Consumer Research

Consumer Research Strategies

Fifth Dimension presents Virtual Consumer Research, testing new products, redesigns and rebranding in a virtual world but with real respondents. The Consumer Research department offers a completely bespoke high quality, retail focused research environment called Discovery.

Discovery allows you to test and fully understand the impact of your merchandising, pricing and promotional decisions in today’s challenging retail environment. All this is performed in a completely virtual environment, giving you complete security and privacy over your test concepts.

Discovery’s methodology has been tested and proved highly effective by many of the world's largest manufacturing and retail businesses.

It’s a known fact that 80% of new product launches fail. Isn’t it wise to minimize the risks associated with launches, packaging redesigns or rebranding? Consumer Research conducted in hall tests and focus groups cannot recreate the environment and visual cues when at the actual point of purchase, leading to results which do not reflect an actual purchasing environment.

• Faster – virtual surveys provide sales results much faster than traditional market testing. Unlike market tests which require products to be in field for months, fieldwork itself normally only takes 1 to 2 weeks to complete, and results are available up to 4 weeks after close of field

• Control – changes in weather, out of stocks, promotional activity, and national holidays only exist in a virtual environment on client request, allowing such complicating factors to be strictly limited, or removed completely.
• Confidentiality – Because the environment is virtual, competitor companies will be unable to see designs in development until they are ready for launch. Additionally, should the redesign fail, it saves damaging the client-retailer relationship though loss of sales.
• Flexibility – Reorganising a fixture or an entire store is quick and easy to do in a virtual test. Adding POS or additional promotional material into store can be done in a matter of hours, without needing retailer permissions or arrangement fees.
• Cost – Virtual testing is frequently cheaper than a live market test, especially when the flexibility and control of the store environment is taken into account. Traditional testing involves implementing the scenarios in many stores with co-operation fees required. Virtual testing has none of these overheads.

Its applications are almost limitless – almost anything that can be done in a store environment can be researched virtually.