Market Research Changing with the Times

It should come as no surprise that Social Media is growing and becoming an ever larger force in marketing. As many of you might have seen in Tuesday’s front page article in the New York Times, the Social Media trend is just getting started. Almost every company has a Twitter and Facebook page and you can’t turn on the TV without being bombarded with commercials filled with hashtags and QR codes. While the sheer volume of followers is something many companies are pursuing, it’s what some companies are doing with this data that’s really impressive.

A quick visit to Frito Lay’s Facebook page is a testament to the impact Social Media has on market research. Flaunting an impressive 2.3 million ‘likes,’ Frito Lay is utilizing their Facebook following in a way that’s changing the how we collect data from consumers. The days of focus groups and surveys may be coming to an end, and in their place we see interactive and engaging methods targeting younger demographics and providing more information than traditional surveys do.

The evolution of Social Media is sure to continue and as market researchers, you must be ready and adapt to the change. Of course, what we are seeing in market research can hardly be explained in isolated instances and a few Facebook pages – there are plenty of important factors at play here. I invite you join me this Thursday, August 5^th at 11am CDT for a special webcast that explores these factors and where we are headed in the coming months and years.