Harnessing Changed Customer Behaviors Post-COVID
Looking back at the early days of the global pandemic, initial reports and business indicators featured a dreary outlook for the market research industry. In it’s 2020 The Continued Evolution of the Insights, Data and Analytics Industry report, Esomar indicated its data partner Outsell predicted an overall global turnover decrease of 6% for the industry.
Predictions had the impact hitting traditional research firms even harder as the early days of uncertainty left people wondering what was going on and how they were going to connect with consumers and customers. Qualitative firms felt extreme pressure in those initial months as it became clear no one was going anywhere for a while, certainly not into a focus group facility.
As the reality of the “new normal” set in, businesses began scrambling to understand how customer and consumer behaviors and attitudes were changing, needing insight to drive everything from adjusting marketing messaging to pivoting business strategies. Suddenly, market research became a critical part of each company’s path forward.
With a little distance between those early days of the unknown and the current state of things, it’s now clear that the pandemic has impacted the industry and consumer trends in more ways than imagined. To understand exactly how life post-early-pandemic has shifted, we connected with some of this year’s speakers. One resounding theme was clear, things have changed. Edwin Wong, SVP of Insights and Innovation at Vox Media summarized it well:
I once was speaking to my dear friend Elizabeth Dow, Manager of Revenue Intelligence at Vox, who talked about how we need to change our perspective when looking at consumer insights and data.
Instead of using a microscope, we need a telescope. A microscope can be myopic and narrow in describing consumers, what can go missing is the context needed for true insight. The past 20-months teaches us context is absolutely everything. In fact, I’d argue that we might need today is a kaleidoscope. The fits and starts of re-opening, plus the changing habits coupled with the emotional toll means that understanding people and the importance of the product we create will require much nuance.
In this report, some of our TMRE: The Market Research Event community share their perspectives on post early-Covid life: how market research has changed, the tools and methods they’ve introduced to their portfolio and how companies can keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of consumer behaviors.