Meaningful Market Research on a Budget: Crowdsourcing

In the development of a marketing strategy, research is a key component to establishing an effective plan for promoting a company and understanding consumer preferences. Even so, marketing research often gets tossed to the wayside when it comes to implementing and executing a marketing procedure, largely because funding legitimate studies is a costly process, not to mention a time consuming one.

As the expected turn-around for brand promotion gets shorter and shorter, relegating time to recruit participants, carry out a study, and analyze results becomes more and more difficult to do. Traditional research projects can still shed more light on the research question and objectives at hand and are not to be replaced by up-and-coming methodologies altogether, but the faster turnaround of techniques like crowdsourcing makes them appealing as supplemental forms of research.

With limited resources, crowdsourcing has become a viable option for conducting research, providing relatively quick and yet comprehensive details to assist in marketing strategies. Relevant to our increasingly digitized lifestyles, crowdsourcing makes use of online interactions with consumers in ways that traditional research often doesn’t. In so doing, the pool of candidates engaged becomes larger, not limited to predetermined screenings and assumptions about what type of consumer is relevant to a particular study. Talking with consumers about a brand on social media sites, blogs, and online communities creates the opportunity for interactive dialogues, rather than one-sided and formal interviews.

As crowdsourcing becomes a more popular mechanism for market research, websites and tools dedicated to conducting studies in this way have been on the rise. With a customizable and engaging website as a base, crowdsourcing has the opportunity to flourish as a technique, offering a platform where users can easily interact. Online administrators in these communities should welcome guests while presenting the problem or opportunity for which the crowdsourcers are seeking answers. From there, they must facilitate conversation and develop ways for consumers to vote on solutions as they present themselves.

Crowdsourcing creates reliable marketing strategies by engaging the public, asking them to develop ideas about what they want to see on the market, and then voting on what options they prefer.  With its quick turnaround and direct consumer interaction, it ensures brands can be on their way to implementing successful marketing strategies conveniently.

To learn more, please contact Barbara Gassaway and the market research specialists at Observation Baltimore today by calling 410-332-0400 or click here! And if you are interested in participating in a future focus group, sign up at https://observationbaltimore.com/get-paid-baltimore-maryland-get-paid-cash-opinion-baltimore-md/.

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Sources:

Why Marketers Should Invest in Crowdsourced Research

Researching goes organic – could crowdsourcing work for you?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 at 3:31 pm. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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