As we near the end of another year, Quirk’s staff pulled a list of the most popular e-newsletter articles published in 2024.* While generative AI has dominated headlines over the past two years, 2024 has marked its evolution into more of a supporting role across many popular articles. AI is increasingly woven into broader discussions – which may be proof researchers are gaining a deeper understanding of AI and increasing their ability to integrate it into their daily work.
This year’s most popular articles tackled a wide range of topics, covering everything from political polling and consumer wellness trends to a deep dive into experiences of survey participants and more.
Consumer trends in self-care and waterless beauty redefine the industry
By Lisa Testa
In today's fast-paced, wellness-driven world, women are increasingly embracing skin care as an essential part of their daily routines, reflecting a deeper cultural shift toward holistic health. According to the Leger 2024 Natural Beauty Trends report, this growing trend is redefining how women approach beauty and wellness, focusing not only on appearance but also on mental, emotional and environmental well-being. Alongside this, the rise of waterless beauty products is transforming the industry, offering consumers sustainable and effective solutions while reducing environmental impact.
The insights in the report are based on an online survey conducted among 201 respondents aged 18 to 55 from Leger’s U.S. Health and Wellness Community. Read more.
AI and insights in 2024: Navigating the new age of innovation
By Polat Goktas
In 2023, marketing experienced a significant transformation driven by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), which reshaped how we approach innovation and interaction within the field. Insights from 2023 McKinsey and Deloitte Digital have highlighted the substantial impact and increasing adoption of generative AI in marketing. Looking ahead to 2024, there is a clear shift toward emerging trends and future predictions. Gartner’s 2024 marketing predictions point to a notable move toward AI-driven platforms and a re-evaluation of brand positioning strategies. Qualtrics’ 2024 “Research Trends Report” emphasizes an increasing dependence on AI for market research. Furthermore, Deloitte’s “Tech Trends 2024” report anticipates ongoing technological advancements, underscoring the necessity for marketers to evolve and incorporate AI strategies within the rapidly changing digital environment.
Generative AI transcended traditional boundaries, embedding itself deeply within marketing operations and strategy formulation. Read more.
The polling gap: When quantitative data misses the mark
By Tim Wragg
After spending an estimated half a billion dollars surveying voters across the United States, with cutting-edge technologies and methodologies, the truth is staring us in the face yet again. We got it wrong. Pollsters, market researchers, forecasters and insights gurus all predicted things that never happened and were unaware of things that did. The disconnect between research and reality – something I hear from many business leaders – is as stark as ever.
Well, up to a point. Read more.
Everything market research and insights professionals should know about AI
By Josh Seltzer, Kathy Cheng
Since the rise of generative AI in 2023, ChatGPT gained immense popularity, but what lies beyond ChatGPT? And how will this impact the marketing research industry? In this article, we will discuss the broader landscape of tools and applications that leverage generative AI, highlighting the potential for market research and beyond. We'll also provide tips for market researchers to use AI responsibly, covering privacy and insight provenance.
The power of generative AI: Exploring ChatGPT and beyond
When trained on incomprehensibly large amounts of data, a relatively simple machine learning architecture known as GPT – generative pretrained transformer – becomes a powerful large language model (LLM) which is capable of mimicking human language in truly impressive ways. OpenAI leveraged this technology to build ChatGPT, an LLM accessed via a simple chat interface. Read more.
AI in 2024: Preparing for a generative leap in market research
By Steven Millman
Buckle up, market researchers. If you thought the explosion of generative AI and large language models in 2023 was intense, wait until you see the changes these technologies will bring in 2024.
The future of market research is on a collision course with generative AI and our industry will slog, struggle, succeed and learn from mistakes as we collectively figure out what to do with the newly democratized power of AI. 2024 promises to be a year where status quos are shattered, new existential risks emerge and our accomplishments are limited only by our imaginations. Read more.
Are you considering the survey participant’s experience?
By Ben Tolchinsky
When was the last time you participated in an online panel survey?
For me, it had been a while. Early in my career, in the mid-2000s, I joined a number of online panels so that I could stay “on the pulse” of online surveys and the industry. I developed three beliefs from this experience:
- Surveys are too long.
- Surveys are boring.
- Surveys are unrewarding.
I’ve maintained these beliefs over the years, not having encountered anything that would change them. However, despite my beliefs and best efforts, I’ve contributed my share of lengthy and boring surveys. Read more.
Are consumers really irrational?
By Ruchira Jain
Behavioral science explains that all human behavior is “irrational” due to biases like loss aversion (the tendency to prefer avoiding losses over acquiring equivalent gains) or the anchoring effect (how initial information can disproportionately influence subsequent judgments) and other biases that deviate consumer choices from rational expectations.
