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How to conduct a Usage and Attitudes study: a step-by-step guide

March 15, 2023

To find new opportunities, sometimes you just need to check in with buyers. What do they use, does it meet their needs – and if it doesn’t, what would they want instead? 

A usage and attitude study, or U&A study, is ad hoc research designed to understand the market better and inform your business strategy. To answer your questions as effectively as possible, each study should be very flexible and tailored.

Usage and attitude market research projects have several other similar names too – such as awareness, attitude, and usage (AAU) studies.

These projects fill in knowledge gaps about the target audience and/or product category. Benefits of usage and attitude research can include:

• Learning new targeting information to inform marketing strategies
• Exploring drivers of brand or product choice
• Identifying how to better convert prospects and retain customers
• Finding unserved white space in the market

For example, brands often run a usage and attitude survey to understand how they can better influence the buying process . In B2B, customers tend to make the majority of their purchase journey before taking any direct action with you.

Google research found that B2B buyers complete 57% of the path to purchase before they perform any action on your website. Your sales reps may only get 5% of customers’ time in the purchase journey, according to Gartner .

Therefore, to convert more prospects, you need to understand customer attitudes before they reach you and when they’re still early in their journey.

How and why are they using products? What are their unmet needs? When they need a new solution, who do they turn to – what are their attitudes to different brands?

Crucially, which brands are top-of-mind? Emotions affect B2B buying behavior . For example, recency bias and inertia may be having a big impact.

You can find out via usage and attitude research, then use the insights to target buyers – and influence them accordingly – before they reach a brand’s website.

The use cases are wide-ranging for a usage and attitude study. Aside from buying process research, they can be just as effective in getting insights to inform your market segmentation or product development process too.

A step-by-step guide to usage and attitude studies

Best practices for usage and attitude research in B2B

Among other themes, a usage and attitude study explores product usage or consumption patterns, and brand perceptions – both for your own brand and for competitors too.

Depending on how many major competitors you have, it can be tempting to design an extensive set of questions, trying to explore customers’ attitudes to them in great detail.

But the interviews or surveys can’t last too long, particularly in B2B research . Respondent fatigue leads to lower-quality insights, plus senior decision-makers won’t have much time.

On the other hand, the project won’t drive meaningful change in your business if internal stakeholders’ key questions go unasked. So, the focus needs to be very targeted, to achieve a lot in a limited time.

To get the most out of your usage and attitude research, we suggest the following steps:

• Set clear objectives and hypotheses to test
• Design usage and attitude research around your objectives
• Collect the data
• Analyze your results and draw conclusions
• Communicate your findings, then turn insight into action

Let’s go through these in detail:

#1 Set clear objectives and hypotheses to test

For some market research services, there is a typical overall objective. A perception tracking study should monitor brand health and track metrics consistently over time, for example.

However, in a usage and attitude study, the goals can be much more open-ended. At the outset, the risk is that they become too opaque or weakly defined.

Therefore, it’s vital to set specific, measurable business objectives that key stakeholders agree on.

It’s also important to avoid duplicating previous market research work, as that risks telling these stakeholders what they already know.

An in-person/ virtual workshop or a round of internal interviews when the project begins is a good way to share existing knowledge, ensuring everyone is on the same page. 

This is also the time to brainstorm hypotheses, which the research results can validate or challenge.

#2 Design usage and attitude research around your objectives

Similarly, some market research projects require a specific methodology. To find the optimal pricing strategy , you need quantitative research, for example.

But in most cases, when it comes to quantitative vs qualitative research , it’s never a good idea to pick the methodology first and then crowbar in the research questions afterward.

Usage and attitude studies are a case in point. If your objectives are more exploratory, qualitative research will likely be the best option. 

If you need statistical validation, that lends itself to quantitative research – and in some cases, both methodologies are required to get the most valuable insights.

And within each methodology, there are different formats. One-on-one interviews, group discussions, and observation exercises are the main options in qualitative research.

Usage and attitude studies should be flexible. Always use the project objectives as the starting point, then choose the best method to achieve them – not the other way around.

Otherwise, you risk getting incomplete results, or not answering the research questions as effectively as possible.

#3 Collect the data

A typical usage and attitude questionnaire or topic guide structure will explore some of these areas with the target audience:

• Unprompted awareness of brands/products
• Prompted awareness
• Consideration levels
• Attitudes to different brands/products
• Purchase habits
• Usage patterns and levels
• Repeat usage likelihood and loyalty

In other words, the flow often resembles something similar to a basic sales funnel – starting with awareness and ending with loyalty.

But again, tailor the questioning to your objectives. There’s no value in asking templated questions for the sake of it if the answers won’t add value.

To meet your specific research objectives, you will usually need to add other questions too.

#4 Analyze your results and draw conclusions

During analysis, focus on the original project objectives – prioritize the most relevant insights, not the most anecdotally interesting ones.

In qualitative research, identify initial themes, then brainstorm and storyboard the findings. Revise if necessary and if you have gaps or follow-up questions, run some extra interviews.

In quantitative research, check the results thoroughly and format the data into tables. Look for statistically significant stories. Set aside data that isn’t useful or interesting.

If clear patterns aren’t emerging, consider running some statistical or trade-off analysis techniques on the data. 

For example, a simple regression analysis can show you the hierarchical order of product or service features and criteria, in terms of derived importance. It can also reveal how much of a difference there is between them and their ability to drive a purchase decision.

This type of analysis looks past respondents’ claims, to aim for more behavioral data. There are other ways to do this in more depth, requiring a very specific research design at the beginning of the project – more on this later in our best practices section.

#5 Communicate your findings, then turn insight into action

The worst-case scenario for a research project is that it only interests stakeholders while it’s running, not afterward. 

Poorly-executed final deliverables will end up stuck in a drawer or hidden away on a server, unused. This is why you involve the key internal stakeholders at the start of the project.

It gets the vital questions that the full team wants to include and their hypotheses to validate. It also means they’re much more likely to support your final results and use them.

However, even with their buy-in, the project won’t achieve the desired effects if the findings are hard to act on, or too dry.

You need to convey insights with the right storytelling and visualization techniques, bringing them to life. These can include models, diagrams, vox pops, case studies, and more.

Want to know if a usage and attitudes study is right for your research objectives?

#1 Leverage behavioral economics to see past claimed attitudes

There is a challenge to overcome with usage and attitude research. By default, you’re relying on respondents’ claimed version of events. There are two parts to this.

Firstly, respondents need to recall their product or service usage behavior i.e. how often they use it, when, where, and why.

Ethnographic research may be an alternate option in niche cases so that you can see their usage or consumption patterns first-hand. However, while it’s straightforward in consumer usage and attitude projects – e.g. in a study of online shoppers – often it isn’t viable in B2B research. 

It’s common to use ethnography for analyzing consumer attitudes, but usually, it isn’t appropriate to do observation exercises with senior decision-makers. Diary studies may be an option though.

But in most cases, it shouldn’t be difficult for respondents to accurately recall their product usage habits.

Secondly, when it comes to analyzing attitudes, there are more options. As mentioned, emotions play a key part in B2B decisions – buyers are human, after all.

By default, traditional research tends to explore System 2 decision-making, which is about logic and reason.

However, respondents can often over-rationalize the role played by System 2 thinking and overstate the importance of some rational criteria. System 1 decision-making works at a more emotional, subconscious level – using beliefs, intuition, and instinct.

The book Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman explores this concept in detail.

To analyze System 1 thinking, and see past any over-rationalized System 2 thinking, there are some smart research techniques:

• In qualitative research, you can use indirect and projective questioning. These include imagining future or ideal products, association exercises, and laddering questions
• In quantitative research, you can analyze the statistical connections between answers to different questions. MaxDiff or conjoint are advanced ways to do this

In this way, you’re getting more objectivity to your results – you’re less reliant on subjective accounts provided by respondents. The questionnaire needs to be designed to work with these techniques in advance, before fieldwork, unlike some simpler regression analysis techniques.

#2 Focus on customers’ Jobs-to-be-Done

When designing the research, take care not to define the market too narrowly. There may be other customer segments or product use cases out there that insightful research can reveal.

By using the Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) framework at the outset, you can think about the market more broadly. Amazon Web Services, ServiceNow, and Salesforce are some notable B2B examples of JTBD practitioners.

Focus on the ‘jobs’ that customers need to use a product or service for, rather than what existing ones are offering or capable of providing.

Prioritize exploring desired outcomes, rather than features, because this could shed light on new opportunities.

This mindset may also reveal a new competitor set – not firms that make similar products to you, but ones that help buyers to do the same ‘jobs’ as you.

#3 Build a comprehensive list of competitors

There won’t always be enough time to explore in-depth perceptions of multiple competitors.

But the key thing is to include all the relevant ones, without leaving out any notable brand names. If you miss any, it’ll be too late to do anything about it once the fieldwork is complete.

If you’re running the research internationally , make sure all the key local competitors are included and, if needed, accurately translated. This is particularly important in languages not using the Latin alphabet, e.g. Mandarin.

It’s also a good idea to regularly look for nascent, growing competitors. These could be disruptive players who will soon change the status quo and eat into others’ market share.

Sometimes, they are tricky to spot, because they may currently operate in other sectors. Take Uber – it started as a ride-hailing service, before moving into food delivery, package delivery, and freight transport.

Desk research is a good way to build comprehensive lists of competitors. Other options include social media research .

#4 Add other data sources to draw more specific conclusions 

There’s another way desk research has a role in usage and attitude research.

Getting respondents’ feedback is critical to any B2B research project, but typically it only gives you part of the story. Usually, there is more information out there that, combined with your primary research, will give you a more complete understanding. 

Publicly available secondary research information includes macroeconomic data, expert analysts’ predictions, customer reviews, and context on competitor activity.

Often, there’s also scope to include proprietary client information – sales trend data and customer behavior data, for example.

When analyzed alongside your new insights into usage and attitudes, you get more tailored final results, with more specific implications and recommendations for your business.

Looking to run a B2B usage and attitudes market research project?

What is U&A research?

Benefits can include: learning new targeting information to inform marketing strategies; exploring drivers of brand or product choice; identifying how to better convert prospects and retain customers; finding unserved white space in the market.

To get the most out of a usage and attitude study, we suggest the following steps: set clear objectives and hypotheses to test; design usage and attitude research around your objectives; collect the data; analyze your results and draw conclusions; communicate your findings, then turn insight into action.

We recommend that you: leverage behavioral economics to see past claimed attitudes; focus on customers’ Jobs-to-be-Done; build a comprehensive list of competitors; add other data sources to draw more specific conclusions.

Chris Wells

Chris Wells is a B2B marketing researcher and strategist. He was previously on the management team at B2B research specialist Circle Research, winners of the Best Research Agency at the 2016 MRS Awards. Chris has helped to deliver hundreds of research and strategy projects for B2B organizations.

Got a B2B market research project you’d like to discuss?

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Usage and attitude study (U&A): what does it mean?

What is a usage and attitude study?

What can brands evaluate with a u&a research study, how do you conduct a usage and attitude study, examples of u&a studies.

A usage and attitude study (U&A) is a type of descriptive  market research  known as a baseline study, which analyzes the uses and attitudes of the consumer in a market. It examines the consumer’s relationship with the category in detail, identifying what, how, where, when, and why they buy and consume your product and brand and those of your competitors. These valuable insights are essential for market expansion and, therefore, for new product development.

In a U&A, researchers analyze consumer behavior quantitatively, sizing both purchase and consumption variables and the motivations that lead to that purchase and consumption. Therefore, a U&A study evaluates the category, brand, and consumer. Specifically:

✓ Category analysis:  products purchased, frequency of purchase and consumption patterns, purchase motivations and barriers, consumption occasions, formats, place of purchase, and for whom they buy.

✓ Brand health : brand awareness (spontaneous and suggested), brands purchased (last x months and most frequently), and brand image.

✓ Consumer analysis:  consumer and buyer profile and consumer segmentation.

When carrying out a study of uses and attitudes, it’s important to define:

a) Specific objectives : Starting from the consumer behavior analysis, it’s necessary to define the specific objectives according to the purpose of the research. For example, if you want to carry out a study to identify new opportunities on special dates such as Mother’s/ Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc., it would be necessary to analyze not only the linkage of the category to these dates but also to identify behaviors about the percentage of celebration of each of the dates, as well as what consumers look for and value when including chocolate in these celebrations.

b) The market:  What are the current market players, both at the category and brand level, always taking into account both direct and indirect competition at the category level, so it’s necessary to keep in mind and consider including in the study the possible cannibalization of the category under investigation.

c) The target audience:  Depending on the specific objective, such as new product launches, finding new market niches, etc., we propose a baseline study that includes both consumers and non-consumers. Including non-consumers allows us to know, on the one hand, the consumer motivations, i.e. what the consumer needs/ wants, and, on the other hand, the barriers to the category or brand, thus obtaining the consumer insights necessary to find new consumer levers.

d) The sample:  For the sample, it’s essential to have a minimum of n=400 cases to have a sufficient model for analysis. If a reading of results for a specific target (age, gender, area, consumer of brand x, etc.) is desired, it would be necessary to expand the sample, having a minimum of n=100 cases for the selected subgroup or sub-target. To ensure the desired sample of analysis by subgroups, it’s necessary to establish quotas to obtain the proposed model.

f) The questionnaire:  Once the above points have been defined, the next step is the development of the questionnaire. It’s essential to be clear about the objectives so that, in the case of an initial baseline study, the development of the questionnaire would be carried out from scratch. Whereas, in the case of an updated study, i.e., repetition of a U&A to update the data, the questionnaire should be kept to make a comparison, thus having evolutionary data.

