Using Research and Insights to Drive Smarter Decision Making

With so many ways to carry out market research, it can sometimes seem overwhelming. In this article, I will discuss some of the types of research organisations like yours undertake to drive smarter decisions. I will cover:

• The difference between qualitative and quantitative research.

• Primary versus secondary research

• An overview of all those different types of research available, from focus groups to brand perception research

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Qualitative vs Quantitative Research

Quantitative research answers the “what” and “how many” type questions and generally uses surveys to generate data, charts and statistics. Qualitative research addresses the “why” and can be delivered through one to one interviews, focus groups, diary studies and workshops, for example.

Some organisation will use one of these options, however from my experience, I've found the most powerful insights come from combining the two: the stories your market tells (qualitative) and the patterns in their behaviour (quantitative). The latter can help throw up and size those sales opportunities others miss; the former helps you understand how to capture these opportunities.

Primary vs Secondary Research

Primary Research

This is first-hand information you gather yourself and is where the real magic happens. It's your chance to gather first-hand information directly from your target market through interviews, polls and surveys.

This is your chance to really understand your audience, their behaviours, motivations, their language and problems.

Secondary Research

Also called desk research and involves analysing existing data that someone else has collected and published. This could be data from IMLA, UK Finance and Bank of England for example.

An Overview Of Market Research Types

Interviews

This involves speaking directly with your audience on a one-to-one basis. Interviews can be structured with scripted questions, or take a more conversational approach

The conversational method often yields far richer insights, as we can adapt in real-time, diving deeper with follow-up questions that uncover the "why" behind responses,

Tip: Keep your questions open-ended, and always follow up with probing responses like “why did you say that?” “tell me why you feel that way?”

Focus Groups

This is where you get a group of people in a room (typically 6-8) to discuss a series of topics, often in a room where you can observe what is going on from behind a screen.

There are risks of focus groups, where one participant can influence the views of others; this is where the management skills of the moderator come in to manage this.

Controlled well, you can create some magical insights when participants build on each other‘s ideas, creating insights that wouldn’t emerge on a one-to-one approach. It’s the power of diverse thinking.

Focus groups can work well for co-creation and product and service concept testing, for example.

Market Segmentation Research

With this type of quantitative research, you get to understand firstly how to divide your broad and diverse audience into more meaningful and actionable insights, based on shared characteristics and homogeneous groups.

This then helps you tailor your messaging, sales and marketing efforts. It could also help with product development, ensuring propositions are truly anchored to the needs of your target audience.

Pricing Research

In the fast-paced mortgage market, this is an underserved area of research.

But done right, it can help companies get smarter with pricing strategies, understand the competitor dynamics and even make more margin and increase sales.

It is about understanding price sensitivity among your customers.

Competitor Research

Companies look for market gaps as well as understanding how competitors are perceived (by different segments) versus their own brands.

This would go beyond competitors' features and pricing, it uncovers their strategic positioning and seeing how to truly differentiate brands, who is standing out and why.

Satisfaction and Loyalty Research

NPS (net Promoter Score) is a popular metric of advocacy, but there is much more to knowing how satisfied your audience is. With this you can understand the drivers of satisfaction and loyalty and buying habits.

This is a great way of ensuring you get momentum through your sales efforts.

Brand Perception Research

This reveals gaps between your intended brand image and actual market perception – that “perception gap”.

It goes beyond brand awareness levels, you learn about brand associations, sentiment, and consideration rates. This helps align marketing investments with brand goals.

Campaign Research

This helps optimise marketing performance through pre-launch testing and post-campaign analysis. It prevents costly campaign mistakes and helps replicate successes. You'll understand which messages resonate and why.

Customer Journey Mapping & UX Testing

This could involve mapping broker’s end-to-end experience, identifying key touchpoints and pain points across all channels. UX testing is integral to this process, using screen recording and user observation to see how people navigate your platforms.

You can spot where users struggle, benchmark against competitors, and pinpoint specific friction points that impact conversion rates. The result is actionable insights that streamline the entire mortgage journey and improve user experience at critical moments.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of ways to undertake research – all of which are designed to remove the guess work and drive smarter commercial decision. Some of these you can do yourself, others you will want to engage with an expert agency.

However, you do it, having a deeper understanding of your market and audience in a fast-changing mortgage market has never been so important.