ChatGPT for market research – Our Tutorial

Introduction

Unless you’ve been off the grid since November 2022, you must have either used some form of generative AI or would have seen posts across your social media with prompts to use to make your work easier (or promises to change your life for the better!).

Welcome to this tutorial on ChatGPT and how you can harness its power for market research.

In this tutorial, we will explore what ChatGPT is, its applications in market research, and how to effectively train it for your specific needs.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art large language model developed by OpenAI, but it’s more than just a conversational AI.

We (a.k.a the average human) make more than 35,000 choices in a day. Now to base those decisions on data and further analyse them would take an eternity.

That’s when AI can come to our rescue – In this case we’re exploring ChatGPT as a platform, and how it can play a pivotal role in transforming market research.

As you explore the capabilities of ChatGPT in this tutorial, you’ll see how it aligns with the methodologies shaping the future of market research. For a deeper dive into this topic, check out our blog-post on “Integrating Primary and Secondary Market Research.”

Applications for Market Research

As we delve deeper into ChatGPT’s capabilities, it’s essential to recognise how this AI marvel can enhance market research efforts significantly. From optimising surveys, to addressing specialised research needs in PR agencies, ChatGPT offers a diverse array of solutions.

To get started, we thought we’d ask ChatGPT to tell us how it could help us with Market Research. Here’s what it said:

Here are some key domains where ChatGPT has proven its utility in market research:

1. Drafting questions: ChatGPT can help create effective survey questions that yield valuable insights from respondents.
   If you’re looking for some guidance on writing a good research questionnaire, here are some tips.

(This is an example, but we’d recommend being more specific)

2. Content Generation: ChatGPT can generate reports, articles, or summaries based on your research findings, saving time and effort.
3. Competitor Analysis: It can help gather information on competitors from publicly available data and reports. This is a great way to get a summary of key competitors and understand where you stand in the market.
4. Data Analysis or Visualisation: Chat GPT can assist in analysing large volumes of text data, such as customer reviews and social media comments, to extract trends and sentiments.
   
   This can be a little bit of a hassle to set-up but ChatGPT does integrate as a pug-in for Excel and then you can use it seamlessly.
   
   To go one step further, find out more about ChatGPT for data analysis and converting into visualizations.

Training ChatGPT – The Dos and Don’ts

To maximise the utility of ChatGPT in market research, here are some tips and guidelines to help train it:

Dos:

1. Clearly State the Prompt: Begin with a clear and concise prompt that defines the topic or theme you want ChatGPT to focus on.
2. Use Specific Language: Describe your requirements using specific and concrete terms.
3. Provide Context: If necessary, offer background information or context to help ChatGPT understand the task better.
4. Be Clear and Concise: Use straightforward language to minimise ambiguity.
5. Set Parameters: Define any limitations or parameters for the task, such as length, tone, or style.
6. Provide Examples: Offer relevant examples or specify what you do NOT want ChatGPT to generate.
7. Break It Down: If the task is complex, break it into smaller, more specific parts to make it easier for ChatGPT to understand.

Don’ts:

1. Vague Terms: Refrain from using vague or abstract terms that could lead to unclear responses.
2. Complex Language: Keep language and grammar simple to prevent confusion.
   
   By following these guidelines and avoiding common mistakes, you can harness the full potential of ChatGPT for your market research needs. It’s a versatile tool that, when trained effectively, can save time and provide valuable insights for your projects.
   
   If you’re keen on learning more about how to write effective ChatGPT prompts, here is a great piece by Zappier.

Formatting Tips & Tricks for Effective Communication

Proper formatting can make your prompts clearer and more effective in getting the desired responses. Here’s what we learned:

