Brand equity is the measure of the perceived worth of a brand’s product, especially when compared to a generic equivalent product. Brand equity is a measurement of how much customers trust your brand’s product over another similar product, which can indicate how much more likely a customer is to pick your product over others. 

For example, customers often turn to companies they trust when looking for a solution. Sometimes, they choose that company even if the product is slightly more expensive because they recognize and trust the name. For example, a customer looking for a quick OTC pain reliever may turn to Tylenol over a drugstore generic alternative because they know the brand and trust it. That is the essence of brand equity. 

Why is Brand Equity Important?

Theoretically, the better your brand equity, the better your company will perform in sales and public perception compared to other brands. If your brand consistently impresses customers and reaches their expectations, you will develop more positive brand equity. If your brand fails to satisfy your customers because of negative experiences or perceptions, your brand will experience more negative brand equity. 

Positive Brand Equity vs. Negative Brand Equity

When discussing brand equity, the terms positive and negative brand equity will arise. Understanding the difference between positive and negative brand equity is crucial for businesses aiming to build a strong, reputable brand.

Positive brand equity leads to high levels of customer loyalty and advocacy. Customers who perceive a brand positively are more likely to make repeat purchases and recommend the brand to others. This loyalty translates into stable revenue and organic growth through word-of-mouth marketing. 

Conversely, negative brand equity results in customer distrust and attrition. Customers who have negative perceptions of a brand are likely to switch to competitors, leading to a decline in market share. Negative experiences, such as poor product quality or inadequate customer service, can severely damage a brand’s reputation. For example, scandals involving product safety can lead to widespread distrust and loss of customers.

Benefits of Brand Equity

Brand equity can have a meaningful impact on your company. While it’s obvious that brand equity improves public perception and recognition, there are several other benefits of nurturing brand equity that can help your company. 

Increased Customer Loyalty

One of the primary benefits of strong brand equity is increased customer loyalty. Customers who trust and have positive associations with a brand are more likely to become repeat buyers. This loyalty not only ensures steady revenue but also reduces marketing costs, as retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. 

Enhanced Marketing Effectiveness

Marketing efforts are more effective when a brand has strong equity. Consumers are more receptive to marketing messages from brands they know and trust, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates. Additionally, positive customer feedback such as Google reviews from loyal customers can amplify marketing campaigns, extending their reach and impact without additional cost.

Competitive Advantage

Strong brand equity provides a significant competitive advantage. It differentiates a company’s products and services from those of competitors, making it harder for new entrants to capture market share. Established brands with strong equity enjoy top-of-mind awareness among consumers, making them the preferred choice in their respective categories. This competitive edge is crucial for long-term success and market leadership.

Increased ROI

When customers trust your brand, they are more likely to make future purchases from your company. If customers continue to purchase from your company, you are going to see a return on investment for what you put into improving your brand equity. Brand equity isn’t something that will leave your company without visible results. The ROI for your efforts can be seen in product lines. If you want to see how other efforts, such as a strong reputation management strategy, can provide you with ROI, check out our ROI calculator!

Overall, brand equity is an important measurement of the perceived worth of your company’s products and services over generic alternatives. Brand equity can be cultivated through many aspects of your business, including awareness and building relationships. When your company is nurturing brand equity, your brand can extend product lines and see ROI on investments made in brand equity. 

What Makes Up Brand Equity?

Good brand equity comprises several elements. Nurturing each of these elements will help create full and balanced brand equity that can reach customers and improve public perception of your brand. 

Brand Perception

Brand perception is how customers view and regard a product or service. This is separate from what a company is saying about its product. Essentially, brand perception is what a customer believes your product or service does—not what a marketing department publishes about the product. While it’s completely possible that brand perception of a product lines up with how a company discusses its product, it’s not a given. 

There are two sub-stages of brand perception development: Brand recognition and brand awareness. Brand recognition is when products are identifiable as belonging to a particular brand. If a customer sees a product from your company, they would easily be able to identify that it belongs to your brand. Logos and jingles can all be a part of brand recognition. Brand recognition can help your brand become a household name and improve your brand equity. 

Brand awareness is knowing what a brand stands for. While brand recognition means customers recognize your brand, brand awareness shows they understand your brand. Brand awareness is about knowledge, values, and beliefs. A way to think about brand awareness is to think about a customer choosing which brand of laptop to buy. If a customer has a lot of knowledge about how a company crafts their laptops, they have brand awareness for that company. That brand awareness may sway their choice of which laptop to buy, potentially over something like price. While one laptop may be cheaper, the customer may be more likely to buy the laptop they feel they understand better and can trust. 

Customer Experience

Customers who have a positive experience with your company are more likely to trust your brand, which can increase your brand equity. Any time a customer comes into contact with your brand is an opportunity to improve their experience and ultimately their perception of your brand. That quality experience with your brand can create a positive impression of your company—and hopefully improve brand equity. The reverse can also be true. Bad experiences with a company can create a negative association with the brand. Doing what you can to improve your customer experience can go a long way with brand equity. 

Quality

Your brand is associated with more than just a product or service. Brands are also associated with the supply chain, brand reputation, and trust. Quality across all of these parts of your brand can affect your brand equity. For example, a company that is effective at shipping quickly, restocking, and supplying vendors could increase the quality of its brand equity. In addition, a company with strong leadership, good financial performance, and excellent innovation will also have brand quality—ultimately creating more brand equity. 

Customer Preference

Customers have preferences for brands they buy from, and that can come into play with your brand equity. For example, customers who grew up on a certain brand of cereal are more likely to choose that brand of cereal even as an adult. They simply have a preference for it—as well as more trust and experience with the brand. The same can be said for any brand in any industry. Working with customer preferences as part of your brand equity can help draw and keep customers in the long run. 

How to Build Brand Equity

Actively investing in each component of brand equity can improve your brand equity. Refining customer experience, improving quality, and working with customer preferences can help build good brand equity. In addition, building brand awareness, emphasizing positive associations, and forming good relationships with customers are also important to building good brand equity. 

1. Build Brand Awareness

It’s hard to have positive brand equity when potential customers aren’t sure what your brand is or what it stands for. When customers understand your brand and your products, they are more likely to consider buying them—even when there’s a price difference. You can build brand awareness with strong advertising and marketing, as well as make your brand’s values very clear and visible. 

2. Emphasize Positive Associations 

Making sure your brand is associated with positive things is an important part of improving your brand equity. To do this, ensure that your business is using responsible and ethical business practices. Those go a long way in giving your company a positive association with customers. In addition, emphasize any time your brand comes into contact with something positive or makes a positive connection or collaboration with an influential organization or person. 

3. Form Good Relationships

In the end, good relationships with customers are what will truly strengthen your brand equity. Stay in touch with your customers on social media and through any other viable channels. In addition, provide them with excellent customer service through every step of the customer journey. Keep track of negative feedback and use it to smooth out problems in your customers’ experiences with your brand. Ultimately, be authentic with your customers and foster those relationships. 

How to Measure Brand Equity

It can be difficult to definitively measure your brand equity, but there are a few ways to gain further insight into how your brand is doing. These are some of the quantitative methods that reflect your brand equity: 

• Profit margins
• Price sensitivity 
• Profitability
• Growth rate
• Market share percentage
• Purchasing frequency

Interviews, social media presence, and customer satisfaction surveys are another way to gauge how your brand equity is performing. 

Brand equity can help increase your profit margins and how customers view your brand, so it’s an important aspect of your business to nurture. 

You may also be able to measure your brand equity by tracking your business’ core customer experience metrics, as these indicators reflect how customers perceive and interact with your brand. 

For example, an increase in customer satisfaction over a measured time may reflect that your efforts to improve product quality, customer service, or brand communication are resonating well with your audience, thereby enhancing your brand’s perceived value and trustworthiness.

Brand Equity Examples

Understanding brand equity can be significantly enhanced by looking at real-world examples of companies that have successfully built and leveraged their brand equity. These examples illustrate how strong brand equity can lead to customer loyalty, market dominance, and the ability to extend product lines.

