In times of uncertainty, many enterprises quite reasonably respond with cost-cutting. Often the marketing budget is the first place to feel the squeeze, with the investment in market research shrinking as well.
Of course unnecessary spending should always be reduced, in good times and bad. But in the face of uncertainty, it’s arguably better to consider first how to spend wisely on market research as opposed to simply slashing budgets—because in a downturn, insights into consumer behavior become even more important.
Whichever way the economy is going, if you’re looking for cost-effective ways to understand your customers, start with knowledge management.
How research value gets lost
Research dollars are often wasted in large companies that lack effective knowledge management. Let’s dig into some of the underlying mechanisms at play here.
Research is often duplicated. Global companies have the resources to do excellent market research. But if there is no clear way to access the data or reports across different teams and departments, they can find themselves investigating a question that’s already been answered.
Before implementing Stravito, many of our clients had extensive research but faced challenges accessing it efficiently due to scattered and siloed reports. Without a seamless way to search across all existing insights, even the most diligent research teams sometimes had to reinvest time and resources into findings the company already possessed.
It takes too long to synthesize information. In many cases, data or research reports are dumped into SharePoint or a similar cloud solution, without organization or tags—perhaps because without a coherent system, it’s time-consuming to curate and tag documents. Either way, the end result is that it takes longer to find the relevant documents, to compare them, and to synthesize the information.
Similarly, triangulation, using multiple approaches to study a single question, is rendered much more difficult, if not impossible, when it takes too long to find the data or documents.
Chasing the wrong question. It’s common to have a third party, such as an external research agency, investigate a research question. But the value of their work is of course dependent upon asking the right questions. Without background research beforehand, there is the risk of asking the wrong ones, and then their work is a waste of time and money.
Using generic GenAI for niche cases. Tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are great for everyday productivity, but they can fall short when it comes to complex market research, frequently producing incomplete or misleading results. A platform like Stravito, on the other hand, is purpose-built for market research, designed to handle large research repositories, and deliver trusted, source-backed insights. And because it’s built specifically for research teams, there’s no complicated setup or costly customization.
Improving efficiency with knowledge management
All the above missteps can be avoided with effective knowledge management, which ultimately saves money and time while providing valuable consumer insights. Here are a few ways a user-friendly insights platform like Stravito can make a difference for an enterprise.
First, with a centralized, effective knowledge management system, it’s much easier to synthesize information, ask the right questions, and ensure you’re not chasing after an issue that’s already been answered.
Second, it’s much easier to devise products or campaigns to meet consumer needs when these needs are clear to stakeholders, regardless of what team they're on or even what country they're in. It’s also easier to build on previous research, and the repeated use drives the cost down.
Third, it's easier to curate the content. For instance, when all the data is clearly tagged, brand managers can create collections for other stakeholders in the full confidence that insights have already been vetted.
And finally, Stravito Assistant, a conversational tool built into Stravito, helps teams find critical research insights in seconds, and has proven to be more accurate than general-purpose AI tools. The experiment mentioned above found that Copilot Studio provided correct answers only 15% of the time. Stravito Assistant used the same sources for its responses, and they were 98% accurate. In addition, Assistant makes it easy to generate more focused research questions and prompts, and thus to actually draft valuable insights.
Stravito makes insights work more efficient
To sum up: Stravito is a knowledge management platform that centralizes knowledge for enterprises. It provides a one-stop shop for all your data, research, and reports on consumers, competitors, and markets. Stravito thus helps to avoid the research missteps that waste time, and to build upon previous research to enhance your research value.
Stravito additionally uses AI to cut down time spent searching, so teams can act on insights without sifting through dozens of reports. Stravito Assistant is a conversational tool, powered by your trusted company research, that has the advantages and convenience of Generative AI, without the risk of unreliable information from generic AI models.
It’s understandable that in the coming year many enterprises will be looking to cut their research budgets. But with the right knowledge management platform, it is indeed possible to preserve and amplify the value of your research, so you can continue to generate useful market research and insights.
For an excellent example of Stravito in action, see How HEINEKEN is Amplifying Insights with Generative AI. Or request a demo, and we’ll show you how Stravito can help you make the most of your research and insights.
