By Rick Kieser, Ascribe CEO

In a dynamic market research landscape dominated by Gen AI, Ascribe unveils a new release of its groundbreaking innovation - Theme Extractor. This cutting-edge technology integrated into Ascribe's CX Inspector and AI Coder addresses the challenges presented by ever-evolving Gen AI and delivers effective, faster, and cost-efficient open-end analysis.

Theme Extractor with Gen AI initially delivered deeper understanding of customer thoughts and ideas by transforming single-word topic results into descriptive, meaningful themes, for example "Checkouts" to "Have more checkouts open," and by quantifying emotions factoring in sentiment strength and frequency.

The latest release takes a giant leap forward and overcomes issues created by the latest Gen AI, improving result accuracy, simplifying complex themes and reducing overlap. For example, it separates complex codes like "Salty and spicy" into "Salty" and "Spicy".

Perhaps Theme Extractor's most innovative and important feature is enabling human control, allowing users to guide and oversee the analysis. Manual changes such as toggling Gen AI, providing context, editing results, training codebooks and setting the number of codes enable flexibility that empowers market researchers to ensure that the text analysis results align with business needs.

In a landscape where Gen AI is no longer a question but a necessity, Ascribe's Theme Extractor remains a game-changer for analyzing open ends quickly and accurately. Connect with us today or request a demo to learn more.

By Rick Kieser, Ascribe CEO

Market Research has been around for about 100 years. Some might say we are set in our ways, but in reality the industry has been rapidly innovating in response to marketing changes, technology, and other challenges. We've come far from door-to-door interviewers and Mad Men-esque focus groups! And we are now experiencing one of the most fundamental shifts in our industry and specifically in text analysis in decades.

An Erupting Volcano

In the market research landscape, our traditional data analysis approach resembles a long-dormant volcano getting ready to erupt. For years, many have focused on the top of the volcano, the visible summit—the structured data that is easy to access and straightforward to analyze from surveys. However, a repository of unstructured data remains largely untouched beneath the surface. These text comments hold valuable insights that have been challenging to access and analyze. While difficult to explore, this unstructured data contains incredible potential if it could be unleased.

As we all know, the landscape is changing rapidly. Loaded with open-end responses and unstructured data from surveys, social media, and the internet, the volcano is exploding. According to Gartner, unstructured data constitutes 80% to 90% of all new enterprise data and is growing rapidly. Just as molten lava transforms the surrounding landscape, this eruption of unstructured data, which is now overwhelming for many, will similarly reshape our approach to understanding consumers. Harnessing the insights from this eruption has been one of the most significant disruptions in the evolution of market research since we began.

Many businesses are unprepared for this shift. Only about 10% of unstructured data is currently stored, and even less is analyzed, according to the International Data Corporation. Historically, analyzing unstructured data was a time-consuming process, akin to decoding hieroglyphs. Few marketing people had the time, resources, or motivation for such an effort.

Is your company experiencing this volcanic eruption of open-end comments coming from customers, partners, and employees? Are you ready to dig below the easy-to-analyze closed-end data to get beneath the surface to find true insights, thoughts, desires, and intentions? A fast, cost-effective, and proven analysis approach is the key to unlocking the potential of unstructured data.

Enter Generative AI, heralding the next evolution of Market Research. Leveraging Gen AI with text analytics to analyze this massive amount of unstructured data provides access to the insights hiding underneath the volcano. It's a transformation from the elementary knowledge of the known structured data landscape to a new universe of depth and clarity of consumer understanding. While much of the uncovered insights will be used to answer everyday business questions, if analyzed properly, the data has the reliability and strength to guide even the most critical strategic decisions for your business.  

‍

Gen AI's Rapid Evolution Creates Challenges

Gen AI is advancing at warp speed, generating constant evolution across the MR industry. And with that evolution comes challenges. Remember that less than a year ago, the Market Research industry was vilifying Gen AI as the industry's demise! The MR Industry is now embracing Gen AI to unleash the value of the huge mass of previously-neglected verbatims and unstructured feedback. Many new, young firms are jumping in to sell their Gen AI solutions to marketers, and to the less experienced, their solutions appear magical at first glance. As new versions of Gen AI are being rapidly released, those platform developers are having difficulties keeping up with providing human-like theme-based insights that are quantifiable and verifiable to the unstructured data analysis. Some of the challenges created by the more recent Gen AI releases include:

• Gen AI analysis creates a plethora of results – too many ideas and codes, making it challenging for brand marketers to sort out the most important ideas.
• Gen AI is now creating complex codes, combining two ideas into one. For example, "too salty and spicy," combines two ideas about how a food tastes. However, this result makes it difficult to determine how big an issue "salty" is and how big an issue "spicy" is. For ideas to be actionable, we need concise, singular ideas, each of which is quantified.
• Summaries created by Gen-AI are not precise enough for use in decision-making. Now, of course, marketers are enamored with the summarizing capabilities of Gen AI. If you have purchased anything online lately, you can quickly find a consumer ratings summary created by Gen AI. However, these summaries are often too broad to be meaningful, and it is always challenging to identify the underlying data the summary was sourced from. The summaries miss important insights and may not represent information in the right proportions. Finally, it is well recognized that Gen AI may also make things up (now referred to as hallucinations or mirages) depending on how the tool was trained.

Ascribe Leverages Gen AI to Develop Innovative Solutions

Ascribe has been innovating to solve these Gen-AI-created issues with the latest release of one of our most impactful techonology developments – Theme Extractor. Helping Ascribe stay one step ahead of the industry, Theme Extractor is included in all of Ascribe's solutions, including CX Inspector for text analytics and Coder, a verbatim analysis platform for market research companies,. Ascribe has a 25-year history as the original verbatim analytics platform for the MR Industry, building state-of-the-art open-end analysis solutions. We have processed more than 4 billion unstructured comments, exponentially more than all other providers' experience in processing customer feedback combined. Our developers have deep experience with Gen AI and are uniquely equipped to build solutions that meet the needs of our partners.

‍
Theme Extractor Extracts Superior Well-Developed Ideas from Open-End Comments

The initial version of Theme Extractor leveraged Generative AI to transform the results of open-end analysis from single-word codes to descriptive, meaningful codes that articulate the essence of the idea, a huge advancement for the market research industry. Note the example below from customer satisfaction results for a retailer; whereas before an idea might be a single-word topic such as "items", with Theme Extractor, the idea becomes "have popular items in stock." Similarly, a code of "employees" becomes "more employees would be helpful." As you can see, Theme Extractor extracts much more detailed information from the customer responses, giving you a deeper understanding of the consumers' thoughts and feelings.  

‍

‍

The most recent release of Theme Extractor has improved the accuracy of the results and addresses the issues of too many codes and complex codes being created by the latest versions of Gen AI. Theme Extractor creates concise ideas focused on one theme, correcting the tendency of Gen AI to combine ideas into complex topics. As such, in a mascara product study, the complex code "Lengthens and separates lashes" Theme Extractor separates into two themes, "Lengthens lashes" and "Separates lashes." Separating ideas is important in the analysis to make the results useful for decision-making. This is a vital detail that can easily be overlooked in a sales demonstration but is critical to the experienced brand marketer or market researcher in real life.

Also, Theme Extractor reduces the overlap between codes, thereby reducing the number of themes. In the same mascara study, the "High price" and "Too expensive" codes are more likely to be one combined idea, resulting in less overlap and more effective analysis. Finally, it is important to note that during analysis with Theme Extractor, the user can suggest the number of codes to classify the results into, which further puts the power of AI under the user's control.

Another important Ascribe innovation is the ability to quantify the emotions and empathy Gen AI identifies around a topic. Emotion and empathy can be insightful, but if they are unquantified, they are insufficient to be helpful to brand marketers. The magnitude of those emotions (or topics) and how they link to satisfaction, dissatisfaction, loyalty, and other customer states must be quantified to use the insights identified. For example, an unquantified analysis of emotion might yield two ideas, "Love the service" and "Wish the front desk staff were friendlier", from which you would conclude that "Love the Service" is more important as it is a stronger emotion. However, if the results indicated that only one person said, "I love the service," and 100 people said, "I wish the front desk staff were friendlier," the latter becomes more important. The ability to understand the emotion must be combined with frequency and quantification to get a useful insight, giving brand marketers the understanding they need for actionability and decision-making.

‍

Enabling Human Guidance of Gen AI Produces Powerful Customized Results

Other innovations in the most recent Theme Extractor upgrade enable human control to guide and oversee the analysis and output of the results. Many users, especially experienced market researchers, want a deliverable similar to what they have produced in the past, for example, to enable tracking against previous studies or to use language relevant to the business. Ascribe's platforms enable manual input, giving you control over the automation in real-time and letting you adjust the results to meet your business needs. Some of the manual changes available in the latest Theme Extractor:

• Turn Gen AI on or off.
• Provide context for the data for more accurate results.
• Easily edit your results by renaming, combining, drag and drop manipulation, etc.
• Train a codebook and save it for future use; great for trackers.
• Set the number of codes and levels of nets appropriate for your needs.
• Connect the theme to the original responses (drill down.)
  

Ascribe's innovative Theme Extractor enables market researchers to analyze a dataset with open-end comments in minutes or hours, adjusting the amount of manual editing to control costs, timing, and end results.