Foot Locker

Foot Locker has built its brand equity on a foundation of trust within the athletic and sneaker communities. Known for its wide selection of athletic footwear and apparel, Foot Locker has leveraged endorsements from popular athletes and collaborations with top brands to strengthen its market position. By actively engaging with its target audience through social media, events, and sponsorships, Foot Locker has developed a loyal customer base that views the brand as an integral part of sports and street culture.

Rural King

Rural King’s brand equity is rooted in its reputation for being a reliable and community-focused retailer. Known as the “RK Family of Stores,” Rural King has earned the trust of customers in rural and farming communities by providing a wide range of essential products, from agricultural supplies to home goods. The company’s focus on customer service, community events, and a friendly shopping experience has cultivated a loyal customer base that views Rural King as a dependable and integral part of their local communities.

La-Z-Boy

La-Z-Boy has established strong brand equity through its reputation for comfort, quality, and durability in furniture. Known for its iconic recliners, La-Z-Boy has expanded its product line to include a variety of home furnishings. The brand’s commitment to providing high-quality, comfortable furniture has earned it a loyal customer base. La-Z-Boy’s emphasis on innovation in comfort technology and stylish design has further reinforced its brand equity, allowing it to maintain a premium positioning in the market.

Improve Your Brand Equity with Pearl-Plaza

Pearl-Plaza’s customer experience platform gives you the power to monitor feedback from every touchpoint, across every stage of the customer journey. Using the XI platform, your business will be able to track the progress of your business’ main metrics, which correlates to the growth of your brand equity. See what we can do for you by scheduling a demo today! 

What Is Market Segmentation?

Market segmentation is a research strategy that separates different consumers in order to study their preferences, needs, and perspectives in order to optimize business practices, products, and experiences.

Hopefully, your business has more than one customer. If not, that’s okay because market segmentation isn’t primarily concerned with how many customers you have. It’s more about what type of customers. Each customer has their own needs but oftentimes some customers align in a significant way. Market segmentation recognizes this reality and is a process to capitalize on that. The main ethos is this: what if we could split our customers into distinct groups—based on specific factors—so we can learn how to market our products to the right people?

The 4 Types of Market Segmentation with Examples

There are four common types of strategies that businesses use to segment their customer base. Note that this list is not exhaustive and businesses have found other relevant factors that influence their customers’ needs.

Geographically

Geographic segmentation divides the market based on geographical units such as region, country, city, neighborhood, climate, population density, and urban/rural areas. This segmentation recognizes that consumers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors may vary depending on where they live.

Imagine a retail store selling to two customers, one who lives in a cosmopolitan city and the other in a rural town. Each would have different expectations and wants for the clothes they wear. Depending on the climate, how often they’re outside, or the appropriate clothing for a social setting, these two customers are unique enough to warrant a customized marketing strategy.

Demographically

Demographic segmentation categorizes consumers based on demographic variables such as age, gender, income, education, occupation, marital status, and family size. Demographic factors are among the most commonly used segmentation variables because they are relatively easy to measure and often correlate with consumer needs and behaviors.

An example of this may look like fast food restaurants having a totally different menu in another country. This is because food preferences are hugely influenced by one’s ethnic background. That’s why McDonald’s serves a Cheese Tsukimi burger in Japan. It’s also the reason why the items supplied in grocery stores change depending on the most common ethnicities in the surrounding local community.

Psychographically

Psychographic segmentation categorizes consumers based on their lifestyle, values, interests, attitudes, and personality traits. This approach delves into the psychological aspects of consumer behavior, aiming to understand what motivates individuals and how they perceive themselves and the world around them.

Let’s say a large portion of a brand’s customers are Millennials. This generation has been widely characterized as one who cares about the ethical impact of what they purchase. From the environment to social justice movements, millennials want their experiences to mean something. So the business decides to create a policy where 10% of all proceeds go directly to a refugee charity.

Behaviorally

Behavioral segmentation divides the market based on consumers’ purchasing behavior, product usage, brand loyalty, benefits sought, occasions, and readiness to buy. This approach focuses on understanding how consumers interact with products and services and what drives their buying decisions.

Brands frequently provide deals that only apply when customers shop online. It usually looks something like, “Buy up to $50 to get 10% off” or “Free shipping with a purchase of $25 or more”. Businesses offer these not because they like their online customers more, but because online shoppers have different spending tendencies. There could be many factors that contribute to that case. It could be how easy it is to click so many items into one’s cart or the instant gratification of purchasing online. Whatever the reason, the reality is that shoppers are more willing to buy into those deals when it’s done digitally.

Disadvantages of Market Segmentation

While market segmentation offers numerous benefits, it also presents certain disadvantages and common pitfalls. These are some common mistakes associated with market segmentation. 

1. Potential for Segmentation Errors: Market segmentation involves making assumptions about customer characteristics, needs, and behaviors based on available data. However, segmentation errors can occur if the chosen segmentation variables are inaccurate or if the segmentation process is based on faulty assumptions.

2. Complexity and Cost: Market segmentation can be complex and resource-intensive, requiring extensive data collection, analysis, and segmentation strategy development. Small businesses with limited resources may struggle to implement segmentation effectively.

3. Ignoring Changing Market Dynamics: Market segmentation strategies must be dynamic and adaptable to changes in market dynamics, consumer preferences, and competitive landscapes. Failing to update segmentation strategies in response to changing market conditions can result in outdated or ineffective segmentation approaches.

4. Inflexible Targeting: Over-reliance on segmentation can lead to inflexible targeting strategies that fail to account for individual variation within segments. Businesses must balance the benefits of targeting specific segments with the need to remain responsive to individual customer needs and preferences.

5. Difficulty in Segment Identification: Identifying meaningful and actionable segments within the market can be challenging, particularly in industries with complex customer behaviors or rapidly changing market conditions. Businesses must invest time and resources in thorough market research and analysis to identify viable segmentation opportunities.

Benefits of Market Segmentation

Market segmentation can look different depending on your business model, but at the end of the day the goal is the same: better understanding your target market. And that can lead to significant business value:

Increased Customer Retention

Knowing your customers well will lead to a sharpened customer journey because your brand will know how and which marketing messages will resonate with customers. And we don’t have to tell you that an excellent customer experience will increase the likelihood of customers staying loyal to your business.

Differentiation from Competitors

As your company shapes exactly how their products and services can appeal to a variety of consumers, your branding will evolve along with that process. This allows your brand to differentiate from competitors because your target audiences aren’t just a big question mark.

Opens Up Marketing Opportunities

Segmenting your market will open up opportunities to strategize and restrategize. Since market segmentation is an ongoing process, it informs and guides your marketing teams throughout business decisions. Customers don’t stay stagnant forever, they transform as the world transforms but segmenting your market can make your brand aware of opportunities when they arise.

Risk Reduction

By diversifying your customer base across multiple segments, businesses can reduce their exposure to risks associated with fluctuations in demand, changes in consumer preferences, or competitive pressures within specific market segments.

Better Resource Allocation

Segmentation helps businesses allocate resources more effectively by directing investments toward the most promising market segments. By identifying high-potential segments with strong growth prospects and attractive profitability, companies can allocate resources strategically to maximize returns.

What Does Effective Market Segmentation Look Like?

One of the biggest challenges marketers face is making sure the products actually align with a customer segment. You may have market access to a large customer base but do those customers have enough buying power or will they even want the product you’re offering? That’s why it’s more important to focus on targeting the money instead of the segment. Market segmentation doesn’t necessarily mean you have to market to each and every segment you discover. Choose the ones most likely to engage with your product and that will lead to a positive return on investment (ROI). 

How to Conduct Market Segmentation

In order for market segmentation to be effective, it needs to be done the right way. So, if you are about to undertake a market segmentation process, be sure to follow these steps: 

1. Define Objectives: Clearly define the objectives of the segmentation initiative. Determine what specific goals the organization aims to achieve through segmentation, such as better targeting, increased customer satisfaction, or enhanced competitiveness.

2. Gather Data: Collect relevant data to understand the characteristics, needs, preferences, and behaviors of your target market. Data sources may include customer surveys, interviews, focus groups, demographic data, purchasing history, website analytics, social media insights, and market research reports.

