Simplicity makes you faster!


Fastuna — the new meaning of automated research

We all like to use simple tools, easy technology and internet services. What if it were also possible to simplify market research, which otherwise requires considerable expertise? Let's look at how a simplified approach can influence speed and results.

Simplicity of operation helps achieve desired results fast. We spend less time looking through instructions and setting up projects, etc. Instead we just enter the parameters, press a button and done! We get what we need straight away.

Similar to an ancient notion in fables and tales — it is like a magic wand, a spell or a genie in a lamp, which make things happen instantly. "Abra cadabra" and there it is! However, the possibility of thoughts materialising instantly is on the horizon but we are not quite there yet.

Here are a few examples from the business world where the magic wand effect is already in use. Online bookkeeping, record keeping, accounting, website builders, online advertising tools, online banking and many more. Complicated activities which many found intimidating in the past had become available to everyone. Moreover, due to technology and automation they can now be done fast. In reality all of those things remain complex, but it won't be your problem anymore because it works.

Of course, there are areas which will always require substantial expertise and market research is one of them. The correct business parameters need to be measured, a questionnaire needs to be composed, you have to be able to form the sample, know how to collect data, analyse it statistically and make the right conclusions. Yet even those creative elements include frequent and standard tasks within them which in turn can be simplified.

The majority of research follows the well trodden path from product to product and from company to company. Amongst the most commonly tested subjects are ideas, concepts, packaging, websites, online services and ads and communication materials.

Technology allows us to fuse and automate the research expertise within the tools and present it as ready made solutions. The role of researchers in this is to give the internal stakeholders what they need — to enable them to test their solutions on customers with a press of a button.

Consumers should be the focus when testing and developing a product or a marketing campaign. It is important to remember that we are not necessarily talking to experts but to regular people about simple things. While a purchase of a house, a car or a loan may involve a more complicated analysis, shopping for things such as a bottle of pop is usually more straightforward. Therefore the questions should also be simple and the questionnaire brief. This approach gives the most realistic result, capturing close to how people think and behave in real life. And the closer the result is to reality the more reliable it is. It is a similar concept to when you must instantly answer simple questions in order to accidentally reveal your true feelings.

The simplicity principle is already widely used in satisfaction measurement tools such as NPS or in such research tools like questionnaire builder. So when developing solutions for Fastuna we used the same principle. After all, doing simple things fast also makes them more reliable. Moreover, we completed this simplification approach using deep and broad experience in market research and marketing decision-making practices.