Using video in marketing research

Video promotion is an important part of any promotional campaign. There are so many benefits to using this promotional tool. These benefits are outlined in our recent video promotion blog titled Benefits and Statistics. Due to the dynamic nature of video, it can be used in many differing applications. Market research is a fundamental aspect of the marketing process. It is an essential element to understanding your customer, market and industry and therefore achieving the appropriate marketing mix for any product or service. This blog wants to examine using video content as part of a research project. Due to the complex and varied nature of market research, this blog will provide more of an overview with suggestions for video applications.

The Obvious Example

Video content has been used for a long time within research projects. The obvious example is where a pre-prepared video is shown to respondents to elicit a response based on the video’s content. This can allow the respondent to digest the information and give an immediate response. Further views allows for more time to be taken for digestion of the information. This can lead to further more in-depth insights. Using modern video tools, video in this context does not have to be restricted to test centres. With video hosting sites, all this can be done remotely reducing the cost of the research. To provide a level of human interaction, video calls can be made. This can replicate the testing scenario as if the interviewer and interviewee are in the same room. Using video content does not have to stop here.

Types of Research Videos

There a variety of different video applications for the marketing research industry. These are a few examples:

• In the moment
  • In-store
  • Vox-pop
• Voice of the consumer
  • at home
  • on location
• Geo-location – data collected by either the respondent or mobile technology
• Diary studies
  • at home
  • on location.

Mobile

Mobile phones and market research

Two-thirds of all people in the UK own a smart phone. Mobile devices have the ability to capture both images, video and audio. You can also post the AV directly to the research company. These capabilities are having a dramatic effect on the nature of market research agencies and their projects. It means there is an army of potential research interviewees that have access to a device that can record video/stills of their experience. Their experience can then sent to a collection point for further analysis. Bear in mind that the interviewee will more likely have their smart phone or tablet to hand most of the day. This quick and easy access to their mobile allows for quicker, more accurate and honest evaluations on the research objectives. Vivid have worked on research commissions which have collected respondents videos etc and then this can be collated into the overarching report.

Playback/Analysis

Using video as part of the research process gives insightful insights into a research project. What video allows in the analysis stage is the ability to review a visual tools over and over. This means the researcher can spend more time reviewing the footage and therefore  will provide a more in-depth analysis for their client.

Sharing video for market research

Easy to Share

The video/s can be easily shared from the research subject to the research agency. They can be easily shared within the research team. They can be easily shared between the agency to the client. This can take the form of the actual rushes or part of an edited presentation with graphical elements to emphasise key points, all backed up with real world videos. The client can then themselves delve further into the content.

For Client Feedback

When a researcher relays their final report back to their client, having a video clip to show provides an informative visual and audio response for the client. Rather than the researcher telling their client about the research findings, they can actually show them using video as part of the presentation or report.

Presentations

Research Presentation

When providing the final report to the client, using video provides a direct feedback and clarification tool to the client and brings the overall commission to life. A presentation can be provided to the client which using a variety of research sources can qualify the the research brief. A video presentation can be used to show the key findings of the research commission or can be expanded to provide more in-depth analysis. Video presentations can utilise numerous techniques to clearly demonstrate pertinent information quickly and effectively. The video can be shown to key client personal and also easily shared to both internal and external audiences.

Cost of Video Research

Cost

Like any form of video production it can be helpful to utilise a video production company, but it does not have to be this way. As mentioned before, everyone has a smart phone and all that is required is a portal where the videos can be uploaded. Using a small camcorder like a Go Pro, the interviewer can capture the interviewee’s thought directly. This video clip can be used as part of the analysis stage or shown directly to the client. A small cost like this opens up a new and exciting avenue for research.

The Push Back

There are of course some negatives with using video as part of marketing research commissions. The obvious one is that some people feel that video can be intrusive. Some people do not like having their voice recorded let alone their face shown. There has to be willingness for the participants to engage in this technology and there can be resistance to this. We imagine agencies find that younger respondents are more willing to engage in video capture and this can be a problem attracting an older audience. This skew can lead to problems comparing data over different age groups when using video footage. This can be somewhat remedied by clearly stating the intended use of the video to the respondent. Most video for research is strictly confidential.

Do the people using the video feedback option mean they have different non comparable information to someone who does not use video feedback? This can be even if the video will only shown internally. This is coupled by understanding the capture portal and security concerns about the safety of their videos. 6% of people do not have access to the technology to provide the video feedback.

Not all respondents have been trained by Steven Spielberg. This can lead to poor quality video, lighting and more importantly audio which could obscure/omit key research findings.

All the video captured has to be backed up with a robust consent procedure. This procedure issue can be easily overcome using efficient interviewers and a clear online consent form. Fundamentally, there are several questions that have to be answered.

• Where is the video going to be captured to?
• Where is it going to be stored?
• How is it going to be analysed?
• How is it going to be reported and displayed to the client?

Vivid’s Experience

Vivid have provided numerous video research commissions for leading research agencies. As members of the team have a research background, we believe our combined research and video production skills really assist our research agency clients. Vivid provide comprehensive research video content to be used for analytical analysis for our clients. Obviously we are not in a position to show any of these confidential commissions but during our time we have provided the following services for some of the country’s leading research companies:

• Time-lapse vidoes
• Video interviews
• Vox Pops
• Client presentations (animated+video).

There are so many benefits of using video within a market research commissions, it can provide a more comprehensive, immediate and intimate approach to the research process. It also works as an important part of the whole research mix.

If you would like to find out more about our video production service, please visit our what we do page. If you would like to discuss any projects, please call a member of the Vivid team on 0161 477 2404.