| Consumer insights and market research platform Toluna announced the addition of new research-related tools, or methodologies, available within their Toluna Start suite. The new capabilities include needs identification, ideation and claims testing solutions. With these new tools, marketers can tap vetted consumer panels for marketing strategy as well as product development. They can also add their own customer lists and apply the same methodologies using these existing customers. For example, Sony wanted to make sure that customers were satisfied with new TVs post-purchase, so they loaded their 4K TV purchasers into the system. This process helped them identify a flaw in the wall mount that could be corrected at scale for their customers. Why we care. Digital communications bring customers closer to brands in many different ways. It can be difficult, though, to separate product insights, for example, from customer service inquiries, when they’re all coming in through the same chat app or customer hotline. A solution like Toluna’s puts brands back in the driver’s seat and draws on the biggest advantage gained by instant communication — time. If a company’s development team is in the ideation stage, they can turn around research in a matter of days, and move the product forward to the next step in the lifecycle. Marketers know that in many cases digital transformation has shortened the buy cycle. It can do the same for product development and research, as well. Read more here. | 