Company Uses Technology to Make a Game of Market Research

Crowdtap offers individuals a means to influence big name brands while earning prizes. To further its research endeavors, the company recently raised $7,000,000 of new capital.

The objective of Crowdtap is resolving what it views as the main problems with the present state of marketing. The first hurdle is that market research is expensive because of the time and manpower required. The second drawback to exploring markets is that consumers who provide responses are not available for follow-up inquiries.

Crowdtap addresses these circumstances by maintaining a network of volunteers for providing market insight. These individuals contribute to polls and discussions online. Crowdtap has about 150,000 people and is adding around 5,000 per week.

To encourage participation by the panel of volunteers, Crowdtap has resorted to gamification of the market research process. Participants in the focus groups are given gift cards, products, or support for favored charities. Increased participation enhances opportunities to obtain prizes.

In turn, companies can return to the same volunteers for recurring insight. Therefore, when people express interest in particular types of products, they are targeted for their thoughts about specific brands among the product selections.

Crowdtap was created in 2009 and was established in a New York small business incubator. The company’s idea attracted $3,000,000 of seed funding when it was founded. Crowdtap now has 13 employees and intends to add more with the new $7,000,000 capital infusion. In addition to expanding the engineering and sales teams, the company plans to enhance it gamification features. With the goal of making market research participation into a fun experience, Crowdtap expects to increase its brand influence.