In the case of an initial baseline study, it’s necessary to collect the information available from the brand to have a correct contextualization, both of the category and the brands to be included, as well as the image attributes, motivations, etc…, making sure to speak to the consumer in their language. In case of not enough information on the category, it would be necessary to carry out a previous exploratory study through qualitative research.

To learn how some of our clients have carried out U&A studies and the results obtained thanks to the strategies implemented based on consumer insights. Continue reading to gain a deeper understanding of usage and attitude research.

CASE 1. Brand image improvement

A leading brand in the  FMCG  market detected that consumers had lost connection with their brand. Faced with this situation, the company considered a change in the choice of brand ambassador, so they launched a Usage and Attitude study,  Brand Health  and  Ad trackings , and several  advertising Post-Tests . The data from the survey showed that one of the celebrities had a 90% affinity with the brand, but 75% of the audience was against the type of advertising used. Based on these results, a communication plan was drawn up to help bring the brand closer to consumers. This proximity resulted in a 20% increase in sales compared to the previous year.

CASE 2. New target repositioning

Faced with falling sales, a multinational dairy products company decided to reformulate its communication strategy and use an approach based on the support of its “healthy” brands to differentiate itself within the massified dairy products category.

To this end, the company conducted several U&A studies,  Exploratory Phase ,  Concept Test , and Product Test, in order to identify the consumption habits of its target audience, as well as their relationship with its brand. Insights that led the brand to redefine its target, as well as the design and launch of two new pilot products. A redefinition that ended up giving the brand an increase of 4 points of penetration in the global market.

Discover usage patterns, purchasing habits, and consumers’ attitudes toward products in your category with the U&A study. Conduct today a usage and attitudes study with our smart insights platform!

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Usage and Attitude Study

Understanding buyer behaviors, preferences and unmet needs.

A usage and attitude study helps you to understand and measure buying patterns, product preferences and unmet needs to identify who to target, with which solutions and how to do it.

B2B buyers typically complete around 60% of the purchase process before engaging with suppliers, and around 90% of purchasing decisions are made subconsciously, based on emotion rather than logic. A usage and attitude study is crucial in understanding the path-to-purchase and what drives buyers to choose the products and brands that they do.

Our approach: Uncovering and serving “white spots” in your market

• Usage and attitude studies seek to answer the fundamental questions, such as which product to offer , whom to target and by which channels to use.
• They are typically done on an ad-hoc basis and designed to fill knowledge gaps related to the market opportunity, product category, customer attitudes, behavior and needs, customer segments and the brand landscape
• The overarching aim of a U&A study is to identify “white spots” in the market, potential market gaps that could potentially be served
• U&A research projects deliver granular insights on the drivers of brand / product usage and help encourage non-user activation

Case study: Helping Fellowes to better understand the needs and challenges of paper shredder users

Fellowes provides workplace solutions which range from shredders, binders, laminators and staplers through to workspace health solutions, storage solutions and air-cleaning/purification solutions. The focus for this project was on the shredder market.

The overall aim of the research was to better understand the needs and challenges of paper shredder users in a post-pandemic landscape and observe the impact of a changing work dynamic on shredder usage.

Find out how a usage and attitude study was used to identify opportunities for Fellowes and reveal some of the key challenges that paper shredder users face when thinking about purchasing a shredder and when using a shredder in their day-to-day role.

Case study: Developing an insight-driven product & proposition roadmap for a leading payment processing services provider

Our client, a provider of payment processing services, was looking to drive volume beyond the primary partner business (a European fuel card provider). With a large total addressable market in Germany, Italy, France and the UK, they identified a significant opportunity to grow.

Our client was also looking to increase profitability as well as customer satisfaction and retention. To do that, the company needed an insight-driven product and proposition (P&P) roadmap which could act as a plan to develop solutions that solve customers’ problems.

Our Clients

Activation services: Helping you get the most out of your usage & attitude study investment

B2b insights and viewpoints: what we’ve learned from doing usage and attitude studies.

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Usage and Attitude Study

Clarify your understanding of current client perceptions, needs, desires and behaviors towards your brand and your competitors with a U&A study. Embed these insights across your organization to ensure customer satisfaction, retain loyalty and boost future sales.

Join the organizations who have already found success

Usage and attitude study services and capabilities

Putting clients at the heart of your decision making is so much harder than it sounds. You’ve got buying teams with multiple members, each with their own individual set of priorities. How does your brand meet all their needs and create a personalized connection with each persona? 

An usage and attitude study gives you a benchmark of where you are right now in terms of:

• Brand and product/service awareness: Are you top-of-mind when final buying decisions are made?
• Client perceptions and attitudes towards your brand: Do they consider it good value for money? Are they satisfied with each part of their customer journey?
• Brand and product/service usage: Are they using it on a mobile device or computer? How often do they make a purchase? Why do they use a particular product/service?
• Positioning: From your clients’ perspective, how do you compare to the competition? 
• Segmentation: How well does your brand and product/service meet the needs and pain points of your current clients and prospects? 

This can easily be turned into a tracker that monitors changes in your customers’ usage and attitude over time. 

You can use U&A study insights to better target your marketing strategies with more precise positioning through a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape. You can also use U&A research to prove the ‘bang for your buck’ of a new product/service launch or marketing campaign. The findings reveal if you met your objective—from raised brand awareness to increased sales. 

By doing regular U&A studies, you’ll keep track of your clients’ evolving needs, use them as the foundations for product planning and continuously build customer satisfaction.

Usage and attitude research to deliver both scale and specificity

Our technology reaches across 140+ industries to give you the scale of a panel combined with the depth of an expert network. From professionals en masse to niche, hard-to-find audiences, the NewtonX Knowledge Graph can find the exact people to deliver the business insights you need. We’re the only customer loyalty research agency that’s developed proprietary research technology to keep up with market demands. Here’s just a sampling of who we pinpoint, for everything from 5,000+ participant surveys to curated groups of in-depth interviews.

• Cryptocurrency specialists advising on hedge fund projects 
• Advertising professionals overseeing brand spend
• Reddit users that visit Reddit for NSFW content
• IT decision-makers evaluating cloud software services

NewtonX helps industry innovators turn inquiry into impact.

How we helped a top social media company understand how digital advertisers were thinking about their platform

How a digital media platform uncovered advertiser perceptions with NewtonX brand tracking

How Tableau utilized a NewtonX brand tracker to sustain innovation

Want to see how newtonx can help you, what is a usage and attitude study.

Understanding Consumer Behavior

A usage and attitude study is a market research method that delves into understanding consumer behavior and perceptions concerning a particular product, service, or industry. This comprehensive research approach aims to provide businesses with valuable insights into how consumers use products or services, their attitudes towards them, and the factors influencing their choices. U&A studies are particularly useful for gaining a holistic understanding of a market, consumer preferences, and competitive landscapes.

These studies involve collecting both quantitative and qualitative data through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observational research. Quantitative data often includes usage patterns, frequency, satisfaction levels, and demographic information, while qualitative data explores the underlying motivations, attitudes, and perceptions that drive consumer choices.

U&A studies are beneficial for businesses looking to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, pricing, and market positioning. By uncovering consumer behaviors and attitudes, companies can tailor their offerings to better meet customer needs, identify growth opportunities, and enhance their competitive advantage in the market.

What are the benefits of usage and attitude studies?

Usage and Attitude studies offer a range of significant benefits to businesses and organizations seeking to understand consumer behavior and preferences:

Informed Decision-Making

U&A studies provide valuable insights into consumer attitudes, behaviors, and usage patterns. This information enables businesses to make data-driven decisions regarding product development, marketing strategies, and market positioning.

Product Improvement

By gaining a deeper understanding of how consumers use products and services, businesses can identify areas for improvement. This can lead to the development of products that better meet customer needs and preferences.

Market Segmentation

U&A research helps in segmenting the market based on consumer attitudes and behaviors. This segmentation allows businesses to tailor their marketing efforts to specific consumer groups, increasing the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Competitive Advantage

Understanding consumer preferences and perceptions gives companies a competitive edge. They can identify gaps in the market, assess their competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and differentiate their offerings effectively.

Optimized Marketing Strategies

U&A studies help in refining marketing messages and strategies by uncovering what resonates most with target audiences. This can lead to more efficient advertising campaigns and increased customer engagement.

Risk Mitigation

By comprehending potential barriers to product adoption or usage, businesses can proactively address issues that may deter customers. This reduces the risk of product failure or market entry challenges.

Customer Satisfaction

U&A studies provide insights into customer satisfaction levels and areas for improvement. Businesses can use this information to enhance customer experiences, leading to higher retention rates and loyalty.

Market Expansion

Armed with a better understanding of consumer behavior, organizations can identify untapped market segments or new markets for expansion.

Resource Allocation

U&A research helps companies allocate resources more efficiently by focusing efforts on areas that are most likely to yield positive results.

Long-Term Success

Continuously conducting U&A studies allows businesses to stay attuned to changing consumer preferences and market dynamics, positioning them for long-term success and adaptability.

When to perform a usage and attitude study

Significant Strategic Decision Points

Usage and attitude studies serve as essential tools for businesses at critical junctures when a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, attitudes, and market dynamics is required. These studies prove most valuable when companies are contemplating significant strategic moves, such as launching new products or services, expanding into new markets, or revamping their brand identity. They become particularly pertinent when the need arises to gain in-depth insights into consumer preferences and behaviors that can shape a company’s strategic direction.

One crucial scenario where U&A studies are indispensable is during new product or service launches. Before introducing a new offering to the market, businesses need to comprehend how potential customers perceive the product, what their preferences are, and what factors influence their purchasing decisions. U&A research at this stage helps in fine-tuning the product or service to align better with consumer expectations, increasing the likelihood of a successful launch.

When businesses contemplate entering new markets or expanding their geographical reach, U&A studies become essential. Understanding the attitudes and behaviors of consumers in the new market is paramount to effective market entry. These studies can uncover cultural nuances, regional preferences, and unique customer needs that can significantly impact market penetration and strategy.

Rebranding efforts represent another critical juncture where U&A studies come into play. Before undergoing a brand overhaul, businesses must gauge consumer sentiment towards their existing brand, identify areas that need improvement, and ascertain how a rebranding effort would be received by their target audience. U&A research provides a clear roadmap for rebranding, ensuring that changes resonate positively with consumers and align with the desired brand image.

Furthermore, businesses can benefit from U&A studies when they need to assess their competitive landscape comprehensively. In highly competitive industries, understanding how consumer attitudes and behaviors are influenced by competitors can be a strategic advantage. This research can uncover competitor strengths and weaknesses, providing insights for a company to position itself effectively and identify areas where it can outperform the competition.

U&A studies play a vital role in times of marketing campaign evaluation. Businesses can conduct these studies periodically to assess the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. By tracking shifts in consumer attitudes and behaviors over time, companies can gauge the impact of their campaigns and refine their marketing strategies for better results.

In essence, Usage and Attitude studies prove invaluable when businesses stand at pivotal moments requiring a profound understanding of their target audience and the market landscape. Whether it’s launching new products, expanding into new markets, rebranding, assessing competitors, or optimizing marketing efforts, U&A research provides the insights necessary to make informed decisions and stay agile in an ever-evolving business landscape.

Qualitative vs Quantitative Usage and Attitude Studies

Different Research Needs

Usage and attitude studies encompass two primary research approaches: qualitative and quantitative methodologies. These distinct approaches serve unique purposes, catering to different research needs.

Qualitative U&A Studies : Qualitative research methods, such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and observational research, are integral components of qualitative U&A studies. These methodologies are designed to uncover profound consumer insights and motivations. Qualitative U&A studies are particularly valuable in scenarios where in-depth exploration and understanding are paramount. They are well-suited for exploratory research, allowing businesses to gain comprehensive insights into consumer attitudes, behaviors, and underlying motivations. Qualitative studies are commonly employed during the early stages of product or service development to refine concepts and features based on consumer feedback. They are effective when dealing with niche markets or situations with smaller, but meaningful, sample sizes.

