Studio is Democratizing Access to Consumer Insights – Here’s How.

• Studio is transforming qualitative research practices, by democratizing access to best-in-class tools and expertise, leveling the playing field for businesses of all sizes.
• The market research industry is experiencing significant growth and change, with more tools and platforms entering the market at an increasing rate.
• To embrace modern qual, teams need to choose the right tech partners wisely, and work towards effortless research and insights with impactful outcomes.

At every point in the lifecycle of your business, you need access to consumer insights. Preferences, demographics, and buying behaviors are all shifting at a rapid pace.

Insights are the key to adapting market activity to meet these changes. And businesses across the board are recalibrating their approach to insights to inform strategy.

At Studio, we want to challenge the status quo of how qualitative research gets done.

We’re on a mission to democratize access to best-in-class qualitative research. So every business, no matter the size, can collect and leverage meaningful qualitative insights and gain a competitive edge. This means accessible price points, a network of experts at the ready, and self-serve tools built from deep industry knowledge.

With almost 25 years in the research space, we observed an accessibility gap in research and knew something had to change. Fast forward to today, and we’re excited for Studio to drive a critical inflection point for both research professionals and brands. One that elevates the way we do research and moves towards a more modern approach to qual.

‍The changing landscape of qualitative research

‍Qualitative insights are not just nice-to-have. They’re a critical component of business strategy, especially now. Consumer buying habits are increasingly demonstrating a series of shifts and paradoxes, reflecting their multi-dimensional lives.

For instance, 84% of consumers say that sustainability is a very important factor in their purchase decisions, but 50% say they’re not sure if they would actually pay a premium for sustainable products. To understand them, their complex preferences and decision making, and bridge the 'say-do gap' brands need to dig in.

With these changes, we see a heightened demand for insights. In the US, the Insights & Analytics industry experienced an overall growth of 14.3% in 2022, on top of a 16.6% increase in 2021.

More tools enter the space every year to meet the growing demand for insights across sectors. In 2022, it was reported a whopping 230 (and growing!) self-serve research platforms were available for use, and since 2019, ResTech continues to experience annual growth rates of at least 20%.

With this flood of providers entering the market, teams now have more options than ever to have consumer insights at their fingertips and CI leaders will need to rethink their view on what’s possible.

‍3 Tips for choosing your tech

‍Today, there are tools available to help with every aspect of your research initiatives. Everything from recruiting your participants, asking questions, and testing your ideas. But not every partner fits into the future of democratized insights.

We see the world of ‘democratized research’ is one where every team can confidently drive measurable business impact. This means your tech stack, and external talent bench, should support an agile approach to research. One that fits your budget, timeline to execute, and adds specific expertise to augment your team’s. When done well, research efforts should be and feel effortless.

This might sound like a tall order. But in the world of democratized research, it’s table stakes.

As the industry moves towards more self-serve options, one issue looms: for democratization to be successful, providers must offer clear guidance on how to leverage tools with best practices in mind. Like being handed the keys to a new supercar, the best partners will ensure guardrails are in place to help researchers both move fast, and in the right direction.

Since there’s a lot to consider when evaluating new research tools, here are three questions we suggest any research buyer to ask when vetting vendors to add to your tech ecosystem: 

‍What’s your origin story? Ask about the founders, their background, and motivation for launching the company. As the demand for more accessible insights grows, so do the litany of platforms founded by savvy entrepreneurs with zero research background. Unfortunately, these tools do exist. So be aware, and pick a partner with deep subject matter expertise in the research lane you’re pursuing.

Where do you get your participants? Ask about the source of the research participants. Do your homework, and get clarity on how they operate under the hood. Proprietary panels are seldom an advantage, in our view, unless they’ve been in place for a good length of time. Look for Green Flags through strategic partnerships with established panel & recruiting providers.

‍How much DIY-ing is involved? Ask how much work you have to do to set up, and how much heavy lifting is involved to keep things running. From set up, to maintenance, tool integration and reporting, there are many components to manage. And with many ResTech platforms, although they’re ‘democratized’, they still come with a lot of heavy lifting. In our view, your research efforts should feel effortless. Tools should enable you to produce turnkey insights and reporting.

‍Bonus tip: what trade offs are you making? As you evaluate different tools, keep in mind that capabilities like speed, efficiency, or automation may come with a cost. For example, AI question and answer bots are now available to run research programs, interacting with your participants to save you time. But with this speed, be aware of what context and nuance you might be leaving on the table. Increasing efficiency is what we are all striving for, but don’t let it be at the expense of getting deep and quality insights. 

‍The Next Era of Qual Tech; Real qual, on-demand

‍The team at buzzback has been hard at work building out a platform that democratizes qualitative insights. We’re excited to be building a solution that adapts to the changing market landscape and evolving CI needs, by providing unparalleled access to leading expertise and tooling no matter your business size.

In January 2024, we launched Studio to enable access to knowledgeable qualitative experts, and provide a software platform to execute your research, which includes:

• Access to a robust talent network. With our expert marketplace, Studio users can instantly connect with highly experienced moderators with deep subject matter expertise across a range of sectors to lead and do the heavy lifting for you.
  
• Streamline and integrate tools. The Studio platform streamlines the research process by bringing together research steps, experts, and insight analysis all under one roof.‍
• Rooted in research expertise. We’ve brought our lived experience in the industry, listened to the challenges (and wishes!) from our clients, and locked arms with only the best partners in our space to enable best-in-class qual research.

We are excited to continue driving transformation in the industry, and creating the future for qualitative research in the process. If you’re interested in checking out Studio, head to our website to learn more and how we can help.