focus Groups – Advantages/Disadvantage
3. The Pros and Cons of In-Depth Interviews

Thinking about conducting market research?  Check out Provoke Insights research services here.

IF YOU WANT TO, SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTERS HERE!

and finally, follow our social media accounts:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/provokeinsights

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/provokeinsights/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/provoke-insights