Quantitative U&A Studies : In contrast, quantitative U&A studies rely on structured surveys and questionnaires, aiming to collect data from a large and diverse sample size. These studies generate numerical data that can be statistically analyzed, providing a broader and more generalized perspective of consumer attitudes and behaviors. Quantitative U&A studies are instrumental when large-scale data collection is required, ensuring the statistical significance of results. They excel in tracking trends, patterns, and changes in consumer attitudes over time. Quantitative research is also ideal for segmentation, generalization, and comparative analysis, allowing businesses to identify variations in attitudes and behaviors among different consumer groups, regions, or demographic categories.

Both qualitative and quantitative U&A studies offer valuable insights in market research. Qualitative methods provide depth and clarity in understanding consumer motivations, while quantitative approaches deliver statistically significant data for comprehensive analysis, trend tracking, and segmentation. The choice between these methods depends on the specific research objectives and the depth of insights required, with many businesses opting for a combination of both approaches to attain a holistic understanding of consumer attitudes and behaviors.

How to conduct usage and attitude studies

Conducting usage and attitude studies involves a systematic process to gather insights into consumer behaviors, preferences, and perceptions. Whether using qualitative or quantitative methods, the following steps outline a general framework for conducting U&A studies effectively

Define Research Objectives

Clearly articulate the goals of the U&A study. What specific information or insights are you seeking to obtain? This could include understanding consumer attitudes, evaluating product usage patterns, or identifying market segments.

Select the Research Methodology

Choose between qualitative and quantitative methods based on your research objectives. Qualitative methods, such as focus groups and in-depth interviews, are ideal for exploring in-depth insights, while quantitative surveys are better suited for large-scale data collection.

Develop Research Instruments

Create the necessary tools for data collection, such as interview guides for qualitative studies or structured surveys for quantitative research. Ensure that these instruments align with your research objectives and are designed to capture the required data.

Recruit Participants

Identify and recruit the target audience or participants for your study. Ensure that the sample represents the demographic or psychographic segments of interest. Recruitment may involve random sampling, stratified sampling, or specific targeting, depending on your study’s design.

Data Collection

Conduct the U&A study according to the chosen methodology. In qualitative studies, facilitate focus group discussions or conduct in-depth interviews, recording and transcribing responses. For quantitative research, administer surveys to the selected participants, ensuring a standardized and consistent approach.

Data Analysis

Analyze the collected data using appropriate techniques. Qualitative data may involve thematic analysis, content analysis, or narrative analysis, while quantitative data is subjected to statistical analysis. Identify patterns, trends, and insights that address your research objectives.

Interpret Findings

Interpret the research findings in the context of your research objectives. What do the data reveal about consumer behaviors, attitudes, or preferences? Are there significant insights that can inform strategic decisions?

Report and Present Results

Create a comprehensive report summarizing the study’s findings, including key insights, trends, and recommendations. Visual aids such as charts and graphs can enhance the presentation of quantitative data. Share the results with relevant stakeholders and decision-makers.

Implement Insights

Use the insights gained from the U&A study to inform business strategies, product development, marketing campaigns, or any other areas where consumer understanding is crucial. Ensure that the findings translate into actionable initiatives.

Continuous Monitoring

Consider conducting U&A studies periodically to track changes in consumer behavior and attitudes over time. Consumer preferences can evolve, so staying updated is essential for adapting to market dynamics.

Examples of usage and attitude survey questions

Foundation For Performing A U&A Study

Usage and attitude studies typically involve a set of survey questions designed to gather insights into consumers’ behaviors, attitudes, preferences, and perceptions. Here are some example U&A study survey questions that you can consider:

Usage Questions:

• How often do you use [product or service]?
• When was the last time you used [product or service]?
• How frequently do you use [product or service] in a typical week/month?
• Which brands of [product category] have you used in the past year?
• How often do you use our brand compared to competitors’ brands?
• What factors influence your choice of brand in this category?
• Which channels/platforms do you use to access information about [product category]?
• How often do you use [specific channel/platform] for researching or purchasing [product category]?

Attitude and Perception Questions:

• What comes to mind when you think about our brand?
• How would you describe your overall perception of our brand (e.g., positive, neutral, negative)?
• What attributes do you associate with our brand (e.g., quality, reliability, innovation)?
• How satisfied are you with our [product or service]?
• What do you like most about our [product or service]?
• Are there any areas where you think our [product or service] could improve?
• How likely are you to purchase [product or service] in the next [timeframe]?
• What factors would influence your decision to purchase [product or service] in the future?
• Are you actively considering alternatives to [product or service]?

Demographic and Behavioral Questions:

• What is your age, gender, and location?
• What is your household income range?
• Do you have children, and if so, what are their ages?
• Which media channels do you use most frequently for information and entertainment?
• How often do you engage with ads related to [product category]?
• How likely are you to recommend our brand to others?
• Have you recommended our brand to friends or family in the past?
• Are you part of any loyalty programs related to [product category]? Competitor Evaluation:
• How do you perceive our brand in comparison to our competitors?
• Which competitor brands do you consider as viable alternatives to our brand?
• What features or benefits of our brand do you think are superior to competitors?

These sample survey questions provide a foundation for conducting a U&A study tailored to your specific product or service category. Depending on your research objectives, you can customize and expand upon these questions to gather comprehensive insights into your target audience’s behaviors and attitudes.

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Home • Knowledge hub • A complete understanding of Usage and Attitude Research Studies.

A complete understanding of Usage and Attitude Research Studies.

Usage and attitudes studies are a type of market research focusing on understanding how consumers use a product or service and their attitudes and perceptions towards it. Usage and attitudes studies are commonly known by the acronym U&A and are sometimes called “usage and satisfaction studies” and “usage and performance studies.” 

Typically, teams within a company responsible for conducting usage and attitude studies are market research teams, product development teams, and marketing teams. These teams are responsible for gathering data, analyzing results, and making recommendations to the company based on their findings.

The research gathered from a usage and attitude study is used to make informed decisions about product development, marketing, and sales strategies. A brand may also conduct a usage and attitude study when launching a new product or service or considering making changes to an existing one. Additionally, a brand may conduct a usage and attitude study periodically to monitor changes in usage and perception over time. 

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A U&A study typically involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative methods usually include multiple choice and closed-ended survey questions that are used to gather data on usage patterns and attitudes. Qualitative methods, such as focus groups and in-depth interviews, can provide insight into why users have certain attitudes and behaviours. U&A studies can be conducted on a specific target audience, such as current product users, or a broader population, such as all consumers in a particular market.

Various industries can use U&A studies to benefit their brands, including consumer goods, healthcare, technology, and services. They are often used in the early stages of product development to gather feedback on prototypes or concepts and in later stages to monitor ongoing performance and identify areas for improvement.

What is the history of U&A studies?

The history of usage and attitudes studies can be traced back to the early 20th century, with the first known study conducted by George Gallup in the 1930s during the early days of radio and television. Advertisers and broadcasters needed to understand how audiences used these new mediums and what they thought of the programming and advertisements. 

The first U&A studies were relatively simple, typically involving a small sample of listeners or viewers who were asked to fill out a survey or participate in a focus group. 

These early studies primarily focused on gathering information on listening or viewing habits, such as how often a program was listened to or watched and what types of programs were preferred. They also gathered information on demographics, such as age, gender, and occupation.

How do U&A studies help brands?

A well-conducted usage and attitudes study can help a brand in many ways. For example, it can provide valuable insights into consumer needs and preferences, allowing a company to better target its marketing efforts and develop products that meet those needs. It can also help identify potential issues with a product or service, allowing a company to address them before they become major problems.

Brands that use usage and attitudes studies want to gather information about how their products or services are being used and perceived by consumers. This information garnered from the research can then be used to make strategic decisions.

When should a brand NOT conduct a U&A study?

There are some potential reasons why a brand may choose to refrain from conducting a usage and attitude study.

• Cost: Usage and attitude studies can be expensive to conduct and may not be feasible for some brands with limited budgets.
• Lack of relevance: A brand needs to be more interested in understanding how its product or service is used and perceived. If not, there may be no solid reason for conducting a usage and attitude study.
• Limited sample size: If a brand has a small target audience, it may be difficult to obtain a representative sample for the study, which can limit the usefulness of the results.
• Limited resources: Conducting a usage and attitude study requires significant time and resources, and a brand may need more capacity to devote to the project.
• No changes planned: if a brand is happy with how its product or service is currently being used and perceived, it may not see the need to conduct a usage and attitude study.

A brand may also decide to conduct a different kind of research to give them the necessary information. Several types of research can be used instead of a usage and attitude study. Some examples include:

• Market understanding: This type of research focuses on understanding the market for a product or service, including information on the target audience, competitors, and overall market trends.
• User research: This type of research focuses on understanding how users interact with a product or service and can include user interviews, usability testing, and focus groups.
• Surveys: Surveys can be used to gather a wide range of information from a large number of people. Surveys can include closed-ended questions and open-ended questions.
• A/B testing: A/B testing allows brands to compare two versions of a product or service to see which one performs better.
• Analytics: Brands can use analytics tools to track user behaviour, such as how often a product is used, how long users spend using it, and which features are most popular.
• Social Listening: This research focuses on tracking and analyzing what people say about a brand’s product or service on social media platforms, blogs, forums, and review sites.

Depending on the research question, a combination of different research methods may be used to get a comprehensive understanding of a brand’s product or service.

What does a U&A study typically look like?

A U&A study aims to collect information on the usage habits, attitudes, perceptions, and overall satisfaction of the target audience with a product or service. This type of research can provide valuable insights for a brand, such as identifying areas of improvement, developing new marketing strategies, and measuring the effectiveness of existing campaigns.

When conducting a usage and attitudes study, it is vital to have a clear research plan, recruit a representative sample of participants, and use appropriate research methods for collecting and analyzing data. It is also essential to be transparent about any limitations or potential sources of bias in the study.

The stages of conducting a usage and attitudes study typically include:

• Defining the research objectives and developing a research plan
• Identifying and recruiting participants
• Collecting data through surveys, focus groups, or interviews
• Analyzing the data and interpreting the results
• Communicating the findings and making recommendations for action

A typical usage and attitudes study will involve a sample of participants, usually between 100 and 500, depending on the size of the target market. The study can include a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews.

The length of a usage and attitudes study can vary depending on the research objectives, the size of the sample, and the research methods used. A typical study may take several weeks or months to complete.

Questions typically asked in a usage and attitudes study include:

• How often do you use the product/service?
• How satisfied are you with the product/service?
• What are the main benefits of the product/service?

What outcomes can a brand expect from a U&A study?

A brand can hope to gather several key insights from a usage and attitude study:

• Usage patterns: Information on how often, where, and why a product or service is being used, as well as the demographic characteristics of users.
• Attitudes and perceptions: Information on how users feel about a product or service, including their level of satisfaction, loyalty, and likelihood to recommend it to others.
• Brand awareness and perception: Information on how aware users are of the brand and what associations they have with it. (Also read “The essential guide to brand awareness research” here. )
• Purchase behaviour: Information on where and how users purchase a product or service and the factors that influence their purchasing decisions.
• Competitive landscape: Information on how users perceive a brand’s products or services in comparison to those of competitors.
• Areas for improvement: Identifying areas where the product or service can be improved to better meet the needs and wants of users.
• Marketing effectiveness: Information on how well existing marketing campaigns and advertising efforts resonate with the target audience and how they can be improved.

Overall, a usage and attitude study can provide a brand with valuable insights on how to improve its product or service and how to better target its marketing efforts to reach its target audience.

Should I outsource my brand’s U&A study?

The advantages of conducting a usage and attitudes study in-house include:

• Direct access to company data and knowledge
• Greater control over the research process and ability to tailor the study to specific company needs
• Cost savings as no external agency is needed.

The disadvantages of conducting a usage and attitudes study in-house include:

• Limited resources and expertise in research methodology
• Lack of objectivity and potential for bias
• Limited sample size, which can affect the representativeness of the results

Outsourcing your brand’s U&A study to an external market research agency like Kadence International can bring in experts in research methodology and additional resources to help ensure a more accurate and representative study. We can help you determine if a U&A study is appropriate, fine-tune your research questions, and discover game-changing strategies for your brand.

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4 frameworks for getting insight from awareness, attitudes, and usage data

Learn how to get insight from aau (u&a) data.

Discover the 4 frameworks for getting insight from awareness, attitudes, and usage data (aka AAU or U&A).

• Understanding the competitive market structure
• Deciphering the most valuable customer
• Building the long-term sales funnel
• Demand creating conditions (short-term)

I'm going to walk you through four frameworks for extracting insight from awareness, attitude and usage data, to help build organization or brand strategy.

I'm going to be showing you everything in Displayr, but all the steps can also be done in Q, with one small exception, which I'll point out. But the principles are applicable regardless of which software you use.

