How Blockchain Technology is Reshaping Market Research Sector

According to a study by Statista, the blockchain market is currently valued at USD 23.3bn, and is expected to grow at a constant annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80.2% from 2018 to USD 39.7 bn in 2024.

From the above data, we can say that blockchain technology is gaining wider acceptance and the insights industry has also welcomed blockchain technology wholeheartedly. Though the initial progress was slow, as it ought to be, it is changing the way data is owned, stored, and shared, benefitting all the stakeholders of the insight industry – market research companies, survey respondents and their clients.

As the fundamental concepts of blockchain gained popularity, people started realizing that blockchain could be used in multiple ways to work and keep an account of all transactions. This technology is also tremendously benefiting the marketing industry. Marketers are being able to better capitalize on their lead, all thanks to the accurate information this technology provides.

Fundamentals of blockchain technology

Blockchain refers to a digital ledger where all the transactions are stored as a block which is linked to other blocks to create a chain of transactions. The data or information stored in these blocks may be personal details, customers’ online behaviour and monetary transactions.

The blocks are available in the public domain but they can be accessed only by an authorised user. The authorisation of these blocks is provided via a combination of private and public keys. The block owner has the private key and when this private key is provided to someone with a public key, the other person can view the data stored in that block. This makes the stored data both transparent and secure in the block.

Advantages of using blockchain technology in the market research sector

High level of transparency and accountability

Blockchain technology helps to collect the data or information from the respondents and stores them in the form of digital blocks. This data block that is stored digitally is kept safe and can only be accessed and verified by those who are authorised to do so. The ownership of the data lies with the owner but with the owner’s permission, the data can be used by market researchers.

Thus, implementing blockchain technology ensures the security of data for researchers and brings about a high level of transparency and accountability for the respondents. The respondents are made aware that their data is safe and will not be used without their permission.

Blockchain technology also helps save their time and effort and they provide accurate and complete information during the survey. When the data is already saved, the respondents just have to share the digital block where the data is already saved which makes the entire process faster and consistent.

Improved data authenticity

Undoubtedly, data is the most valuable asset required for an organisation to run. Well, according to a recent survey conducted by Forbes, 60% of the respondents said that data and analytics are crucial to their day-to-day operations and 58% of the companies swore that they actively generate value from data. However, the whole thing will only work if the data is accurate and authentic otherwise no real values or insights could be generated.

With blockchain technology, all the pieces of data that go in are not just accurate but also 100% protected. It becomes impossible for any unauthorised user to modify the data. If anyone is somehow able to modify or alter the data, it will not only affect the entire chain but all the relevant parties would be altered on the network. However, it’s practically impossible to modify even if you find the specific data unless you are an authorized user.

Acquire the trust of the respondents

One of the major benefits of using blockchain technology is data security. This technology also fixes an important problem faced by the market research sector which is acquiring the trust of the respondents. The respondents tend to provide inaccurate and incomplete information which results in uninformed business decisions and incomplete analytics when they don’t trust the researchers.

Blockchain: hype or hope?

According to a GRIT report from Greenbook, only 40% of the respondents were even familiar with blockchain technology. Only around 1 in 10 of the researchers stated that they thought the opportunities blockchain offered would be a game changer for the market research industry.

After figuring out the general perception of adopting blockchain technology, the respondents were asked to share a few potential use cases. The researchers mentioned that the greatest potential for blockchain technology is how to access the data, the opportunity to transform panels into personal data marketplaces and potentially helping to improve compliance with data privacy regulations.

Conclusion

Considering the ripple effect of blockchain technology on the manufacturing, finance and education sector, this technology is considered one of the greatest technological innovations of the 21st century. However, adoption and awareness of blockchain are still low in the insight industry but its potential cannot be declined. Blockchain adoption requires many users to actively use it to be effective. Few technologies such as automation, DIY platforms and AI also witnessed slow adoption and limited awareness but are now revamping the insight industry.