The Full Picture: Using Image Analysis for Consumer Research

Like AI, growth-hacking, and virtual reality, image analysis for businesses is getting its time in the sun as the intriguing, new solution to current business problems.

The application of image analysis technology is still in its early stages, with implementation looking a lot like social media monitoring looked 10 years ago.

However, slowly but surely companies are adding images and visual data into all of their other business data.

Understandably so: image analyses offers a new look into a company’s consumers, their competitors, and their place in the market.

WE'RE GOATIN ON A TRIP pic.twitter.com/OrbjMdEI7D

— 1,000,000% GOATS (@EverythingGoats) March 15, 2017

Walmart image mention with valuable consumer insight 

Billions of images are shared across the web every day. Therefore, visual data is becoming more ubiquitous and more relevant to companies.

As image analysis software continues to advance, learn how important this technology will be to consumer research.

The context behind the content

When collecting image mentions of your brand, you gain the ability to see who is using your products. Not just when they talk about using your products, but in their everyday lives.

This means not just when they talk about using your products—in complaints or recommendations—but in their everyday lives.

What is the setting of the photo? What else are they doing alongside using your product? Are they using other products as well?

Kroger mention found using Brandwatch’s Image Insights

From where your soda is consumed to how your app is used alongside your competitors’, as in the above image mention of US retailer Kroger, the context of your customers’ behaviors is often locked within photos you’re not collecting.

Brandwatch Image Insights goes beyond the insights text mentions can provide, as a picture lets us dive into a more authentic view of our customers and their relationship with our products and brands, especially their after-purchase experience

PepsiCo | José Luis Cruz Tijerina | Head of Social

 

These insights gained from image analysis does not only and thousands of mentions you would have otherwise missed with traditional text searches.

Gaining this context behind the content is vital to understanding how your products fit into the lives of your consumers.

And every consumer insights researcher knows that context is key.

The big picture of your consumers

Customers don’t always mention your products specifically. In fact, 80% of photos of products shared by consumers do not include a mention of the product or brand in the accompanying text.

Therefore, photos with your products reveal a hidden world of vital consumptions behavior.

With image analysis, researchers are able to reveal the places, activities, and other products that are commonly associated with a brand or product.

We know customers take pictures and make comments, but until now we’ve only stumbled across them by happenstance. We’re excited to use Brandwatch Image Insights to enhance our voice of customer data collection and pro-active customer service.

Liz Gross, Ph.D. | Social Media & Market Research Strategist | Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc.

 

Additionally, the author of a social media post might not always be the consumer or user you’re interested in.

Analyzing a picture a student took of their friend’s new outfit or a mother took of her son playing with your toys might be more insightful than anything those social media users might have written alongside the pictures.

Analyzing these image mentions empowers companies with the information they otherwise wouldn’t know. When people show your products in photos, you can build a complete and honest picture of your customers.

Image insights for consumer research

From salespeople to product teams to your CMO, employees across your business know that learning about your customers how your products are being used is vital to success.

To do that completely, you need data that reveals not just when they talk about using your products, but where your company fits into their everyday lives.

In order to get the most out of image analysis and photos shared online, be sure you’re using the right tools. Set the right goals, so you’re getting the most out of your image analysis program.

If you are still wondering how image analysis can add to your strategy, contact us and get a free demo.