Blogs Are a Serious Market Research Tool: Would You Agree?
Blogs seem like a very casual and informal expression of thought, but they surely are a very useful market research tool in the current times. You may wonder, why I am saying that when there is glut of blogs available online and they do not sound like the most reliable source of authentic informatics. They usually lack referencing.
Here is why you would agree with me:
- Consumers most often express their true opinion about their experiences regarding products and services on blogs
- Often these opinions are read and lead towards influencing other customers who believe that the blog will have a more unbiased opinion vis a vis a source which is influenced by the marketer
- Researchers and marketers often use focus group as research tool so as to get the true pulse of the market but in comparison to that blogs are more spontaneous, and unsought expression by the consumer, thus adding a whole lot of truth and fair opinion in it in comparison to focus groups
- Market researchers can find the most updated information here as there is no medium that is as immediate and quick as compared to blogs. Blogs are updated frequently and would give a more current and immediate feel to the market as compared to a long term research project
- An interesting blog becomes viral very quickly
- The brutal criticism can be found nowhere better than on a blog. More so when the identity of the blogger is kept anonymous. If as a researcher, you would want to know about the negatives if a product, brand or anything in the market, blogs beat the contrived research setting
- All the information that a researcher takes from the blog is without actually causing any inconvenience, unnecessary interrogation to the consumer/ respondent. All the more, one is able to get a fair idea or opinion and beliefs about the blogger by reading the added information that the blog provides
- One significant reason, I insist that market researchers should stay abreast with the blogs in their area is that they are accessible to the competitors as much as they are to u. if you don’t read them , they lead you.
- Lastly, their accessibility and search is easy and free of cost…Whoohoo!
With all these hidden and useful benefits of the blogs, they indeed are a gold mine of information which is not yet completely exploited by the researchers. Tap this spontaneous expression of thought and get the pulse of the market.
