FORBES SMALL BUSINESS

Six Types Of Research That

Can Unlock Consumer
Insights
Paul Herrera Forbes Councils Member
Forbes Business Council COUNCIL POST | Membership (Fee-Based)

Dec 2, 2021, 09:45am EST

COO and co-founder at Maven Road.

GETTY

Nowadays, the word “insight” is used by many market researchers

to describe the means by which companies and brands can
understand their customers’ tastes, motivations and needs. These
insights allow brands to develop more effective strategies for
connecting their audience with their products or services.

Consumer insights interpret customers’ behavior, which is critical

to building relationships and connecting, not just making
transactions and selling. Insights can help identify the important
gap between the consumers’ aspirations and what they perceive a
brand is offering. That gap can always be turned into a business
opportunity.

I’ve seen through my company — a global business intelligence firm

focused on deciphering big data and creating actionable insights —
that relevant, valuable intelligence about a target market is only
obtained through a deep analysis of data. Below is a guide to the
types of research you can consider leveraging to analyze the
consumer, as they can help you to gain valuable insights to fuel
your business strategy:

• Social listening: This involves the constant monitoring and

tracking of online conversations to determine what consumers are
saying about your brands, competitors, market or other topics of
interest on different social media channels.

MORE FROM FORBES ADVISOR

Best Tax Software Of 2022

Best Tax Software For The Self-Employed Of 2022

Income Tax Calculator: Estimate Your Taxes

• Audience analysis: This refers to the identification of

demographic characteristics and psychographic information of the
audience associated with your brand or company. Audience
analysis can be applied to users who follow a brand’s handles or
engage with its content across different social media channels.
• Netnographic research: As an innovative, qualitative online
research method, netnographic research adapts ethnographic
methods — such as fieldwork, participant observation, interviews
and field notes — to study your target audience. I’ve found this type
of analysis allows for an immersive experience into online
communities that helps you acquire an insider’s perspective and
can lead to the development of an online persona for your target
audience.

• Online communities: Researching online communities means

you analyze communities created across digital spaces that consist
of members who share common interests related to your brand or
company. Members, including active and potential consumers,
often seek advice or share tips related to a specific interest.
Analyzing the interactions and conversations among them can lead
to actionable insights applicable to your brand or product. 

• Influencer identification: This refers to an analysis of users

discussing specific topics related to your brand or company on
social media. Users who are more relevant to the conversation,
either because they allow you to connect to different clusters of
users or because they have high brokerage power, should then be
selected. The results can help you identify potential influential
voices for your brand or company to connect with.

• Trend tracking: “Trend tracking” involves identifying topics

that could be of interest to your brand or company. This provides
business intelligence to stakeholders about the latest events
concerning your brand or company on a 24/7 basis, which can
enable them to identify potential crises before they escalate. Trend
tracking also monitors historical trends to track how consumer
conversations evolve over time, thus leading to actionable insights.
Research can help you understand consumer behavior and brand
perception. However, the key is identifying what learnings and
insights are the most relevant for business opportunities. Before
embarking upon the research process, you should ensure you have
clear goals in mind for how the research will be used. Companies
traveling through the black hole of data exploration will waste
employee time and energy unless they set parameters concerning
what they want to achieve. Therefore, always start by defining your
business problem and objective before seeking out solutions.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking

organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website. 

Paul Paul Herrera

Herrer

Editorial Standards Reprints & Permissions

ADVERTISEMENT