How can you use syndicated data to track consumer behavior?

1 What is syndicated data?

Syndicated data is a type of secondary data, which means it is data that already exists and was collected for another purpose. Syndicated data providers are companies that specialize in gathering, organizing, and analyzing data from various sources, such as surveys, scanners, panels, media, and social media. They then sell access to this data to multiple clients who share a common interest or need. For example, Nielsen is a syndicated data provider that offers data on consumer media consumption, retail sales, and market share. Syndicated data can be qualitative or quantitative, and can cover different levels of granularity, such as national, regional, or local.

2 Why use syndicated data?

Syndicated data can offer many advantages in tracking consumer behavior, such as saving time and money, as well as providing a large and representative sample of consumers. It can also help you benchmark your performance against competitors and identify trends, patterns, and opportunities. Syndicated data shows how your brand, product, or service compares to others in the market and can reveal changes in consumer preferences, needs, attitudes, and behaviors over time.

3 How to choose syndicated data?

Syndicated data can be an invaluable source of information for tracking consumer behavior, but it is not a universal solution. You must select the right syndicated data for your particular research question, objective, and budget. When choosing syndicated data, you should consider its relevance to your target market, segment, category, and channel. Additionally, you should assess the quality of the data by looking at its source, methodology, sample size, frequency, and coverage. Moreover, you should check reviews, ratings, and testimonials from other clients who have used the data. Furthermore, you need to ensure that the data is easy to access, understand, and use. You should look for data providers that offer user-friendly platforms, dashboards, reports, and tools. Finally, consider the format of the data delivery and support.

4 How to use syndicated data?

Syndicated data can be used to track consumer behavior in various ways, depending on the research question and objective. For instance, to measure consumer awareness and perception, syndicated data from surveys or panels can be used to assess familiarity, recall, and opinion of a brand, product, or service. Additionally, media or social media syndicated data can show how much exposure and engagement is received. To measure consumer satisfaction and loyalty, syndicated data from surveys or panels can be used to determine satisfaction, recommendation, and retention of a brand, product, or service. Data from scanners or panels can also show how often and how much consumers buy a brand, product, or service. Lastly, to measure consumer purchase behavior, syndicated data from scanners or panels can reveal what, where, when, and how consumers buy a brand, product, or service. Furthermore, surveys or panels can uncover why consumers buy a brand, product, or service such as their motivations, needs, preferences and influences.

5 How to analyze syndicated data?

Syndicated data can provide you with a wealth of information, but it must be analyzed carefully and critically to extract meaningful insights. When analyzing syndicated data, it's important to define your research question and objective, select key metrics and indicators, segment your data, compare it across different segments, categories, channels, or time periods, and interpret the main findings, patterns, trends, and implications of the data. This will help ensure that the data is relevant to your research question and objective.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?