3. Identify Segmentation Variables: Choose the criteria or variables that will be used to segment the market. Common segmentation variables include demographic factors (age, gender, income), geographic factors (location, climate), psychographic factors (lifestyle, values), and behavioral factors (purchasing behavior, product usage).

4. Segmentation Analysis: Analyze the collected data to identify meaningful segments within the target market. Use statistical techniques such as cluster analysis, factor analysis, or regression analysis to group customers based on similarities and differences in their characteristics or behavior.

5. Develop Segment Profiles: Develop detailed profiles for each segment, including demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics. Describe the needs, preferences, motivations, and behaviors of customers within each segment to gain a deeper understanding of their unique requirements.

6. Evaluate Segment Attractiveness: Assess the attractiveness of each segment based on factors such as size, growth potential, profitability, competition, and alignment with organizational objectives. Prioritize segments that offer the greatest potential for business success and competitive advantage.

7. Select Target Segments: Select the target segments that align with the organization’s strategic priorities and marketing objectives. Consider factors such as market potential, resource availability, and competitive positioning when determining which segments to focus on.

8. Develop Marketing Strategies: Develop tailored marketing strategies and tactics for each target segment. Customize product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotional messages to address the specific needs and preferences of each segment.

9. Implement and Monitor: Implement the marketing strategies and tactics designed for each target segment. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of segmentation initiatives through key performance indicators (KPIs) such as sales growth, market share, customer satisfaction, and return on investment (ROI).

10. Iterate and Refine: Continuously monitor market trends, customer feedback, and competitive dynamics to refine segmentation strategies over time. Update segment profiles, adjust marketing tactics, and explore new segmentation opportunities to stay responsive to changing market conditions and customer needs.

Pearl-Plaza Can Perfect Market Segmentation For You

Don’t know where to go from here? Pearl-Plaza can help! Pearl-Plaza is committed to aiding businesses with our award-winning technology through the understanding that experiences involve the needs of customers, employees, and the business. As one of the top (MX) brands, we’re dedicated to teaching and guiding businesses on how to utilize their data when making key business decisions. Our specialized Market Experience Cloud along with expert consultants is available to help you in garnering as much intelligence from the market as possible. Contact us today for a demo.

What is Voluntary Response Bias? 

A voluntary response is when someone volunteers to be a part of your sample. In doing so, you’re allowing them to skew your data and you don’t get results that are representative of the whole population. Thus, you get biased feedback. 

Voluntary response bias refers to how allowing your sample to self-select skews your data, and you don’t actually get results that are representative of your whole population. Voluntary response bias isn’t always inherently bad; it’s not considered the worst of the biases that could arise in your sampling. But it can lead to more extreme results than would actually be true for your population as a whole. 

Why Is Voluntary Response Sampling Biased? 

When you create a survey, you want to get results that are representative of your population, so you can make the right decisions based on the data. If you’re allowing your sample to self-select, you’re not getting data that shows your entire population. You’re only getting data that reflects your sample. That leaves you with results that aren’t generalizable, and generalizing them anyway is where bias becomes a real problem. 

Voluntary response also opens your survey up to the possibility of favoring more extreme results than your population actually experiences. Think about it this way: respondents are more likely to volunteer for a survey if they’re passionate about the topic. The passionate responses can skew your results. You’ll have the customers who loved your product the most (or had a terrible experience) responding instead of your average customer. That could lead to bias problems. You could end up making decisions on products and services that are slightly skewed by voluntary response bias. 

What Is an Example of Voluntary Response Bias?

To illustrate voluntary response bias, let’s consider a scenario involving a survey on customer satisfaction with an online retail platform.

Survey Design:

Imagine a company conducts an online survey to gather feedback on customer satisfaction with its e-commerce platform. The survey is distributed through email newsletters and social media, allowing customers to voluntarily respond to questions about their shopping experience.

Voluntary Response Bias in Action:

• Customers who had an exceptionally positive or negative experience with the online retail platform may be more motivated to participate in the survey.
• Customers with neutral or average experiences may be less inclined to take the time to provide feedback, potentially leading to a skewed representation of customer satisfaction.

Resulting Bias:

• The survey results may disproportionately reflect the views of customers who had either highly positive or negative experiences.
• The findings might inaccurately suggest that the majority of customers either love or strongly dislike the platform, creating a potential misrepresentation of overall customer sentiment.

Impact on Generalization:

• If the company relies solely on these biased survey results, they may make decisions based on an exaggerated understanding of customer satisfaction, potentially overlooking the needs and opinions of the more moderate majority.

This example emphasizes how voluntary response bias can manifest in retail surveys when individuals with extreme opinions are more likely to participate, leading to a sample that may not accurately represent the broader spectrum of customer experiences. Recognizing and addressing such biases is crucial for obtaining a more balanced and reliable understanding of customer sentiments in the retail sector.

How to Avoid Voluntary Response Bias

Voluntary response bias can significantly impact the quality of your research results, and potentially lead to skewed and inaccurate conclusions. There are several steps researchers can take to minimize or avoid voluntary response bias and enhance the overall quality of their research. 

1. Use Random Sampling Techniques

Employing random sampling methods such as systematic sampling ensures that every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. This reduces the likelihood of biased participation and contributes to a more representative sample.

2. Ensure Anonymity and Confidentiality 

Assure participants of the anonymity and confidentiality of their responses. When individuals feel that their privacy is protected, they may be more willing to participate, reducing concerns about potential repercussions and encouraging a broader range of participants.

3. Implement Post-Stratification Techniques

After data collection, post-stratification techniques can be used to adjust the weights of different groups to match the known population distribution. This helps correct any imbalances that may have occurred during the voluntary response process.

4. Pilot Test Surveys

Before launching a full-scale survey, conduct pilot tests to identify and address any issues with clarity, wording, or potential biases in the questions. Pilot testing helps refine the survey instrument and improve the quality of data collected.

5. Be Transparent About Study Objectives

Clearly communicate the objectives and goals of the research to participants. Providing transparency can attract individuals who are genuinely interested in the topic, rather than those with extreme opinions or biases, leading to a more balanced representation.

By incorporating these strategies into the research design, researchers can minimize the impact of voluntary response bias and enhance the reliability and validity of their study findings. It’s essential to carefully consider the potential biases inherent in voluntary response sampling and take proactive steps to address them throughout the research process.

Advantages of Voluntary Response Sampling

Voluntary response sampling has its own set of advantages in certain situations. Randomly selecting a population and getting those chosen to participate in the survey can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. Voluntary response bias can eliminate that. You aren’t spending time tracking down participants and designing your survey since your sample is just those who are already willing to participate in your survey. Here are some key advantages to consider:

1. Cost-Effective

Voluntary response sampling is often a cost-effective method as it involves minimal resources to collect data. Participants voluntarily choose to respond, reducing the need for extensive outreach efforts or financial investment.

2. Quick Data Collection

The process of collecting data through voluntary responses is generally rapid. Since individuals willingly participate, there is no need for lengthy recruitment processes or follow-ups, making it a swift method for gathering information.

3. Ease of Implementation

Implementing voluntary response sampling is relatively simple. Researchers can easily distribute surveys or questionnaires through online platforms, social media, or other accessible channels, allowing for a quick and straightforward data collection process.

4. Wide Geographic Reach

Voluntary response sampling often allows for a broad geographical reach. Through online surveys or other digital means, researchers can attract participants from diverse locations, contributing to a more extensive and varied dataset.

5. Potential for Unbiased Insights

In some cases, voluntary response sampling may provide insights into niche or underrepresented groups. Participants who choose to respond may have a genuine interest in the topic, leading to a diverse set of perspectives that might not be captured through other sampling methods.

