Why video surveys produce better market research insights

The prevalence of video content comes as no surprise in today’s digital age. Consumers are increasingly using videos to share their experiences with friends, family, or anyone who’s willing to listen. Most social media sites allow users to express themselves and connect with others with unprecedented ease.

• YouTube has over 800 million user-uploaded videos and reaches as many as 30,000 uploads an hour on some days.
• Almost 70% of US teenagers are actively using TikTok.
• 85% of US consumers now have smartphones, and nearly all of them have used video capture for personal use. A growing percentage are using phones to upload videos to sharing sites or message videos to friends and family.

Videos are everywhere, and market research is no exception. As consumers grow more comfortable with generating and sharing video content, collecting survey responses in video format is an inherent progression for respondents that also offers richer insight for stakeholders.

Customer video feedback is a more natural form of feedback

Leveraging video to collect survey responses is a convenient and natural way for consumers to provide their feedback and experiences. It’s much easier to press record and talk than type out open-ended responses, especially on a mobile device. Additionally, typed responses may be sufficient when people have intense emotions, but those with more neutral feelings tend to share less in writing. Those neutral stances could contain insight that is integral to brand building and problem identification, and a video response option will help draw out those comments.

Video surveys offer “more bang for your buck”

Customer videos can help you dig deeper, revealing more in-depth, less obvious insights. For example, we recently asked one of our proprietary online research communities about charitable giving, and we offered video response as an option; we found that the average video response transcript was six times longer than the average written verbatim response.

Furthermore, by importing the videos into Bellomy's Text Analytics tool, we quickly uncovered emotions that ranged from joy and trust regarding respected charities to anger and disgust about those perceived to mismanage funds. Meanwhile, responses with less intense emotion still provided specific detail, such as charity names, preferred causes, methods for donations, and aspects that were personally relevant to them and their communities. Respondents may not have shared this level of detail had they responded to the same questions in writing.

Videos connect stakeholders with their customers

In addition to richer insights, video creates a bridge between stakeholders and consumers. Hearing directly from customers allows business leaders and organizations to:

• More easily relate to and empathize with their customers
• Establish a sense of community that strengthens the overall brand
• Identify problems before they escalate
• Understand consumers’ needs
• Innovate to fill those gaps
• Fine-tune their marketing to communicate the brand’s mission and how it aligns with customers

What makes an effective video survey tool?

It’s important to use the right video survey technology to make the most of customer video feedback. This means incorporating first-class streaming technology that:

• Offers a seamless, natural experience for respondents
• Can handle large files
• Has little to no wait time
• Occurs completely within the survey
• Works with a powerful text analytics tool to quickly summarize and analyze consumer feedback

Interested in amping up your qualitative research with video surveys?

Get in touch to find out how Bellomy’s video capture and Text Analytics tools can support your organization.