For example, I may not choose a zero-sugar ice cream instead of my favorite indulgent brand even when wanting to lose weight. Read more.
AI's impact on market research: What to expect in 2025
By Ali Henriques
Like many industries, the market research field finds itself undergoing an unprecedented transformation thanks to advances in artificial intelligence.
Qualtrics 2025 Market Research Trends report depicts a vivid portrait of how AI is reshaping the insights landscape and what emerging trends will define the year ahead. The report reflects perspectives from over 3,000 market researchers across 15 countries representing 13 industries. We’ve uncovered key insights ripe for research leaders and brand managers to take advantage of to stay ahead of the curve. Read more.
Democrats' messaging challenges: Two fundamental misunderstandings
By James Forr
Even before the firestorm about the president’s age, economists wondered why Joe Biden got no credit from the public for an economy that is, by the numbers, quite robust. Democrats wondered how Biden could be trailing against a convicted felon who himself is deeply unpopular. Polling analysis wondered why Biden had lost ground with young voters and people of color.
I have spent nearly 25 years helping major brands understand their consumers. At various times, my firm also has dabbled in research for progressive causes and Democratic election efforts. Read more.
Learnings from real-world applications of gen AI tools in surveys
By Rachel Dreyfus
In this article I share my learnings to help market research practitioners apply generative AI survey tools. After completing two quantitative project for two different clients, where the surveys embedded an AI chatbot to converse with respondents, I found myself debriefing – what could I have done differently? I hope to help others through my learning experience.
A chatbot tool in a survey questionnaire can replace traditional open-ended – and some closed-ended – questions. The tool allows exploration beyond immediate rational responses, eliciting deeper insights and elevating the survey beyond a typical hybrid qual-quant instrument. The text analytics provide another set of reliable quantitative data. Collected from a stable sample size of several hundred or more, AI is deployed on both the front end in the respondent experience and on the back-end analysis. Read more.
Work and Play: Playing hockey and being open to change
By Nancy Cox
Hello Alex Castello, vice president marketing and client strategy, KJT
What is the “play” in your life?
The play in my life is ice hockey. I’ve been a big fan of hockey for years and my boys, who are 5 ½ and 8, started playing in 2023. That’s when my husband and I got jealous – we wanted to be on the ice, too! I found a local rink offering an adult “learn to play” program that was open to all skill levels. We did that every Sunday morning for 11 weeks this year, culminating in a real refereed game where we put our new skills to the test. Read more.
Cancel anytime: How cancellation policies impact consumer buying behavior
By Sukki Yoon
If there’s one thing the pandemic taught consumers, it’s that life is too short for long-term commitments. This upended the way consumers perceived lengthy contracts, leading to increased hesitancy to commit to long-term items like gym memberships, even if these items had a positive effect on personal development and well-being. However, as life normalizes, retailers have a chance to rebuild consumer confidence.
Moving forward, offering flexible cancellation policies may be key, as they lower the psychological barriers to commitment. Evidence suggests that the option to cancel motivates consumers to persist with long-term services, treating the cancellation policy as an emergency reserve. Read more.
Niche marketing: How focusing on specific interests helps brands appeal to Gen Z
By Maxine Gurevich , Matt Higgins
Spurred by prolonged periods of social isolation and widening societal division, a growing hunger for like-minded communities is booming and uniting people across identities and interests, especially among Gen Z. They’re diving into niche passions and fandoms for connection, forming subcultures that are driving broader culture and commerce.
Unlike traditional demographics or marketing segments, subcultures are comprised of fluid, intersecting groups of people united by shared passions. One person can belong to many subcultures. Read more.
Wellness revolution: Holistic health in 2024
By Alicia Ierardi
In the ever-evolving landscape of health and wellness, 2024 marks a significant shift toward a more holistic and integrative lifestyle. As individuals become more aware of the interconnectedness of physical, mental, emotional and social health, their wellness goals are becoming more comprehensive and nuanced. This year's health and wellness trends, as highlighted by the 2024 Health and Wellness Toolkit, offer a fascinating glimpse into the future of self-care and personal health management.
The insights in the toolkit are based on an online survey conducted among 1,310 respondents aged 18 and older from Leger’s U.S. Health and Wellness Community. It explores various themes, including health goals, wearable tech, gut health, sleep health, holistic wellness services and weight management. Read more.
*The list above is an accurate representation of the most-viewed e-newsletter articles published to Quirk’s article archive in 2024 (data gathered from Google Analytics) and does not include articles published in the print magazine, digital magazine (including PDF downloads and Quirk’s Digital Edition) or blog. In addition, articles published in Quirk’s E-newsletter during the month of December 2024 were not included in the data pull.