What Face Recognition Can Do for Your Market Research and How to Use It

Achieving success in marketing demands a blend of technical analysis and creative brilliance. The use of metrics can help assess public opinion, predict results, and generate interest. At the same time, our inventiveness and creativity are essential in crafting captivating visuals that will linger in the minds of audiences.

Undoubtedly, marketing is a powerful tool. While it may be challenging to identify the most effective marketing strategies, there is no denying that marketing can noticeably boost revenue and visibility for a business.

Focus groups have long been a popular research method in the realms of conventional advertising and public relations. We carefully select a segment of our target audience and expose them to our products or literature. This enables us to analyze and assess their feedback more effectively.

Conventional market evaluation techniques, including focus groups and surveys, are still valuable and relevant today. However, they are reflective of their time period. The majority of these methods emerged in the 1950s, when communication channels were limited and the reach of influence was narrower.

Exploring Consumer Behaviour in the Digital Era

With the emergence of the internet, market research techniques have undergone a dramatic transformation. One of the benefits of this shift is the marked improvement in data collection methods, facilitated by the widespread use of internet-enabled devices.

To improve the response rate, we have introduced in-app survey modules while also shortening the duration of surveys. Furthermore, by harnessing the tracking capabilities and social media platforms, we have developed new tactics for collecting longitudinal data and monitoring audience feedback in real time.

With the internet’s global reach, it’s no wonder that the amount of data we amass has skyrocketed. Today, even small ventures are involved in international trade and catering to customers from different parts of the world.

Big Data can be collected, cleaned, and processed with great efficiency using data pipelines, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). This is particularly noteworthy in today’s context, where conventional methods like focus groups are no longer sufficient for conducting qualitative research.

It is crucial to recognize that qualitative studies have not lost their relevance. As a matter of fact, in the digital age, qualitative research methods such as online focus groups, in-depth interviews, and social media engagement have been gaining ground since 2023. Leveraging these techniques, researchers have been able to discover innovative approaches for conducting their investigations.

Undoubtedly, the expansion of global connectivity, enhanced technologies, and growing dependence on machine learning has presented a significant prospect for market research. Additionally, given the recent emergence of social distancing measures, such changes could prove advantageous, providing greater insights into consumer emotions and behaviour.

Enthusiasm, Science, and Sales

Evaluating emotional responses is an arduous task, posing significant challenges for both psychologists and neurologists alike. What attributes to this difficulty?

Emotions encompass both the external portrayal of our sentiments and the internal perception of them. For instance, we may display a grin when we feel happy, while we may sense sadness, joy or frustration within us.

There is often an implicit assumption that there is a direct correlation between smiling and experiencing happiness, but this is not always the case. Individuals may adopt a smiling approach as a defensive mechanism, even during situations of fear or intimidation. While some people find humor in their struggles, others might express their happiness through tears. It is vital to bear this differentiation in mind.

The researcher is responsible for connecting the observed conduct with the reported encounter. Although it’s feasible to directly ask the participants about their sentiments, self-reported data has proven to be unreliable. Moreover, the subjects may be hesitant to disclose their genuine emotions, potentially ignoring or downplaying them.

To some extent, the matter at hand has already been resolved. Neuromarketing, which delves into interpreting consumers’ emotional responses, is viewed as a dependable technique. Even though not every person may exhibit the same facial expressions when challenged with fear, the limbic system of each individual will respond in a similar fashion.

According to Dr. Paul Ekman, facial expressions are not universally uniform, yet they are prevalent enough to be regarded as such. His research on people from different nations showed that distinct facial expressions are associated with different mental states.

However, what do we make of the most extreme scenarios? It’s a natural human tendency to remain calm in situations of danger. Although we cannot entirely dismiss this possibility, we can use techniques such as the law of large numbers to avoid it from skewing our results. With a sizable data set, any isolated data points will be minimized, and the average of the sample will be closer to the anticipated mean.

Facial Recognition and Large Datasets

As the size of data sets continues to expand, manual processing becomes more unwieldy. Not too long ago, assessing individuals’ emotions depended solely on human discretion. Nevertheless, with the exponential rise in computer capabilities and the escalating acceptance of facial recognition, a novice programmer can now train a facial recognition model using only a few lines of code.

It’s a factual assertion that a vast array of facial data sets can be obtained online for free, and with the assistance of OpenCV and Python, an inexperienced user can develop a model with just 25 lines of code.

The strides made in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have empowered us to accumulate data from a variety of origins and analyze it either retrospectively or instantaneously. For instance, if you were conducting an advertising campaign for a commodity and using a camera to assess the responses of viewers, you could capture their emotions as they interact with the ad.

By utilizing this kind of software, you can track the reactions of your intended audience promptly and adjust your marketing approach correspondingly in real-time.

Even though post-exposure surveys should not be disregarded, real-time identification of emotions might aid us in recognizing sentiments that we and the participants may have missed. It’s an efficient and accurate method of collecting information.

Neuromarketing has the drawback of necessitating a laboratory and specialized apparatus, whereas emotion research can be conducted from a distance. To capture the responses of our participants to our advertising, we require a platform for them to watch it, in addition to a camera equipped with face recognition software to document their reactions.

By utilizing a reliable backend, data is collected and processed promptly, generating statistics that can be accessed via a lightweight client from any part of the world. In basic terms, research that would generally require weeks or even months to complete can now be carried out on a global level with minimal exertion.

It is evident that facial recognition technology is already exerting a substantial influence on the marketing domain and data collection. Despite the fact that it cannot replace more intricate and all-encompassing research at the moment, it cannot be disregarded.

Join the Top 1% of Remote Developers and Designers

Works connects the top 1% of remote developers and designers with the leading brands and startups around the world. We focus on sophisticated, challenging tier-one projects which require highly skilled talent and problem solvers.
seasoned project manager reviewing remote software engineer's progress on software development project, hired from Works blog.join_marketplace.your_wayexperienced remote UI / UX designer working remotely at home while working on UI / UX & product design projects on Works blog.join_marketplace.freelance_jobs