The future of market research is evolving with the expanding world economy and the diversity of technological changes and political shifts. The demand for market research services will continue to grow across all industries, and the expertise of focus groups in a virtual format that’s convenient, cost-effective, and able to narrow in on specific audiences, is influencing B2B strategies.
In high-stakes B2B environments, focus groups have been a significant component of qualitative data collection in market research, and are dependent on the communication of group members, researchers, and respondents.
It requires skilled moderation, in-depth analyses, and appropriate prep work integrated with supplemental discovery work to extract true value from B2B focus groups. Forbes urges businesses to work with a “high-quality data partner” who has control over the source participants during and after data collection to ensure that the right, verified people are taking the survey, not robots or unqualified participants.
For future market research, B2B focus groups will play a key role, most notably in utilizing a combination of business and data derived frameworks to direct action and set research methodologies of standardization, reliability, and measurement.
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Seizing B2B Advantages
In B2B driven focus groups, techniques for researching new products, testing new concepts, or discovering the “what if” of different business situations are the main objectives.
Within the business community the narrative and reconstruction of accounts that tell the survey story, identify key concerns, and use a data foundation, such as qualitative segmentation, are providing B2B companies with the right information to support strategy development.
B2B focus groups enable companies to:
- Evaluate changing customer needs.
- Gain competitive intelligence.
- Define the market.
- Reveal new market opportunities and determine the viability of the market for offerings.
- Gain knowledge to refine their products and services.
In future market research, B2B focus groups alter research design in the following ways:
- Supplementary Survey This augments an alternative primary data collection to identify issues or utilize after a survey to highlight and expand upon particular issues.
- Stand Alone Method Focus groups are the sole data collection methodology and provide the principal source of data.
- Multi-Method Design Studies utilize various methods of data collections, and no single method regulates utilization of the others.
Future Disruption and Research Impact
For a B2B focus group, validating or refuting themes can confirm or deny uncovered findings across a larger set of customers. B2B companies need to be aware of biases that can skew results and be sensitive to privacy concerns which can be problematic during discussions regarding competitors.
The future of market research will be disrupted by new technologies and trends, and the speed, amount, and availability of data that can be collected and shared. In turn, B2B buyer behavior is shifting with new analytics tools, and there’s increased demand for faster insights.
But the value of B2B focus groups will only grow as B2B companies seek out the experiences of other customers and fine-tune potential supplier lists. Through focus groups, B2B companies can discover their Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and gain the ability to test services, marketing ads, products, and market opportunity for outcomes like:
- Individuality Consumers should easily be able to differentiate a company's products from other competitors in the same market.
- Market Attractiveness Products and services had to be desirable and needed. Otherwise, there is no market demand for them.
- Strategic Advantage B2B market research should enable companies to create strategies that mitigate or prevent competitors from duplicating advantages.
Transforming B2B Market Research into Actionable Insights
Research Optimus (ROP) ensures that business managers and decision makers have access to the market research data they need from a variety of sources. Business-to-business companies can obtain insights about current market trends, economic shifts, segmentation, partner sourcing services, competitors, new market entry, and customer behavior with hybrid intelligence and thorough assessment of risks and opportunities. To know more about our services and engagement model, contact us today.