What is U&A Research

A quick Google search reveals there are lots of definitions of U&A research out there. To cater for many of them, I'll define it as:

• Usually involving a large scale survey, both in length and number of respondents
• Containing generalized measures of the category in question and the brands in it
• Analysis to understand relationships between knowledge or attitude and targeted behaviors
• With the aim of reviewing and informing strategy

U&A Research Context

For focus today we are going to concentrate on those general measures, and touch only briefly on the topics of segmentation, driver analysis, and mapping. Our current webinar series has detailed content in these other areas - you can find this our website and I'll also leave you with the links as the end.

The U&A Research Challenge

It's fair say that U&A Research can be challenging, for a number of reasons …

Why U&A Research Can Be Daunting

Unlike, for example, ad testing or new product development, the U&A brief can lack focus, and may simply ask to … "tell us everything we need to know about our market"

U&A's can be expensive, and are usually triggered by an event such as a decline in sales or a new CMO arriving, there is a lot of expectation

And many measures multiplied by a many respondents means a large volume of data to wade through

It can be hard to know where or how to begin

4 Key Frameworks

Now in a short webinar we are not going to prepare a full U&A report. However, we recommend working through these 4 key analysis frameworks, to get everything off to a good start and give you the confidence to move forward.

We'll work through each framework and see how they build the foundations for a strategic outcome …

Competitive Market Structure

With Competitive Market Structure, we want to know who we most compete with, which tells us the true market we are in, and ideally the nature of that competition.

The data requirements to work this out are typically in a matrix of brands by brands or brands by attributes. We prefer attributes, as this will tell us something about the how the brands compete.

From there we map the market, and enhance the map where we can, to guide us

Then locate our brand, our direct and indirect competitors, and in each case determine what they have in common

Data requirement: Brand Attribute Grid with brands in the rows

Here is the brand attribute grid we will use …

And we want to have the brands in the rows

Data requirement: Market Share + Change in Share

We also want tables showing the market share of each brand and the change in market share over time so that we can use these dynamics in our decision making

Let's now create a market map and explore the competitive market structure

We'll use correspondence analysis. I'll go through some of the technical steps quickly today, but this was the topic of a whole webinar recently, so there is a resource for the keen student

Anything > Advanced Analysis > Dimension Reduction > Correspondence Analysis of a Table

We hook it up to our table of D1 Brand Attributes

Chart > Titles and Labels font size: 10

Grid Lines Off

Next step is to set the row normalization to row principle scaled, which ensures that the map most accurately shows the relationships between the brands

Normalization: Row Principal (Scaled)

Now let’s add market share as bubbles

Output: Bubble chart

Sizes: market.share

And let's color the bubbles to show the change in share over time, with red marking decline and blue growth

Bubble colors: market.share.change

Set midpoint to : Zero

You can see that some brands are in blue. It will be helpful to have them at the top of the map, indicating growth

This is a fake data set with brands disguised as fictitious fast food brands. We are going to assume we are working on behalf of Burger Chef. So, we have a small problem, as the brand we care about is hard to see.

We can rotate the correspondence analysis to maximize it's explanation of Burger Chef, it's easy to do.

That's a bit better. We can also experiment by removing an attribute that might be an outlier, to see if that clears things up

We deleted Healthy Food options because it was a bit an outlier. But, we don't want to lose this information, so we will add it as a textbox.

Text Box > click and drag near Bread Basket. 'Healthy food options'. Properties - Reduce font size to 9, set as Green, Ctrl>D (Duplicate), drag to bottom right

OK, let's work out what it is telling us.

Looking on the right, we can see that Burger Chef is mostly in the Convenience space

Relabel text box: CONVENIENCE

Color: Grey Size: 12

We are also a bit about restaurant quality

Relabel: RESTAURANT QUALITY

Over here there are brands that compete more on food taste and quality

Relabel: FOOD TASTE AND QUALITY

Down here we have brands competing on value

Relabel: VALUE

So, to summarize

Burger Chef's "Tier 1" competitors are Arnold's and Southern Fried Chicken. They are most strongly competing in terms of convenience, and as the three biggest competitors this is the core market. Looks like this territory is declining a bit, but it's the key source of market share so important short term.

Some of the adjacent, "Tier 2" brands however are growing - they are more oriented towards food and restaurant quality, so we are perhaps seeing a long term shift in the market.

This tells a lot about market structure. As correspondence analysis reduces things to two dimensions, we should check the source data to validate our conclusions and tell us a bit more.

Data Check: Brand Attribute Grid Patterns

As we made some changes to the Brand Attribute data to set up our map, I'll duplicate the question

Switch rows and columns, Hide 'Net' Column

Resize, Properties > Font = 9

The significant results are all highlighted. I can automatically sort the table to show the patterns more clearly.

Right Click > Sort > Categories Shown in Columns > By Pattern

This confirms our Tier 1 and Tier 2 competitors

Right Click > Sort > Categories Shown in Rows > By Pattern

We can see we are behind the leader on Drive Thru service and Convenient Opening Hours, so we have some specific things we can focus on short term

We can also see of all the tier one brands we compete with the tier 2 brands on Restaurant Appearance and Décor, so something to keep an eye on

Most Valuable Consumer

Next we deal with the Most Valuable Consumer, that is, who we are selling to, who should be at the center of our strategic thinking. We might want to look at market segmentation at some point, but before we do that we'll want to define the core consumer.

There are different ways to do this, we are going to focus on volume, or market contribution

We'll use a histogram look at the distribution of behaviour, using CART to see if there is a clear demographic "center" for our market, and otherwise create behavioral segments and see what we can learn about them

Distribution of consumption volume

We need to stat by finding or creating a variable that measures volume of consumption

I've got a variable set showing how many times consumers ordered from each brand in the last month.

It makes sense to focus on the market as defined by our Tier 1 and Tier 2 competitors, using the insight from earlier.

Select Burger Shack, Burger Chef, Nuovo Burger, Southern Fried Chicken, Arnold's, Ma's Burger

Calculate > Sum

Right click new variable > Rename > Total Occasions (key comp)

Drag across Total Occasions (key comp)

Visualization > Distributions > Categorizable Histogram

We can see here there is a long tail of consumption. Some consumers might visit for coffee, lunch, snacking more than once a day, but let's cap it at 50 occasions, keep a lid on extreme behaviour

Select Total Occasions (key comp), type "capp" in search box, Anything > Data > Variables > Modify > Recode > Recode High Values, '50', OK

Finding the center: Classification and Regression Trees

A good technique for find the demographic center of a category or market is CART.

Anything > Advanced Analysis > Machine Learning > CART

Outcome: 'Total Occasions (key comp)'

Now I'll select my demographics

Predictors, select A1-A3

Predictor category labels: Full labels

Here we get a nice Sankey tree visualization

We can see that the best predictor is age, with heavier users, shown in blue, being aged under 35, followed by gender, with younger males more frequent

This is interesting but at as order frequency is not that different between the groups. Let's see if we can learn more …

We'll try another way of finding our Most Valuable Consumers

I'll use a copy of the variable, to keep our Tree intact.

Swap out row variable for Total Occasions (key comp 2)

Select Histogram, Properties > HISTOGRAM CATEGORIES > With equal proportions

Displayr has best fit 3 categories of roughly equal proportions. We can modify them by dragging the red bars.

Being monthly data, the mid point is roughly once a week, then we have higher and lower frequency segments, so I'll leave these

A variable containing these groups has been automatically created

Find Histogram Categories variable at bottom of tree, right click, rename it 'Behavioral Segmentation'

Relabel rows Light, Medium, Heavy

Drag across 'Total Occasions (key comp)' variable as the Column variable on second table; change statistic to column share.

We can see that the heaviest consumers account for 29% of occasions and more than double that in volume, so they are important consumers to know.

Hover under page, click '+', find Reports > Cross Tabs

For rows, select all demographics A1, A2, A3 at top and A4 thru A7 at the bottom, also select D2 Attitudes to category.

This time I'll add in some attitudinal data

OK, then select Behaviour Segments for the columns, OK

A very handy feature is to be able to sort these tables in order of significance, this focusses us on where the action is in the data, and gives us confidence when we start to build some conclusions.

Select all cross tabs, right click, Sort > Pages > By Significance.

We can see that Heavy users are a little male skewed, are a little more likely to be Single, with No Children, and between the age of 19-24.

However by far the strongest predictor is attitude

Select table > Sort > Categories in Rows > By Pattern

This are means scores on a 5 point agreement scale. We can switch them to percentages by changing the variable type.

Select variable D2, change to Binary - Multi, select Fix to select scores of 5 only.

We can see now that heavy usage is less about things like comfort and reward and more about convenience in the context of a busy lifestyle, with consumers replacing meals cooked or prepared at home when the value equation is right..

Conversion Funnel

So, we know which competitors and consumers we need to focus on. Our next framework helps us work out what to do - specifically what customer-centric goals we need to set and how we might go about actioning them.

Here we'll use classic brand health data and a measure of performance, market share, and apply tools like a summary matrix, a funnel, and conversion rates. The idea is that if we can understand gaps in an outcome variable like market share, we can set the right goals.

Conversion Funnel Examples

Just about all customer acquisition processes can be viewed as funnels or a series of sequential stages.

Conversion is just the ratio of the numbers at one stage over the previous stage. So, in the funnel on the left we have 90% conversion from visited last trip to being loyal. In the one on the right we have 25% conversion from being in the CRM through to having received a demo.

The key to performing an effective analysis is to compare conversion rates. You can compare them over time, against benchmarks, or against competitors.

Customer-Centric Goal Setting

What we mean by customer-centric goal setting is just that - expressing goals in consumer terms that ladder to a specific marketing action.

Brand A in this example has a raw salience problem, so needs to increase awareness.

Brand C evidences a product problem, and needs to improve

Brand E is well liked, but we need to increase the consumption rate, perhaps via finding new occasions

Brand F is the market leader, and just needs to defend it's position

Data requirement: Brand Health Measures, Summary Matrix.

Let's set this up for Burger Chef

On this page I've set up tables for Awareness, Ever Eaten, Consideration, and Recent Order. I'll adjust recent order is just the main competitive set

Select all but Burger Shack, Burger Chef, Nuovo Burger, Arnold's, Southern Fried Chicken, Ma's Burgers > Hide

We can get good insights into branding issues by viewing all the stages of the funnel at the same time.

Table > Specialty > Brand Health table

Output in pages: Select

Sort by: row 4

Show as: Bars

Dispalyr has used the brands in common across the inputs, which is what we want, the main competitors

As we have the insight on Heavy Category users in terms of the volume they contribute, it's worth checking in with them here.

Select the 4 input tables at bottom, Anything > Filter > Control > List Box filter … then selected Behavioral Segments

You can create and apply filters in Q, but these control is the one thing you can't do

Deselect Light, Medium users

I'll actually add this to a master page, so I can use it elsewhere

We can do something nicer using Funnel or Pyramid charts

Burger Chef Conversion Funnel

This is currently set with the data from my earlier example Change Output in pages: brand.health.2 …

So, what does Burger Chef have to do?

It's awareness is the same as its' two key competitors of Arnold's and Southern Fried Chicken.

Trial is also high

Return to Data Requirement: Brand Health. Select Matrix and set Output to Conversion, Sort by Row 3

Return to Burger Chef Conversion Funnel

It's conversion to Consider is a bit below Arnold's and some competitors are challenging here …

Where it is in really behind Arnold's is in terms of conversion from consider to most recent order, so we need to focus on increasing our rate of purchase, which leads us to our next framework

Demand Creating Conditions

Most U&A studies contain a lot of detail on purchase or consumption, often referred to as the "5W's", who, what, where, when and why

The key here is to prioritize these based on how well they predict behaviour, in this case, our recent usage target

We'll use the cross-tab routine that we saw earlier, to determine predictors, and then use scatter-plots to create importance-performance-maps

Importance-Performance Analysis: the basic idea

Again I am sure you are familiar with the basic idea - you determine what's important to consumers and whether the brand does well. You want to have lots of things in the top right corner. Things in the bottom right corner are things you need to improve performance on.

Data Requirements: Outcome or Target Variable

Here's our target variable

We can make the analysis clearer by reducing the number of alternatives - here we've collapsed recent order to reflect our known market structure

I simply selected these brands and then "combine" Taking insight from one framework and using it as an input to another makes the analysis that much sharper

For rows, select all demographics A1, A2, A3 at top and A4 thru A7 at the bottom, also select all occasion variables C2 through C12

This time we'll add in some of the "5W" data.

OK, then select C1 Most recent order - structured for the columns, OK

There is a lot here, I can give more focus by removing the tables with weaker predictors

Select all cross tabs, Delete Split Button > Delete if not significant at the 99% level.

