A guide to online market research panels

Market research is an essential way to gain insights from your target audience about new products and services. These insights save you time, money, and frustration. They also keep you from making the #1 mistake of product development: going to market with a product that no one will buy.

Market research panels are used to check the pulse of employees, gather public opinions on emerging topics, or benchmark a company’s performance against industry competitors. These research panels are valuable resources for quickly collecting data from your target audience on what works and what doesn’t. But how does a research panel work and what are the benefits?

A research panel is composed of people who represent your target audience. The respondents reflect the demographics of your ideal customer, giving you a sample of insights across age, gender preference, income, purchase behaviors, and other traits.

Research panel respondents fill out a survey that asks specific questions related to your project’s goal. For instance, you might perform concept testing on a new product, a new logo design, or brand messaging to determine if panelists like your ideas.

Before taking the survey, the panel members are vetted to make sure they represent your target audience. This pre-qualification process guarantees that you reach the right groups with your survey and improves your research study’s data quality.

In the past, surveys were conducted via phone or in shopping malls and were limited to collecting one-on-one data. Today, most surveys are conducted using an online panel of pre-qualified participants. Online market research panels allow surveys to be conducted quickly, target a specific audience, and produce cost-effective and high-quality results. 

Companies of all sizes use online panels for concept testing, employee feedback, and insights into new market trends. Online panel research can provide both qualitative and quantitative data, depending on the data research methodology used. The panel sample can include panelists from the U.S. or extend globally to other countries to provide a wider variety of insights.

According to Nielsen, over 30,000 consumer products are launched in the U.S. each year. How do you know if your product will stand out in the crowd?

Market research has been used for nearly 100 years to understand the motivations and perceptions of buyers. Surveys first started as a “man on the street” interview and have been refined to ask specific questions to target audiences. The purpose of surveys is still the same, to understand what a target audience wants, but the reach and impact has greatly expanded.

Panel research helps companies avoid expensive failures by gaining customer insights before launching a product. They learn what messaging resonates with customers, how to optimize price points, and how to create packaging that attracts customers.

In addition to market research, online survey panels play an important role across business, academia, government, and media. Businesses often administer surveys to improve employee engagement, while news organizations use surveys to better gauge public opinions about emerging topics. 

Panelists are screened in advance, creating a large pool of respondents for an online survey panel. This pool of people are immediately available to respond to market research studies and represent all of the demographics of the target audience.

Research panels offer a diverse set of views that are easily captured in a survey. Panel members self-report their answers, avoiding the bias that may happen if a researcher completes all the data. Because the respondents represent a wide variety of demographics, survey results will include both expected and unexpected answers, bringing valuable insights to the researcher.

Online survey panels save time and money, while reducing the risk that a company will make a big mistake or misinterpret important issues. They also provide quick results that help organizations stay agile and quickly react to market changes.