‍

Ascribe Innovations for 2024

Being the original verbatim analytics platform, we at Ascribe are continually exploring ways to harness advanced technologies, including Gen AI, to develop superior open-end analysis solutions that are easy to manage and maximize efficiencies in meeting your business insight needs. We are building APIs to enable direct access to our system for real-time integration with other platforms. We are developing a Gen AI tool to summarize results from the analysis accurately and will also provide updated charting and visualization capabilities to meet your analysis and reporting needs.  

‍

Choosing the Right Gen AI Approach

Using Gen AI will be critical to tap into the value delivered through successful analysis of unstructured data. It is essential that you choose the right Gen AI approach for you. If you seek a partner to help you get value from your text analysis, choose that partner carefully. Look for a trusted partner with years of experience in MR, extensive experience with Gen AI, and live training and support services to help you when needed. When evaluating the platform, request a live demo using your data to see firsthand if the results meet your business needs. Finally, ensure the interface is user-friendly and integrates easily with your current operating processes and management tools.

Recently, we have had discussions with companies attempting to build their own analysis platforms. While their initial solution might work for one specific use case, it becomes difficult and expensive when they need to scale it and make it repeatable, and even more so as they will need to continually absorb and respond to the rapid advancements in Gen AI. AI expertise is scarce and expensive, so building your own platform quickly becomes a costly and time-consuming strategic commitment for your company. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your business needs and share how Ascribe can meet those needs with speed and cost efficiencies.

‍

Gen AI Is No Longer A Question - It's a Necessity

As you work to harness the explosive insight power of open-ends flooding your company from disparate sources, you must decide how to implement Gen AI in text analysis so that it becomes more effective, faster, and less costly. Your decision about the partner you choose to help you with this could pay huge dividends in the future. After all, it's no longer a question of if you should implement Gen AI; it's only a question of how.

Remember to look beyond the demo to your partner's expertise in Gen AI, text analysis, and the MR industry. Their experience in the insights industry will ensure that they are not only keeping up with the rapidly evolving status of Gen AI but also how to translate that evolution into products and innovations that can best serve you and your business. Curious to see it in action? Request a demo today.

In today's digital age, understanding your audience and gathering valuable feedback is paramount for any business or organization. Video survey tools have emerged as a powerful solution, revolutionizing how we collect insights and opinions. By integrating audio-visual elements into surveys, these tools provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of respondents' perspectives. In this complete guide, we delve into the world of video survey tools, exploring their benefits, and use cases, and presenting a curated list of the top options to aid informed decision-making.

What is a Video Survey Software?

Video survey software is a technological advancement that combines traditional survey methods with multimedia elements. It allows you to create surveys enriched with videos, audio clips, or images, enhancing user engagement and providing a holistic view of respondents' opinions. This dynamic approach to data collection leads to more actionable insights, enabling businesses to make informed decisions.

Key Features of Video Survey Tools

Video survey tools have become essential for businesses and organizations looking to gather insights and feedback in a dynamic and engaging manner. Here are the top 5 key features of video survey tools:

1. Multimedia Integration

Video survey tools allow users to seamlessly integrate multimedia elements into their surveys. This includes the ability to add videos, audio clips, images, and even interactive media elements. This feature enhances the survey experience for respondents, making it more engaging and informative.

2. Real-Time Analytics

Many video survey tools provide real-time analytics and reporting. This means that as respondents complete surveys, the data is immediately available for analysis. Real-time analytics enable businesses to make timely decisions and adjustments based on incoming feedback.

3. Customization Options

Video survey tools often offer a high degree of customization. Users can tailor surveys to match their brand's aesthetics, ensuring a consistent and professional look. Customization also extends to question types, allowing for flexibility in creating questions that suit the specific research objectives. To enhance the accessibility and engagement of your video surveys, consider incorporating a subtitle creator tool, which can automatically generate accurate captions for your multimedia content.

4. Cross-Platform Compatibility

To reach a wider audience, video survey tools ensure cross-platform compatibility. Surveys can be accessed and completed on various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. This flexibility ensures that respondents can participate regardless of their preferred device.

5. Ease of Use

User-friendly interfaces are a hallmark of video survey tools. Both survey creators and respondents benefit from intuitive and easy-to-navigate platforms. This ease of use streamlines the survey creation process and encourages higher response rates as respondents find it straightforward to participate.

These key features collectively contribute to the effectiveness and popularity of video survey tools in gathering valuable insights and feedback from respondents. Businesses and organizations can leverage these features to enhance their decision-making processes and improve user engagement in surveys.

How Video Survey Tools Can Be Used?

Video survey tools offer a versatile approach to collecting feedback and insights by incorporating audio-visual elements into surveys. Here are some examples of how video survey tools can be used across different domains:

1. Product Feedback and Testing

Video survey tools revolutionize product feedback and testing by integrating multimedia elements into the feedback collection process. For product managers and developers, these tools offer a dynamic platform to showcase new features, prototypes, or application walkthroughs through engaging videos. With unlimited video editing capabilities, teams can refine their presentations and highlight specific features to elicit targeted feedback. Beta testers and users can provide detailed feedback by recording video responses, elucidating their experiences and preferences effectively. This rich and visual feedback aids in identifying areas for improvement, validating product concepts, and ensuring that the final product meets users' expectations. Video survey tools, therefore, significantly enhance the product development cycle, enabling iterative refinements and ultimately leading to a more user-centric and successful product launch.

2.Customer Satisfaction Surveys

By seamlessly integrating videos and multimedia elements into surveys, video survey tools offer businesses a potent means to gauge customer satisfaction in a more engaging and insightful manner. Customers can now provide feedback not just through words but through recorded video responses, enabling a deeper expression of their experiences and sentiments. This approach not only enhances response rates but also provides a comprehensive understanding of customer perceptions, ultimately assisting businesses in fine-tuning their services and strategies to elevate overall customer satisfaction levels.

3. Training and Onboarding Evaluation

Video survey tools prove indispensable in the realm of training and onboarding evaluation. When integrating these tools into training processes, organizations can capture crucial insights from employees regarding their training experience. This includes their perception of training material effectiveness, clarity of instructions, and engagement levels. Employees can record video responses, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of their learning journey. For onboarding, video surveys can serve to gather feedback on the onboarding process, ensuring it aligns with organizational goals and addresses new hires' needs. The real-time nature of video survey analytics allows training and HR teams to promptly assess feedback and make adjustments, ultimately fine-tuning training programs and onboarding processes for optimal efficiency and employee satisfaction.

4. Event Feedback and Planning

Event management and organizers can distribute video surveys showcasing event highlights and key moments. Attendees can provide their feedback and suggestions through video responses, offering a more engaging and detailed perspective. This feedback becomes instrumental in understanding attendees' experiences, identifying successful aspects, and pinpointing areas for improvement. Event organizers can then utilize these insights to plan future events that align better with attendee preferences, ensuring a more enjoyable and tailored experience for participants. The incorporation of video survey tools in event feedback and planning significantly contributes to the enhancement of events and the overall event strategy.

5. Market Research and Product Development

In market research, these tools provide a dynamic platform to showcase product prototypes, advertisement concepts, or new features to a targeted audience. By collecting video feedback, businesses gain critical insights into consumer preferences, opinions, and potential buying behavior. This data becomes a compass guiding marketing strategies, product enhancements, and market positioning. Similarly, within the sphere of product development, video survey tools allow for in-depth testing of new features and functionalities. Developers can showcase prototypes and ideas through engaging videos, and the subsequent video responses from users provide invaluable feedback for refining and perfecting the product before launch. In both market research and product development, the integration of multimedia elements through video survey tools enriches data collection, resulting in more informed and successful business decisions.

6. Educational Assessments

Video survey tools are increasingly gaining traction in the realm of educational assessments. They offer a dynamic approach to evaluating students' understanding and engagement with course material. Teachers can utilize these tools to present educational videos or interactive content, followed by survey questions, enabling students to provide detailed video responses. This method offers a more comprehensive view of students' comprehension levels, allowing educators to tailor their teaching methods for better learning outcomes. It also promotes student involvement and provides a platform for self-expression, enhancing the assessment process in educational settings.

These examples illustrate the versatility and effectiveness of video survey tools across various scenarios, from product development to educational assessments. The use of multimedia elements in gathering feedback enriches the data collected and allows for a more comprehensive understanding of respondents' opinions and experiences. Incorporating a VR player like DeoVR into video survey tools can elevate engagement further, offering immersive feedback collection that enhances the quality of insights gathered across diverse applications.

‍

An example of Video questions in a survey

The screenshot above showcases a snippet of a survey designed to gather insights on preferred music for a vacation. The brilliance lies in the integration of a video question within the survey. Instead of asking respondents to search for a song and listen to it independently, the video survey presents the song within the survey itself. This thoughtful design significantly reduces the possibility of respondents abandoning the survey due to inconvenience.

Top 5 market research analysis tools

1. Voxco:

Voxco offers a robust video survey feature, enhancing survey experiences with multimedia elements. It provides powerful survey management tools and a user-friendly interface for effective feedback collection.

Key Features:

• Multimedia Integration: Integrate videos and images to enhance engagement.
• Real-Time Analytics: Access immediate feedback and analyze responses instantly.
• Customization: Customize surveys to match the organization's branding.
• Cross-Platform Compatibility: Surveys are accessible on multiple devices for wider participation.
• Advanced Survey Management: Streamlined tools for efficient survey creation and management.