Disadvantages of Voluntary Response Sampling

Voluntary response sampling has some very obvious disadvantages. Using voluntary responses can allow bias to creep in on the results and skew data. Voluntary response also can introduce undercoverage bias. Your population could potentially be a complex and diverse group of people. When you use voluntary responses, only those who are inclined to respond are represented in the results. While voluntary response sampling has its advantages, it is crucial to be aware of its limitations and potential drawbacks. Here are some key disadvantages to keep in mind when deciding to participate in voluntary response sampling: 

1. Selection Bias

One of the most significant challenges with voluntary response sampling is the potential for selection bias. Individuals who choose to participate may differ systematically from those who do not, leading to a skewed representation of the population and compromising the generalizability of the findings.

2. Lack of Randomization

Voluntary response sampling lacks the randomization inherent in more rigorous sampling methods. This absence of random selection can contribute to a non-representative sample, making it difficult to draw accurate conclusions about the broader population.

3. Limited Control Over Sample Composition

Researchers have limited control over the composition of the sample in voluntary response sampling. Certain demographic groups may be overrepresented or underrepresented, impacting the reliability of the collected data and potentially introducing confounding variables.

4. Potential for Misleading Conclusions

Participants in voluntary response surveys may have strong opinions or experiences related to the subject matter, leading to biased results. This can result in findings that are not reflective of the overall population and may lead to misleading conclusions.

5. Difficulty in Establishing Causation

Establishing causal relationships is challenging with voluntary response sampling, as the self-selected nature of participants makes it difficult to determine whether observed correlations are causal or influenced by other factors.

When utilizing voluntary response sampling, researchers should be aware of these disadvantages and carefully consider the appropriateness of this method for their specific research goals and the nature of the population under study.

Collecting Responses and Feedback

Voluntary response bias is a real risk researchers face when using voluntary response sampling. But considering what voluntary response bias does to a survey also opens up a discussion of the larger challenges with surveying. Choosing methods and creating accurate, simple, and powerful surveys is important, and shouldn’t be taken lightly. With Pearl-Plaza, you’ll have access to best-in-class survey tools that will help you collect, analyze, and act on customer feedback. Schedule a demo today to see it for yourself!

One way researchers try to ensure their information is reliable is to use random sampling, specifically systematic sampling. By adding the element of randomness, results are more representative of the population you’re trying to study. 

Consider a retail business that wants to understand customer satisfaction with recent in-store experiences to pinpoint specific aspects needing attention, such as staff friendliness, store cleanliness, and product availability. They can use systematic sampling to gather feedback from every 15th customer that enters the store until they reach the desired sample size. Since these customers were chosen at random, the results can be used to represent and measure the entire customer base. 

What Is Systematic Sampling? 

Systematic sampling is a type of probability sampling that uses a specific interval to select participants. Probability sampling is when every member of the population (the entire group you want to study) has an equal chance of being selected. It’s the foundation of good data collection. However with systematic sampling, you choose a regular interval and select your participants that way. 

Imagine you have a list of 100 people in your population, and you want to use systematic sampling to select your sample. You decide on an interval of five. The best way to use systematic sampling is to choose a random place to start on your list. Maybe you start at the second name listed. From there, you would choose every fifth name to be a participant. That’s systematic sampling. 

The key features of systematic sampling are that it’s probability-based and that there’s a specific number interval used to select your sample. 

Types of Systematic Sampling

The basics of systematic sampling are the same, but there are a few different ways you can perform a systematic sample. The three types of systematic sampling are systematic random sampling, circular systematic sampling, and linear systematic sampling.

Systematic Random Sampling

Systematic random sampling is the classic way to use systematic sampling. It involves choosing a particular interval that is used to randomly select participants. But how do researchers choose effective intervals? Most use their population size and figure out how many they want in a sample. For example, if you have 100 people in your population, and you know you want to survey 20 of them, you know your interval will be 5.

Circular Systematic Sampling

Circular systematic sampling is most useful if you know you want to sample your entire population, but you still want the element of randomness in your sampling methods. Circular systematic sampling works the same as classic systematic sampling at first. But instead of stopping selection after you reach the end of the population list, you start again and keep selecting using your numeric interval until you’ve sampled everyone in your population. 

For example, let’s return to our list of 100 people. You choose the interval of 5 for your sampling and randomly select starting on the fourth name. You sample every fourth name until you reach the end of the list. But instead of stopping there, circular systematic sampling has you keep sampling every fourth name until you’ve gone through the whole list. It’s a great way to continue to select randomly while sampling your whole population. Circular systematic sampling isn’t a great choice if you have a very large population, and you only need a small sample and a way to whittle the list down. 

Linear Systematic Sampling

Linear systematic sampling is another variation, but it’s different from circular sampling. Linear systematic sampling doesn’t repeat and continues until the whole population is sampled. Instead, linear sampling uses a form of skip logic to select. Skip logic is something you might use to send participants in a survey to a different spot in the survey based on their answers. The researcher uses skip logic to select where to start on the survey and the interval to use. If you think of the list of 100 population members, here you would use skip logic to determine where the sampling starts and who is chosen, and it doesn’t repeat at the end.

When Is Systematic Sampling Used? 

When do researchers choose to use systematic sampling? Systematic sampling provides a unique way to use random sampling without having to have a lot of details on your population or on a tight budget or timeline. These are some of the scenarios when systematic sampling is commonly used: 

• Budget or timing restrictions: If you have an upcoming deadline or a small budget for sampling, systematic sampling is simple to implement and quick for picking a sample under a time crunch. You can very quickly number a population list and randomly select an interval and starting point and choose participants quickly. This same process also requires few resources, and you don’t have to know much about your population to get started with systematic sampling. 
• Simple outcomes: Systematic sampling is a simple way to choose a sample, so it’s best when used when the outcomes are simple. A complicated survey isn’t the place for a simple systematic sample. 
• Absence of data patterns: Systematic sampling is used when the data aren’t arranged or have an obvious pattern or opportunity for data manipulation. That could lead to problems. But without that, systematic sampling is a great choice. 

How to Conduct Systematic Sampling

Performing systematic sampling involves a series of steps to ensure randomness and representation. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

1. Define Your Population

Clearly identify the entire population you want to study. This could be a list of customers, employees, or any group relevant to your research. 

If you do not have a list readily available, you can go into the field to survey the intended group. Take the retail example from earlier, an employee at the register could ask every 15th customer “Did you find everything you were looking for today?” This way of surveying customers mirrors the randomization process that a formal population list would give you. 

2. Determine Your Sample Size

Decide how many participants you want in your sample. This should be a reasonable fraction of your population and is often based on your research objectives and available resources.

3. Calculate the Sampling Interval

Divide the total population size by the desired sample size to determine the sampling interval. For example, if you have 100 people and want a sample of 20, your interval is 5 (100/20).

4. Randomly Choose a Starting Point

Begin at a randomly selected point in your population. This could involve using a random number generator or another method to ensure true randomness.

5. Select Participants Systematically

Starting from your randomly chosen point, select every nth individual, where n is the sampling interval. For instance, if your interval is 5, select every fifth person until you reach your desired sample size.

6. Avoid Biases

Ensure your list is randomly ordered at the outset to prevent bias. If there’s a discernible pattern in your population list, it could compromise the randomness of your sample.

7. Record Your Methodology

Document the steps you took in selecting your sample. This transparency aids in replicability and allows others to assess the validity of your sampling method.

Examples of Systematic Sampling

Let’s explore a couple of real-world examples to illustrate how systematic sampling works:

Example 1: Customer Satisfaction Surveys

Imagine you run a business with a customer database of 500 clients, and you want to gauge overall satisfaction. You decide to systematically sample 100 customers. Here’s how:

• Define Population: Your population is the entire customer database.
• Determine Sample Size: You decide on a sample size of 100 customers.
• Calculate Sampling Interval: Divide 500 (total customers) by 100 (desired sample size) to get an interval of 5.
• Random Starting Point: Choose a random starting point in your customer list.
• Select Participants: Systematically survey every 5th customer from your starting point until you reach 100 responses.

Example 2: Employee Training Evaluation

In a company with 200 employees, the HR department wants to assess the effectiveness of a recent training program. They opt for systematic sampling:

• Define Population: The population is all 200 employees who underwent the training.
• Determine Sample Size: The HR team decides on a sample size of 40 employees.
• Calculate Sampling Interval: Divide 200 (total employees) by 40 (desired sample size) to get an interval of 5.
• Random Starting Point: Choose a random starting point in the list of trained employees.
• Select Participants: Systematically evaluate the performance of every 5th employee until they reach 40 responses.

