4 Trends Shaping Market Research in 2025

As we look ahead to 2025, the market research landscape is buzzing with change. New technologies, especially AI, shifting consumer behaviors, and the increasing complexity of products are reshaping how we gather and apply insights. For researchers, this presents both a challenge and an exciting opportunity to adapt, evolve, and drive even more impactful results.

In this article, we’ll dive into four key trends that are set to define the future of market research. Let’s take a closer look at how you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure your research continues to deliver value in this fast-changing environment.

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1. Synthetic Data Is on Course to Revolutionize the Research Landscape

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Synthetic data is the buzzword in market research right now, with the 2024 conference circuit and industry publications teeming with provocative statements like “Are Surveys Dead?” and “Synthetic data is as good as real!” Many believe 2025 will see synthetic respondents and responses take off. The excitement around this development is understandable given it offers potential solutions to many challenges impacting data quality in market research, such as data privacy concerns, the uptick in fraud, data scarcity, and survey fatigue.

By training AI on high-quality datasets, respondent behavior can be simulated, potentially providing a level of consistency often missing from traditional panels. In well-documented categories, synthetic respondents are already proving to be nearly as accurate as real ones. The GRIT report shows that research teams using synthetic data report high satisfaction, with 87% expressing positive feedback about its results.

We believe synthetic respondents likely already outperform poorly engaged respondents and will improve rapidly, particularly where comprehensive training data exists. Imagine the convenience of using expert synthetic respondents trained specifically to act as cardiologists or CFOs, making it that much easier and cheaper to gather insights from these hard-to-reach audiences.

You could also explore hypothetical scenarios and gather insights on sensitive topics “real experts” might be hesitant to discuss at great length. As the technology improves, we foresee synthetic data becoming an increasingly valuable resource for faster and perhaps even more reliable insights.

However, while these advancements are exciting, limitations remain. Synthetic data can replicate known patterns based on existing information but struggles in less-explored categories or predicting future preferences. As Axel Bichler, Founder of Factworks, points out:

“Synthetic data shines in areas with established trends and extensive datasets—for instance, analyzing US car brand perceptions of style, comfort, and price. But for novel product features or niche markets, synthetic data is still catching up. It’s a promising tool, but we need to be cautious about relying on it just yet. It’s still up to us researchers to critically evaluate and validate results.”

Moving forward, for now it’s essential that synthetic data is viewed as a complement to, not a replacement for, traditional research methods. By combining synthetic and real respondent data, researchers can leverage the strengths of both approaches—using synthetic data to address challenges like survey fatigue and fraud, while still grounding insights in real-world behaviors and attitudes.

Incorporating synthetic data into your research approach should be done thoughtfully and critically. As the use of synthetic data becomes more prevalent, it will be crucial to engage with synthetic data providers to understand their data sources, the diversity of their training datasets, and how frequently they update their models. This ensures that synthetic insights remain aligned with current market realities and reflect the complexities of evolving consumer behaviors.

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2. Demonstrating ROI Is Becoming an Imperative for Researchers

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Over the last year, we’ve seen that demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) of market research is becoming an essential skill for research teams, and it will likely continue to be as important in 2025.  As companies rely more on data to guide decisions, stakeholders—from heads of product and marketing to the C-suite—are more invested in research. Yet, these stakeholders are often not researchers themselves, and tighter budgets mean internal teams must justify their work's value and sometimes secure funding from other departments.

To gain support, researchers need to craft arguments that demonstrate ROI before the research project even begins. For example, this could mean showing how a price optimization study could reveal that increasing the product price by 5% could potentially generate an additional $10 million in annual revenue.

“Market research has always been about uncovering truths that drive better decisions, but in today’s environment, it’s equally about proving its worth in measurable terms," says Nadja Böhme, CEO of Factworks. "This means not only delivering insights but also connecting those insights to tangible business outcomes—whether that’s increasing revenue, reducing costs, or improving customer retention. To ensure research projects get the backing they deserve, research teams must become experts in stakeholder alignment as well, fostering clear communication, trust, and shared objectives from the very beginning.”

Engaging stakeholders early through methods like stakeholder interviews aligns research goals with business priorities and builds enthusiasm. Providing progress updates, interim findings, and workshops keeps stakeholders engaged, ensuring insights are embraced and acted upon.

