10 Market Research Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

Be it the operational experience on field or studies reviewed by peers, market research has always had a special role to play in the marketing function. Several industries have flourished because of market research. While trends like neuro-imagining and eye-tracking have shaped the market research domain in the past, many new, upcoming trends promise to transform market research altogether.

The ever-changing trends bring opportunities as well as complications with it. The only way to adapt them is to set the pace higher and faster. Staying updated with the latest updates and trends helps businesses to stay ahead of competitors and take the right business decisions at the right time. In this article, we have listed the top market research trends to watch out for in 2018 and beyond.

Top Market Research Trends for 2018 and Beyond

Today, more and more companies are shifting their focus towards the consumer-centered experience of the marketplace they operate in, and there has never been a better time to witness the emerging trends and technologies through which enterprises are striving hard to offer better solutions to their customers' problems. Here, we bring to you 10 market research trends which will help you to foresee the bigger picture of the market, and plan accordingly -

1. Artificial Intelligence Will Dominate the Consumer Engagement

   Amazon's Echo, Google Home, and other chat bots have successfully created a wave of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our daily lives. The Internet is the new hangout for most consumers today. Hence, companies are making the most of this wave to sell online. According to David Sackman, CEO of Lieberman Research Worldwide, in the years to come, AI will ease the task of field engagement, survey, and questionnaire development.

   • Data scientists are going to play a crucial role for enterprises as they gather a specific amount of data on consumer behavior patterns and preferences to understand the behavior of their customers better
   • AI will significantly aid in market analysis but it will be a challenging task to eliminate traditional research methods altogether
   • Traditional methods such as surveys and qualitative research will continue to be a crucial part of market research activities

2. Blockchain for Marketing Will Gain Popularity

   Blockchain has made it to the list of market research industry trends in 2018. Of late there has been an emergence of companies providing market research through blockchain. While the market has witnessed blockchain in its financial form, the era has arrived when blockchain will start expanding into different verticals of global markets. If the advocates of blockchains are to be believed, then blockchain is going to be the biggest turnaround technology for consumer surveys.

   • Blockchain will reduce the risk of fraudulent surveys because of immutable records and new ID verification
   • It may also make it easy to pay research participants through blockchain enabled currency
   • In case of multiple similar surveys over long periods of time, it will be easy to locate the participants of the earlier surveys through the blockchain
   • Blockchain will help companies distribute their content in a way that will ensure fairness in payment, security and trust to contributors, writers, editors, and consumers alike

3. Mobile Technology Will Redefine the Buying Game

   Of the many technology-based trends in market research, mobile technology will continue to be an important trend to watch out for in 2018. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will present a whole new level of experience through the digital world. Mobile AR is predicted to be the primary driver of the $108 billion of AR/VR market by 2021. AR provides a realistic and unambiguous look at product and services. The day isn't long enough when it will dominate industries such as retail, life sciences, manufacturing, and many other domains through the integration of apps into AR.

   • As of today, AR and VR have already started to revolutionize the gaming industry and will continue to do so
   • Apple and Google have already taken a leap into this new technology through ARKit and ARCore respectively and these trends will continue in the same way

4. Automation Will be on the Rise

   It is a no-brainer that automation leads to higher productivity and also helps to save time. This is one of the reasons why some companies use VBA in MS Excel. Machines are being used to automate the multiple processes in the marketing segment. Collecting as well as processing data is a tedious task, especially when you have large volumes of data to crunch. Automation helps to increase the accuracy of the same while speeding up the process. It also helps to ease out the process of ad testing while human researchers are busy analyzing the results.

   • Automation will continue to prove to be a boon for consumer data collection where you can provide consumers with one-click forms and wait for the data to arrive
   • It may look less influential but over a period of time automation is going to be extremely impactful in market research

5. Voices on Social Media Platforms Will Gain Momentum

   Social media has emerged as the voice of people! Analysis of social media exchanges of opinions and reviews about your products/services can help you communicate better with your target customers directly, and improve the impact of your marketing efforts. Accessibility to smartphones and personal computers has made social media popular among 80% of the population who own them. Hence, conducting market research on social media has increased the audience size by a wide range. This will continue to gain momentum in 2018.

6. Hashtags Will Do the Talking

   The year 2017 witnessed some noteworthy campaigns on social media which created a wave of emotions flowing through your screens. 2018 will see brands make their mark in the hashtag game. Some noteworthy hashtag campaigns of 2017 were -

   • Coca Cola's #ShareTheCoke
   • Red Bull's #PutACanOnIt
   • Charmin's #TweetOnTheSeat

   Hashtags help to set up the premise for the audience wherein people can share their opinion or reviews on the same lines. Businesses are now dwelling on hashtag strategy for effective marketing campaigns.

7. Experience-driven Market Will Flourish

   Earlier the product and consumer cycles were based on the formula "brand = promise + experience" where the brand had the power to shape the product. In the age of the Internet, the consumer has easy access to information; hence they prefer to experience a product digitally before getting their hands on them. In an experience-driven market, there will not be any promises which will be broken because a customer's next purchase will depend on the experience of the previous purchase. Delivering consumer experience first through the product, and then going back in the cycle to align the brand promise, is what the market of the 21st-century demands.

8. Emotional Advertising Will Rule the Roost

   Instead of taking the mechanical path to market products and services where you are just promoting a product in a video or through creative visuals, making an ad which depicts emotions of people, will lead to effective brand communication. In 2018, companies will produce emotion-based ads to connect with their target audience, as the accessibility to ads will not just be restricted to a few sets of audiences. Businesses will use multiple forms of emotion in their ads. Gaining mastery into pulling the right plug of emotion towards audiences is what companies will aim for because boring ads are out of fashion now.

9. Marketing - Going the Agile Way

   Among the other latest market research trends, the agile methodology will stand out as one of the most important trends in 2018. The agile approach has been derived from the framework of software development. However, now most marketers are taking the same route to fulfill the demands of their consumers. Agile marketing focuses on enhancing aspects of a company's marketing function such as -

   • Predictability
   • Speed
   • Adaptability to change

   Trying multiple things over a period of time, and then repeating those that work, will be key to agile marketing success. Rapid iterations of successful campaigns and then converting it into effective brand communication messages will help companies succeed over a longer period of time.

10. Serving Community Over Bunch of Buyers to Gain Momentum

    Solving the problem for the masses has always been the greater guiding force for successful companies. Focusing on the larger aspects of the solution rather than the smaller ones is the key. Businesses will now have to focus on building a community of trusted consumers who will defend, market, and provide honest opinions of their products and services.

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