These examples demonstrate how systematic sampling can be applied in different scenarios, providing a structured and representative approach to data collection.

Common Mistakes in Implementing Systematic Sampling

While systematic sampling is a relatively straightforward method, certain pitfalls can compromise the integrity of your results. Avoiding these common mistakes is essential to ensure the accuracy and representativeness of your sample.

1. Non-Randomized Starting Point:

• Mistake: Choosing a starting point that is not truly random can introduce bias. If the starting point follows a pattern or is influenced by external factors, the entire sample may not be representative of the population.
• Solution: Use a randomization method, such as a random number generator, to select the initial participant. This helps eliminate any unintentional biases at the starting point.

2. Incorrect Calculation of Sampling Interval

• Mistake: Calculating the sampling interval incorrectly can lead to an unrepresentative sample. Errors in determining the interval may result in oversampling or undersampling certain segments of the population.
• Solution: Double-check your calculations to ensure the sampling interval is accurate. Verify that it aligns with your desired sample size and the total population.

3. Failure to Randomly Order the Population List

• Mistake: Neglecting to randomize the order of the population list before implementing systematic sampling can introduce systematic biases. If there is an existing order or pattern, it may carry through to the sample.
• Solution: Randomly order the population list before starting the systematic sampling process. This helps ensure that each individual has an equal chance of being selected.

4. Misinterpretation of Results

• Mistake: Misinterpreting the results or drawing conclusions beyond the scope of the study can lead to inaccurate insights. Failing to recognize the limitations of systematic sampling may result in unwarranted generalizations.
• Solution: Clearly define the objectives of your study and acknowledge the limitations of systematic sampling. Present the results with a clear understanding of what the sample can and cannot represent.

5. Ignoring Population Changes

• Mistake: Assuming that the population remains static throughout the study without accounting for potential changes can lead to inaccurate results. Population dynamics, such as growth or decline, should be considered.
• Solution: Periodically reassess the population characteristics and adjust the sampling process if there are significant changes. This ensures that your sample remains representative of the current population.

By being aware of these common mistakes and taking proactive measures to address them, researchers can enhance the reliability and validity of their systematic sampling approach. Regular checks, documentation, and attention to randomization principles are key to a successful implementation.

Advantages of Systematic Sampling

Systematic sampling offers several advantages that make it a preferred choice in certain situations:

• Simple to understand: Not every method of sampling randomly is easy for researchers to understand—especially not with an extensive background in statistics. Systematic sampling is easy to grasp and easy to get started with.
• Easy to implement: Nothing’s worse than having extremely difficult sampling requirements to grapple with that take forever to actually get started. Systematic sampling avoids that. Instead, it’s easy to get started quickly. 
• Organized method of sampling: Organization with your data is key to making analysis simple and doable down the road. Systematic sampling is exactly what it sounds like: systematic. And systematic is organized and can help you keep track of what’s going on. 
• Low risk for bias or contamination when done well: Data contamination and bias can leave you with bad results and bad data to base your decisions on. Systematic sampling can be a way to combat that. So long as the population list can be ordered randomly, there’s a low risk for bias or data contamination when you use this sampling method. 

Disadvantages of Systematic Sampling

While systematic sampling has its advantages, it also comes with certain limitations and challenges. Researchers have to plan for and make sure to avoid these when using systematic sampling: 

• Risk of bias: While there’s a low risk of bias, there’s still a risk that has to be managed. The list of population members must be ordered randomly, or there’s sampling bias. That’s easy when you have a list of names and can order that randomly but could be complicated for other populations.
• Risk of data manipulation: When you use systematic sampling, you’re setting up a system to use. There’s a risk that researchers might set up a system to intentionally give them the results they want, introducing a world of problems into their data. 
• Requires population size: The other risks can be controlled for, but this disadvantage is an inherent one. To effectively use systematic sampling, you have to be able to number your population. That means you have to know your population size exactly before you can sample. It might be easy when you’re sampling the employees at your company, but it might be more difficult when you have a potentially massive population that you aren’t sure what it entails.  

Maximize the Potential of Systematic Sampling with Pearl-Plaza

Overall, systematic sampling is a form of probability sampling and can be incredibly valuable on a tight timeline or budget with simple populations. The key is to make sure you’re using the right sampling method for your surveys. Pearl-Plaza integrated CX approach gives you the power to combine data from multiple sources and discover value insights that drive better business decisions. Whether your sample size is in the hundreds or millions, the XI Platform can be changed to fit your business needs and help you make the most of your data—from sampling methods to analysis. Schedule a demo to see how Pearl-Plaza can help you!

Simple random sampling is the perfect solution to this problem. Sampling methods such as simple random sampling allow businesses to get the data they need to make decisions without having to go through any unnecessary work. The goal of using simple random sampling is to get a small group that is unbiased representative of a larger population.

What is Simple Random Sampling and Why Is It Important?

A simple random sample is a selection of participants from a population. What makes this sampling method different is that each participant has an equal probability of being selected.   

Simple random sampling is important for many reasons. First, the subgroups from your population will be unbiased. Since they were chosen at random, they do not have any predisposed bias as participants, and they do not suffer from researcher bias. 

It is also important because these unbiased groups allow businesses to get data that is reflective of the entire population, without actually having to survey the entire population. 

What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Simple Random Sampling?

Many businesses prefer simple random sampling for its simplicity and lack of bias. It is also the easiest form of sampling. You don’t need to be a data analyst in order to perform this sampling method; and the data you receive can be applied to the whole population. 

The biggest disadvantage to be aware of is researcher bias. Researcher bias occurs when the researcher conducting the sampling selects participants to be in a subgroup based on their personal biases. This can be easily avoided by including multiple forms of random selection in your sampling. 

How Do You Perform Simple Random Sampling?

Simple random sampling is the perfect tool for a company looking to get an idea of how its entire customer base feels about a certain subject. Let’s say that you work for a nationwide retailer, and are interested in finding out how your loyalty members feel about a new selection of loyalty perks that you are considering to develop. 

You could go into the database that has a list of all of your loyalty members or, in this case, the list of your population. After assigning each member a number, you could use a random number generator to randomly select the number of participants you have chosen for your sample size. 

This subgroup of members, chosen at random, can now be surveyed. Their responses can be analyzed and can also be viewed as being representative of your entire member base. 

Sampling With Pearl-Plaza

If you’re interested in understanding your customer base without having to survey each and every customer, then simple random sampling may be your answer. But understanding that data, what it means, and what to do with it moving forward can be difficult. 

Pearl-Plaza, the leader in people-oriented text analytics, can help. Built on industry-recognized metrics and real-time intelligence, Pearl-Plaza provides the tools and support you need to find hidden insights in your data. For more information on data gathering and analysis, visit our Learning Hub and look at how our data studios can be beneficial to your business. 

Cluster analysis is an answer to this problem. With cluster analysis, data analysts can construct data groups (or clusters) based on a range of similarities and differences. The end goal is to distinguish data points in such a way that those within a group are as similar as possible and completely distinct from the data points belonging to separate groups.

Here, we take a closer look at cluster analysis, how to perform one, how to interpret the data, and what potential disadvantages you should be aware of before you get started. But first, let’s define the term itself.

What Is Cluster Analysis?

At its most basic, cluster analysis is a statistical methodology designed to allow analysts to process data by organizing individual objects into groups defined by their similarity or association. Also called segmentation analysis or taxonomy analysis, cluster analysis exists to help identify homogenous groups with a range of items when the grouping is not already known or defined. In other words, cluster analysis is exploratory; data scientists who apply cluster analysis don’t begin with any predefined classes or expectations.

Instead, cluster analysis takes a collection of data items and attempts to organize them based on how closely associated each one is with the others. Visually, this is often represented using a multi-axis graph to more accurately identify which data points are similar and which are not.

One common example of clustering is the arrangement of items within a grocery store—products are classified and grouped based on how similar they are in purpose.