2. Qwary

Qwary is a versatile survey platform that empowers businesses to gather feedback and enhance satisfaction. It supports omnichannel surveys, allowing customers to express their opinions freely. The platform offers CSAT, CES, and Net Promotion Score surveys, enabling businesses to measure client satisfaction and improve loyalty. Qwary also facilitates gathering feedback from internal staff, promoting a positive work environment.

3. Testimonial

Testimonial software has truly transformed the way we showcase our product's value. Creating a unique link and effortlessly sharing it via various channels is incredibly convenient. Our customers find it user-friendly, allowing them to record video testimonials using any device they prefer. The ability to download testimonials in MP4 format adds to its versatility. Whether you're an individual or a Small and Medium enterprise, this software is a game-changer for promoting your product effectively.

4. Discuss

Discuss.io is a transformative platform that empowers leading organizations, esteemed brands, and top-tier agencies worldwide to translate people's experiences into actionable insights. Trusted by Market Insights, CX, and UX professionals globally, Discuss.io transcends mere data points, breathing life into comprehensive insights in real-time, thereby revolutionizing customer relationships. The platform facilitates structured conversations, unmoderated feedback at scale, seamless scheduling and consent management, maximized respondent engagement, and auto-generation of unprecedented insights.

5. Videoask

VideoAsk by Typeform redefines the way businesses engage with their audience and gather valuable insights. This platform lets you effortlessly capture or upload video questions and share a public link, encouraging video and voice responses from your audience. The standout feature is the ease of embedding these interactive forms into websites using a floating widget—just a simple copy-paste, and you're good to go. Responses, whether text, audio, or video, are automatically transcribed and organized for convenience. Managing interactions in the inbox is a breeze, and the option for email or push notifications keeps you connected.

These video survey tools offer varying features and capabilities, catering to different needs and preferences. Whether you're focusing on user engagement, real-time analytics, or usability testing, there's a tool on this list to suit your specific requirements.

Conclusion:

Video survey tools have revolutionized the feedback collection process, enabling businesses to gather deeper insights and make informed decisions. By incorporating multimedia elements, these tools enhance user engagement and provide a more comprehensive understanding of respondents' views. As you embark on the journey of collecting feedback through video surveys, consider the features and benefits offered by the top tools mentioned in this guide.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gone mainstream and there is simply no escaping reading, hearing and talking about it. No matter the industry, AI will impact it. Indeed, AI is already impacting such disparate industries as finance, health care, travel, national security and farming!

Marketing research has traditionally been hesitant and slow to adopt change as an industry. However, in the case of AI, we’ve already rapidly embraced many AI-based tools. To increase the value of these tools, researchers will benefit from understanding them and what they can do to help now and in the future to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for lower costs, greater efficiency and faster and better insights.

Why marketing research needs AI

Marketing research is the foundation of successful marketing, product development and customer service. But traditional research can be expensive and time-consuming. Simple surveys can cost between $15,000 and $45,000 and often much more, and B2B one-on-one interviews cost $300 to $500 each and more. Focus groups, on average, cost $8,000 each. And a simple project takes weeks to complete.

Further, traditional research is not designed to handle the mass of data now available in some businesses (e.g., retail, CPG and others). As a result, due to the cost and time investment needed, many companies are priced-out of using research completely. And many companies opt to use market research only for the most critical and risky projects, such as product launches.

As an industry, we must find ways to reduce the cost and time barriers to marketing research and make insights more available for businesses inundated with omnipresent feedback. AI is an essential piece of that solution.

AI 101: Moving to advanced generative AI

AI is a wide range of technologies that apply to many different situations and refers to the ability of machines to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as learning, problem-solving and decision-making. Generative AI is a specific type of AI that uses algorithms to generate new content, such as text, images and audio, based on the data on which it has been trained. The main difference between AI and generative AI is that AI is a broad term encompassing many different algorithms. In contrast, generative AI is a specific type of AI that focuses on generating new content.

The earliest implementations of AI used a rules-based approach limited by a lack of context, a limited vocabulary and overreliance on patterns. Natural language processing (NLP) enabled machines to understand and work with human language. Other language models, such as BERT, provided pretrained models that can be fine-tuned for specific NLP tasks. With the introduction of machine learning algorithms such as generative adversarial networks (GANs), AI has become more powerful and capable of creating convincingly authentic content. More recently, rapid advances in generative AI and in large language models (LLMs) have provided the ability to produce even more creative results. As a result, generative AI has become a game-changer in many fields, including art, biology, programming, writing, translation and more.

While there is currently some experimentation with using AI to develop surveys and analyze survey datasets for comprehensive insights, most AI usage in the insights industry has historically been in the analysis of open-end comments. Generative AI already positively impacts the industry, especially in analyzing open-ends from surveys, social media, reviews and other sources. It has been used in the industry for nearly a decade. It is always important to remember that AI's value is to increase the speed of delivery and reduce expense, not to eliminate critical human oversight, validation and interpretation.

Where are we at currently?

In November 2022, generative AI was launched globally. Because the developers understand that researchers must always use results to deliver meaningful insights, the companies developing these tools are trying to understand how researchers want to use generative AI and what they want the tools to accomplish. As a result, there has been a flurry of applications using generative AI within the open-end analysis space and the tools are evolving rapidly to be not only easy to use but also effective in providing better analytics and insights.

One important evolution was to advance the results produced from topics (simple, one-word facts) to themes (more descriptive ideas with more human-like insights). Because important insights are often found in open-end responses, analysis that results in themes allows the researcher to find those insights faster without all the manipulation necessary with topics. For example, a topic-based analysis for a clothing manufacturer might give the result “zipper,” and you would have to look deeper to find the issue. Themes, however, would return “the zipper is broken.” Similarly, for a restaurant, a topic results might be “food,” where themes would give you "the food is delicious" or “the food is cold,” telling you immediately what action you need to take. Themes are all-encompassing, while topics are narrow, and themes, as logical ideas, give you direction for subsequent actions.

Generative AI has also powered the development of several other advances:

• The ability to easily net themes for increased insight gave even more power to generative AI open-end analysis by quickly facilitating human interpretation and combining similar themes.
• Adding sentiment analysis to themes also helps researchers quickly sort and communicate the brand or product’s status and track how it changes over time, significantly reducing analysis time.
• Segmentation analysis allowed researchers to understand better how perceptions differ by segments within the data.
• And finally, multilingual capability eliminated the need to translate responses before analysis.

These advances came from developers understanding what researchers needed and responding by building new and better capabilities with generative AI into their market research solutions.

Case studies

The latest evolution of generative AI is moving beyond delivering topics or themes to providing more comprehensive and illustrative summaries from the analysis. To shed light on this capability, here is a case study based on a one-question customer satisfaction survey about a health club. A total of 2,000 responses were analyzed.

• The first analytic query was, “Are customers generally satisfied with their experience at the clubs?” The generative AI tool responded: "No, customers are not generally satisfied with their experience at the clubs. While some customers have had positive experiences with the local employees, many customers have expressed dissatisfaction with the condition of the facilities, the lack of updates and the lack of amenities."
• The second query was,“What are some actions the owners can take to improve customer satisfaction?” which got this response: "1. Ensure that maintenance issues are addressed promptly, even on weekends. 2. Improve the cleanliness of the facility, especially in areas such as the women's bathroom, shower area, pool, jacuzzi and steam room. 3. Set all clocks correctly. 4. Install more fans to improve air movement in the facility. 5. Allow members to extend their trainer sessions at the rate they signed up for. 6. Reallocate funds from transforming and furnishing offices to improving the club."
• The next query was, “What are some things the fitness clubs are doing well?” Positives for the clubs are: "The fitness club is doing well in having a highly trained and professional personal training staff. They have also done a good job of making the gym look fresher and more inviting by adding plants. They have also been friendly to guests and offered free 10-day memberships to family and friends."
• The next query was limited to the segment of NPS detractors. The query asked what NPS detractors say about the clubs and generated this response: "NPS detractors are saying that the bathrooms are not clean, the personal training area is too small and uncomfortable, there is not enough variety in the extra workout classes, the markings on the plates on most machines are rubbed off, it is very hot and humid in the locker room and the ceiling fans in the basement are growing hair on them."
• Finally, a query about a specific area of the club, the pools, resulted in this response: "The biggest complaints about the pools are that the water is cloudy and too cold, the whirlpool is broken or not hot, the sauna is not very hot and the walls and floors of the pool area are peeling paint and have chipped and broken tiles. Additionally, there is no temperature regulator on the pool shower and no paper towels in the locker room.”

