Techniques and best practices to conduct productive usage & attitude research

Understanding the market is the first step for any business eager to provide its customers with products and services accurately aligned to their needs. Usage and attitude research studies are critical to gain deeper insights into your product categories, knowing your brand perception, understanding consumer intent, their purchase process, and preferred channel.  

 

Conducting usage and attitude research –

• Help ease decision-making fatigue and saves on efforts and resources by helping you prioritize features and product releases that fulfill your most crucial user demands
• Provides a clearer understanding of how your product stacks up against competitors to make informed strategic decisions
• Enables you to optimize your marketing and sales approach and messaging to better match the needs, attitudes, and desires of potential customers

 

 

What exactly are usage and attitude research studies?

A usage & attitude study helps companies to understand consumers’ motivation, usage, purchase behavior, and perception of specific brands and categories. They are primarily used to gain insights into consumer behavior, attitudes, and purchasing patterns.

A usage and attitude study fundamentally helps answer these questions:

• What products do consumers use?
• What brands are they familiar with, and which do they prefer?
• How do they make use of the products? On what occasions? (with examples)
• What are their pain points and complaints?
• Do certain segments of consumers use the product more or less often?

 

 

How to conduct a usage and attitude study

Obtain the right sample

It is important that the sample selected represents the entire customer base. Calibrate the audience in terms of demographics, psychographics, and behaviors.

Use unprompted recall to set a baseline

The first part of the usage and attitude research can set a reference point for further research. If you ask the respondents about the products or brands that come to their mind instantly in a specific category, unprompted, it will help get a comprehensive idea of your brand’s awareness among respondents in comparison with your competitors, and the effectiveness of any recent marketing campaigns.

Move to assess attitudes and usage of specific brands

Explore customer attitudes towards, and usage of specific brands or products. Prompted recall can be used in this case – where you may make a list of competing brands and ask the respondents which brands they are aware of, which they currently use, and which they have considered using.

Dive into the details

Gain a better understanding of how consumers perceive your brand and possibly your competitors. This allows you to learn about your brand’s position in the market and its competitive strength.

Read more: [Case study] Customer behavior analysis for increasing product usage

Typical U&A research questions

• What is the most frustrating thing about shopping for a product online? (Pain points)
• While buying products, which of the following factors is the most important to you? (Need and wants)
• How frequently do you shop for new clothes online? (Behavior)
• Which of the following brands do you consider to be the most dependable? (Attitude of competitors)
  
  To conduct a successful usage and attitude research study, it is important to obtain the right sample, use unprompted recall to set a baseline, assess attitudes and usage of specific brands, and dive into the details. Overall, usage and attitude research studies can help businesses accurately align their products and services to their customers’ needs and preferences, resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction.
  
  

To conduct a successful usage and attitude research study, it is important to obtain the right sample, use unprompted recall to set a baseline, assess attitudes and usage of specific brands, and dive into the details. Overall, usage and attitude research studies can help businesses accurately align their products and services to their customers’ needs and preferences, resulting in increased sales and customer satisfaction. To know how Netscribes can help you gain a targeted view of your product’s usage and brand perception and drive research-backed decisions, contact us.

Based on insights by Suchita Biswas, Senior Manager, Research and Information, Consumer Team.