Cluster analysis is an essential aspect of modern artificial intelligence (AI) and data mining, and businesses often rely on clustering to segment customer populations into different marketing or user groups. Cluster analysis may be used in a range of business and non-business applications.

Steps for Making a Cluster Analysis

There are nearly as many ways to cluster data points as there are groups to segment them into. As such, there is no single process that represents the standard mechanism of cluster analysis. The following process, however, is a reliable set of steps you can use when clustering data:

1. Confirm the Metricality of the Data

For effective clustering, your data needs to have actual numerical values. This is because you will need to define the ‘distance’ between data points. So even if you are working with non-metric data (such as people’s names), you still need to define the similarities in a numerical way (such as by saying that individuals with the same name have a distance defined as 0 and those with different names have a distance defined as 1). 

2. Select Variables

Selecting the right variables is essential to producing relevant, usable cluster data. Perform exploratory research beforehand so that you have a clear idea of which variables to use. 

3. Define Similarities

As with selecting your variables, choosing and defining similarity measures to chart the ‘distances’ between your observations is key to producing a usable cluster analysis. You can define similarities in hundreds of different ways, so be aware of your options as you work with your data. 

4. Visualize Pairwise Distances

With the correct variables in place and your similarities fully defined, you can now begin to visualize your cluster analysis data. You can plot individual attributes as well as the pairwise distances on a histogram chart, with your classes represented as columns on the horizontal axis. Peaks within those columns may represent potential segments.

5. Choose a Method and Number of Segments

Again, there are many different methods one may use to cluster data. You may wish to try a variety of approaches until you find one that clearly represents actionable information in a clear and robust way. Cluster analysis is iterative, so be willing to work with the data until it starts to work for you.

6. Interpret the Segments

With your chosen method and number of segments, your next step is to get a clearer idea of the data points themselves and how they relate to one another. Make note of how the segments differ based on your variables. It can be extremely helpful to visualize these clusters using graphing techniques. 

7. Perform Ongoing Analysis 

With your core data visually represented and your individual data points more fully understood, the final step is to dig down deeper with increasingly robust cluster analysis. This may include subjecting your data to different subsets, distance metrics, segmentation attributes, segmentation methods, or numbers of clusters. By exploring multiple variations, you should be able to see how well your data holds up, how much overlap you have between your clusters, and how similar your segment profiles are across different approaches.

How to Interpret and Measure Clustering

Cluster analysis is based on the assumption that the lower the numerically-represented distance between items, the higher the similarity level—provided that you have a reasonable number of clusters to work with. You can use a silhouette coefficient score to calculate how healthy your clusters are by determining the average silhouette coefficient value of each of the objects in the data set. 

Measuring your clusters also heavily depends on the questions you ask regarding your initial data. Important cluster analysis questions include:

• How will you measure the similarity between objects?
• How will similarity variables be weighted?
• Once similarities are established how will classes be formed?
• How will clusters be defined?
• What conclusions can you draw regarding the clusters’ statistical significance?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Cluster Analysis in Sampling

A key application of cluster analysis in cluster sampling. Cluster sampling divides an entire study population into externally homogeneous but internally heterogeneous groups, with each cluster acting as a miniature representation of the whole. The groups must be divided randomly, and then individual groups are randomly selected and every individual in that group is sampled. 

For example, cluster sampling allows researchers to study certain types of communities within the country without having to acquire subjects from hundreds or thousands of different locations. Instead, these communities are divided into similar groups and a random sample of communities is assessed. In this case, the randomly-selected subset represents the whole population. Another example might be an airline that chooses to survey all of the passengers on several randomly-selected flights every day to infer conclusions about their passengers as a whole population. 

Cluster analysis as a sampling methodology offers some clear advantages over more traditional random or stratified sampling. For one, cluster sampling tends to demand fewer resources and is more cost-effective. For another, cluster analysis may be more feasible while still providing a comprehensive view of an entire population. 

That said, there are also certain disadvantages that you should be aware of. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that cluster sampling is prone to higher error rates than many other sampling techniques; the results obtained are not always fully reflective of the population as a whole. Additionally, unconscious biases may seep into this sampling methodology creating biased inferences about the entire population.

Better Analysis with Pearl-Plaza

If you’re interested in getting a clear picture of the similarities and differences across a data set, then cluster analysis may be the answer. But ensuring that your cluster data accurately represents your sample group and clearly expresses valuable information can be difficult. Understanding cluster analysis and cluster sampling methodologies and how best to interpret the resultant data will provide you with the insight you need to understand the associations between your objects. 

Pearl-Plaza, the leader in people-oriented text analytics, can help. Built on industry-recognized metrics and real-time intelligence, Pearl-Plaza provides the tools and support you need to find hidden insights in your data. For more information on data gathering and analysis, visit our Learning Hub.

However, even though they’re different, it’s important to point out that one isn’t necessarily better than the other—and brands need both if they want their customer experience (CX) programs to reach their potential.

So, with that in mind, let’s get into a quick primer!

Breaking Down the Difference Between Voice of Customer & Market Research

What Is the Definition of Voice of Customer (VoC)?

Voice of the Customer (VoC) is the process of gathering vital information regarding what customers think and feel about their experiences with a business.

How Does VoC Fit into Your CX Strategy

VoC programs are an essential part of any CX toolkit. They’re designed to fulfill many critical functions for your overall customer experience program, including, as their name implies, understanding customer needs. They’re also useful for understanding customer expectations, as well as what those individuals may want from you before even they know. This information can then be used to adjust operations, inform marketing efforts, and help your organization create both short- and long-term Experience Improvement (XI).

Not all VoC feedback comes from typical listening methods like surveys and focus groups, either. A lot of it comes from unsolicited feedback (website reviews, social media comments, etc). Unsolicited feedback is helpful because it gives customers a chance to express themselves entirely in their own terms, which may alert brands to problems and journey breakages that they weren’t aware of.

All of this boils down to the ability to not just capture individual and collective customer feedback, but act upon it. Taking action is crucial to Experience Improvement and building connective relationships.

What Is the Definition of Market Research?

Market research explores hidden relationships within industry data, collected by a market research firm, in order to predict and forecast future events and behavior within the market.

What Is the Role of Market Research in Your Business?

While Voice of Customer is all about feedback, market research takes a slightly wider lens by focusing on understanding the trends around your business.

Primary research is useful for testing new communications and services that your company wants to put out there, while secondary research looks at the dynamics and sizing of the marketplace around you. Conducting these types of research can help your company identify your target market, segment your customers, and identify growth opportunities.

Your company can supercharge its market research efforts by defining the population you want to target with a survey, then creating samples that ensure you’ll have a match. We’ve found that surveys like these are most effective when they’re blind, meaning that the customer or individual stays anonymous while taking them, and challenge you to do the same! This method is great for reducing response bias.

So, Why Do You Need Both?

VoC and market research aren’t the same, but your CX program and your organization need both in order to truly understand your customers as people. That fundamental, holistic understanding fuels unforgettable experiences that build loyalty while also creating additional revenue! So be bold in your strategy and use both VoC and market research. Your customers will feel heard, your C-suite will be impressed, and the experiences you provide will be meaningfully transformed.

Click here to read our full-length white paper on why your brand needs both VoC and market research. Our very own Eric Smuda has spent decades in both fields and provides an in-depth look not just at why these disciplines are important, but how your organization can wield them effectively.

Why Survey Rates Fall

There are a myriad of reasons why you may be experiencing declining survey response rates. One of the more common ones we see when working with clients is that their transactional surveys, which are meant to be quite short, are considered too long by too many customers, leading to high rates of survey abandonment. Another factor that comes into play here with fair frequency is the client’s survey invitation design, which can repel customers from your survey altogether. 

However, while these problems frequently pop up in survey design, the good news for brands that encounter them is that survey length and invitation design are fairly addressable challenges. An Experience Improvement (XI) platform that can digest unstructured data for actionable sentiments will let you know more about your customers’ survey preferences. You can then apply those insights to your survey design and see a bump in response rates.