This type of analysis also applies very importantly to non-survey open-end comments. Here is an example analysis of 1,500 social media posts from visitors to the London Eye:

• The first query was, “What is this dataset about?” The response was: "This is about customer reviews of the London Eye experience. It includes information about the customers' experiences and recommendations and responses from the Customer Services Team."
• The second query was, “What are customers happy with?” The response was: "Customers are happy about the knowledgeable and humorous guides, the champagne experience, the great views and the ability to create good memories and take good photos."
• “What are the top three improvements the London Eye could make to improve people’s experience?” was the third question. AI generated the following suggestions: "1. Provide an audio commentary to give visitors more information about the landmarks they are seeing. 2. Make the wheel stop periodically to allow less-mobile or disabled visitors to board. 3. Provide a map or guide to help visitors identify the landmarks they are seeing."
• The next query was, “Looking only at reviews from families who visited the London Eye, what are their key likes and dislikes?” The results were: "Likes: Beautiful views, Spectacular views of London, Our tour guide was wonderful with descriptions and jokes. Dislikes: Overcrowded cabins, Lack of rules for how many people can get in the cabins."
• Another query, asked only of a segment of all social media reviews, was “What are people happy about in reviews posted since April 2022?” This list of the most frequent topics was AI-generated:
  • Iconic, amazing 360° views of London
  • Knowledgeable, approachable, fun tour guides
  • Comfortable way to see the city
  • Great historical facts and pointers for our trip
  • 2-for-1 tickets
  • Running commentary was really entertaining and informative
  • Fun and educational trip

Generative AI is very good at summarizing text information but it is not good at quantification. And as researchers, we typically need to quantify the analysis results. When you need to build a code book, using themes is a good start, but to refine and develop the codes to be applied, you need human oversight, validation and interpretation. Applying AI themes analysis to the London Eye open-end comments successfully identified 138 codes (covering 96% of the total comments). After the themes were analyzed and aggregated by the researcher, the results were quantified as shown in Figure 1.

Further, once the comments are coded and quantified, they can be further analyzed to explore different segments of respondents and to generate additional insights, as in Table 1.

Summaries, which generative AI helps develop, are an essential advancement in open-end analysis solutions because they give researchers enough detail to quickly understand the verbatim responses while saving time in wrangling the data into meaningful and valuable information. However, to turn verbatim comments into quantitative information, you need a human being to massage the results of the generative AI analysis and communicate it to the end client. It is important to remember that the key benefit of generative AI is not to eliminate human review and interpretation but to put human time and talent where it is most valuable: in validating, evaluating and communicating essential insights to clients. Generative AI will continue to evolve and improve but human oversight will always be needed. In any event, generative AI unleashes the power of summaries to quickly comprehend what open-end comments are telling you.

Evolve and change

As our industry continues to adopt and embrace generative AI, the research solutions will evolve and change to meet our needs better. At this point, they deliver sound value to the market research organizations using them, saving time and labor and helping researchers put their effort where they are most valuable. If you haven't tried solutions that analyze open-ends, or if you tried them and rejected them previously, now is a great time to take a look at these platforms. Generative AI for open-end analysis is here to stay. If you need to analyze open-ended comments, you can't afford not to jump on board.

Selecting the right market research survey tool is crucial for market research firms and corporate research teams aiming to gather meaningful insights efficiently. The right platform can streamline data collection, enhance analysis, and empower teams to make data-driven decisions with confidence. Whether you’re conducting large-scale studies or niche market analysis, choosing a tool that aligns with your research objectives, workflow, and organizational needs can significantly impact the quality and accuracy of your findings

In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of 15 best software for market research to help you find a market research tool that fits your needs and suits your budget.

But first, let’s take a closer look at some key concepts related to market research.

What is Market Research?

Market research is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting information about a specific market, industry, or target audience to support informed business decisions. Market research results are used to make informed decisions regarding product development, pricing strategies, marketing campaigns, distribution channels, and overall business planning.

It is a crucial marketing and business strategy component, helping organizations understand their customers, competitors, and the overall business environment.

‍

Choosing the Right Market Research Tool Matters.

Market researchers benefit greatly from using tools specifically designed for their needs because these platforms are built to handle the complexities of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data at scale. Specialized tools offer features like advanced survey design options, robust sampling methods, real-time data collection across multiple channels, and sophisticated analytics — all crucial for extracting meaningful insights.

For Market Research Firms: For a market research company, using a survey platform offers several key benefits that help optimize resources, improve efficiency, and deliver high-quality insights. Here’s a closer look at the advantages:

‍

1. Cost-Effectiveness:

• Reduces the need for expensive custom-built solutions or manual processes.
• Offers scalable pricing plans that fit smaller budgets while providing essential features.

2. Time Efficiency:

• Automates survey creation, distribution, and data collection, saving valuable time.
• Provides pre-built templates and question libraries to speed up project setup.

3. Enhanced Data Quality:

• Built-in tools like skip logic, randomization, and validation rules help ensure clean, reliable data.
• Reduces errors associated with manual data entry and processing.

4. Access to Advanced Analytics:

• Offers real-time data visualization and analysis, making it easier to identify trends quickly.
• Includes tools for deeper insights, like text analysis and segmentation, without needing separate software.

5. Improved Reach and Response Rates:

• Supports multi-channel distribution (email, web, SMS, etc.) to reach diverse audiences.
• Automates reminders and follow-ups to increase response rates.

6. Professional Presentation:

• Provides polished, branded surveys that enhance credibility and respondent engagement.
• Allows for customization to align with the firm’s branding.

7. Scalability and Flexibility:

• Adapts easily to different project sizes, from small-scale studies to more complex research.
• Offers flexibility to conduct diverse types of research, like customer satisfaction or product testing.

8. Competitive Edge:

• Gives small firms access to the same powerful tools used by larger agencies, leveling the playing field.
• Allows faster turnaround on projects, improving client satisfaction.

9. Collaboration and Client Management:

• Facilitates teamwork with multi-user access and role-based permissions.
• Provides sharable reports and dashboards for transparent communication with clients.
  ‍

Now, let's look at some of the best market research tools & software.

‍

List of the 10 Best Market Research Tools & Software

1. Voxco Survey Software for Market Research

Market researchers choose Voxco because it offers a powerful, multi-channel platform that combines flexibility, scalability, and deep analytics to deliver high-quality insights. Voxco stands out with its multi-channel survey capabilities, allowing researchers to reach respondents anytime, anywhere — whether online, by phone, or face-to-face. Its intuitive design tools, robust sampling options, and real-time reporting empower researchers to streamline their workflow while ensuring data accuracy and reliability. With enterprise-grade security, seamless integrations, and expert support, Voxco equips market researchers worldwide with everything they need to conduct complex studies, uncover meaningful insights, and make data-driven decisions with confidence.

• Multi-channel data collection (online, phone, face-to-face)
• Advanced analytics and real-time reporting
• Secure, scalable, and highly customizable

‍

2. Ascribe Text Analytics

Market researchers use Ascribe because it transforms open-ended feedback into meaningful insights with speed and accuracy. Ascribe's powerful text analytics and coding tools help researchers efficiently process large volumes of unstructured data — from survey responses to social media comments — identifying key themes, sentiments, and trends. The platform streamlines manual coding, offers AI-driven automation, and ensures consistency across projects, saving time while enhancing data quality. With Ascribe, researchers can dig deeper into qualitative data, uncover the "why" behind the numbers, and deliver richer, more actionable insights that drive better business decisions.

• AI-powered text analytics and coding 
• Extracts themes, sentiments, and trends from open-ended responses
• Enhances qualitative data analysis for deeper insights

‍

3. Remesh  

Remesh is an AI-driven market research tool that allows researchers to conduct live conversations with large groups of participants. It uses AI to analyze responses in real time, identifying trends and themes from qualitative feedback. Unlike traditional survey tools, Remesh enables dynamic audience engagement, making it ideal for gaining deep consumer insights.

• AI-powered real-time conversation analysis
• Engages large groups interactively
• Ideal for qualitative research and in-depth insights

‍

4. Qualtrics

Qualtrics is a leading market research platform that offers a wide range of features, including survey creation, data collection, and analysis. While it provides powerful capabilities for enterprises, it is often considered expensive, especially for small teams or organizations with limited budgets. The pricing structure can be complex, and additional features may require costly upgrades.

• Enterprise-grade survey and analytics platform
• Customizable surveys with advanced logic
• Expensive, with frequent price increases and complex pricing structures

‍

5. SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a popular survey tool that is easy to use and affordable. It offers a variety of survey templates and features, making it a good option for businesses new to market research, but it lacks the depth of advanced statistical tools, segmentation, and data modeling that market researchers often need.

• Simple and user-friendly survey builder
• Affordable for small businesses and startups
• Lacks advanced analytics for in-depth research

‍

6. Brandwatch

Brandwatch is a leading social listening tool that helps market researchers analyze online conversations, brand mentions, and consumer sentiment. It collects and processes data from social media, news, blogs, and forums, allowing researchers to track trends, identify emerging issues, and understand consumer perceptions.

• AI-powered social listening and sentiment analysis
• Monitors brand perception across multiple online channels
• Ideal for competitor analysis and trend spotting

‍

7. Typeform

Typeform is a visually appealing survey tool that captures attention. It offers a variety of templates and features, making it a good choice for businesses that want to create engaging surveys. Typeform’s interactive format improves response rates, making it particularly useful for customer feedback and product testing.

• Interactive, conversational-style surveys
• Visually appealing and mobile-friendly
• Best for customer feedback and brand research

‍

8. Alchemer

Alchemer, formerly SurveyGizmo, is a powerful market research platform that offers a wide range of features, including survey creation, data collection, and analysis. It is a good choice for businesses that need a more complex solution with advanced customization and workflow automation.

• Highly customizable survey logic and workflows
• Advanced reporting and automation features
• Suitable for businesses needing complex research capabilities

‍

9. Toluna Start

Toluna Start is an end-to-end market research platform that combines survey software with an integrated respondent panel. Researchers can quickly collect insights from targeted demographics, making it a strong option for brands looking to validate product concepts, measure brand perception, or track consumer behavior.

