How to Gain Customer Insight with Consumer Panels
A consumer panel is a group of people selected by a business or organization to provide opinions and feedback on products or services. Market researchers will typically design the group based on a certain demographic or target audience.
Unlike a focus group which meets only once, consumer panels may be used on several occasions over extended periods of time. This frequency allows your business to gather multiple rounds of feedback to develop new ideas and gain deeper insights from your audience.
How Brands Use Consumer Panels
Consumer panel data puts you at a competitive advantage when it comes to making decisions for your business. Panelists answer specific questions that will have an impact on your product development, customer service, branding and overall business practices.
Following are just a few of the ways companies use consumer panels as part of their market research initiatives.
Get Specific Product Feedback
Consumer panel feedback provides key insights about product performance and ease of use. It can also let you know where your product falls short. Panels help businesses answer the following key questions:
- How likely are existing customers to use new products?
- What demographic is most interested in this new product?
- Which features do people find confusing or difficult to use?
- Which features do they love?
- How much are people willing to pay for your product?
Know Your Audience and Spot Trends
A consumer panel puts you in the mind of your audience and can teach you more about their experiences, likes, dislikes, and behaviors. They also help spot new trends on the horizon. Companies in the market research phase often use panels to identify:
- Shopping behaviors such as how often, on what devices, or in what types of outlets people are making purchases
- How do people find out about your product or brand? (ie which advertising platforms are most effective)
- Consumer trends including colors, materials, flavors, service style, and packaging trends
Help Reshape Your Brand Image
When it’s time to re-evaluate your branding, who better to ask than your current and potential customers? Just imagine the power of gaining feedback from a ready audience before investing thousands of dollars into a re-brand. Consumer panelists will provide feedback on all aspects of your current and proposed brand assets, including:
- Logo
- Colors
- Slogan
- Fonts
- Mascot
- Website
If they hate it, you can ask them why they hate it. If they love it, find out why they love it. Then use that information to pivot and conquer.
The Benefits of Consumer Panels
Aside from having eleventy-billion practical uses for consumer panel data, there are other benefits to this particular market research method. Consumer panels are:
- Efficient – Participants offer reactions and opinions in real-time, so there’s no delay in knowing whether your consumer liked your company’s new recipe or packaging system. Based on their interaction with the product, you can quickly improve your product or service.
- Knowledgeable – Some may say that consumer panels are biased, since participants are used multiple times and may develop a higher-than-average understanding or preference for your company. However, this “heightened awareness” can also be leveraged for more educated feedback (without having to spend time bringing random respondents up to speed). In addition, varying question types and subjects keeps the dialog fresh and can minimize bias or repetitive answers.
- A vehicle for customer loyalty – Panels create trust and loyalty among your customers by showing that you care about their opinion. When customers see their opinions come to life through brand choices, they often become fans for life.
Other Uses for Consumer Panels You May not Have Thought About
You may not realize it, but consumer panels serve as the perfect pool for forming a more in-depth focus group. Through the process of working with consumer panels, we learn which participants are enthusiastic about providing feedback and might be willing to take part in additional sampling such as surveys and in-home product tests.
Voccii® manages a large consumer panel consisting of hundreds of active members. We recruit panelists through our website and during research projects (as appropriate) to provide feedback about our clients’ products and services in a variety of ways, including:
- Taste-testing new flavors
- Trying out safety features
- Evaluating new products
- Offering feedback on packaging designs
In addition, major brands across all industries have used consumer panels to inform the development of:
- Promotional materials
- Music for commercials
- Product flavors, scents, and names
- Billboard campaigns
Leverage Our Active Consumer Panel for Your Business
Voccii® conducts studies with various groups of people, such as parents of young children, adults over 50, Millennials, and many others. These research studies usually involve gathering feedback on brands and products or services, and are always confidential and anonymous.
Join our consumer panel or contact us to find out how your business can use our active panel.
