Kantar's Profiles Blog

By engaging with consumers in meaningful ways, you’ll capture data on what they think, what content they see and what they do. Our Modern Survey Design techniques enable you to know more by asking the right questions in the right way.

Technology has a way of improving tried-and-true methodologies in many industries, and as we’ve seen in this data series, marketing research is no exception. Where at one time qualitative best practices included 20 to 40 minute online surveys (e.g., jam-packed full of single response, open-ended and grid questions), respondents are no longer completing that type of research. Many (time-poor) consumers want to provide brands their feedback, but they expect the conveniences a smartphone provides them and activities that fit into their every-day life. They also don’t want to be bogged down with mundane, repetitive questions such as, “What brands do you like? Can you rate these brands? What stores do you think of when you need this product?”

Survey respondents have a digital life outside their online panel community; a life as a consumer, an influencer and a potential buyer. But technology is evolving, and so is digital usage. Consumers are leaving a bigger digital fingerprint that increases exponentially by the minute, if not by the second. It expands by source, by type and by size. It is creating an ocean sized pool of third party data, which we are still learning how to best utilize in our data collection and analysis.

In our Marketing Data Integration series, we first touched upon how to get the best data output from your survey questions, now we will look at integrating third party data. How can we access this data pool? How do we link survey data to it for a holistic, enriched view of our customers and non-customers? Let’s explore…

When you need to search for something on the internet, where do you go first?

If you've seen the introduction to our Marketing Data Integration Series, you understand the extent new technology and mobile plays in modern research. So now you're on a mission to modernize your research (bravo!). You understand how to reach the representative audience you need (include mobile!), and you’ve identified the right tools available to get the answers you need (responsive programming!).

The consumer buying experience has changed…but not subtly. Gone are the days of Toy “R” Us kids or Friday night trips to Blockbuster and instead consumers are receiving deliveries from the Barkbox, Birchbox, and Blue Aprons of the world. For today’s burgeoning brands, relevance now equals accessibility (at the buyer’s fingertips) with a dash of custom curation added to the mix. Brands nowadays need to find ways to fit into a consumer’s life and let technology play a role in getting there. Forbes recently reported the subscription e-commerce market has grown dramatically over the last decade, from $57 million in 2011 to more than $2.9 billion today.

If you ever find yourself in the London Millbank office, within minutes you’ll be subjected to the company’s most pressing rhetoric: how do we shorten surveys, how do you modernise them and how do we bring innovation to a rapidly changing industry?

There’s been a lot of social media buzz in the market research world these past few weeks surrounding the Inc article, “What Your Brand is Missing by Skipping Digital Marketing Research.” The article’s author, Shama Hyder of Zen Media, asserts: “The connected consumer is empowered with so many choices, so many options, that brands have less time than ever to grab their attention.”

We are about half way through the year; where do you stand on your 2018 resolutions?

The Royal Wedding is less than 24 hours away. Will you be watching live? Lightspeed conducted a mobile poll yesterday with our US and UK respondents to see how likeable Meghan Markle is and which princess is most likeable. Could the Markle Effect on branding already be waning?