• Integrated global respondent panel for fast insights
• Combines surveys with real-time analytics
• Great for concept testing and brand tracking

‍

10. QuestionPro

QuestionPro is a user-friendly market research platform that offers a variety of features, including survey creation, data collection, and analysis. It is a good choice for businesses that want a cost-effective solution with enterprise-grade functionalities.

• Affordable and easy-to-use survey platform
• Strong customization and analytics options
• Ideal for mid-sized businesses and market researchers

How to choose the best software for market research?

When choosing a market research software, it is important to consider your budget, the features you need, and the size of your business. Here are some additional things to consider when choosing market research software:

1. The size of your business: If you are a small business, you may not need all of the features offered by a large enterprise solution.

2. Your budget: Market research software can range in price from free to hundreds of dollars per month.

3. Your needs: What specific features are you looking for in market research software? Do you need to create surveys, collect data, or analyze results?

4. Your level of experience: If you are new to market research, choose software that is easy to use.

5. The type of market research you need to conduct: There are many types of market research, such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Choose software that is designed for the type of research you need to conduct.

6. The features offered by the software: The software you choose to conduct market research should have some non-negotiable features that we mentioned earlier in this blog. These features include survey templates, tools for data analysis, visual dashboards, etc.

7. The customer support offered by the software: Make sure the software provider offers good customer support in case you need help using the software.

‍

We recommend reading software reviews on credible sites like G2 and comparing options before deciding. Hence, you get an unbiased opinion of the market research tool you’re considering.

‍

Ready to choose the best software for market research?

Now that you’ve reviewed the list and compared the 10 best market research tools & software, choosing the one that fits your requirements shouldn’t be difficult.

No matter which market research tool you choose, conducting market research will push you closer to gaining the correct insights for your project. Remember to consider the factors that affect the choice of your tool. Be wise and choose right!

It takes an average of 10 seconds for consumers to form a perception of a brand.  

This is how quickly people judge brands. Every second counts when it comes to making the desired brand. But what is customer perception?  

Although the term “customer perception” is a fairly self-explanatory branding term on the face of it, which essentially means the perception of your brand in the market, only a few understand the art of shaping that perception to lead a brand to success.

In this article, we’ll discuss what customer perception is, its importance, the different ways to monitor and measure brand perception, and what you can do to improve or shift your brand’s perception in the mind of your audience.

What is brand perception?

The brand image of Nike is different from other apparel brands. It is considered a premium, cult brand that deals only in sportswear. Nike consumers perceive the brand as one that deals only in sportswear.

This is an example of what a customer perception is.

However, a lot of times, brand owners feel they understand exactly what their brand represents but utterly fail at figuring out the actual perception of the audience.

Brand perception is owned by consumers, not brands. Regardless of what image you aim to represent for your brand, your brand perception will be defined by what people think your product or service represents.

What is a brand perception survey?

A brand perception survey is a strategic tool utilized by businesses to gauge how the target audience perceives their brand. It involves collecting valuable insights and opinions from customers, stakeholders, and the general public to understand the image, values, and reputation associated with the brand.

In essence, a brand perception survey delves into the minds of consumers, allowing companies to comprehend how their products, services, and messaging are resonating with the intended market. This survey typically encompasses a series of well-crafted questions that touch upon various aspects of the brand, aiming to capture both quantitative and qualitative data.

Why does brand perception matter?

Do you know people are far more likely to share negative brand experiences with their friends and family than positive brand experiences? Over 50% more likely, according to a report published by MarketingCharts.

What is customer perception if it doesn’t impact your customers’ decision to choose your product or service, do business with you, or recommend your brand to others, or dissuade them entirely?

Brand perception can impact your bottom line to a great extent.

In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, brand perceptions or customer opinions matter a lot just like your customers do.

Tracking and understanding customer perceptions gives you an opportunity to shift and elevate these perceptions. It’s an essential part of brand reputation management.

Believing your brand perception to be more positive than it actually is won’t help yield results. An honest look at the factors driving or killing your brand loyalty will. This is why brand perception is so important in building your business and leading it to success.

What is the Importance of a brand perception survey?

Brands often assume they know how their customers feel about them. Based on customer interactions alone, brands tend to magnify brand perception. But this is not what brand perception is.

Understanding the significance of a brand perception survey is paramount in today’s competitive business landscape.

1. Insight into customer sentiment:

A brand perception survey provides a direct avenue to grasp how customers truly feel about your brand. It helps uncover sentiments, preferences, and pain points, enabling you to tailor your strategies accordingly.

2. Strategic decision making:

Informed decisions are the cornerstone of success. By gathering data through a perception survey, you equip yourself with the necessary information to make strategic moves that align with the market’s perceptions and expectations.

3. Adaptation and improvement:

Markets evolve, and so should brands. By regularly conducting perception surveys, you stay attuned to changing trends, allowing you to adapt your brand image and offerings proactively.

4. Competitive edge:

In a world inundated with options, standing out is imperative. A brand perception survey lets you identify what sets you apart from competitors, aiding in refining your unique value proposition.

5. Reputation management:

Your brand’s reputation is fragile and immensely valuable. A perception survey helps you identify potential reputation risks early on, enabling effective damage control and fostering trust.

A brand perception survey is a powerful tool that helps you align your brand with the perception, belief, and emotion of your target audience by fueling data-driven decisions.

Brand perception survey questions to ask your customers

Surveys can get you very detailed and honest insights into what your brand’s customer perception is, provided you frame the right kind of questions.

It all comes down to the kind of questions that can best get you to the insights you need to shape and enhance your brand perception.

Here are four factors that your questions should focus on to understand how customers perceive your brand.

1. Cognitive: The concept that customers associate

• When you think of our brand, what comes to your mind first?
• What words would you use to describe our brand? Choose from the list.
• How do you feel about each word you have chosen on a scale of 0 to 7?

2. Emotional: The feelings they associate

• What emotions/feelings do you experience when you think about our brand?
• (Positive/negative scale) How would you define the emotional attachment you feel towards our brand?
• Describe a memorable experience you’ve had with our brand.

3. Language: How customers understand & describe your brand

• What words would you use to describe our brand to a friend?
• Do you find our brand’s messaging easy to grasp?
• Which words would you use to describe the personality of our brand?

4. Action: The experience customers have with your brand

• How would you describe your recent experience with our brand?
• (Scale of 0 to 10) How likely are you to buy the newest product from our brand?
• Rate your overall satisfaction with your last buying experience.

If you’re running short on ideas, consider using these types of questions in your brand perception survey:

Net Promoter Score (NPS ) questions:

1. How likely are they to recommend your brand to a friend, colleague, or family member?
2. Why or why not? (Take a quick look at this recent blog post that includes detailed NPS questions in your customer satisfaction surveys)
3. What’s the one thing we could do to make your experience better?

Ability to meet expectations:

1. Did your most recent experience or interaction with our brand meet or exceed your expectations?
2. What did you like least about the product or service?

Brand Image:

1. Has your most recent experience enhanced your view of our brand? In what way and why?
2. Do you rate our brand highly in specific attributes and poorly in others, and how?

Be sure to include follow-up questions to dig further into your customer feedback and power your research

‍How to measure brand perception?

A study on brand recognition statistics by JAMA Network discovered that 91.3% of 6-year-olds could match Old Joe’s image with a picture of a cigarette in 1991.

This demonstrates just how early brand name recognition and perception starts.

Although brand perception can be very difficult to quantify without the right tools in hand, it is, after all, what affects your brand visibility and marketing success.

Here are some of the most efficient ways of monitoring and measuring your brand perception:

1. Send out customer surveys

Surveys prove to be one of the most efficient ways to gather targeted and detailed insights from your consumers to better understand how they perceive your brand and the key drivers of these perceptions. These valuable first-party insights will help you dig deeper into what your brand’s consumers' perceptions are and boost them by making strategic CX decisions.

2. Monitor social media

Today, social media is the most popular place where people share their opinions and experiences.

Keep a close watch on the different social media platforms out there, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Reddit, among others. Your aim should be to catch the latest trends and see how people’s opinions shift around certain keywords or topics.

Consider performing a sentiment analysis for this. Track the mentions of your brand.

3. Keep an eye on review sites

Customer and employee reviews will help you stay on top of what your customer perception is and how your brand is being mentioned and discussed online rather than on social media. Keep an eye on public online forums, customer review sites (like Amazon customer reviews and Google Places), blogs, and news sites for mentions of your brand.

4. Maintain an active email list

Reach out to your target audience regularly via emails to know what they think about your brand. This is probably the most straightforward way and often not very effective to get the lowdown from the horse’s mouth.

Who should you send the brand perception survey to?

Many companies think they should only try to understand the brand perception of their existing customers. While it is important and proper to gather valuable insights, you should also focus on customers who decided they don’t enjoy using your brand and stopped any interaction.

The churned customers can provide unfiltered, genuine, and valuable insights because something about their experience has pushed them to stop doing business with your brand. Most importantly, if these people are in the range of your target audience, this can give you clear insights into what you must improve and resolve.

How to improve brand perception?

Once you’ve developed what you believe is a great product or service and unleashed it to your audience, you will start receiving reviews on your social media channels. Reviews that are both positive and negative.

But there’s no point in feeling baffled about them.

The real verdict lies with your customers and their perception of your brand. That will ultimately decide whether your business will take off or break down.