[C2] our core Convenience Territory features several occasions of interest. [C11] food type is important, looks like Convenience means variety [C5] our core Convenience Territory is a mix of some consumers being alone but mostly with others. [C4] restaurants and drive through facilities are both important for the Convenience Territory. [A3] this is interesting, for our second tier competitors, those driven by restaurant experience, the North East area is key. As these brands are growing, we should consider having some more flagship restaurants in that area [A1 Age] it's worth taking a look at age, as it was Heavy category consumption was skewed younger, as we saw earlier. We can see here that younger consumers are stronger when it comes to the Restaurant Experience territory.

We've learnt a bit about the second tier, "Restaurant Experience" competition, but our bigger opportunity is improving amongst our more direct "Convenience" competition.

Let's bring this to life

Importance-Performance Analysis: Burger Chef

We'll start with when consumers order.

Here's our importance measure. For performance, I created a filter to reflect Burger Chef choice on the last occasion, and set is to row %

Select Not Selected column > Hide

Being row percentages, this indicates the proportion of people who chose Burger Chef at each occasion

Now for the scatter plot Visualization > Scatter > Labelled Scatter, resize it to take up page.

X coordinates: Table on left: Table.C2 …

Y coordinate: Table on right: Table.C2.how.ordered.by.Chose.Burger.Chef

Grid Lines > uncheck

Chart > X Axis > Axis Title: Importance (%)

Chart > Y Axis > Axis Title: Performance (Chose Burger Chef %)

Quickly create a Square shape, remove fill, size to be one quadrant, then duplicate and align until 4 quadrants are set.

Looks like we need to focus on Dinner offers

We can go back and check this for the core consumers (select all control items). Set filter to heavy.

Looks like stronger competition at lunch for the core consumer.

We can easily repeat the same operation for other data. We just copy the whole page and swap the data

Rows: C11 Food Type. Looks like we need to focus on our fries.

Repeat for C5 Alone/With others.

Looks like we do OK when consumers are alone but are missing the group occasions

And so on. We can learn a lot about what to do, and quickly

Our Story So Far

As mentioned earlier, while we are not quite there with a full report, by applying these 4 frameworks we've learned a lot about Burger Chef's position in the market and what they need to do to improve, and in less than 30 minutes.

Using the philosophy of a data driven approach, as we have been doing, where each step informs the next, you could use these as interim conclusions, to then investigate further. We focused on the 5W's here to see how we can drive short term occasions - you might choose to conduct a driver analysis on improving long term

Take On the U&A Challenge

The key message today is that a structured, data driven approach to the analysis can get you off to a flying start, and with confidence.

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Get access to all the premium content on displayr, last question, we promise, what type of survey data are you working with (select all that apply).

Market research Social research (commercial) Customer feedback Academic research Polling Employee research I don't have survey data

Decoding U&A Studies: Market Research Roadmap

Market research services are one such mode opted to understand consumer behaviour. Understanding customers is anyway essential for all the businesses. They should know:

• What their customer use to meet their needs
• Or, even what will they use instead

It works as the compass guiding businesses through the complex maze of consumer preferences, behaviours, and attitudes. 

Among the myriad of methodologies available, Usage and Attitude (U&A) studies are one of the most powerful types of market research surveys . Both of these are capable of unlocking invaluable data to go more deeper into the minds of their consumers. 

And eventually refine their strategies, improve their product/service offerings, and create effective ways to serve their targeted customers in a better way. 

This guide aims to delve into the path towards understanding U&A studies thoroughly. We will explore their significance, methodologies, and how they drive informed decision-making in the ever-evolving landscape of market research solutions .

Without any further ado, let’s get started!

Essence of U&A Studies

Exploring the key objectives and benefits of conducting u&a studies, u&a objectives:, u&a benefits:, u&a studies strategies, designing comprehensive questionnaires, minimizing bias, maximizing accuracy, common challenges in u&a studies, scan the qr code to check qdegrees service's duns registration details.

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Techniques and best practices to conduct productive usage & attitude research

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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.

Usage & attitude studies

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Usage & attitude studies

Understand your market – find out how the target audience uses your products and services or engages with your brand.

Our approach

In the age of the “permacrisis”, where new challenges come thick and fast, it’s incredibly tough to identify growth opportunities. But whatever happens, anything that satisfies needs better than the rest – and at the right price – will be in demand.

Usage and attitude (U&A) market research sheds light on who uses your products or services, as well as how they engage with your brand. U&A research provides the in-depth understanding you need to inform business decision-making.

We use a range of approaches, combined with advanced analytical techniques and modelling, to ensure our U&A surveys work for you. When combined with effective segmentation, you can identify and target key audiences. You can also support customer growth strategies alongside business objectives.

Don’t risk a poor ROI in a rapidly changing market. Optimise your strategy and investment decisions with unrivalled U&A research.

How it works

We’ll work with you to define and explore your objectives. With a mixed-methodology approach, step-by-step, here’s how it’s done:

Defining target audiences and objectives

Leverage existing information as a starting point for the U&A research

Depth interviews and desk research

These will provide additional context to the findings and inform the U&A questionnaire for the quantitative part of the study

Quantitative approach

Receive an in-depth view of the market and identify how your brand, products or services are perceived

Analysis and validation

We use a range of advanced analytical approaches to model future scenarios – illuminating possibilities for positioning your brand, products or services

Research benefits

Developing compelling propositions.

Identify unmet needs to develop new ideas, refine your existing offer, and supercharge the success of your brand.

Enhancing your brand perception

What is the perception of your brand and where do you want to take it? By understanding external perceptions, we can help you optimise and own your brand positioning.

Informing future decision-making

Understand when, where and how your products or services are used to inform future development. Optimise marketing communications and identify opportunities across key audiences.

Optimising marketing communications

Is your brand relevant? Does it resonate with your audiences? Our approach to usage and attitude research will help you understand how your brand is viewed and optimise marketing communications to engage with your target market.

Providing performance benchmarks

Get a detailed overview of your audiences. Use it across the business to provide an in-depth detailed understanding of your brand's performance.

Research methods

Audience / market segmentation

Market sizing & trends

Market understanding

Volumetrics & forecasting

Want to discover how we can help your brand, groupm on-demand insight.

Randstad Breaking business barriers

"The Savanta team were a pleasure to work with on this project: creative, collaborative and enthusiastic. The deliverables were excellent – both in their ease of understanding but also the quality of analysis and presentation and therefore the usability by the business. The findings continue to be used which is the ultimate testament – it’s not ‘one and done and left on the shelf’ this remains current and live and is being used."

"Any business needs to outpace its competitors and accelerate delivery of insights which can be used to grow performance and value. Virtually all customer-facing initiatives have been formed using this unique approach to customer tracking and subsequent performance analysis. The member trackers have given us an invaluable tool for assessing what our customers actually want, not what we think they want.”

"The research showed us that our clients were true advocates for us and would be very willing to refer us to industry colleagues, but that we needed to formalise this process more. The research programme has definitely provided additional tools to help us communicate our strengths, as well as enhancing relationships with existing clients.”

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Quantitative Research

Attitude & usage research, why a&u, a&u studies cover a lot of ground.

If you need to understand how your consumers feel about your brand and how they use your products, consider an A&U Study. A well-designed A&U Study can tell you an enormous amount about how consumers experience your brand. With an A&U Study, information we uncover will help you create strategies that win new customers while keeping your loyal customers smiling. We have all types of approaches to meet your needs for an A&U Study – from qualitative exploratory to a robust strategic study to something in between.

It’s critical to keep your finger on the pulse of the ever-changing landscape that your brand competes in as new products enter, consumer preferences change, and disruptors arrive on the scene.

deep dive into your category and brand with an A&U study

Unleash the power of your brand by:.

• Identifying who is aware of your brand and how they feel about it
• Monitoring how your brand stacks up against the competition
• Determining the strength of your brand’s equity
• Identifying barriers to product trial or use
• Uncovering opportunities through usage occasions

what can an a&u study do for your brand?

The short answer is an awful lot. An A&U study can help you size and profile each component of the purchase funnel, uncover your brand’s relationships with different groups of customers, reveal what matters most to your target audience, determine your brand’s health and performance, and identify what’s stopping people from trying or using your brand.

Size and Profile Each Component of the Purchase Funnel

An A&U study can tell you who is aware of your brand, who might consider buying your product, who has tried your brand, and who is already a loyal customer.

Uncover Your Brand’s Relationships With Prospective, Hesitant, New, and Loyal Customers

Each group of potential and existing customers has a different relationship to your brand. A&U studies provide in-depth insights into what defines each group to help you develop effective targeting and communication strategies.

Determine Brand Health and Performance

If you’re wondering how your brand stacks up to the competition or its relative position in the marketplace, an A&U study can help. We’ll identify what strengths can be leveraged, where the weaknesses and differentiators are, and what new opportunities are out there.

Identify What’s Stopping People From Trying or Using Your Brand

You need to know the obstacles before you can overcome them. Our A&U studies can help you understand what’s stopping people from trying or regularly using your brand.

Reveal What Matters Most to Your Target Audience

An A&U study can help you understand what motivates people to try your brand initially and what motivates them to return to your brand. Developing an understanding of what drives satisfaction is an important step toward expanding your community of loyal customers.

We’ll Bring Your Data to Life

Whether you embark on a qualitative A&U, or a strategic quantitative study, we can help elevate your findings. For qualitative, our Storyologists can bring your findings to life. For quant, with the help of our in-house Advanced Analytics group, we love finding creative ways to communicate findings – from perceptual maps to SWOTs and Gap Analyses. We promise your staff will walk away with a complete understanding of the key insights, what they mean, and what’s next.

With decades of experience under our belt, and virtually every brand category researched, we know what it takes to design, implement, and bring findings from an A&U study to life. Let us know how we can help you!

Featured Case Study: The National Pork Board

The Dollars + Attitudes ($+A™) approach is brought to life through our partnership with the National Pork Board (NPB) and our Pork Demand Landscape Research Study, one of our earliest successes leveraging the Illuminator™ methodology. Our goals for this project were comprehensive and foundational: we needed the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” of pork consumption today. We also needed to identify the keys to growing pork demand for the future. This was an ambitiously scoped research initiative that called for a deep understanding of protein choice and pork usage.

Given that this was a huge and broad-scoped study to design, we tackled it with multiple phases of research (including qualitative and quantitative research combined with behavioral analysis using Numerator). The quantitative portion alone consisted of over 10,000 respondents! Our research design was multifaceted to cover all the learnings we needed to accomplish: in-home (grocery) and out-of-home (food service) usage across all dayparts and meal occasions (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) among the general population and key sub-populations (Hispanics and Millennials—Hispanics who spoke either English or Spanish). It was necessary to understand consumers’ needs and motives by type of occasion and by attitudinal segments—and to understand all of this at an individual meat cut level. Traditionally, we might consider addressing a study like this using a long, wide-ranging survey or diary. But, with all that we wanted to learn in this study, we realized the idea of sitting people down for an hour-long survey trying to remember everything about the times they purchased meat in the past year would not only be exhausting, but also less accurate. In order to get the amplified results we were looking for, we concluded that, while we had the option of many methodological choices, our best option was to find a way to integrate different information sources to best suit our needs.

explore a&u case studies & examples

Illuminator shopper panel guides category strategies, exploring the behaviors & needs across a variety of cult…, building a complete brand picture, helping to develop messaging strategies for people at higher…, exploring learning and education needs across international …, developing an empathic understanding of lgbtq+ shoppers, explore a&u related resources, smartmarket segmentation: finding your target with affordable, agile market research, new diy a&u product for cpg industry – watch demo now, despite covid, brands still need consumer research to know where they stand, diy market research done right: c+r’s journey to build the industry’s first automated diy a&u tool.

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Let’s discuss your upcoming project, i do want to say that this project again demonstrates why i have come to rely on c+r and recommend you so highly. when i get a report from you it’s complete, well-thought, and always client-ready. i really appreciate the partnership i have with you., it was always a pleasure working with the team at c+r. i really appreciated your expertise and true partnership on every project., truly appreciate the strength of the partnership we have created with you. thank you for being a consistent and reliable resource., the report goes  beyond answering the questions ; it shows  deep understanding of the needs of the client  while ensuring the  integrity of the design .  thank you, thanks for  one of the best reports i’ve received …. the  quality of insights + deck writing > my expectations . the quality of voiceover/share out and process throughout has been my  best experience to date .   c+r shows up as a team-always on time, supportive of one another, and provides quality insights vs basic stuff., …we  appreciate our open partnership  and the constructive way we are building our relationship – we are  enthusiastic when we think about future projects together , you  offer your knowledge in a way that  never making anyone feel like they should have known “that” about the audience, treat it as an  opportunity to educate in a friendly way ., i’m  really proud  of this team and so  appreciate the partnership  we’ve created. you’ve both done a  fantastic job  helping us start off this journey and i look forward to continuing to build our learning with you all  , search this site.

