Breaking through the myths surrounding emotion research
There is a common belief among the market research community that emotion research must be costly, time-consuming, and difficult to complete. The mistaken assumption is that to get at customer emotions, researchers need to be in a lab setting with high-tech machines and neuroscientists who specialize in human emotions. We’re happy to report that this is not the case – emotion research can be done in a practical way that won’t require an unlimited budget and months of your time.
The solution we’re referring to involves analyzing language to understand customer emotions. Using language, emotion research is simple enough that it doesn’t require neuroscientists to conduct (and explain) the research, it can seamlessly integrate with your existing projects, and the study is easily scalable to suit your business’s needs. Although the prospect of conducting emotion research may sound daunting, we’re here to reassure you that the process doesn’t have to be over-engineered, as long as you’re using language.
The importance of scalability
Perhaps the most significant advantage of using language to do emotion research is the scalability it allows. Most emotion research techniques are small sample and cannot be done in large scale due to the cost and complexity of the work. If you need to increase your sample size, using language analysis to discover and understand customer emotions is the best option.
For example, imagine you are conducting a survey on the food and beverage industry and your company wants to determine if their current marketing tactics are resonating with potential customers. You begin with a small scale, exploratory phase. But, you know you need a larger sample to get a better picture of how your customers feel. If neuro-based emotion research methods cost your company $1,000 per participant to conduct, the idea of scaling up is cost-prohibitive and you won’t be able to accomplish your goals within budget.
In this instance, you are much better off performing emotion research through language analysis. Because language is ubiquitous, the cost to conduct studies is much lower and the timeline is more rapid. No matter what kind of research you are conducting – quantitative, qualitative, focus group work, surveys, etc. – it can easily be scaled up in order to accommodate a larger sample size. Unlike other emotion research methods that are primarily physiological, language analysis is easy to accomplish with techniques that are conducive to large sample work. The larger your sample, the more confident you can be in your results. The more confident you are in your results, the better your business decisions. It’s a win-win.
Emotion Intelligence
Emotion research needs to be cost-effective and time-efficient if you want to have the flexibility to scale up to a larger sample, and over-complicating the process doesn’t help anyone. Therefore, in addition to being scalable, emotion research should be simple, seamless and practical. Our solution is called Emotion Intelligence.
If you’re interested in learning more, contact us. We look forward to discussing how Martec can help you with your next emotion research project.