Here are some tips to put you on the right track to improve your customer perception and increase brand loyalty:

1. Identify your audience and understand their perception of your brand

This goes beyond having a dry notion of surface-level customer details such as age, gender, demographics, and language. To get the answer of what your customer perception is, you need to analyze your customer behaviors, such as how they consume information and what drives them to choose you over your competitors.

You do not need a huge marketing budget to understand what your customers’ perception is. Omnichannel survey software proves to be the quickest and most efficient tool for capturing their perception.

2. Develop and maintain a positive connection with your customers

Tons of studies have shown how customers who have had the best and most personalized experiences with a brand spend over 100% more money compared to those who have had the poorest interactions. Apart from improved profitability, positive customer-business relationships can directly influence how your consumers perceive your brand.

3. Be open to feedback and strive to improve

It just can’t be stressed enough how important it is not to ignore the negative criticism from your clients. Be open to receiving both positive and negative customer feedback. When it comes to collecting customer feedback, some of the best options include surveys and polls.

Like any other perception, brand perception, too, doesn’t change overnight. Be prepared to research and take the necessary steps to improve how your consumers perceive you.

Conclusion

Do you think you know what your brand’s customer perception is or what it represents?

Before you nod, remember that brand perception is not what you say in your advertisements.

It is what consumers think and say you are.

Regardless of the message you transmit, it’s important that your audience receives it the way you intended them to. Otherwise, it’s null and void.

Navigating the realm of brand perception is a dynamic and multi-faceted journey that demands careful consideration. Once you have insights into your customer needs and motivations, you can devise strategies to shift and improve your brand perception among them.

Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in market research has become critical in the digital age. The combination of artificial intelligence and market research has transformed the way firms obtain insights, make educated decisions, and remain ahead of the competition. This article goes into the world of artificial intelligence-powered market research tools, their significance, and the top must-have tools that any wise marketer should consider including in their plan.

Definition of AI-Powered Market Research Tools

The term "AI-Powered Market Research Tools" refers to a group of software programs and platforms that use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques to improve various areas of the market research process. These applications automate data gathering, processing, and interpretation, allowing organizations to obtain a better understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive landscapes.

These technologies can process enormous volumes of data, discover patterns, anticipate future trends, and deliver actionable insights by leveraging AI capabilities, thereby supporting businesses in making better educated and strategic decisions based on data-driven evidence. Partnering with an AI software development company can further enhance market research capabilities, creating custom tools to analyze complex data and produce meaningful, strategic insights.

Importance of AI-Powered Market Research Tools

Traditional market research methodologies frequently fall short in dealing with the volume and complexity of data accessible in the digital age. AI solutions, developed by the Best AI developers, provide automation and precision to the process, allowing firms to make data-driven decisions. These tools not only reduce time but also improve accuracy, resulting in better strategic decisions.

1. Unprecedented Efficiency and Speed:
   Traditional market research approaches sometimes entailed time-consuming and resource-intensive manual processes. This landscape is being transformed by AI-powered systems that automate data gathering, processing, and interpretation. What used to take weeks or even months with traditional procedures can now be completed in a fraction of the time. This rapid rate of analysis provides businesses with real-time insights, enabling them to make quick and educated decisions.
2. Accurate Data Analysis:
   The accuracy of market research insights can be game changers for businesses. AI tools are skilled at analyzing large datasets, finding subtle patterns, and deriving meaningful relationships. The potential for errors is considerably decreased by minimizing human participation, resulting in more dependable and trustworthy study outputs.
3. Enhanced Customer Understanding:
   Understanding client behavior, preferences, and attitudes is critical for effectively customizing products and services to market demands. To evaluate sentiment and acquire subtle insights, AI-powered solutions excel at analyzing customer comments, social media interactions, and online reviews. These tools can also leverage AI Translation for multilingual feedback, ensuring businesses capture sentiments accurately across different languages. This in-depth awareness of client feelings enables organizations to develop items that are appealing to their target audience. With an AI video translation tool, businesses can easily translate video content into multiple languages, making it possible to interpret and respond to feedback from customers around the world. This opens up new opportunities to connect with diverse audiences and gather valuable insights. Businesses can also enhance accessibility and engagement by integrating text-to-speech solutions. These tools allow the swift creation of realistic voiceovers, all while enabling content localization across global markets. This not only broadens audience reach but also enriches the user experience.
   
4. Predictive Insights:
   Predictive analytics, a critical component of AI-powered solutions, enables organizations to forecast future market trends and behaviors. These technologies can discover emerging patterns and forecast prospective adjustments in consumer preferences by analyzing past data. This proactive approach allows businesses to stay ahead of the curve and alter strategies as needed.
5. Personalized Marketing Strategies:
   AI-powered market research solutions make audience segmentation based on multiple qualities and behaviors easier. Based on data-driven insights, this segmentation helps firms to create personalized marketing strategies that resonate with certain customer categories. As a result, there is increased engagement, conversion rates, and customer happiness.
6. Cost-Efficiency:
   While the initial cost of AI-powered products may appear high, the long-term advantages much outweigh the expenditures. The increased efficiency in resource utilization, time savings, and correct decision-making can result in significant cost savings over time. Making informed decisions is critical for success in today's fast-paced business market. Market research is critical in this process, and with the development of AI technology, it is more powerful and insightful than ever. This blog will go into the realm of AI-powered market research tools, examining their significance, how to utilize them, and the top five tools that can alter your market research efforts.

Read how Voxco helped HRI conduct complex market research and accelerate insight generation.

Comparison of Traditional vs. Modern Tools

Traditional market research approaches frequently entail manual data gathering and processing, which is time-consuming and susceptible to human bias. AI-powered technologies, on the other hand, automate procedures, analyze large datasets fast, and give actionable insights with greater accuracy.

Feature

Traditional Market Research Tools

Modern AI-Powerd Market Research Tools

Data Collection and Analysis

• Surveys, focus groups, and interviews are examples of manual data collection approaches.
• The time-consuming procedure is prone to human mistakes.
• Limited capacity to adequately handle huge datasets.
• Analysis frequently necessitates manual coding and categorizing of replies.

• Data collection from numerous sources, such as social media, online reviews, and site scraping, is automated.
• AI algorithms enable the rapid processing of large datasets.
• Real-time data analysis enables the rapid detection of trends and patterns.
• Capabilities for advanced natural language processing for sentiment analysis and subject categorization.

Speed and Efficiency

• Long timelines for data collection, compilation, and analysis.
• Delays in decision-making owing to time-consuming processes.
• Limited ability to keep up with the ever-changing market scenario.

• Rapid data collection and processing allow for real-time insights.
• Rapid detection of developing trends and changes in consumer behavior.
• Decision-making procedures that are faster, offer organizations a competitive advantage.

Accuracy and Reliability

• The presence of humans increases the possibility of errors and biases.
• There is limited scope for detecting minor patterns or connections.
• Data and response interpretation are subjective.

• Errors and biases are reduced when there is less human participation.
• Intricate patterns and relationships in data are detected using advanced algorithms.
• The objective analysis is based on data-driven insights, which increases the dependability of the conclusions.

Predictive Analytics

• Predicting future market trends or consumer behavior is difficult.
• Speculative conclusions are frequently drawn from historical data analysis.

• Machine learning algorithms are used to forecast future trends and behaviors.
• Improved forecasting accuracy based on historical and real-time data.
• Allows for proactive decision-making and strategy changes.

Personalization and Segmentation

• A broad approach to market segmentation.
• The ability to cater to particular customer preferences is limited.
• Targeting is based on broad demographic data.

• Artificial intelligence-powered solutions allow for exact segmentation based on behavioral, demographic, and psychographic characteristics.
• Marketing strategies that are geared to certain customer categories.
• Because of customized marketing, engagement, and conversion rates have increased.

Cost Considerations

• Costs for manual data gathering, labor, and analysis.
• Resource-intensive processes can result in greater costs.

• The initial investment in AI technologies may appear to be larger, but it yields long-term cost savings.
• Because of automated processes and speedy analysis, resource allocation has been reduced.

In essence, the change from old to modern market research instruments reflects a journey from manual and time-consuming practices to data-driven, automated processes. While traditional approaches have their advantages, the capabilities of AI-powered solutions in terms of speed, accuracy, predictive insights, and personalized strategies make them important assets for organizations attempting to navigate today's market scenario.

Top 5 must-have AI-Powered Market Research Tools

Here are five must-have AI tools for effective market research:

1. Voxco: Omnichannel Market Research Tools

• Provides adaptable multi-channel survey software for a variety of data-gathering methods such as phone surveys, personal interviews, web surveys, and IVR systems.
• Provides both on-premise and hosted alternatives, providing deployment flexibility based on organizational needs.
• Centralized Database: All data collected through various channels is housed in a single centralized database, allowing for more efficient data management and analysis.
• Allows for a more comprehensive perspective of customer information obtained from various acquisition channels, resulting in more informed decision-making.

2. Lexalytics: Text and Sentiment Analysis Tool

• Analyses textual data from a variety of sources, including social media, customer evaluations, and surveys.
• Extracted feelings, opinions, and trends using powerful natural language processing (NLP) methods.
• Assists firms in understanding customer perceptions and sentiment shifts, which guides marketing tactics and product enhancements.
• Allows for real-time tracking of brand reputation and customer input.

