Quantitative methods of studying the consumer needs and behavior in the context of modern marketing communications

Abstract

The factors which resulted in not only changes in basic consumers’ requirements to the goods, but also in changes in their preferences and expectations and, moreover, in their value orientations, are determined. Today, the consumer has an opportunity to choose a variety of goods on a shelf, a place of a purchase, a convenient channel of communication and also a way of life. The development of digital technologies has led to a decrease in the dependence and physical commitment of a consumer to a place of work, residence or communication channel. For a successful business marketing strategy, one needs to identify these changes quickly and reliably, analyze them, and, based on the analysis, formulate their marketing strategy, both in terms of assortment policies and in terms of marketing communications. An example of instrumental consumer research conducted by well-known brands of the FMCG segment analyzes the techniques of studying consumers’ behavior and the preferences that they give to one or another product, and the possibility of targeted influence on the adoption of relevant decisions. Problems with the reliability of data obtained by traditional methods of quantitative research are revealed. Since modern methods are extremely simplistic, they often do not take into account the peculiarities of the mentality of the consumers of a particular region, their behavioral and value settings, which determine their answers during surveys. Even with an individual approach to developing a questionnaire that takes into account the characteristics of respondents, there is no guarantee of the reliability of the data. However, management decisions are made and marketing strategies are developed being based on these data. Similar errors, typical for traditional methods of research, make it necessary to look for alternative solutions. Such an alternative would be Big Data, a tool that has already proven itself as an effective technology of sociological research during the presidential campaign of D. Trump in the United States and Brexit in the UK.