Kantar's Profiles Blog

As researchers, we have a wide range of people to please, from internal stakeholders, to external clients, to our consumers. We have budgets to be mindful of, investments to defend and respondents to satisfy (so they continue providing us valuable information!). 

Conducting quantitative and qualitative research can be a unique process when targeting healthcare audiences, such as physicians, payers, KOLs and patients. Best practices and techniques we use for consumer research can also be applicable to these audiences.

Do you remember when we used our mobile phones exclusively for actually speaking with other people? It may be difficult to remember, but I promise there once was a time in the not-too-distant past when that ubiquitous device we carry with us was not used for messaging, mapping, Tweeting, Snapping, shopping, posting, watching, gaming, or the other multitudes of tasks we now use our devices for. The utility and functionality of our mobile devices and the underlying ecosystem of mobile networks, apps and other services has dramatically increased the value we derive from our “phones”. 

Historically and simplistically speaking, market research is often a tool used to help clients make informed decisions relative to media buying. The typical scenario used to look like this:

Our clients would buy media based on a series of inputs; survey data being just one. If a client wanted to advertise their new sports product, they’d likely purchase an ad spot in the sports section of a newspaper or on ESPN.com. If a second client wanted to promote the upcoming season of their TV show, they might advertise for it on a series of entertainment focused websites. In this model, media content was a proxy for media buying. The decision was likely influenced by several data points, i.e. survey data, viewership information or market trend data. The assumption was if a consumer was looking at ESPN.com or reading the sport section of a newspaper, they may be interested in the first client’s sports product. If a consumer is surfing one of those entertainment websites, they may be more interested in the upcoming season of the second client’s show.