3. RapidMiner: Predictive Analytics Platform

• Machine learning algorithms are used to forecast future market trends and behaviors.
• Identifies patterns, correlations, and prospective alterations in customer preferences by analyzing historical data.
• Provides organizations with actionable insights for making informed decisions.
• Ideal for demand forecasting, pricing strategy optimization, and finding upcoming market opportunities.

4. Clarifai: Image and Video Analysis Tool

• Analyses visual content such as photos and videos.
• Deep learning algorithms are used to discern objects, feelings, and demographics in visual data.
• Insights into how a brand or product is perceived visually by the public.
• Use a robust video analysis tool to assess how your brand is perceived visually and optimize visual marketing strategies accordingly.
• Allows organizations to evaluate the success of visual marketing initiatives and client responses.

5. Qualtrics: AI-Powered Survey and Feedback Analysis

• By adding AI-powered insights, it goes beyond standard surveys.
• Open-ended responses are categorized and analyzed in order to discover patterns and feelings.
• Respondents are segmented depending on their interests and behaviors, providing deeper insights into client segments.
• Allows companies to make data-driven decisions based on extensive survey data.
  

These artificial intelligence-powered market research tools enable firms to turn raw data into meaningful insights, allowing for informed decision-making and strategic planning. Whether it's advanced survey capabilities, sentiment analysis, predictive modeling, or image identification, each tool offers a distinct set of features to meet a variety of market research requirements.

Conclusion

AI-powered market research tools are the guiding compass that navigates through the sea of information, transforming it into usable insights, in a data-driven business landscape. You'll be well-equipped to comprehend the market's intricate patterns, make informed judgments, and stay ahead in the competitive race if you understand the power of these tools and choose the correct ones for your purposes.

Keep in mind that the world of AI tools for market research is continuously changing, As the field of AI tools for market research continues to evolve, staying up-to-date with the latest advancements and case studies will be crucial for enhancing strategic capabilities. By embracing AI-powered market research tools, businesses can navigate the data-driven terrain, transforming raw information into actionable insights that drive success and innovation.

FAQs/People Also Ask:

Is there an AI for market research?

Yes, there are AI-powered solutions created expressly for market research. Artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques are used in these technologies to automate and improve many areas of the market research process, such as data collecting, processing, and interpretation.

What are the AI tools for market study?

AI tools for market research include text analysis, predictive analytics, picture analysis, and survey feedback analysis. There are several AI tools available for conducting market studies. Some popular options include

1. Voxco
2. Google Cloud AutoML
3. Lexalytics
4. Crimson Hexagon
5. Tableau

Which AI is best for research?

The "best" AI tool is decided by your specific research needs. Voxco, Lexalytics, RapidMiner, and Qualtrics are examples of tools that can be used to suit a range of research objectives.

Can AI tools analyze social media data for market research?

Yes, artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as Voxco, Crimson Hexagon, and Lexalytics are developed to analyze social media conversations and sentiments. They assist organizations in gaining a better understanding of consumer opinions, preferences, and brand impressions on social media platforms.

Are there any ethical considerations with using AI in market research?

Yes, ethical considerations for the use of artificial intelligence in research operations include data privacy, unbiased analysis, and open information. It is vital to observe ethical laws and legislation while using AI approaches in market research.

All businesses today are flooded with unstructured, open end consumer comments. From internet reviews to social media posts and responses to survey questions, a mountain of unstructured text begs for analysis. And the information in these open ends is extremely valuable because these comments are your customers and prospects telling you what is most important to them.

Unfortunately, open-end analysis is difficult, time-consuming and labor intense. Unstructured comments can be chaotic and filled with misspellings, symbols (e.g., "$!#??!"), and just plain nonsense. Cleaning, coding, sorting, and analyzing unstructured text responses can take hours and days that most marketing and research professionals simply do not have.

CX Inspector, now with the power of Theme Extractor and Generative AI, is a significant leap forward in text analysis technology, extracting descriptive actionable insights from open end responses instantly. Load a dataset of any size and in one click charts and tables reveal insights that uncover a comprehensive understanding of customers’ comments. The benefits of CX Inspector with Theme Extractor and Generative AI include:

• Clear and Descriptive Insights Instantly. CX Inspector identifies key themes in the responses, allowing you to grasp the underlying patterns and trends in a matter of minutes. The intuitive interface immediately delivers charts and tables highlighting the themes and visualizing the results. Exporting data tables and charts is a breeze, allowing you to incorporate insights into your reports and presentations seamlessly.
• Clustering Ideas into Groups. CX Inspector can group themes together. This intelligent feature analyzes the data and provides cohesive clusters of insights, enabling you to uncover deep, interconnected patterns that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.
• Dive Deeper Into the Data. Explore the results further by applying filters and sentiment, examining co-occurrences, and generating trend reports and crosstabs with t-tests. And at any point, you can click through a theme to see the individual respondent comments. The platform empowers you to navigate the results quickly, ensuring you understand both the comprehensive insights and a granular view of customer comments.
• Save Time and Labor. With CX Inspector's Theme Extractor with Generative AI, you can extract insights from datasets with unparalleled speed. No longer will you need to spend countless hours manually sifting through data and struggling to identify meaningful patterns. Instead, with a load-to-insights timeframe of minutes, not hours or days, you can quickly load your file and let the powerful CX Inspector process the information, freeing up your valuable time to interpret the results and formulate strategic recommendations.
• Scalable to Any Size Dataset. Whether you're dealing with a handful of responses or a larger dataset, CX Inspector can analyze the data quickly. No need to carve out a sub-set of the data file for analysis hoping it is representative. CX Inspector can analyze it all while maintaining a high level of accuracy and efficiency.
• Multilingual Capabilities. Furthermore, CX Inspector is language-agnostic and handles multiple languages effortlessly. This flexibility allows you to analyze datasets with responses in numerous languages, unlocking insights from diverse markets and customer segments.
• X-Score for Customer Satisfaction Measurement. CX Inspector includes X-Score, Ascribe's proprietary measure which identifies the key drivers that will increase customer satisfaction and loyalty right from the open-end responses. This invaluable information lets you quickly and confidently make data-driven decisions to enhance customer experiences and improve business outcomes.

Simply put, Theme Extractor with Generative AI enables CX Inspector to deliver better insights from open ends faster.

Some companies today have concerns about the security of data processed using tools such as ChatGPT, Open AI, and Generative AI. At Ascribe, customers' privacy and security concerns come first, and customers choose the level of automation and Generative AI for each analysis. Ascribe uses the Microsoft Azure OpenAI environment where your data is not available to other customers and is not used to enhance the OpenAI models, nor any Microsoft or third-party products or services. Additional information can be found at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/cognitive-services/openai/data-privacy.

For over 20 years, Ascribe has been innovating with the most advanced AI technologies to make open end analysis easy. Researchers and marketers around the globe have collaborated with us to develop our innovations and they trust Ascribe’s solutions to meet their business needs.

Experience the power of CX Inspector with Theme Extractor and Generative AI today and revolutionize how you uncover insights from open ends. With its user-friendly interface which instantly extracts descriptive theme-based insights from a dataset and visualizes them in charts and tables, CX Inspector’s latest release is a game-changer in text analysis. Your organization's success depends on staying ahead of the curve, and Theme Extractor with Generative AI gives you the key to unlocking untapped insights faster than ever before.

Market research has always been about reducing uncertainty—helping businesses understand their customers, anticipate market shifts, and make informed decisions. But as the volume and speed of data grow, traditional research methods—reliant on manual surveys, slow data processing, and static reports—are struggling to keep up. Researchers need faster, more adaptive approaches to extract meaningful insights without sacrificing accuracy.

Automation isn’t just about saving time; it’s reshaping how research is conducted. By streamlining data collection, analysis, and reporting, automation allows researchers to focus less on logistics and more on interpretation. But what does this shift mean for the quality of insights, and how can organizations use automation to their advantage?

What is Automation in Market Research?

Market research automation refers to the use of technology to minimize manual tasks across the research process. This includes everything from survey design and data collection to analysis and reporting. By leveraging automation, businesses can conduct research more efficiently, reducing time-to-insight while maintaining data integrity.

Rather than outsourcing to a research agency, automation empowers organizations with self-serve platforms, enabling them to design surveys, collect and analyze data, and generate reports—without excessive costs or delays.

A well-designed automated research platform integrates:

• Survey creation with logic-based routing
• Automated sampling and data collection
• AI-powered analysis and visualization
• Interactive, real-time reporting

This all-in-one approach allows researchers to focus on high-level strategy rather than getting bogged down by administrative tasks.

How Automation is Reshaping Market Research

Automation addresses the limitations of traditional market research—such as high costs, time delays, and sample size constraints—by streamlining workflows and accelerating insights. Here’s how:

1. Intelligent Survey Design and Routing

Survey routing (or skip logic) dynamically adapts question paths based on a respondent’s answers, ensuring they only see relevant questions. This not only improves the survey experience but also enhances data quality by eliminating irrelevant responses.

2. Automated Data Collection

Modern research platforms can collect data from multiple sources—online surveys, mobile apps, social media, and customer databases—without manual intervention. This speeds up research while maintaining accuracy through built-in validation mechanisms.

Additionally, automated data cleaning helps filter out inconsistencies, ensuring high-quality data inputs.

3. AI-Driven Data Analysis

With machine learning and predictive analytics, automated tools can process vast amounts of data in real time. Unlike traditional methods that require manual uploads and batch processing, AI-powered analytics continuously update as new data flows in, reducing lag time in decision-making.