Many organizations have spent years putting their experience programs to great use fixing superficial problems like these, but a few trends have emerged in recent years that take more than a freshened up survey invite to address. The most prominent of these trends and a chief cause of declining survey completion rates is Generation Z shoppers’ reluctance to complete them. This problem has become more pronounced as more of this generation becomes old enough to independently shop, and it creates a few blind spots that brands can’t illuminate through surveys alone.

Left in the Dark

While the problem of declining survey rates is most pronounced with this younger demographic of shoppers, a few other survey shortcomings became apparent as brands scrambled to remedy this completion shortage. Namely, that as customer needs and expectations have grown more complex, so too has the amount of disparate data sources that organizations need in order to truly understand not ‘just’ why their customers shop with them, but also why customers visit competitors and enact the purchasing trends they do.

None of this is to say that surveys have become irrelevant or unimportant. They remain a vital tool for gathering feedback and the time brands invest to continuously improve them is well spent. That’s where those other data sources come into play—they exist outside of surveys, but are just as needed for creating true Experience Improvement (XI). They include:

1. Location-tracking data
2. Purchasing data
3. Web search data
4. Social media & online reviews

Painting a Full Picture

These four sources of information aren’t just nice-to-haves; they’ve become essential to completing a profile of your customer and creating a holistic, 360-degree view of their preferences, their journey with your brand, and who they are as people. These more fundamental aspects of the customer experience are essential for meaningfully improving all of your experiences, which means that it’s essential you set yourself up for data collection success if you haven’t already.

Click here to read my full-length point of view document on data sources and to take the next step in your data collection journey. I go in-depth about what each data source is, why it matters, and how best to capitalize on it to create bold, human experiences for your customers and employees. Good luck!

The same is true when you’re trying to understand market research; having an accurate assessment of your audience and their buying patterns will make all the difference when it comes to customer satisfaction and business sales. You need to know what makes them excited or frustrated, how they respond to specific issues or perspectives, and topics that are relevant to them, all so that you can better understand and help them. This also provides a better grasp of industry trends and challenges so that organizations can offer memorable and fulfilling content, experiences, and products.

The best way to get accurate data, though, is to gather it yourself whenever possible. That’s where primary research comes in. This guide will cover everything you need to know about primary research and how you can capitalize on the many opportunities it provides.

What Is Primary Research?

Primary research is a methodology of research that requires you to collect data yourself (or commission someone else to conduct the research), meaning you are not using someone else’s research or data. From detailed surveys to intensive focus groups, primary research allows you to directly examine, explore, and record how your audience responds to or feels about certain subjects.

Businesses use primary research for a variety of reasons, such as discovering what their clients or customers need from their product or the kind of language that speaks to their target audience. Organizations also use this kind of primary research to improve the experience of both customers and employees and optimize their service. 

Primary Research Methods and Examples

The more accurate data you can gather, the better prepared you will be for the data-driven world that businesses run on. Here are some methods of primary research to help you discover the kind of data you want to gather and how you should go about your research.

Surveys

Surveys are versatile and, when well-made, incredibly useful ways to gather quantitative information. They are a quick way to get honest opinions or preferences from both customers and employees without demanding too much work from them. Plus, online and automated surveys make it extra easy for both the participants and the researchers—they can be conveniently sent via email and accessed on all sorts of devices.

Surveys should have a variety of open-ended and closed questions so that participants have the opportunity to give greater details for their answers while also providing more numerical data. You want to keep your survey short and focused. That said, you can use a rating scale, multiple choice, ranking, and drop-down questions, among many other types of questions.

Make sure you have a predetermined theme that you can tie each question back to, as well as a target audience that will give you the most relevant responses. For example, let’s say you just launched a new navigation layout on your online store website and want to know how it’s being received. You would need to create questions all related to the usability, convenience, and flow of the navigation. You could do this by sending the survey to someone who just made a purchase and asking them to rate their experience or specific elements of your online store.

Interviews

Interviews are a much broader way to collect information, and unlike the quantitative nature of most surveys, interviews are more qualitative since they are usually created with open-ended questions. You can do interviews in person and face-to-face, or you can do them over the phone. You can usually get more in-depth answers with interviews depending on the interviewer and their experience with interviewing. Great interviewers can especially get great results for in-person interviews.

If you need large amounts of information for a relatively short list of participants, interviewers are an excellent option. They can last 10-30 minutes or sometimes longer depending on the nature of the work you’re doing. Just know that in-person interviews can influence the comfort level and the responses of interviewees, so an expert interviewer will be able to create the right environment and read the room to accurately record the responses.

An example of a good interview opportunity would be if you need to gather information about a certain subject from experts. Imagine a company that develops equipment for a specific medical condition and needs to improve its current model. This company could interview both the specialists and doctors who assist patients as well as the patients themselves to get concrete answers directly from the source.

Observations

If you need to collect data but don’t want to directly interact with “respondents” in order to protect the accuracy of the data, then observations may be the best route for you. While it can be difficult to create these scenarios, observation primary research is a method where there is no direct interaction between the researcher and the person being observed. All the researcher does is observe and record how the target group or person reacts or responds.

There are usually either trained specialists who know what to look for while observing or people who use cameras to document the experience. This is especially good for removing as much bias as possible.

Let’s say a restaurant offers customers a complimentary appetizer if they have to wait longer than an hour. That restaurant could install cameras and study how many people wait, how long they last if they decide to leave, the size of groups that are willing to wait, etc.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are small groups of people, usually no larger than 6-10 individuals, who come together and discuss questions that are provided by a moderator. This is ideal for a group of experts who can discuss a topic at length or even a group of customers who can offer greater insight into your product. This is a good opportunity to identify pain points, niche parts of an industry, or how well people respond to a new idea or product.

Maybe you want to improve your employee incentive program—you could put together a small focus group within the company to start a discussion about potential benefits and see what people react well to. Or, let’s say you’re launching a new product but aren’t sure how your target audience will receive it. A small focus group could interact with or use your product and then offer feedback in a focus group.

Research Services & Data Analysis

It’s one thing to conduct a survey or an interview, but it’s another thing to process, analyze, and act upon that data you gather. Even putting an effective research project together can be overwhelming for businesses, which is why research services are another method of primary research. You can hire a team of experts or find a program that quickly compiles your data into usable statistics.

This is also best if you need help with data analysis, which is the process of inspecting and screening your reports for objective, accurate, and insightful data. This can be a huge project, which is why experts who know how to categorize and analyze data are particularly helpful for businesses and organizations.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary Research

Here are some major benefits of primary research as well as certain challenges to be aware of.

Advantages

• Accuracy and Relevance: When you conduct the research yourself, you don’t have to worry about the work or bias of other researchers—you account for everything, which means you gather exactly what you need. 
• Control: Every step of your primary research is intentional, meaning you have more control over the kind of results you get. Decisions are made at your own discretion, and you don’t have to worry about citations or relying on other sources.
• Up to date: You don’t have to rely on outdated sources or statistics. Instead, you get just what you need for your specific goals at the time you need it.
• Improved customer experiences: Primary research is also particularly beneficial for your customers and clients since you are directly improving the customer experience with your business offering. You can conduct market surveys in-house by using the Pearl-Plaza platform to make the most of your survey analysis.

Disadvantages

• Resources: Not everyone has the time or the money to conduct their own research. Planning, executing, reporting, and analyzing the data you gather is expensive and demanding. This can prevent both the quality and the accuracy of work if you use poor resources, cut corners, or rush the process. 
• Feasibility: Especially when poorly designed, not all primary research projects are realistic. Interviewing every member of your staff of 500, for example, isn’t a reasonable goal.
• Research Bias: Even though you get to customize your research, you also have to be especially careful when it comes to objectivity. Your opinions, assumptions, and preferences must not get in the way of accurate research, which isn’t always easy. Sometimes, an unbiased third party can help businesses accurately gather and analyze their data.

Primary Research Vs. Secondary Research

There are two core types of research: primary and secondary. Primary research is a powerful tool for businesses; however, secondary research, which is research that you don’t conduct yourself but gather from other sources, shouldn’t be dismissed. In fact, the best scholars and businesses use a combination of primary and secondary research to round out their perspectives.

