用消费者研究提升市场营销:战略指南

The Gist 要旨

• Essential insights. Consumer research offers crucial insights into customer needs, trends and purchasing behavior, guiding effective marketing strategies.
  重要的见解。消费者研究提供了有关客户需求、趋势和购买行为的重要见解，指导有效的营销策略。
• Strategic tools. Techniques like surveys, focus groups and digital analytics enable marketers to understand and meet evolving consumer demands.
  战略工具。调查、焦点小组和数字分析等技术使营销人员能够了解并满足不断变化的消费者需求。
• Data-driven success. Leveraging consumer research insights, businesses can anticipate market trends, optimize strategies and foster stronger customer connections.
  数据驱动的成功。利用消费者研究洞察，企业可以预测市场趋势、优化策略并建立更牢固的客户联系。

When it comes to modern marketing, consumer research provides marketers with the insights needed to keep up with the ever-evolving preferences and behaviors of their audience. Consumer research enables brands to gain a deeper understanding of their customers, uncovering trends, motivations and unmet needs that drive purchasing decisions.
在现代营销方面，消费者研究为营销人员提供了跟上受众不断变化的偏好和行为所需的见解。消费者研究使品牌能够更深入地了解客户，发现推动购买决策的趋势、动机和未满足的需求。

By leveraging the power of consumer research, marketers can anticipate changes in the market, be proactive to customer needs, and ultimately, build stronger connections with their audience, laying the groundwork for sustained business success. In this article, we will examine the foundation of consumer research, revealing the tools and techniques that marketers use to learn more about their core audience and its shopping behaviors.
通过利用消费者研究的力量，营销人员可以预测市场变化，主动满足客户需求，并最终与受众建立更牢固的联系，为持续的业务成功奠定基础。在本文中，我们将研究消费者研究的基础，揭示营销人员用来更多地了解其核心受众及其购物行为的工具和技术。

Understanding Consumer Research
了解消费者研究

Consumer research encompasses the processes and methodologies that are used by businesses to understand the preferences, behaviors, motivations, and needs of their target audience. This field of study aims to gather insights that can inform product development, marketing strategies, customer experience improvements, and overall business decision-making. By delving into the psyche of consumers, businesses can tailor their offerings and communications to more effectively meet the demands of the market.
消费者研究包括企业用来了解目标受众的偏好、行为、动机和需求的流程和方法。该研究领域旨在收集可为产品开发、营销策略、客户体验改善和整体业务决策提供信息的见解。通过深入研究消费者的心理，企业可以调整其产品和沟通方式，以更有效地满足市场需求。

Chuck Schaeffer, CEO at Johnny Grow, a business growth consultancy, told CMSWire that in his experience, most company executives think they know what their customers want — and more often than not they are only partially correct or incomplete. “Either scenario results in a cascading effect that degrades product R&D, marketing conversions, sales effectiveness, services delivery and customer experiences,” said Schaeffer. “The negative impact incurred in any of these areas is a significant financial loss that generally goes unrecognized by most business leaders.”
业务增长咨询公司 Johnny Grow 的首席执行官查克·谢弗 (Chuck Schaeffer) 告诉 CMSWire，根据他的经验，大多数公司高管认为他们知道客户想要什么，但往往他们只是部分正确或不完整。 “这两种情况都会产生连锁效应，降低产品研发、营销转化、销售效率、服务交付和客户体验，”谢弗说。 “这些领域中的任何一个所产生的负面影响都是重大的财务损失，而大多数企业领导人通常都没有意识到这一点。”

Schaeffer explained that consumers typically discover, rather than know, what new products they want. B2C insights can be sourced from a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods that include personas, journey mapping, empathy interviews, ethnographic research, social media harvesting, design thinking workshops and surveys.
谢弗解释说，消费者通常会发现而不是知道他们想要什么新产品。 B2C 洞察可以来自定性和定量方法的组合，包括人物角色、旅程图、同理心访谈、人种学研究、社交媒体收获、设计思维研讨会和调查。

The scope of consumer research is broad and multifaceted, covering various dimensions of consumer interaction with products and services that include, but are not limited to, the following areas:
消费者研究的范围广泛且多方面，涵盖消费者与产品和服务互动的各个方面，包括但不限于以下领域：

• Market Segmentation and Targeting: Identifying distinct groups within a market based on demographic, psychographic, behavioral, and geographic criteria to more precisely tailor marketing efforts.
  市场细分和目标定位：根据人口统计、心理、行为和地理标准识别市场中的不同群体，以更精确地定制营销工作。
• Product Research: Assessing consumer responses to existing products and potential new offerings to guide product development, features and improvements.
  产品研究：评估消费者对现有产品和潜在新产品的反应，以指导产品开发、功能和改进。
• Brand and Advertising Research: Evaluating consumer perceptions of a brand and the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in communicating the desired message and influencing consumer attitudes and behaviors.
  品牌和广告研究：评估消费者对品牌的看法以及广告活动在传达所需信息和影响消费者态度和行为方面的有效性。
• Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty: Measuring how satisfied customers are with a company’s products or services and their likelihood of remaining loyal and making repeat purchases.
  客户满意度和忠诚度：衡量客户对公司产品或服务的满意度以及他们保持忠诚度和重复购买的可能性。
• Pricing Research: Understanding how consumers perceive value and the price elasticity of demand for products or services to optimize pricing strategies.
  定价研究：了解消费者如何看待产品或服务的价值和需求价格弹性，以优化定价策略。
• Consumer Needs and Motivations: Investigating the underlying drivers of consumer behavior, including emotional, social, and practical needs, to better address these through marketing and product development.
  消费者需求和动机：调查消费者行为的潜在驱动因素，包括情感、社交和实际需求，以便通过营销和产品开发更好地解决这些需求。
• Shopping and Purchasing Behavior: Analyzing how consumers search for information, decide between different options, and make purchasing decisions, including the impact of digital channels and social media on these processes.
  购物和购买行为：分析消费者如何搜索信息、在不同选项之间做出决定以及做出购买决策，包括数字渠道和社交媒体对这些过程的影响。