4. Interactive Dashboards and Automated Reporting

Insights are most valuable when they are easily interpretable. Automated reporting tools create real-time dashboards, allowing stakeholders to filter and visualize key metrics instantly. This eliminates the need for static spreadsheets and ensures that insights remain current and accessible.

Key Benefits of Market Research Automation

Beyond operational efficiency, automation offers significant advantages that reshape how research is conducted:

1. Increased Productivity

By automating repetitive tasks, researchers can focus on interpreting data, identifying trends, and making strategic decisions rather than spending time on manual processes.

2. Improved Accuracy and Reliability

Automation reduces human error in data entry, analysis, and reporting. AI-driven analysis also ensures consistency, providing more precise and actionable insights.

3. Real-Time Data Access

Instead of waiting weeks for data processing, automation enables real-time monitoring, allowing businesses to make decisions based on up-to-date information.

4. Greater Agility

Self-serve platforms allow researchers to quickly adjust survey questions, refine target audiences, and iterate on data collection—all without needing external assistance.

5. Cost Efficiency

Automating data collection and analysis significantly reduces the need for manual labor and eliminates the cost of multiple tools by centralizing research operations into a single platform.

Common Misconceptions About Market Research Automation

Despite its benefits, some myths persist about automated market research. Let’s address a few common concerns:

1. "Automated research tools are too complex to use."

Today’s market research platforms are designed for ease of use, enabling both experienced researchers and non-experts to conduct sophisticated studies without specialized technical knowledge.

2. "You need multiple tools to conduct research."

End-to-end platforms, like Voxco, consolidate survey design, data collection, analysis, and reporting into a single system, eliminating the need for multiple disconnected tools.

3. "Automation limits control over sample selection."

Advanced automation tools allow researchers to define their target audience, apply screening criteria, and integrate online panels, ensuring complete control over sample quality.

4. "Automated research lacks customization."

While automation standardizes workflows, it also provides extensive customization—allowing brands to tailor surveys, reporting, and dashboards to align with research objectives and branding guidelines.

When to Leverage Market Research Automation

Automation is especially valuable in:

• Large-scale studies: Handling extensive data collection and analysis efficiently
• Time-sensitive research: Generating quick insights for agile decision-making
• Longitudinal studies: Automating tracking surveys for real-time updates
• Self-directed research: Enabling in-house teams to conduct studies independently

The Future of Automated Market Research

As technology advances, automation will continue to play an even greater role in market research. AI-driven insights, predictive analytics, and real-time dashboards will empower researchers to uncover patterns, optimize strategies, and drive smarter business decisions.

From survey creation to reporting, automation enhances the speed, accuracy, and scalability of market research—ensuring that organizations can answer critical questions with confidence.

‍

Leading retailers often use price to position their brands against the competition in the market. They reduce the price as they believe this will help them boost the customers’ perceived value of the product. However, they often forget that - Will the customers respond as the brands expect them to?

Customers consider price as a driving factor in their purchase decision. It is as essential as the quality of the product. Price communicates to customers about the value the product brings. A dollar-store cosmetic brand shouldn’t sell its perfume at the same price as a luxury brand. The price would signal a premium product which would lead to the brand losing existing customers while also being unable to compete with high-end brands. How can you determine the best price of your product that customers would be willing to pay and also see value in? Our blog on market research is an answer to this question; Pricing Surveys.

What is a pricing survey?

Pricing surveys help brands, and their product researchers use research methods to determine the best price to sell their products and services. In a pricing survey methodology, you can ask questions to your target customers and gather their insights on the following:

• What do they believe the price should be for the product,
• How much are they willing to pay for it,
• The customers’ perceived value of the product,
• Which features are likely to increase the sale.

A product pricing survey helps you understand your target customers and the optimal price and identify the impactful features of the product. It provides you with the data you need to make informed decisions.  

The data helps you make pricing strategy decisions for the new products and also on any price changes required for the existing product. And when used correctly, it can help you predict the impact of the price on your revenue by gauging the customer’s perception of the price.

What are the four types of pricing surveys?

Customers will never want to pay more if getting the product at a lower price is feasible. So, it’s complicated to decide the right price for the product.

There are four commonly used pricing survey methodologies that help you gain insight into your pricing strategy. Let’s look at these four pricing surveys in detail.

01. Willingness to pay:

Question: “How much would you be willing to pay for [product name]?”

WIP, or willingness to pay, informs you of the price or price range that your target customers would be willing to pay for a particular product/service.

In this pricing survey, you need to offer the product details to the respondent and then ask the WIP question. The question is clear and straightforward and gathers precise data, which is easy to evaluate.

Depending on the research needs, you can ask an open-ended or closed-ended question.

• Use an open-ended question when the customers are generally familiar with the product.
• Use a closed-ended question when your product is unique in the market, and nothing similar exists.

While this question can help you understand how much a customer is willing to pay, it is best not to use it alone. The question doesn’t offer context on how high or low you can set the price before you lose customers.

The following three pricing survey methodology can help determine customers’ willingness to pay.

02. Van Westendorp price sensitivity meter:

Peter Van Westendorp, a Dutch economist, developed a pricing survey methodology, which is known as Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter. This pricing model uses four product pricing survey questions to help you gauge customers’ perception of the product’s value.

Brands use these four pricing survey questions to identify a range of price points that are crucial to the target customers.

Here are the four questions you can use in your pricing survey:

1. At what price would you think [product/service name] is so inexpensive that you would question its quality and now buy it?
2. What price would you consider the [product name] a good value for money?
3. What price would you consider the [product name] too expensive but still buy it?
4. At what price would you consider [product name] too expensive to buy?

When you use the data collected in context to these questions, you can determine the optimal price points. You can also uncover the position price, the acceptable price, and the premium price.

The advantage of using this pricing strategy survey questions is that the questions are easy to respond to, and the data is easy to analyze. Moreover, the model offers the flexibility of identifying a series of price points to help you decide the optimal price that brings the highest profit.

03. Gabor-Granger pricing survey methodology:

The Gabor-Granger pricing method helps you establish the best acceptable price for the product by determining its price flexibility. British economists Andre Gabor and Clive Granger ask the likelihood of purchasing questions at different prices.

Using the data collected from a series of the likelihood of purchasing survey questions you can plot demand and revenue curves to determine the best price that brings maximum revenue.

Let’s see how you can use this type of question.

Question: How likely are you to purchase our subscription package at $350/month?

• Extremely likely

• Very likely

• Somewhat likely

• Not so likely
• Not at all likely

This pricing model requires you to ask the same question at multiple price points. So, use online survey tools that offer the functionality skip logic to ask follow-up questions based on the answer you receive.

For example, start with a price at which you would like to position the product. Now, if the respondent selects any of the bottom three responses, you can ask the same question at a lower price. However, if the respondent selects the top two responses, you can use the top-2-box score analysis.

04. Conjoint analysis:

In this pricing survey methodology, you can effectively evaluate customers’ perception of value for certain features or attributes of the products/services. The conjoint analysis brings the element of real-life shopping experiences in online surveys. It helps you identify which feature has the most impact on customers’ purchase decisions.

This product pricing survey question offers respondents a number of combinations with product features or attributes (including price). The question then asks respondents to choose between the different combinations.

A conjoint analysis pricing survey question may look like this:

Question: If you were shopping for a new smartphone, which would be most appealing to you?

Why is it important to conduct a pricing survey?

The most effective way to determine the appropriate price is to gather feedback from target customers using pricing surveys. Conducting pricing surveys is important in market research for several reasons, including:

1. Optimize pricing strategy:

Gather data on how much customers are willing to pay for your products and services to understand their sensitivity toward the price range. You can use the knowledge to inform and optimize pricing strategies to maximize revenue.

2. Identify opportunities for pricing differentiation:

Using the various pricing survey methodologies mentioned above, you can identify the features or attributes for which customers are willing to pay more. This insight can help you adjust the price, demonstrate value, and remain competitive in the saturated market. You can introduce pricing tiers that offer customers additional features.

What questions to ask in a pricing survey?

Say a survey software vendor uses the pricing survey to determine the proper survey software pricing before launching it as a mobile app.

So, let’s look at these examples of product pricing survey questions:

1. Reading the product details, how much are you willing to pay for [survey software’s name]?

- Understand the perceived value of your product and the price point customers are willing to pay. The question helps you identify the acceptable price point for the product.

2. How do you think the price of [survey software’s name] compares to similar offerings?

- Understand how your competitors position their products in the market and compare the difference. Use the insight to thoroughly analyze what drives the price difference and adjust it accordingly to remain competitive.

3. At what price range would you be more likely to purchase [survey software’s name]?

- Use this question to gain insight into how price-sensitive your target audience is. You can adjust the price to increase sales.

4. What features are you willing to pay more for?

- This question can help you identify features and attributes that would make customers pay more.

5. At what price point would [survey software’s name] be so inexpensive that you would question its quality?

- This question will help identify the lowest price limit or range below which you will lose customers.

Conclusion

Pricing surveys are valuable for businesses looking to make informed pricing strategies for their products/services. Gather data on customers’ perception of the product’s value, their willingness to pay, and the acceptable range of price to remain competitive in the industry.

Pricing surveys can help you understand customers’ purchase behavior and the driving factors impacting purchasing decisions. The insight enables you to build price tiers or decide on positioning prices that will maximize the business profit.