Using both primary and secondary research is what gives you a comprehensive report of your findings—the more reliable sources that support your findings, the more credible and usable your data is. Sometimes, primary research is mainly done to supplement or confirm findings done in secondary research.

For example, a tech company may want to update its work-from-home policy. They may find secondary research that offers some insight into what employees prefer, but they could also do their own primary research to get specific information from their own employees that is accurate and up to date.

The bottom line is that primary research and secondary research are both more rewarding and useful when used in conjunction with each other, not in competition. Primary research will give you data or information specific to your concerns, company, customers, industry, etc. Secondary research may offer applicable insights into your questions and concerns as well, though there are limits to how directly the information relates to your niche goals.

Primary Research with Pearl-Plaza

If you want to be competitive in your field, encourage honesty and authenticity among your employees, and produce effective market research, it’s time to use Pearl-Plaza. You don’t have to be an analyst, a scholar, or a mathematician to do your own primary research—you can trust the expertise and advanced technology of Pearl-Plaza platforms to simply but powerfully compile your needed data and take your business to the next level.

Primary research is invaluable when it comes to market research and giving customers the best possible experience with your brand. Learn how Pearl-Plaza can help you gain the most insight out of your primary research surveys!

Instead of surveying every single person you want feedback from, most people use a concept called sampling instead and rely on sampling methods to research a group. Sampling allows you to get information from a group of people, and when done correctly, the information is also generalizable and usable. We’ll walk you through sampling, types of sampling methods, and how to begin using some of these techniques. 

What Is Sampling?

Sampling is using a group of your population to understand the population as a whole. Think of sampling as you would with sampling a cake. To see if a whole cake is delicious, you can usually tell by eating a slice of the cake. That slice of the cake can tell you a lot about the taste, texture, consistency, and overall balance of the cake—and it’s much easier to eat just a slice instead of an entire cake. Sampling for surveys works much the same way. 

You take a group of your population and survey just them. It’s typically much more manageable and affordable to do so when you’re doing large scale research. From there, your data team will be able to analyze the data from the sample—which is typically a smaller amount that’s easier to glean important insights from. The insights from sampling—if your sampling is done correctly—can then tell you about the whole group you’re researching. And it can help you gather these insights at a fraction of the cost and much less effort than it would take to survey the entire group. 

Difference Between Population and Sample

To better understand sampling methods, it’s important to distinguish between the population and the sample. The population is the entire group of people you want to learn about and to be able to draw conclusions about. For example, if you wanted to determine how your customers felt about a new product, your population would be every single customer that’s purchased the new product from you. If you wanted to research the grocery shopping habits of single mothers, your population would be every single mother. 

The sample is a representative group of your population that will be participating in your research or survey. The key is that the sample has to be an accurate representation of your population. For example, if you were researching the grocery shopping habits of single mothers, you couldn’t go to a local grocery store and survey every person who walked in. You would get data, but it wouldn’t be data about the population you’re trying to study. As with the cake analogy, the sample or slice has to accurately represent the entire cake. 

It’s important to remember that population doesn’t necessarily mean “big” and sample means “small.” Populations can be defined by so many factors: geography, age, gender, income, and so many more factors. You can have a tiny population of just a particular set of customers or a large population like the entire adult population of North America. The larger, more dispersed, or more diverse your population is, the harder it will be to sample. 

What Are Sampling Methods?

When you want to do a survey or perform research, you’ll need to use sampling methods to determine who will be a part of your sample and how it will be related to your population. Carefully consider how you will select a sample that is as representative of your population as possible. In general, there are two categories of sampling methods: probability sampling and non-probability sampling. 

Probability sampling is when each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected to be included in the sample. The sample participants are chosen randomly, and the results from the survey are generalizable to the population as a whole. Probability sampling methods are typically more accurate than others, but they are also more time consuming and expensive to make possible. 

On the other hand, non-probability sampling is when each member of the population does not have a chance of being selected. With these sampling methods, you could choose your sample based on convenience or other limiting criteria that make it so that every person isn’t eligible to be selected.

For example, if you wanted to study all of your customers, it would be a non-probability approach to then just select a sample of customers who have subscribed to an email list. In this situation, you would be limiting who could be selected to those on a list, which may or may not be accurate to your entire population. With non-probability sampling, it’s generally much more affordable and easier to do research, but you do run the risk of accumulating higher amounts of sampling error and reducing the likelihood of having a generalizable sample. 

Probability Sampling Methods

To perform a probability sampling survey, there are several methods that are commonly used. These are some of the most commonly used probability sampling methods: 

Simple Random Sampling

Simple random sampling is the simplest way to get a sample where every member of the population had an equal chance of being selected. To do a simple random sample, you will choose a way to randomly select a certain number of people from your population to survey. Some common methods include using a random number generator, drawing a name out of a hat or bowl, or any other type of chance. 

For example, you could number each customer you’ve had and use a random number generator to determine who will be a part of your sample. You could use a list generator to select certain customers from a list of names or emails. However you do it, the key is that it’s random. 

Systematic Sampling

Using simple random sampling can be extremely time consuming with a large population, so many will instead use systematic sampling. Systematic sampling is using some sort of designated system to choose randomly. For example, you could number all of your customers and choose the tenth individual. Choosing systematically saves you time and effort but still provides you with a random sample. 

Stratified Sampling

Stratified sampling is most useful when you have groups of people who should be sampled from equally. First, you divide your population into groups that don’t overlap (i.e. people from one group can’t be in another group). From there, you’ll randomly select a sample from each group. 

For example, if you were looking at your customers, you might want to break them up by annual income to see if that affects what you’re researching. Your stratified groups would then be done by income, and you would select a small sample from within each group. 

Cluster Sampling

Cluster sampling also involves splitting your population into groups, but these groups should be split randomly if possible. Then, instead of selecting from each group, you will randomly select groups and sample everyone in the group. For example, an airline might randomly select a certain number of flights each day and survey every passenger on those flights. 

Non-Probability Sampling Methods

Since probability sampling can be time consuming, some people will use non-probability sampling methods instead. These methods are generally not generalizable to the whole population as they may or may not be an accurate representation of the population. 

Convenience Sampling

Convenience sampling is choosing a sample based on ease of access. Instead of choosing from a population randomly, you choose from a population based on who is easy to communicate with. For example, standing in front of a grocery store and surveying everyone who walks past is convenience sampling. Not every member of your population has an equal chance to be chosen, and your data will only represent one day at one grocery store.

Choosing customers based on being subscribed to newsletters or who follow your company on Instagram could also be convenience sampling (if your population is larger than just “those who follow us on Instagram”) because it’s all about ease of access. 

Voluntary Response Sampling

Voluntary response sampling is when you select a sample based on who wants to be a part of the sample. The individuals can voluntarily choose to respond or not respond based on a general call for responses. For example, you could send out an email to every customer and ask them to join the study. Those with strong opinions or interest would be the most likely to join, which could mean your population isn’t representative. 

Purposive sampling

Purposive sampling selects a sample based on what a researcher decides. Essentially a researcher will be the one to determine if someone is in the sample or not. For example, you could put out a survey, and the researcher would then only look at the surveys for people who they decided met a certain criteria: like having purchased the most recent product. 

Snowball Sampling

Snowball sampling is used when a population is hard to reach. For example, if your research requires data from shelterless people, you may have a hard time reaching them for a survey. Snowball sampling is when you use just a few individuals you can find from this group or even choose participants based on whose family or associates you can contact. While snowball sampling isn’t random, it can be useful for certain populations that you may not be able to survey in another way. 

The Bottom Line

Overall, there are many sampling methods to choose from when planning your surveys. The end goal is to try to get your sample to be as representative as possible of your overall population, so you can use the results to generalize about the population and make conclusions. Poor sampling will give poor results. After all, as we all know, if we put crappy data in, we get crappy results, which don’t benefit anyone. Choose a representative sample instead for beneficial results. 
See how Pearl-Plaza can help you with your sampling and survey efforts to help you choose the right sampling methods to get a representative sample.