Skip to content

Searching for Emerging Market Research Trends

Top Market Research Trends to Watch

Just how will market research trends shape the future? ReconMR, in its LinkedIn article, “Unveiling the Future: 10 Market Research Trends to Keep an Eye on in 2024,” explored the topic in detail. It is certainly an exciting and evolving time in market research. While there are many traditional, tried-and-true research methods, which should not be discounted, it’s also critical to stay on top of your game with new technologies as well. ReconMR identifies these trends as key to watch in the future:

  • Trend 1: Artificial Intelligence: AI has become a game-changer. We can expect AI to play a more significant role in gathering and analyzing data. AI-powered algorithms can process vast amounts of data quickly, enabling researchers to derive actionable insights in real-time. From chatbots conducting surveys to machine learning algorithms predicting customer behavior, AI will revolutionize the way market research is conducted.
  • Trend 2: Big Data & Predictive Analytics: The abundance of data in the digital age has given rise to the importance of big data and predictive analytics in market research. Businesses will increasingly rely on advanced analytics techniques to identify patterns, forecast trends, and gain a deeper understanding of their target audience. By leveraging big data and predictive analytics, companies can make data-driven decisions, optimize marketing strategies, and create personalized customer experiences.
  • Trend 3: Voice of the Customer Research: Understanding the voice of the customer has always been crucial, but now it will take center stage. VoC research focuses on capturing customer feedback and sentiments through various channels such as surveys, social media, and customer reviews. By analyzing this data, organizations can gain valuable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and expectations, enabling them to tailor their products and services accordingly.
  • Trend 4: Mobile Market Research: With the proliferation of smartphones and the increasing reliance on mobile devices, mobile market research will continue to gain momentum. Mobile surveys, in-app feedback, and location-based research will enable businesses to gather real-time insights from consumers on the go. The convenience and accessibility of mobile market research will provide a more accurate and holistic understanding of consumer behavior, helping organizations adapt their strategies to meet evolving customer needs.
  • Trend 5: Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR): VR and AR technologies are no longer confined to the gaming industry. These immersive technologies will be integrated into market research methodologies, allowing researchers to create realistic simulations and gather insights through virtual environments. By immersing participants in virtual scenarios, businesses can gauge emotional responses, test product prototypes, and evaluate customer experiences, providing valuable data to drive innovation and improve customer satisfaction.
  • Trend 6: Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis: The rise of social media has transformed the way people communicate and share their opinions. Social listening and sentiment analysis will become integral. By monitoring social media platforms, businesses can gain real-time insights into customer sentiment, identify emerging trends, and address potential issues promptly. Social listening and sentiment analysis tools will enable organizations to understand the public perception of their brand, track competitor activities, and engage with customers more effectively.
  • Trend 7: Blockchain Technology: Blockchain technology, known for its secure and transparent nature, will find its way into market research practices. Blockchain can enhance data security, eliminate fraudulent activities, and ensure the authenticity of research findings. By leveraging blockchain technology, market researchers can build trust with participants, protect sensitive information, and maintain the integrity of data. This advancement will lead to more reliable and accurate insights, benefiting both businesses and consumers.
  • Trend 8: Ethnographic Research: Ethnographic research, which involves observing and studying individuals in their natural environment, will gain prominence. This approach provides rich qualitative data by understanding consumer behavior, preferences, and cultural influences. By immersing themselves in the consumers’ world, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their target audience, uncover unmet needs, and develop products and services that resonate with customers on a personal level.
  • Trend 9: Emotion and Facial Recognition Technology: Market researchers will harness the power of emotion and facial recognition technology to gain deeper insights into consumer behavior. By analyzing facial expressions and emotional responses, businesses can understand how consumers truly feel about their products, advertisements, and brand experiences. Emotion and facial recognition technology will enable organizations to create emotionally engaging marketing campaigns, enhance customer experiences, and build stronger connections with their target audience.
  • Trend 10: Automation and Machine Learning: The automation of market research processes and the integration of machine learning algorithms will revolutionize the industry. Automation will streamline data collection, analysis, and reporting, enabling researchers to focus on generating strategic insights. Machine learning algorithms will continuously learn from data patterns, allowing for more accurate predictions and recommendations. By leveraging automation and machine learning, businesses can reduce costs, improve efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage.

Identifying Research Methodologies & Future Trends

All Things Insights previously explored market research trends in, “Taking a Solutions Approach to Market Research Trends.” Market research trends shift over the course of time, whether it be key takeaways from this year or the evolution of techniques over the decades. An essential element of any business strategy, market research is knowledge that can help influence the business and make an impact regarding revenue, branding strategy, consumer behavior, marketing shifts and more. Certainly, much has changed within the market research industry (think developments in artificial intelligence) while some techniques have remained very much the same (think audience questionnaires and surveys).

