With more data available than ever before, and technological advancements at many market researchers’ fingertips, why is it that obtaining accurate and reliable data when conducting research still offers a significant challenge?
Any business, or agency, that is looking to undertake any kind of market research now has to also navigate a range of ever developing digital platforms, changing consumer behaviour that shifts more quickly than ever before, as well as a much more heightened awareness of the ethics and legalities of data.
Not only can this make collecting that valuable market research data more difficult, but it also means that the quality of the data is even more impactful to the success of a business. This data, when accurate and free from bias, allows businesses to have a clear understanding of their customers, any competitors in the market, and the market environment at present.
This insight allows for well-aligned strategies and processes, that match and maximise the consumer environment, making sure that resources are allocated correctly, objectives are realistic, and forward-planning can be executed with solid data insights.
However, these benefits do mean that poor-quality data can have the potential to be quite damaging – with some estimates saying it can cost companies up to $12.9 million a year. If any data collected is incorrect, incomplete, or biased it can lead to inaccurate conclusions. This means that strategies and initiatives are based on incorrect data, which will mean that outcomes will not be as forecasted. This in turn means a waste of resources – time, money, and effort – on strategies that can be entirely off the mark. What could be even worse is that acting on data that was flawed from the outset, can cause a company to lose to competitors who have more accurate insight. It can lead to setting the company back significantly, and even damaging a company’s reputation.
With an increase in machine learning and AI, the level of quality of data is increasing at a faster rate than ever. Being able to use these tools, in conjunction with trained and experienced market researchers, offers a chance to process and analyse amounts of data more quickly and efficiently than ever. This allows for the chance to uncover insights that could have been potentially out of reach, particularly for any smaller businesses with more limited resources. The potential to gain accurate, helpful data, in a fraction of the time is incredible, but so are the risks if best practice is not maintained.
Best Practice High-Quality Market Research
While any market researcher and business will know the fundamentals of how to approach a market research exercise, it’s all too easy for staff and businesses to become complacent. So while some of these suggestions may seem a little simplified, sometimes it can be good to go “back to basics” when approaching data collection and analysis.
Ensure That Research Objectives Are Clearly Defined
Before market research has even begun, it’s key to know exactly what you want to find out. Having clearly defined research goals ensures that the research itself is focused and the data being collected is relevant.
Ensure Compliance with GDPR
It’s a legal requirement to ensure that GDPR is adhered to when dealing with consumer data. Make sure that there is a clear way to obtain explicit consent and that data is being securely stored and managed in line with legislation.
Use A Mixed-Method Approach
Using a range of both quantitative and qualitative means that insights are balanced and backed up with data every step of the way. Using research interviews, surveys, social listening, and other methods, builds up a richer understanding of your customers, but also makes sure that the words that people are saying match up with the quantitative data to cross-verify. This prevents any discrepancies between the two, and any issues further down the line.
Appropriately Segment Your Market
While the market research may be directed to a particular segment of the market, even within that there needs to be some additional segmentation for accuracy and clarity. Make sure to clearly define your market through various demographics, behaviour, or even psychographics to tailor research insights more effectively.
Monitor Sample Representativeness
The world is regularly changing and all too often in the past market research was incorrect through a lack of representation. This is particularly important in a country as diverse as the UK where large numbers of people are from other countries, have different religions, different sexualities, and as a result different worldviews and priorities. These differences can completely adjust the trajectory of a businesses’ approach, strategy, marketing, and even product development, so are key to monitor.
Regularly Update Market Research Data
Market research isn’t “one and done”, particularly in a world where consumer behaviour and habits are changing faster than they have ever done in the past. Market research should be regularly updated, whether that’s based on a timeframe or down to changes in market conditions. It also means that having a regularly updated market research catalogue allows researchers to forecast, to a degree, what the next trends and expectations are. Market research can then be used both as a discovery tool and also as confirmation that the approaches are moving in the right direction, with a chance to quickly pivot if needed.
Check Ethical Considerations Regularly
What was “acceptable” 20 years ago is often not the case now. Language changes, views change, and even laws change. This means that ethics need to be regularly checked into as well. To ensure your research remains ethical and respectful, it’s crucial to regularly review and update your ethical guidelines. This includes being mindful of how questions are phrased, how data is collected and used, and ensuring that your practices align with current social norms and legal requirements.
Focus On Realistic Actionable Insights
While it is important to find out what drives your market research participants, it’s also really important to be realistic about what can be achieved for them. If the overwhelming majority of participants said that they wanted a particular product or service to have many premium features, but cost no money, it’s not a feasible or actionable insight. The market research here needs to delve deeper into which of these is more important, features or cost. Then when the data is analysed at scale, it should unveil actionable insights that a business can actually use.
Compare With Industry Benchmarks
While research is really important, it’s key to understanding it is that it doesn’t operate in isolation. Compare results with industry benchmarks and see what else is happening in the industry. If competitors are overlooking a particular feature that your participants have brought up, why could this be? Make sure that even when the data is at that level, the results are being questioned against the bigger picture. This helps to contextualise the results, but also provides further confirmation.
Use Advanced Data Analytics Platforms
Data collection is very time consuming with the average market research data collection taking anywhere from a few weeks to several months. This data then needs to be collated and analysed before any results can be taken. This used to be done manually, but there are now tools and software that can help with this process. Using something like this can not only cut time and energy, but also get decisions to market even quicker. Equally, while these may require a level of investment of both time and money, it can save money in the long run as well.
Integrating Beings.com for Enhanced Data Quality and Efficiency
If the idea of having enhanced software to support the market research process appeals, then Beings should be able to support that wish.
Equipped with AI that enhances the quality and efficiency of market research, Beings automatically optimises several parts of the process/
From offering data tagging in market research interviews, to insightful real-time recommendations to researchers based on their own data, it also allows for data to be pulled and analysed at scale. This means that results from research can be actioned quickly, but are accurate and reliable as well.
One way this can be done is that Beings can automatically classify and tag discussion points from focus groups, highlight significant trends, and suggest further areas of exploration. This reduces the manual effort required, allowing researchers to focus on strategic analysis rather than tedious data sorting.
Achieving Superior Market Research Outcomes in 2025
Being able to execute a successful marketing research campaign is firmly hooked to the accurate collection and analysis of data, leading to high-quality results. With high-quality data being the backbone of any business, having the ability to ensure data accuracy, through best practices such as careful sample selection and ethical considerations throughout the entire process is undeniably key to success in 2025 and beyond.
The speed of which technology and customer preferences are currently changing can be both a risk, but also an opportunity for real growth in any marketplace. Data can easily become stale very quickly, and outdated views of preferences and trends can end up stagnating growth of a business if they don’t have the tools and resources to keep up.
However, the rapid advancement of AI and technology has led to the creation of tools like Beings, that can organically grow and evolve because of this rapid advancement of viewpoints. The information fed in from a business can make the AI smarter and more tailored towards that particular sector, trends can be identified by the team and supported by the data. As long as best practices are adhered to, the data and insight that this can provide can give many companies an edge over competitors in the long run with the speed and accuracy of the output.
If you are interested in how Beings can improve your market research output and allow you to market even faster, then please get in touch with us to find out more.