1. Bullet Points: Use bullet points to list specific items or ideas, making your prompts easier to read and understand.
   
   o Example: “Write a list of the top 10 reasons why you should visit the following countries:
    Japan
    Italy
    Australia”
2. Bold for Emphasis: Utilise bold text to emphasise important instructions or elements in your prompts.
   o Example: “Write a persuasive speech on the importance of recycling. Include at least three examples of how recycling can benefit the environment and society.”
3. Italics for Titles: Employ italics to indicate titles or for added emphasis within your prompts.
   o Example: “Write a review of the Star Wars movie franchise. Include your thoughts on the plot, characters, and overall enjoyment of the series.”
4. Strikethrough: Use strikethrough to indicate something that should be removed or excluded from the response.
   o Example: “Write a persuasive speech on the importance of exercising regularly. Do NOT include any arguments about weight loss or physical appearance.”
5. Code Blocks: Use code blocks to indicate specific language or code within your prompts.
   o Example: “Write a tutorial on how to set up a basic website using HTML and CSS. Include , , and tags in the code examples.”
6. Comments: Add comments within your prompts to provide additional information that you don’t want ChatGPT to include in the response.
   o Example: “Write a descriptive paragraph about a person’s appearance. [//]: # (Include details about their hair, eyes, facial features, etc.)”
7. Interrogative Questions: Format your questions appropriately for the type of response you want.
   o Open-ended: “What are the key factors influencing climate change?”
   o Closed-ended: “Is climate change caused by human activities?”
8. Leading Questions: Use leading language to guide the response in a specific direction while ending with a question mark.
   o Example: “Don’t you agree that the best way to solve this problem is to call in a professional?”
9. “Must Include” Phrase: Specify important requirements within the question.
   o Example: “What are the top tourist attractions in France? You must include the Eiffel Tower in your list.”
10. Use Specific Language for Importance: Emphasise the significance of certain elements in your prompts.
    • Example: “What are the best beaches in Thailand? It is essential that you consider Koh Phi Phi and Railay Beach in your list.”

Training ChatGPT – Prompt Engineering Example

To effectively train ChatGPT, you can use prompts like the following:

“Can you provide me with a long and well-thought-out comprehensive yet simplified guide of [SUBJECT], that only includes offline information that you are certain is true and excludes any speculation or uncertainty? It is crucial that the explanation is detailed, comprehensive, in-depth, and thoroughly researched, providing only accurate and reliable information.
Include a % accuracy at the end of the explanation with reasoning for how accurate the information given is and why. Give 2 web sources with general URLs (accurate as of 2021, ends in .com, .gov, or .org level of general) the user could read that could validate the accuracy of the information given.”

This prompt is highly effective for obtaining detailed, accurate, and well-researched information on a subject while ensuring that it’s based on reliable offline sources.

Additionally, it provides a clear structure for evaluating the accuracy of the response.

Be Careful

While ChatGPT is a powerful tool for market research and various other tasks, there are some important considerations to keep in mind:

1. Data Accuracy / Fact-Checking: Although ChatGPT can now provide users with up-to-date information for their inquiries (instead of being limited to data before September 2021), always verify and double check the accuracy of the information. It is essential to fact-check any critical information or decisions based on its responses, especially in high-stakes situations.
2. Ethical Use: Ensure that you use ChatGPT and similar AI tools ethically and responsibly. Avoid generating content that may be harmful, misleading, or against ethical guidelines.
3. Privacy: When using ChatGPT with sensitive or personal data, take appropriate measures to protect privacy and comply with data protection regulations.
4. Complex Tasks: While ChatGPT can handle various tasks, it may not always provide precise answers to highly complex or specialised questions. For such cases, consider consulting domain experts or using specialised tools.
   
   By being cautious and mindful of these considerations, you can make the most of ChatGPT’s capabilities while maintaining the integrity and accuracy of your market research efforts.

Market Research Tools – Competition

Here’s a brief overview of some market research tools and their unique offerings:

1. Predict: Predict is an AI tool with a remarkable 95% accuracy rate for predicting customer responses on creative assets like attention and cognition. It utilises a robust eye-tracking database and is validated through neuroscientific methods.
2. STORYD: STORYD is a tool designed to help users create AI-powered data presentations that are engaging and impactful. It enables users to quickly generate presentations that can capture the attention of decision-makers, ultimately aiding in recognition for their efforts.
3. Luminal: Luminal simplifies the task of organising and cleaning large, messy spreadsheets using GPT-3. Users only need to show Luminal how the data should look and upload their spreadsheet. Luminal then dynamically generates a Python script to clean the data efficiently, speeding up spreadsheet preparation for processing.
   These tools offer unique solutions for market research, from predicting customer responses to simplifying data presentation and spreadsheet cleaning. Each tool addresses different aspects of market research, catering to various needs within the field.

Conclusion

By now, you should have a solid understanding of what ChatGPT is, its versatile applications in the field of market research, and how to effectively train it to generate valuable insights for your projects.

Just keep in mind the power of clear and well-structured prompts, these prompts can significantly influence the quality and relevance of the responses you receive from ChatGPT.

Remember to stay updated with the latest developments in the field of AI and natural language processing, as ChatGPT and similar tools are continuously improving and evolving.

If you have any further questions or would just rather use the help of a professional team of researchers for your research needs, then feel free to call us or to drop us a message here.