Another way to strengthen these efforts is by involving research suppliers and vendors from the outset. Their experience and ability to provide practical examples of similar studies and outcomes can significantly bolster the case for ROI and increase the likelihood of securing the necessary support to move forward.

Ultimately, demonstrating ROI goes beyond making a strong case for funding—it’s also about elevating the role of market research within the organization. By focusing on stakeholder alignment, financial impact, and collaboration, research teams can drive measurable value and solidify their position as strategic business partners.

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3. Research Must Be Tied to Tangible Business Outcomes

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Alongside proving ROI, we find that it’s becoming ever more common for stakeholders to ask for a clearer connection between research insights and measurable business outcomes as part of the research design. This shift reflects a growing demand for more actionable insights that go beyond consumer preferences or hypothetical scenarios.

Clients more than ever want to know how the research translates into real-world outcomes that drive business growth and impact their bottom line whether it’s tweaking product features and design, changing prices, or launching a new marketing campaign.

Anchal Chhabra, Co-CEO of Factworks, shares:

"Increasingly across segmentation studies we conduct, research buyers want more than just statistically sound segments—they want clear answers to critical questions: 'Whom should we target, and why? How valuable is each segment? What is the opportunity cost of prioritizing one segment over the other? How many customers can we win, and how much revenue will they generate?'”

To meet these demands, research teams must plan from the beginning to connect their studies to business outcomes. By establishing these connections early, studies can be designed to deliver business-relevant insights. Additionally, integrating analytics, customer data, and market performance metrics into traditional research provides a more accurate view of how different strategic actions will play out.

For instance, in segmentation studies, connecting segments to a client's media targeting can make the research highly actionable. Recently we had a client utilize the link between their Data Management Platform and one of our panel providers, enabling us to directly flag segments within their DMP. This allowed the client to target those segments with greater precision in future marketing campaigns.

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4. Rising Product Complexity Demands Custom Research Design

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The digital product landscape is more intricate than ever. Take for instance the rise of SaaS products and the growing subscription economy. Typically these already feature tiered pricing structures—some even employ hybrid models that blend usage-based fees with monthly subscriptions. Streaming services are now introducing ad-supported plans, and dynamic pricing, once limited to e-hailing services and concert tickets, may soon expand beyond these categories.

Willingness to pay can vary significantly across consumer segments, driving businesses to experiment with diverse pricing strategies to optimize revenue. All this increasing complexity shows us that standardized, cookie-cutter approaches to product and pricing research simply don’t cut it anymore (if they ever did).

Understanding preferences now requires tailored approaches. Fortunately, methods like conjoint analysis, the gold standard of product and pricing research, have the flexibility needed to adapt. Conjoint research can be customized to handle these complex demands, allowing you to simulate customer preferences across a wide array of features, bundles, and pricing strategies. Our experience in the fintech sector, where digital products often combine subscription fees, usage-based charges, and other variable pricing models, underscores the need for adaptability.

To aid respondents with making realistic decisions concerning these complex products, Alex Wendland, Conjoint Expert at Factworks suggests:

“You should try to mimic real-world decision-making environments as much as possible. For instance, if you’re testing a new product, you can use dynamic, visually interactive elements in your survey that mirror real user experiences and how they would actually compare options online. In addition, you can use visually rich stimuli for new, conceptual products that immerse respondents in future scenarios.”

In addition to the complexity of the products themselves, increasingly nuanced research questions are being asked. This shift has led to an increased demand for mixed-methods research, with a renewed emphasis on qualitative insights. Beyond price sensitivity, research stakeholders want to understand the broader impact of their product features such as how ad-supported tiers might influence brand perception or how different feature sets affect overall user experience. Ultimately, the rising complexity of digital products means the research designs of the future will need to be more responsive, immersive, and tailored.

Conclusion

In 2025, market research will be marked by an increasing demand for ROI-driven, actionable insights that directly inform business outcomes. Synthetic data will have a significant impact on data collection, while customized research designs will be essential to understanding the growing complexity of modern products and pricing strategies.

By embracing these trends, researchers can position themselves as vital contributors to their organizations' success, ensuring that research continues to drive strategic decision-making and business growth. The ability to navigate these trends and harness new technologies will set strong research teams apart, ensuring that their work is both relevant and indispensable in a rapidly evolving market landscape.

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Originally published on Greenbook

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