Looking forward to TMRE 2024? The conference, which will be held October 8 to 10, will feature a panel, “Emerging Market Research Methodologies and Trends,” presented by Andrew Embry, Sr. Director, Insights Innovation Capabilities – Global Core Market Research at Eli Lilly and Company. This panel will explore the latest trends and techniques being employed by today’s leading researchers. You will discover how the approaches, such as generative AI, social listening, being more inclusive in representative samples, designing online surveys with mobile-first in mind and effectively tapping into endless troves of data, are revolutionizing traditional market research practices. You will also unearth ways to employ these cutting-edge methods to better understand your customer and deliver more impactful insights. Register for TMRE 2024 here.

Mission Critical: Reinforcing Your Research

Changing consumer behavior and technological advancements will continue to evolve at a rapid pace, giving the market research field a ripe opportunity for growth. It will be interesting to compare this top ten list to trends in the future, from 2025 and beyond. There will always be some hits and some misses. But, there is no doubt that there will be more developing changes in the future, such as quantum computing, and digital qualitative efforts, for example, which could drive the insights field to move ever faster.

By embracing these trends and more, market research firms can stay ahead of the curve and stay on top of understanding the consumer, providing valuable, data-rich information to their clients and stakeholders. There may be a skills gap with all this reliance on technology, and firms may need to step up their upskilling and reskilling of team members in the future. Still, it seems that better technology, better data and well-equipped teams will create smarter, and faster, market research opportunities.

Video courtesy of Gartner

Contributor

  • Matt Kramer

    Matthew Kramer is the Digital Editor for All Things Insights & All Things Innovation. He has over 20 years of experience working in publishing and media companies, on a variety of business-to-business publications, websites and trade shows.

    View all posts

Related Content

Evaluating the Use of Synthetic Data

This year’s recent “Road to TMRE” virtual event featured an insightful panel on, “Consumer Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence: The Showdown of t…

 
 

More Related Content

Kind of futuristic graphic, streams of data moving off into the distance.
data quality

Evaluating the Use of Synthetic Data

This year’s recent “Road to TMRE” virtual event featured an insightful panel on, “Consumer Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence: The Showdown of t…

Business person holding a tablet with virtual data rising up out of it.
media insights

Unlocking the Power of AI for Media Insights

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the media industry, offering unprecedented opportunities for deeper, more actionable insights into aud…

Binary numbers moving into the distance in black space.
predictive analytics

Weighing the Potential of Synthetic Data

With advancements in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, the questions swirling around synthetic data continue to grow in the ins…

Futuristic, walls of data coursing through space.
data science

Exploring Synthetic Data Applications

Synthetic data, a type of artificial data generated through algorithms rather than real-world interactions, is rapidly gaining traction in various ind…

Hand with remote control facing TV with a lot of choices on screen.
media insights

Redefining How We Discover Content

The media discovery landscape has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years, driven by technological advancements, changing consumer behavio…

A shining space and light image, like a super nova.
actionable foresights

Putting Foresights into Action

In a world inundated with trends and predictions, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. While trends can offer valuable…

Robot hand and human hand touching with strand of DNA in between, futuristic.
human insights

Exploring the Evolution of Insights

With the market research community currently reaching a key inflection point focused on AI and human insights, All Things Insights has released its “F…

Future-like image showing head with circuits symbolizing artificial intelligence.
artificial intelligence

Leveraging AI in Market Research

This year’s “Road to TMRE” virtual event featured a range of sessions related to artificial intelligence and how best to leverage the technology in ma…

Man sitting down, holding and spinning a small globe.
data science

Find New Insights Career Opportunities

Science, technology and innovation are accelerating at a rapid pace in today’s marketplace. Machine learning, generative artificial intelligence, pred…

A round pizza cut into slices, one bite taken out of one slice.
actionable insights

Activating Insights Leadership

Insights leaders are facing new challenges and demands from their organizations. With the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, and the influx of B…

Robotic hand holding a light bulb shaped points of light rising up into the sky.
AI integration

The Fusion of AI and Market Research

Market research has traditionally been a hands-on task that is time consuming and resource-intensive, from generating data collection to holding in-pe…

Young girl outside blowing bubbles.
generation alpha

Staying on the Pulse of the Youth Market

Children and young people have their own unique perspectives on products and services. In gaining qualitative market research from these demographics,…

A pile of one dollar bills.
customer experience

Discover the Value of Pricing Research

You have spent a great deal of time, energy, and resources and you have reached the next stage of your product development efforts. Now what? One key…