Consumer research methods vary widely, from quantitative techniques such as surveys and experiments that yield statistical data, to qualitative approaches such as interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic studies that provide deeper insights into consumer attitudes and perceptions. Additionally, the rise of big data and advanced analytics, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), has expanded the scope of consumer research further, enabling real-time insights and predictive modeling of consumer behavior.
消费者研究方法多种多样，从产生统计数据的调查和实验等定量技术，到访谈、焦点小组和民族志研究等定性方法，这些方法可以更深入地了解消费者的态度和看法。此外，大数据和高级分析（包括人工智能（AI）和机器学习（ML））的兴起进一步扩大了消费者研究的范围，实现了消费者行为的实时洞察和预测建模。

Objectives of Consumer Research
消费者研究的目标

The objectives of consumer research are central to guiding businesses in their strategic decisions, ensuring that they are closely aligned with the needs, preferences, and behaviors of their target markets. Understanding these objectives can help businesses tailor their offerings and marketing strategies to more effectively meet consumer demands. 
消费者研究的目标对于指导企业的战略决策至关重要，确保其与目标市场的需求、偏好和行为紧密结合。了解这些目标可以帮助企业调整其产品和营销策略，以更有效地满足消费者的需求。

At its core, the goal of consumer research is to uncover what customers truly want and need from products or services. This involves delving into the specific features, benefits, and experiences that consumers seek. By understanding these preferences, businesses can design and modify their offerings to better satisfy customer demands, potentially leading to increased satisfaction, loyalty, and market share. This objective requires a mix of qualitative and quantitative research methods to capture the depth and breadth of consumer desires.

Market segmentation involves dividing a broad consumer market, usually composed of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as segments) based on some type of shared characteristics. These characteristics can be demographic (age, gender, income level), psychographic (lifestyle, values, attitudes), geographic (location), or behavioral (purchasing habits, brand interactions). Segmentation allows brands to target different groups more effectively with tailored marketing strategies, products, and services, optimizing resources and increasing the chances of success in meeting diverse consumer needs.
市场细分涉及根据某种类型的共同特征将广泛的消费者市场（通常由现有客户和潜在客户组成）划分为消费者子群体（称为细分市场）。这些特征可以是人口统计（年龄、性别、收入水平）、心理（生活方式、价值观、态度）、地理（位置）或行为（购买习惯、品牌互动）。细分使品牌能够通过量身定制的营销策略、产品和服务更有效地针对不同群体，优化资源并增加成功满足不同消费者需求的机会。

Consumer markets are dynamic, with attitudes, preferences, and behaviors evolving over time due to various factors such as technological advancements, social changes, and economic shifts. Consumer research plays a vital role in monitoring these changes, helping businesses remain agile to stay ahead of trends and adapt their strategies accordingly.
消费者市场是动态的，由于技术进步、社会变革和经济转变等各种因素，态度、偏好和行为随着时间的推移而不断变化。消费者研究在监测这些变化方面发挥着至关重要的作用，帮助企业保持敏捷性，领先于趋势并相应地调整策略。

By continuously tracking these shifts, companies can anticipate market developments, innovate proactively, and maintain relevance with their target audience. This objective often requires ongoing research efforts, using tools and methodologies that can capture real-time data and insights.
通过持续跟踪这些变化，公司可以预测市场发展、主动创新并保持与目标受众的相关性。这一目标通常需要持续的研究工作，使用可以捕获实时数据和见解的工具和方法。

Schaeffer explained that by using research that was done to understand the benefits of customer intelligence, his business found that companies that develop and refine customer intelligence achieve higher campaign conversions and sales win rates and lower cost per lead and cost per customer acquisition than those who do not. 
Schaeffer 解释说，通过使用为了解客户智能的好处而进行的研究，他的公司发现开发和完善客户智能的公司比那些开发和完善客户智能的公司实现了更高的营销活动转化率和销售获胜率，以及更低的潜在客户成本和客户获取成本。不是。

Tools and Techniques in Consumer Research
消费者研究的工具和技术

A variety of tools and techniques are employed in consumer research to gather insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and attitudes. Each method serves a unique purpose and offers different types of data that can inform business strategies.
消费者研究采用各种工具和技术来收集对消费者行为、偏好和态度的见解。每种方法都有其独特的用途，并提供可以为业务策略提供信息的不同类型的数据。