How to Conduct a Usage and Attitude Study

A usage and attitude (U&A) study involves researching the usage behaviors and purchase motivations of existing and prospective customers to better understand a market and position products to appeal to consumers. What building materials are contractors buying, where are DIYers purchasing home improvement products? What factors influence their selections and preferences?

What building materials are contractors buying, where are DIYers purchasing home improvement products? What factors influence their selections and preferences? Who do they turn to for recommendations before purchasing?  Where do they get information?

These are the kinds of questions you need to answer to position your brand and each product for success within a highly competitive market. Answers to these questions will give you insights into who to target, what to promote, what channels to use, and how to best market to specific buyer personas, allowing you to create a holistic yet simultaneously focused strategy.

One of the best ways to gather those answers is through market research and specifically a usage and attitude study.

What is a Usage and Attitude Study?

A usage and attitude (U&A) study involves researching the usage behaviors and purchase motivations of existing and prospective customers to better understand a market and position products to appeal to consumers.

In essence, it answers the five Ws: who, what, when, where and why. For example, who are the target customers in the markets in which you operate; what are they purchasing; when is the best time to connect with them to sell your product; and where are they purchasing from? Additionally, you want to find out the “why” behind those elements—why do customers make the purchase decisions they do?

With this information, you have insight into a customer’s behavior and motivation through the entirety of the purchase process. You can then develop more appealing products, tailor your marketing messaging to your audience’s primary concerns, and affect brand switching in your favor. Over the past two years especially, there has been a high volume of brand switching associated not with the qualities of the product itself, but due instead to the procurement options available and the lead times for delivery.

How to Conduct Usage and Attitude Surveys

One of the most important elements of an effective usage and attitude survey is that it is customized to your company and your specific product. 

However, there tend to be some core components of useful attitude surveys that lead to applicable insights across the building materials industry. Here is a look at the general process of conducting a U&A survey.

1. Define Your Brand's Attitudinal Objectives

A lot of U&A research is plagued by a lack of focus that leads to overly general mega-surveys. First, you should conduct an exploration phase, define your business objectives and determine how the data collected through market research will be used. In other words, have you narrowed down which department(s) will be responsible for applying the insights to their strategies?

2. Define Your Primary Attitudinal Questions

Now that you know your objective, what are the main questions you need more information about? Some examples of attitude and usage survey questions include:

• What drives product preference and selection?
• What are the preferred benefits of certain construction materials, building products or technology among Pros versus DIYers?
• What is important to customers when selecting products within certain categories and when comparing sub-brands?
• How do they weigh those preferences in context of one another? For example, everybody wants a cost-effective product, but they also want something long-lasting and durable. At the end of the day, which desire wins out?
• Where are customers seeking out the information that influences their decision-making?
• What is a reasonable lead time length before a customer will consider brand switching based on availability?

3. Select a Market Research Firm

Conducting market research, such as a U&A survey, is a major undertaking. To make the process more valuable and rewarding, partner with a market research company that is well-acquainted with the building materials and construction industries, such as The Farnsworth Group. Niche expertise translates into additional value from the analysis provided after tabulation of the data is completed. 

A research team that concerns itself with the ins and outs of only specific industries is equipped to provide meaningful recommendations rather than only regurgitate data. They can also save you time up front as well as bring you ideas you should consider to ensure you’re getting recommendations that will be utilized throughout your organization.

4. Develop a Survey / Discussion Guide

Consider starting with qualitative research to ensure you are asking the right questions, factors and influences when you move on to a quantitative approach.  Qualitative will also help you understand the motivations and thoughts behind quantitative results. 

Keep your survey and discussion guides focused and relatively short. Research shows most participants start to get fatigued or disinterested if a quantitative survey drags on past 10 or 15 minutes, and they don’t put as much effort into submitting genuine answers. That decreases the quality and validity of the data you collect. One to one conversations using discussion guides can last twice as long before respondent fatigue, because they are asking respondents to provide more robust answers.

In either case, be sure to ask the right questions in the right ways to gain maximum value from the research without losing accuracy. Make sure the survey is also available to respondents on the device they prefer so you’ll get better engagement.

5. Further Engage Respondents

When it comes to gauging consumer behaviors, you may need to incorporate other data that is measured via observation or “in the moment” actions. Think gathering insights to how shoppers compare power tool starter kit options on the shelves in Lowe's or how online shoppers click through an eCommerce platform. The key is to maintain interaction insights from your customers (and non-customers) to refine their path to purchase as much as you can control by delivering more relevant information at the right times and in the right locations.

To collect these kinds of rich insights does not require secret shoppers watching other shoppers behaviors. It can be as simple as having your respondents share videos and pictures as part of their survey submission or during their interview to gather the real-time attitudinal information you seek. Consider also what common conversations are being held between customers and direct or indirect sales teams; likewise consider the exchanges occurring between customers and big-box store associates or internal customer service representatives. Unhappy customers are eager to share what they don’t like about your product, distribution channels, and brand in general. 

The company you’re working with to conduct the U&A survey for your construction materials company can work with you to develop an interactive and enriching process that takes your research to the next level.

6. Determine Actionable Steps from the Data

A U&A survey typically starts with a hypothesis surrounding attitudinal objectives. Once you’ve conducted your research, you’ll have data that either supports or contradicts the hypothesis. 

Using advanced analytics, your market research firm can help you unlock the most valuable insights from the data you collected from clients. An industry specialist can provide added value by sharing fundamental industry factors impacting your customers to take you beyond your data.  They can also provide historical benchmarks from similar research in your industry.  This information can be used to inform your company on what to do next, to challenge assumptions, to create benchmarks, to create a snapshot of consumer attitudes before making critical business decisions, and to make your brand more competitive in your product categories.

Common answers gained from U&A Research include:

• Overall incidence of your product use among Homeowners and Pros to recommend which customer segments provide the greatest opportunity.
• Insights on who is using certain products, product categories being used to solve the same problem, how it’s being used, where it’s being used and the overall project opportunity.
• Price ranges paid for products in the category so you are able to determine potential pricing acceptance.
• Recommendations on product category sales opportunities, potential growth, and customer potential with your products.
• Insights on the most common uses of the product category and the key purchase drivers (brand, price, material, etc.) for product selection to determine what you must deliver to meet customer needs.
• Insights on brand awareness and brand use to determine your position in the market.
• Recommendations on what product and marketing strategies will help them maintain your product line so customers and gain new customers within each type.

Kicking Off a Usage and Attitude Survey

Conducting a usage and attitude survey gives your company a firm foundation of knowledge and insight to make important decisions regarding product development and market strategies, especially as consumers are trying new brands and shifting behaviors as of late. 

Our team at The Farnsworth Group is well-versed in Usage & Attitude studies, having conducted over 300 U&A research projects strictly for building product, home improvement, and lawn & ranch customers. You will gain insights that allow you to assess a customer’s purchase behavior throughout the purchase process, creating a path to distinguish what really drives and motivates customers’ decisions along their journey.

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Understand consumer perception and usage of your brand and products

Consumer behaviours are influenced by market trends , your business , competitors , and more. Usage and attitude (U&A) research helps you gain insights into the market and consumers , including:

• Uncovering consumption patterns for a category or brand .
• Evaluating brand recognition and purchase intent .
• Understanding buyers' perceptions of the category and brands.
• Identifying potential opportunities and unmet needs .
• Enhancing targeting and marketing with data-based segmentation .

With Conjointly's intuitive interface, you can create your U&A studies within minutes . Perfect your research by surveying your target audience , or consult with Conjointly's expert researchers for a tailored solution .

Trusted by leading brands all around the globe

Deep dive into your market and consumer behaviours.

U&A surveys involve gathering insights about a product category or brand from your target audience. They typically cover:

• Motivation for consumption , including reason to purchase and expected benefits.
• Consumption patterns , including purchase frequency, products and channels used.
• Brand awareness within the category, including which brands they recognise and might purchase.
• Buyers’ perception of the category and brands, including mental associations for different brands and perceived value of different products.
• Demographic and behavioural questions for additional insights.

Key outputs of U&A studies help you stay current with market and consumer trends related to your product or service and inform your business decisions.

From study set-up to PowerPoint deliverables in a seamless end-to-end process

The Conjointly all-in-one survey research platform gives you access to millions of respondents and support from experienced researchers. Easily launch your study and source real human respondents that meet your target definitions through global consumer panels.

Perform in-depth analysis via the interactive online dashboard . You can also export results directly into Excel and presentation-ready decks for sharing with your colleagues.

Track the performance of your brand and key competitors through custom-built dashboards

Compare consumer groups for precise targeting and marketing.

Gain deeper insights for more accurate positioning and marketing strategies with Conjointly’s segmentation function. Break down consumer usages and attitudes using demographic, psychographic, behavioural, and other data .

Get all your insights in one place, organised by questions and segments. The intuitive report allows you to find the difference between consumer groups at a glance, making it easier to refine your approach and meet their needs more effectively.

Source the exact sample you need swiftly and reliably

Consumer surveys often require a sample of hundreds of consumers from your product category, including current users and potential buyers .

With access to millions of survey participants from around the globe, Conjointly provides you with numerous sampling options to match your specific needs. Conjointly's Self-serve sample gives you full control over your respondent sourcing with over 160 preset targeting filters to find the sample you need, or reach out to Conjointly for a tailor-made Predefined panel .

Industry-leading support from our team of experts

Here at Conjointly, we pride ourselves on delivering the highest level of support to ensure the best possible market research experience. Conjointly caters to pricing, insights, and data teams, with an expert always ready to discuss.

Conjointly uncovers purchasing intent for vitamin supplements among elderly in USA

Time to insight: 3 days

HealthCo is a major pharmaceutical brand in the USA. With a growing ageing population, it is increasingly important to address health concerns among the elderly. HealthCo would like to understand older people’s current usage of vitamin supplements and their attitudes towards them.

As part of the strategy review, the insights team would like to test current vitamin users or considers to find out:

• What motivates consumers’ purchasing decisions?
• What are the biggest influencers on consumers’ purchasing decisions?

HealthCo surveyed more than 300 respondents over the age of 55 in the USA to understand their usage and attitudes, via a U&A study.

• Most consumers are motivated by personal concerns and seek general vitamins and minerals boost , with most taking Multivitamins and Vitamin D tablets.
• Price, ingredients, and ease of use are the biggest influencers on purchasing decisions.
• Findings were immediately available upon completion of the project.

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You get agency-quality results at a fraction of the cost and time investment. One powerful end-to-end platform for insights teams for fast and reliable market research. Get answers to questions about features and claims studies. We help your insights, marketing, and product teams understand consumers and make confident decisions.

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Conjointly methods are thoroughly tested and rooted in marketing science.

User-friendly interface

Design your features and claims studies with our intuitive interface for fully automated experiments.

Response quality control

Let Conjointly collect data for you, checking for the quality of responses.

Detailed interactive reports

Conjointly will automatically analyse the data and prepare online and Excel reports.

Learn more about topics that will help in your U&A study.

Understanding brand preference in market research.

Explore how market research helps businesses shape their brand to fit their target audiences.

How to Develop Likert Scale Questions

Learn to write and develop effective Likert scale questions using tips from this best practice guide.

How to Do Segmentation

Learn how to do segmentation on the Conjointly platform with this visual guide.

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We support researchers with resources, training, and specialized facilities, and foster collaboration across disciplines through university institutes and centers.

By providing hands-on research opportunities, direct access to faculty and professional mentorship, and programs that help encourage an entrepreneurial mindset, we prepare students to leave the university and thrive.

Through an unwavering commitment to our land-grand mission, we stimulate economic development, societal impact, and improved life and health in Arizona and beyond.

Read more about who we are and what we do  |   Learn about some of our key research strengths

As a top-ranking public institution with $955M in annual research activity, we are pushing the boundaries of knowledge and innovation.

The Research Enterprise at a Glance

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Mapping Racist Covenants: How a UArizona geographer's research informed a new Arizona law

A project led by Jason Jurjevich informed a law that lets homeowners remove unlawful restrictions from their property records.

University of Arizona selected to participate in NSF-NobleReach Emerge partnership aimed at speeding biotechnology development and translation

Arizona is the only institution with two projects chosen for pilot program that pairs research teams with entrepreneurial experts in effort to establish long-term financial viability

University of Arizona Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Receives USDA Grant for Urban Beekeeping Education

The University of Arizona received a $100,000 grant from the USDA to develop a program that serves underrepresented urban farmers by teaching them to pollinate their crops through beekeeping and to diversify their income with honeybee products.