Woman gazing at open window.
user experience

Exploring the Meaning of Human Insights

If you are looking for ways to enhance the user experience of a product or service, digital or otherwise, tapping into human insight is essential to t…

Reaching into a full tool kit on the ground.
DIY research

Putting Together DIY Research Solutions

It seems that whether the economy is surging or stagnant, the emphasis on do-it-yourself market research has remained a relatively strong attribute in…

Vortex-like laser images in space like setting.
data science

Finding the Right AI Research Opportunities

As part of the AI & Tech Summit portion of this year’s TMRE @ Home virtual gathering, David Iudica, SVP, Research and Insights: Retail and Wealth, Cit…

Woman in a laboratory testing formulas.
customer feedback

Finding the Right Concept Testing Formula

Concept testing is an important aspect of market research. With this tool in mind, the researcher can enhance their forecasting abilities, as well as…

A surface of cubes with a variety of rising cubes, one stands out in a different color.
data collection

Leveraging AI in B2B Respondent Insights

In the B2B marketing landscape, artificial intelligence has shown great potential. It is becoming an essential and advantageous tool, a tool which no…

soccer player on his knees upset that he lost or missed goal.
insights culture

How Insights Can Benefit from Failure

No one actively looks to launch an unsuccessful product or venture. Yet failing can have its upside. There is a philosophy of thought in the business…

boxing glove punching
media insights

Powering Subscriber Acquisition

The streaming business is a fluid, changing landscape. To gain some insights into the category, All Things Insights’ Seth Adler spoke with Beau Decker…

data science

Turning Data into Market Intelligence

When surveying a new market opportunity, the company’s market intelligence efforts come into play. This valuable data helps determine market segmentat…

data science

Plugging into the Future With AI

TMRE@Home is going to be held virtually this year from April 30 to May 2, 2024, and it will feature several educational tracks for insights and market…

consumer insights

Operationalizing a Hybrid Approach to AI

In “Insights + AI: Operationalizing A Hybrid Approach,” Christina Speck, Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Commercial Product, Blue Cross & Blue Sh…

ad optimization

Finding the Right Machine Learning Formula

In “Machine Learning: Optimizing Ad Campaigns,” Michael Bagalman, Vice President, Business Intelligence and Data Science, STARZ, explored machine lear…

foresights

Leveraging Foresights to Drive Brand Goals

Doug Healy, Senior Director, Consumer Insights – Gatorade, PepsiCo, held the session, “Global Might for the Local Fight: Forward Thinking in Brand Str…

media insights

Exploring User Community Perceptions of AI

Max Wartel, Director of Consumer Insights, Fandom, held an AI-related session at TMRE, which focused on the perceptions of AI in a user-generated comm…

artificial intelligence

Leading Insights Through Change

Elizabeth Oates, Vice President, Consumer Insights, Ulta Beauty, spoke at TMRE at two sessions: “Leading High-Performance Insights Teams Through Chang…

futurism

Preparing for Future Trends

In “How to Apply Future Trends to Your Business Today,” TMRE keynote presenter Sheryl Connelly, Global Consumer Trends Expert & Former Chief Futurist…

Heather Berlin

Optimizing the Mind to Fuel Creativity

The unconscious mind is more powerful and active than we ever imagined. Knowing that, how can we optimize ourselves for success? At this year’s TMRE,…

innovation

Finding Your Way to Breakthroughs

All Things Insights’ Seth Adler got a chance to sit down with author and professor Adam Alter, at this year’s TMRE. Alter gave a keynote presentation…

trend analysis

Navigating the Future Through Trend Mapping

Trend mapping is one of the more known strategic foresight methodologies, but one that is a key system to identifying and tracking trends in the marke…

technology

Unifying Data Analytics and Insights

To be human or not to be human? That is a relevant question in today’s technology-driven society, and one we posed when thinking about unifying data a…

foresights

Using Insights to Predict the Future

A key component of any marketing strategy is to think about and plan for the future. Despite constant macro and micro disruption, marketers can still…

digital twins

Digital Twin Insights

If there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that there is a major shift happening in tech, specifically in the ways we quantify the human self, and…

media insights

2023 Outlook

Known uncertainty. We enter 2023 with some of the most known uncertainty of our lives. Going into 2019- certainty. Going into 2020- certainty-albeit m…

TMRE

20 Quotes On Risk, Truth, Wealth And More

Dan Runcie, Founder, Trapital sat down with Percy ‘Master P’ Miller at the most recent TMRE. The discussion focused on how Miller’s background provide…

strategic insights

Slow Power: Pacing The Speed Of Insights

We know from Aesop’s “The Tortoise And The Hare” that the ability to achieve great speed doesn’t always mean finishing first in a given journey. And w…