There’s light on the horizon. As we enter the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re starting to see glimpses of normalcy once again. And for the first time in a long time, we can be hopeful.
But, we know we can never go back to how things were.
COVID-19 has left an immeasurable impact on lives, jobs and industries. Some of which we won’t understand for years to come. That includes the research industry.
Labs shut down for months. And many of our colleagues faced unprecedented challenges about how to continue studies without the technologies that fueled them and the participants central to them.
In fact, at the COVID-19 pandemic’s height, studies found that nearly a third of neuroscientists considered leaving neuroscience research as a result of COVID-19 and over a quarter considered leaving research altogether.
These depths of despair often reveal lights of hope and we’re beginning to see some green shoots, which range from new methods of data collection, study design and analysis to new ways of collaboration and access. The pandemic has meant that we’ve had to create, innovate and explore new ways of thinking. And we’re doing at a faster rate than we ever imagined.
A premium on research
For starters, research has become more important than ever. Behaviors have changed. Tastes have shifted. New habits have formed and even solidified. These shifting behaviors, motivations and expectations also mean that the type of messaging that resonates is likely to change.
Brands must understand these dynamics to connect with their customers now and later. This puts a premium on research and consumer understanding. But the best research not only understands what someone can tell you; it also understands what people can’t, or won’t.
This means deploying traditional measures, like surveys and focus groups to gather feedback. However, it also means leveraging tools that measure nonconscious processing, such as facial expression and eye tracking, to help understand reactions on a moment-by-moment basis. After all, 95% of brain processing occurs below conscious awareness, so understanding only one facet paints an incomplete picture.
In this way, you can’t rely on the insights and information you had before the pandemic, but rather seek to identify new insights that help understand consumer’s new behaviors and attitudes, including insight from the nonconscious and unbiased mind.
The rise of online research
As the COVID-19 pandemic put a premium on research, it also made it nearly impossible for researchers to conduct lab studies. While many professionals were able to pack up their computers and work from home, the same wasn’t true for a lot of researchers who didn’t have the proper tools or processes to move their research online.
But with necessity being the mother of invention, it forged new partnerships, plans and products. While some revised their research methodologies and put in place new processes, others, like Greg Deters from Forward Group, needed to continue understanding nonverbal consumer behaviors and cues to help his partners develop successful creative. The integration of facial expression analysis and eye tracking data, captured through a webcam, became a lifeline that allowed his team to analyze data from anyone and at any time.
While these new ways of remote research allowed for studies to continue outside of the lab, it also enabled studies to be completed faster, cheaper, for less and with greater flexibility and scale. This has great implications for researchers and the industry moving forward.
A restructuring of the industry
As we continue to evolve how we conduct research itself, there are implications for the broader research industry. One of which is its structure and inner workings. For a long time, large labs and market research agencies dominated the industry. With increasing demands for cheaper, faster, flexible and scalable research – now coupled with the technologies that are able to do that – boutique agencies have an opportunity to seize share.
What I foresee is a banding of smaller market research agencies – across countries, states and sectors. A network of collaboration in which each agency leverages the same underlying tools and technologies, and is able to share, scale and access research as needed. Location will no longer determine research methods; what will are the factors most relevant to those conducting the study.
For example, if a R&D team based in New York City wants to conduct research in London, Los Angeles or Berlin, they’d be able to do so more quickly and cost-effectively than before. And in this way – through this network – researchers will be able to access more of what they need whether that be larger sample sizes or more targeted demographics.
Brighter Future Ahead
As the light shines brighter and brighter, and the pandemic becomes a part of our rear view, while we’ll return, and be happy to do so, to many of the normalities in our lives, we’ll also embrace all of the new ways of thinking and doing. In research, we’ll begin to see more of the pandemic’s many positive impacts, and enter into the next era of innovation – that is, until the next big challenge we endure.