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15 Steps to Good Research

• Define and articulate a research question (formulate a research hypothesis). How to Write a Thesis Statement (Indiana University)
• Identify possible sources of information in many types and formats. Georgetown University Library's Research & Course Guides
• Judge the scope of the project.
• Reevaluate the research question based on the nature and extent of information available and the parameters of the research project.
• Select the most appropriate investigative methods (surveys, interviews, experiments) and research tools (periodical indexes, databases, websites).
• Plan the research project. Writing Anxiety (UNC-Chapel Hill) Strategies for Academic Writing (SUNY Empire State College)
• Retrieve information using a variety of methods (draw on a repertoire of skills).
• Refine the search strategy as necessary.
• Write and organize useful notes and keep track of sources. Taking Notes from Research Reading (University of Toronto) Use a citation manager: Zotero or Refworks
• Evaluate sources using appropriate criteria. Evaluating Internet Sources
• Synthesize, analyze and integrate information sources and prior knowledge. Georgetown University Writing Center
• Revise hypothesis as necessary.
• Use information effectively for a specific purpose.
• Understand such issues as plagiarism, ownership of information (implications of copyright to some extent), and costs of information. Georgetown University Honor Council Copyright Basics (Purdue University) How to Recognize Plagiarism: Tutorials and Tests from Indiana University
• Cite properly and give credit for sources of ideas. MLA Bibliographic Form (7th edition, 2009) MLA Bibliographic Form (8th edition, 2016) Turabian Bibliographic Form: Footnote/Endnote Turabian Bibliographic Form: Parenthetical Reference Use a citation manager: Zotero or Refworks

Adapted from the Association of Colleges and Research Libraries "Objectives for Information Literacy Instruction" , which are more complete and include outcomes. See also the broader "Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education."

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https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/08/us-ai-safety-institute-signs-agreements-regarding-ai-safety-research

U.S. AI Safety Institute Signs Agreements Regarding AI Safety Research, Testing and Evaluation With Anthropic and OpenAI

These first-of-their-kind agreements between the u.s. government and industry will help advance safe and trustworthy ai innovation for all..

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Today, the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced agreements that enable formal collaboration on AI safety research, testing and evaluation with both Anthropic and OpenAI.

Each company’s Memorandum of Understanding establishes the framework for the U.S. AI Safety Institute to receive access to major new models from each company prior to and following their public release. The agreements will enable collaborative research on how to evaluate capabilities and safety risks, as well as methods to mitigate those risks. 

“Safety is essential to fueling breakthrough technological innovation. With these agreements in place, we look forward to beginning our technical collaborations with Anthropic and OpenAI to advance the science of AI safety,” said Elizabeth Kelly, director of the U.S. AI Safety Institute. “These agreements are just the start, but they are an important milestone as we work to help responsibly steward the future of AI.”

Additionally, the U.S. AI Safety Institute plans to provide feedback to Anthropic and OpenAI on potential safety improvements to their models, in close collaboration with its partners at the U.K. AI Safety Institute. 

The U.S. AI Safety Institute builds on NIST’s more than 120-year legacy of advancing measurement science, technology, standards and related tools. Evaluations under these agreements will further NIST’s work on AI by facilitating deep collaboration and exploratory research on advanced AI systems across a range of risk areas.

Evaluations conducted pursuant to these agreements will help advance the safe, secure and trustworthy development and use of AI by building on the Biden-Harris administration’s Executive Order on AI and the voluntary commitments made to the administration by leading AI model developers.

About the U.S. AI Safety Institute

The U.S. AI Safety Institute , located within the Department of Commerce at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was established following the Biden-Harris administration’s 2023 Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence to advance the science of AI safety and address the risks posed by advanced AI systems. It is tasked with developing the testing, evaluations and guidelines that will help accelerate safe AI innovation here in the United States and around the world. 

Research Fellow - LSA Psychology

How to apply.

Interested applicants, please submit as one PDF document: (1) a letter of interest; (2) personal statement regarding research interests, career goals, and experience; (3) a curriculum vitae; (4) a writing sample (for example: a published peer-reviewed manuscript or manuscript in preparation for peer review); and (5) contact information for two or three references who can supply a letter of recommendation.  

Questions about the position can be sent to Ioulia Kovelman ( [email protected] ) 

Job Summary

The Department of Psychology is seeking a postdoctoral research fellow to work on an NIH-funded project on the study of dyslexia and language disorders in children who are bilingual using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Neuroimaging (fNIRS). This project examines topics related to the neurobiology of language and reading, bilingualism, as well as impairments of language such as dyslexia. The candidate will work closely with Dr. Ioulia Kovelman, as well as their research staff and collaborators. Successful candidates will have interests in childhood bilingualism and experience in either developmental language disorders of bilingualism (DLD or dyslexia), or fNIRS neuroimaging, or both. 

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future. 

Why Work at Michigan?

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, the University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package to help you stay well, protect yourself and your family and plan for a secure future. Benefits include:

• Generous time off, including vacation time, sick time, holiday and season days
• A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions with immediate vesting
• Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses

In addition, LSA offers: 

• Strong commitment to work/life balance
• Flexible work arrangements with respect to campus stakeholder needs
• Enhanced tuition support programs for LSA courses

Being part of something greater, of serving a larger mission of discovery and care that's the heart of what drives people to work at Michigan. In some way, great or small, every person here helps to advance this world-class institution. It's adding a purpose to your profession. Work at Michigan and become a victor for the greater good.

Responsibilities*

• Address new study questions
• Test children using fNIRS neuroimaging and literacy measures
• Develop bio-behavioral statistical models of child brain and bilingualism development
• Assist with manuscript writing
• Supervise students (1 graduate student & 3-4 undergraduate students)
• Present research activities within the group and at scientific meetings.

Required Qualifications*

• PhD degree or equivalent psychology, education, or a related field.
• Experience or knowledge of pediatric neuroimaging.
• Experience with the study of bilingualism using neurocognitive language and literacy assessments.
• Demonstrated interpersonal skills and oral and written English communication.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively.

Desired Qualifications*

• Interest in learning natural language processing tools.
• Interest in developing research related to literacy intervention.
• Interest in collaborative research.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Work Locations

Work location is expected to be onsite in Ann Arbor as in-person child testing is required.

Modes of Work

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes .

Additional Information

The Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the diverse people of Michigan, to maintain the excellence of the university, and to ground our research in varied disciplines, perspectives, and ways of knowing and learning.

Salary is $58,000/year plus benefits.  The appointment will be for one year, with a potential for renewal for one additional year. The preferred start date is Spring 2025 or Summer 2025.

Background Screening

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks.  Background checks are performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Application Deadline

Department of Psychology job openings are posted for a minimum of fourteen (14) calendar days. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

Well-Being at Work: US Research Report 2024

Human capital development lab, well-being at work us research report released (2024).

JHU researchers share new insights related to employee well-being in US Organizations. The study highlights the decline in the climate of workplace well-being since the COVID-19 pandemic through a comprehensive analysis of more than 1.5 survey respondents each year. The climate of Well-Being report outlines organizational factors that may affect employee well-being in the workplace. The research shows that successful organizations create a climate of well-being not by providing perks or benefits, rather they create a culture where people feel acknowledged, supported and connected.  The new insights highlight the impact of flexible work arrangements, stress levels, industry practices, and persistent disparities among groups of people in the workplace.  

Well-Being at Work

Fostering a Healthy Work Climate for All

The research shows that successful organizations create a climate of well-being not by providing perks or benefits, rather they create a culture where people feel acknowledged, supported and connected. The new insights highlight the impact of flexible work arrangements, stress levels, industry practices, and persistent disparities among groups of people in the workplace.

Employees report a post-pandemic decline in the climate of workplace well-being 

Washington, D.C.  — August 28, 2024 — How do employees experience the climate of their workplace when it comes to well-being? As it turns out, this varies by industry, demographic group, and organization, according to new research led by Johns Hopkins Carey Business School’s Human Capital Development Lab. 

The link between employee well-being and performance has prompted leaders with motivation to explore how maximizing these once-overlooked factors may be central to increasing organizational success. However, achieving high levels of employee well-being is a feat that’s easier said than done. 

The Well-Being at Work report uncovers the latest insights on organizational and individual factors that may influence employee well-being in the U.S. The study showcases the rise and decline of the climate of employee well-being across industries over the past five years, while considering influences like tenure, management level, confidence, and work arrangements, along with demographic differences based on race, gender, and age.

“Improving employee well-being can be complex – our research highlights a need for leaders to address organizational culture factors coupled with a more nuanced management approach to create a climate of well-being for all,” said Professor Rick Smith, faculty director at the Human Capital Development Lab and co-author of the study. 

The overall findings show what many employees experienced in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: organizational leaders addressing the impact of this crisis by taking extra care to meet employee needs. The report shows that employees experienced a spike in the positive climate of well-being at the early periods of the pandemic. However, as workplaces transitioned back to pre-pandemic norms and more employees return to physical office spaces, the overall climate of well-being often regressed to the pre-pandemic level.

Associate Professor Michelle Barton, co-author of the study, adds, “The Covid pandemic heightened employers’ awareness of the importance of well-being, and many of the best organizations worked to create a positive work climate. The challenge now, will be to integrate those practices into everyday work life, rather than simply as a crisis response.” 

The data from the report confirms that there is a link between remote work opportunities and a climate of well-being, suggesting a need for employers to address work-life balance challenges for the workforce. However, since managers typically encounter lower stress levels than their junior employees, some managers may not fully appreciate these needs. This research also highlights some important differences by gender and ethnic groups, showing that well-being in the workplace is still consistently lower for women and African Americans. 

Interestingly enough, researchers also completed a comparison analysis of the climate of well-being between the top 100 companies listed in the Fortune 100 Best Companies, as recognized by Great Place To Work® , and non-ranked companies in 2023. They found that ranked firms have significantly higher employee well-being scores, further strengthening the potential link between employee well-being and organizations recognized as great places to work. 

This research leverages data from Great Place To Work® , the world’s leader in identifying best workplaces. The flagship data was gathered using a proprietary employee survey, known as The Trust Index™ survey, which is administered to over 5000 organizations and over 4.5 million survey respondents each year around the world. To quantify a climate of well-being, researchers measured several key dimensions such as: mental and emotional support, sense of purpose, personal support, financial health, and meaningful connections. 

Authors of the study include Rick Smith, a professor of practice and faculty director of the Human Capital Development Lab at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; Michelle Barton, an associate professor of practice and academic program director of the Flex MBA Program at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; Christopher Myers, an associate professor of management and organization and faculty director of the Center for Innovative Leadership at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School; and Marcus Erb, vice president of data science and innovation for Great Place To Work. 

About Great Place To Work As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Its proprietary platform and For All™ Model help companies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified™ or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces™ list.

Follow Great Place To Work on  LinkedIn ,  X , and  Instagram  or visit  greatplacetowork.com  and  sign up for the newsletter  to learn more.

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Undergraduate Research in Anthropology

At the heart of anthropological practice is the process of posing meaningful questions, planning research, collecting and analyzing data or other materials, and coming up with an original contribution to knowledge. The Department of Anthropology encourages undergraduate students to engage in research in a variety of settings: in their courses, in work as research assistants, and in guided inquiries of their own—often leading to a senior essay. Past student research projects have taken place in international settings, in many parts of the United States—including in New Haven—and in the collections and laboratories at Yale, both in and well beyond the department’s own facilities. In a number of cases, our students have gone on to publish, present, and/or exhibit their innovative anthropological work. 

This page offers a set of resources for undergraduates wishing to pursue research in anthropology, whether or not they are declared anthropology majors. Students should also spend some time familiarizing themselves with general undergraduate research resources, as no single listing can capture the full spread of research possibilities in such a wide-ranging field as Anthropology. 

Although many courses include a component of research, some of our regular undergraduate offerings are specifically designed to introduce students to the methods, ethics, and practice of research in Anthropology. These courses may be particularly useful for students planning senior essays. 

303      Field Methods in Cultural Anthropology

316      Introduction to Archaeological Lab Sciences

376-7   Observing and Measuring Behavior, I and II

394-5   Methods and Research in Molecular Anthropology, I and II

434      Anthro-History: Interdisciplinary Theory and Methods

454      Statistics for Archaeological Analysis

Methods courses in other departments may also be highly relevant and useful. 

Working as a Research Assistant

Some faculty in Anthropology employ undergraduate research assistants in a variety of capacities. If you are interested in this possibility, consider speaking to your professor after class or consult with the DUS. 

Independent Research

The Anthropology Department offers a wide variety of possibilities for senior work. Students contemplating significant independent research leading to a senior essay should consult with the DUS and/or a potential adviser well in advance of their senior year to take advantage of the fullest set of options. Junior year study abroad that includes a research component, a summer field school, or summer independent research, for instance, require significant advance planning. The following resources may also be of help. 

Suggestions for Funding Sources

Many Yale-based sources of funding commonly used by anthropology undergraduates can be found by searching  Yale’s Student Grants and Fellowships Database , the  Office of Fellowship Programs , and/or the  MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies .

