Why market research is all about the relationships

In today’s customer-centric world, brands need detailed insights to get ahead.

It’s no longer just about statistics or asking simple yes and no questions; market research today is about uncovering stories and driving change - and that all starts with the people. Basically, when it comes to successful market research and gathering in-depth market research insight and data, it’s all about the relationships.

From briefing to recruitment and even during the research itself, the secret to a great market research project is a strong rapport and regular communication with both clients and respondents.

The fact is, if you don’t have strong relationships at the core of your research, you won’t be able to access the insights you need to drive change. Here’s how strong relationships can help you to transform your market research…

How to foster positive relationships in market research

1. Get to know your clients 

First things first, if you’re going to get the best possible market research insight and data from your project, you need to ensure you truly understand your clients’ needs.

By building a relationship with your clients and making sure you understand their goals and objectives, you can offer expert advice on how to tackle the research head-on.

Essentially, an in-depth understanding will help make sure you can find the people - and the results - you need. 

From complicated quotas to strict criteria, if you want your market research to be a success, you need to make sure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals - and kicking off your research project with a thorough telephone briefing is a great way to start building a two-way partnership.

Not only can you start to build a rapport with your clients, but doing so will also provide solid foundations to build your market research project on, too. 

2. Tailor your recruitment technique

Once you’ve got a thorough understanding of exactly what your client is trying to achieve, it’s then time to move on to the recruitment phase of your research.

Because you will have already thrashed out a lot of the detail during the initial briefing stage, you’ll be in a super strong position to choose the right recruitment techniques to reach out to high-quality respondents that match the criteria. 

Perhaps a highly-targeted social media campaign will be the best way to source participants, maybe you’ll decide to use a pre-validated panel, or perhaps the recipe for success will be a combination of several different recruitment techniques.

The important thing is, by understanding what your clients are really looking for, you can target your recruitment, drill down into the demographic and find the right respondents with the right criteria.

What’s more, if something isn’t working, because you’ve got such a strong relationship with your client, you’ll be able to work together to find a solution. 

3. Communicate with your participants

In our humble opinion, the success of your research isn’t just down to your relationship with your clients, though. Respondent engagement is also an essential part of successful market research.

Put it this way: your research is only as strong as your weakest link - so once you've found the right respondents, you also need to make sure they remain engaged and excited and want to take part in the research from beginning to end. 

How do you do it? By communicating with them and building a rapport. Briefing is just as important for participants as it is for clients, so make sure they understand what is expected of them and why.

By keeping in contact with your participants throughout the duration of your research, they will be more comfortable and more likely to open up and share in-depth insights - and there will probably be fewer dropouts, too!

And that’s not all: regular communication will also enable you to spot any participants who are disengaged and take action to re-engage them.

4. Stop problems before they start 

We know we keep harping on about communication, but it’s true: throughout all stages of market research, communication is key. Whether you’ve run into a recruitment roadblock or your chosen methodology just isn’t working, it’s really important to speak up about any problems or concerns.

By providing regular updates and keeping in close contact with your clients, you can give helpful, practical advice and prevent any problems before they start. 

For example, we previously worked on a project where the client needed to recruit participants for a MROC over a duration of three months.

Because we understood the project and its objective so well, we suggested that the respondents were paid incentives in increments and that the client gave bonus prizes to the participants with the best contribution in order to keep engagement levels high.

It was because of our close relationship with the client and our deep understanding of their needs that we were able to spot a potential issue, suggest a solution and iron out any problems before it was too late.

The Angelfish approach

In conclusion, the success of any market research project and gathering in-depth market research insight and data is all down to regular communication and strong relationships.

At Angelfish, we believe that market research is about people - and by building up client relationships and putting yourselves in their shoes, you can understand the nitty-gritty of what they are looking for and make sure you find respondents who are the right fit and deliver research results that really matter.  

When you work with Angelfish for your qualitative market research recruitment, you’ll have your own dedicated project management team on hand to provide expert advice, regular updates and complete management of the entire process.

We’ll be there every step of the way to give you guidance on everything from demographics and sample size to incentive levels and methodologies - which means you can benefit from all our expertise, right from when you first receive your quote. 

Want to know more about finding great participants for your market research?

Then be sure to download our free guide below!