In addition, the Anthropology Department is fortunate to be able to offer a number of grants to support attendance at archaeological field schools through Albers and Coe Fellowships. Check  here  for information on international field schools and archaeological projects.

Many of our students combine research projects with a semester abroad. Although most study abroad programs are not explicitly designed for supporting research, a research component can often be added in consultation with a faculty adviser.

In addition to the above sources, College Deans are wonderful sources of information about little known programs and resources. 

Practicalities

Students should consult with their advisers about what kind of training, advance review, and/or other preparation is necessary to carry out the research they are planning. Useful resources include the following: 

Human Subjects Committee Review of Student Projects (IRB)

Undergraduate Travel Policy

Health and Safety

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Key things to know about U.S. election polling in 2024

Confidence in U.S. public opinion polling was shaken by errors in 2016 and 2020. In both years’ general elections, many polls underestimated the strength of Republican candidates, including Donald Trump. These errors laid bare some real limitations of polling.

In the midterms that followed those elections, polling performed better . But many Americans remain skeptical that it can paint an accurate portrait of the public’s political preferences.

Restoring people’s confidence in polling is an important goal, because robust and independent public polling has a critical role to play in a democratic society. It gathers and publishes information about the well-being of the public and about citizens’ views on major issues. And it provides an important counterweight to people in power, or those seeking power, when they make claims about “what the people want.”

The challenges facing polling are undeniable. In addition to the longstanding issues of rising nonresponse and cost, summer 2024 brought extraordinary events that transformed the presidential race . The good news is that people with deep knowledge of polling are working hard to fix the problems exposed in 2016 and 2020, experimenting with more data sources and interview approaches than ever before. Still, polls are more useful to the public if people have realistic expectations about what surveys can do well – and what they cannot.

With that in mind, here are some key points to know about polling heading into this year’s presidential election.

Probability sampling (or “random sampling”). This refers to a polling method in which survey participants are recruited using random sampling from a database or list that includes nearly everyone in the population. The pollster selects the sample. The survey is not open for anyone who wants to sign up.

Online opt-in polling (or “nonprobability sampling”). These polls are recruited using a variety of methods that are sometimes referred to as “convenience sampling.” Respondents come from a variety of online sources such as ads on social media or search engines, websites offering rewards in exchange for survey participation, or self-enrollment. Unlike surveys with probability samples, people can volunteer to participate in opt-in surveys.

Nonresponse and nonresponse bias. Nonresponse is when someone sampled for a survey does not participate. Nonresponse bias occurs when the pattern of nonresponse leads to error in a poll estimate. For example, college graduates are more likely than those without a degree to participate in surveys, leading to the potential that the share of college graduates in the resulting sample will be too high.

Mode of interview. This refers to the format in which respondents are presented with and respond to survey questions. The most common modes are online, live telephone, text message and paper. Some polls use more than one mode.

Weighting. This is a statistical procedure pollsters perform to make their survey align with the broader population on key characteristics like age, race, etc. For example, if a survey has too many college graduates compared with their share in the population, people without a college degree are “weighted up” to match the proper share.

How are election polls being conducted?

Pollsters are making changes in response to the problems in previous elections. As a result, polling is different today than in 2016. Most U.S. polling organizations that conducted and publicly released national surveys in both 2016 and 2022 (61%) used methods in 2022 that differed from what they used in 2016 . And change has continued since 2022.

One change is that the number of active polling organizations has grown significantly, indicating that there are fewer barriers to entry into the polling field. The number of organizations that conduct national election polls more than doubled between 2000 and 2022.

This growth has been driven largely by pollsters using inexpensive opt-in sampling methods. But previous Pew Research Center analyses have demonstrated how surveys that use nonprobability sampling may have errors twice as large , on average, as those that use probability sampling.

The second change is that many of the more prominent polling organizations that use probability sampling – including Pew Research Center – have shifted from conducting polls primarily by telephone to using online methods, or some combination of online, mail and telephone. The result is that polling methodologies are far more diverse now than in the past.

(For more about how public opinion polling works, including a chapter on election polls, read our short online course on public opinion polling basics .)

All good polling relies on statistical adjustment called “weighting,” which makes sure that the survey sample aligns with the broader population on key characteristics. Historically, public opinion researchers have adjusted their data using a core set of demographic variables to correct imbalances between the survey sample and the population.

But there is a growing realization among survey researchers that weighting a poll on just a few variables like age, race and gender is insufficient for getting accurate results. Some groups of people – such as older adults and college graduates – are more likely to take surveys, which can lead to errors that are too sizable for a simple three- or four-variable adjustment to work well. Adjusting on more variables produces more accurate results, according to Center studies in 2016 and 2018 .

A number of pollsters have taken this lesson to heart. For example, recent high-quality polls by Gallup and The New York Times/Siena College adjusted on eight and 12 variables, respectively. Our own polls typically adjust on 12 variables . In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be necessary to have that much intervention by the pollster. But the real world of survey research is not perfect.

Predicting who will vote is critical – and difficult. Preelection polls face one crucial challenge that routine opinion polls do not: determining who of the people surveyed will actually cast a ballot.

Roughly a third of eligible Americans do not vote in presidential elections , despite the enormous attention paid to these contests. Determining who will abstain is difficult because people can’t perfectly predict their future behavior – and because many people feel social pressure to say they’ll vote even if it’s unlikely.

No one knows the profile of voters ahead of Election Day. We can’t know for sure whether young people will turn out in greater numbers than usual, or whether key racial or ethnic groups will do so. This means pollsters are left to make educated guesses about turnout, often using a mix of historical data and current measures of voting enthusiasm. This is very different from routine opinion polls, which mostly do not ask about people’s future intentions.

When major news breaks, a poll’s timing can matter. Public opinion on most issues is remarkably stable, so you don’t necessarily need a recent poll about an issue to get a sense of what people think about it. But dramatic events can and do change public opinion , especially when people are first learning about a new topic. For example, polls this summer saw notable changes in voter attitudes following Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race. Polls taken immediately after a major event may pick up a shift in public opinion, but those shifts are sometimes short-lived. Polls fielded weeks or months later are what allow us to see whether an event has had a long-term impact on the public’s psyche.

How accurate are polls?

The answer to this question depends on what you want polls to do. Polls are used for all kinds of purposes in addition to showing who’s ahead and who’s behind in a campaign. Fair or not, however, the accuracy of election polling is usually judged by how closely the polls matched the outcome of the election.

By this standard, polling in 2016 and 2020 performed poorly. In both years, state polling was characterized by serious errors. National polling did reasonably well in 2016 but faltered in 2020.

In 2020, a post-election review of polling by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) found that “the 2020 polls featured polling error of an unusual magnitude: It was the highest in 40 years for the national popular vote and the highest in at least 20 years for state-level estimates of the vote in presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial contests.”

How big were the errors? Polls conducted in the last two weeks before the election suggested that Biden’s margin over Trump was nearly twice as large as it ended up being in the final national vote tally.

Errors of this size make it difficult to be confident about who is leading if the election is closely contested, as many U.S. elections are .

Pollsters are rightly working to improve the accuracy of their polls. But even an error of 4 or 5 percentage points isn’t too concerning if the purpose of the poll is to describe whether the public has favorable or unfavorable opinions about candidates , or to show which issues matter to which voters. And on questions that gauge where people stand on issues, we usually want to know broadly where the public stands. We don’t necessarily need to know the precise share of Americans who say, for example, that climate change is mostly caused by human activity. Even judged by its performance in recent elections, polling can still provide a faithful picture of public sentiment on the important issues of the day.

The 2022 midterms saw generally accurate polling, despite a wave of partisan polls predicting a broad Republican victory. In fact, FiveThirtyEight found that “polls were more accurate in 2022 than in any cycle since at least 1998, with almost no bias toward either party.” Moreover, a handful of contrarian polls that predicted a 2022 “red wave” largely washed out when the votes were tallied. In sum, if we focus on polling in the most recent national election, there’s plenty of reason to be encouraged.

Compared with other elections in the past 20 years, polls have been less accurate when Donald Trump is on the ballot. Preelection surveys suffered from large errors – especially at the state level – in 2016 and 2020, when Trump was standing for election. But they performed reasonably well in the 2018 and 2022 midterms, when he was not.

During the 2016 campaign, observers speculated about the possibility that Trump supporters might be less willing to express their support to a pollster – a phenomenon sometimes described as the “shy Trump effect.” But a committee of polling experts evaluated five different tests of the “shy Trump” theory and turned up little to no evidence for each one . Later, Pew Research Center and, in a separate test, a researcher from Yale also found little to no evidence in support of the claim.

Instead, two other explanations are more likely. One is about the difficulty of estimating who will turn out to vote. Research has found that Trump is popular among people who tend to sit out midterms but turn out for him in presidential election years. Since pollsters often use past turnout to predict who will vote, it can be difficult to anticipate when irregular voters will actually show up.

The other explanation is that Republicans in the Trump era have become a little less likely than Democrats to participate in polls . Pollsters call this “partisan nonresponse bias.” Surprisingly, polls historically have not shown any particular pattern of favoring one side or the other. The errors that favored Democratic candidates in the past eight years may be a result of the growth of political polarization, along with declining trust among conservatives in news organizations and other institutions that conduct polls.

Whatever the cause, the fact that Trump is again the nominee of the Republican Party means that pollsters must be especially careful to make sure all segments of the population are properly represented in surveys.

The real margin of error is often about double the one reported. A typical election poll sample of about 1,000 people has a margin of sampling error that’s about plus or minus 3 percentage points. That number expresses the uncertainty that results from taking a sample of the population rather than interviewing everyone . Random samples are likely to differ a little from the population just by chance, in the same way that the quality of your hand in a card game varies from one deal to the next.

The problem is that sampling error is not the only kind of error that affects a poll. Those other kinds of error, in fact, can be as large or larger than sampling error. Consequently, the reported margin of error can lead people to think that polls are more accurate than they really are.

There are three other, equally important sources of error in polling: noncoverage error , where not all the target population has a chance of being sampled; nonresponse error, where certain groups of people may be less likely to participate; and measurement error, where people may not properly understand the questions or misreport their opinions. Not only does the margin of error fail to account for those other sources of potential error, putting a number only on sampling error implies to the public that other kinds of error do not exist.

Several recent studies show that the average total error in a poll estimate may be closer to twice as large as that implied by a typical margin of sampling error. This hidden error underscores the fact that polls may not be precise enough to call the winner in a close election.

Other important things to remember

Transparency in how a poll was conducted is associated with better accuracy . The polling industry has several platforms and initiatives aimed at promoting transparency in survey methodology. These include AAPOR’s transparency initiative and the Roper Center archive . Polling organizations that participate in these organizations have less error, on average, than those that don’t participate, an analysis by FiveThirtyEight found .

Participation in these transparency efforts does not guarantee that a poll is rigorous, but it is undoubtedly a positive signal. Transparency in polling means disclosing essential information, including the poll’s sponsor, the data collection firm, where and how participants were selected, modes of interview, field dates, sample size, question wording, and weighting procedures.

There is evidence that when the public is told that a candidate is extremely likely to win, some people may be less likely to vote . Following the 2016 election, many people wondered whether the pervasive forecasts that seemed to all but guarantee a Hillary Clinton victory – two modelers put her chances at 99% – led some would-be voters to conclude that the race was effectively over and that their vote would not make a difference. There is scientific research to back up that claim: A team of researchers found experimental evidence that when people have high confidence that one candidate will win, they are less likely to vote. This helps explain why some polling analysts say elections should be covered using traditional polling estimates and margins of error rather than speculative win probabilities (also known as “probabilistic forecasts”).

National polls tell us what the entire public thinks about the presidential candidates, but the outcome of the election is determined state by state in the Electoral College . The 2000 and 2016 presidential elections demonstrated a difficult truth: The candidate with the largest share of support among all voters in the United States sometimes loses the election. In those two elections, the national popular vote winners (Al Gore and Hillary Clinton) lost the election in the Electoral College (to George W. Bush and Donald Trump). In recent years, analysts have shown that Republican candidates do somewhat better in the Electoral College than in the popular vote because every state gets three electoral votes regardless of population – and many less-populated states are rural and more Republican.

For some, this raises the question: What is the use of national polls if they don’t tell us who is likely to win the presidency? In fact, national polls try to gauge the opinions of all Americans, regardless of whether they live in a battleground state like Pennsylvania, a reliably red state like Idaho or a reliably blue state like Rhode Island. In short, national polls tell us what the entire citizenry is thinking. Polls that focus only on the competitive states run the risk of giving too little attention to the needs and views of the vast majority of Americans who live in uncompetitive states – about 80%.

Fortunately, this is not how most pollsters view the world . As the noted political scientist Sidney Verba explained, “Surveys produce just what democracy is supposed to produce – equal representation of all citizens.”

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Scott Keeter is a senior survey advisor at Pew Research Center .

Courtney Kennedy is Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center .

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