How to use video surveillance for market research tasks
Market research is a complex of measures to gather data about a business’ target audience. Specific purposes of market research vary depending on the company and its goals, but generally they revolve around getting information that will help a business make better decisions when it is looking to discover new growth opportunities or cut losses. The measures themselves can also be quite diverse – sort of like whatever it takes to help a company make sure they ultimately select the right strategy.
One of such tools is – much to the surprise of many – contemporary video surveillance. When you come to think about it, it does in fact make sense: video surveillance systems rely heavily on (or better yet – are unimaginable without) video cameras and cutting-edge powerful software. Those video cameras substitute the eyes of a human, while the software is the ‘brains’ of the system, often with opportunities mind-blowingly resembling an actual human’s thinking process. As the result, video surveillance can now carry out various tasks beyond security – from biometric access control to, well, market research. Sounds too good to be true? Let’s take a closer look at what market research tools Xeoma, the global leader in video surveillance software, has.
One of the main directions of market research that video surveillance can help with is getting to know your clientele. This may include their age, gender, interests, choices they make, etc. This data is extremely valuable because not only does it help get insights into how to attract customers, – it also does it automatically, in background mode. This data can help a business adapt their marketing campaigns, products, services or environment to catch up on the missed opportunities.
Demographics: Xeoma’s Age Recognizer is a powerful video analytics tool based on Artificial intelligence that gathers statistics on what the age of people in camera sight is. This information can help a business tailor their offers to the trends among this demographic.
Demographics: Another useful tool, often used in combination with Age Recognizer, is Gender Recognition that is also a smart module powered by neural networks technology that gathers statistics on the gender of people that the camera sees. Whether it is adjusting the business to attract more of the demographic they are less popular with right now, or capitalizing more on the one that is predominant, this data is a gold mine for marketers.
Besides demographics statistics, Xeoma also offers a unique video analytics feature – live Eye Tracking. This feature has been previously available only in specialized equipment but now, with Xeoma, it is a part of a video surveillance solution. Using artificial intelligence it can tell the direction of a person’s gaze, thus rendering you a valuable insight into what products catch their eye. The tool is useful for finding perfect spots that attract attention the most.
Heat map is a color representation of the most (and least) visited areas that can be used for a similar purpose of establishing best and worst places for merchandising efforts. It gets information from Xeoma’s basic module called ‘Motion Detector’ which often doubles as a go-to anti-intrusion tool.
Whatever marketing efforts a business engages to promote their services or products – from doing radio ads to having promo stands with free samples – it is essential to keep track of how well it performs. One of the basic criteria of it is simply how many customers it brings. In various scenarios it might be enough to just detect a surge in overall visits, but sometimes one needs to identify unique customers who haven’t been there before. Luckily, Xeoma has both – and even more!
By means of the Visitors Counter module in Xeoma you can easily collect information about customers’ traffic to count visitors and use this statistics in the analysis of marketing campaigns. A more advanced version of this module – the Cross-Line Detector module – adds detection of their movement direction to visitors counting, so that it’s possible to count those who enter or leave the premises separately – which, by the way, works for multi-story environment too.
But there’s even more than that: for more precise counting that can tell apart new clients and loyal customers, use the unique customers counting feature embedded in Xeoma’s Face Recognition module that helps estimate how many new customers a new campaign, a banner or a promo stand attracts, rather than count any visitors.
Xeoma Video Management Solution is innovative in many respects, one of them being its ability to implement features required by a company to fit its needs. An example of such feature requests is the “Restaurant clients counter” module designed and developed for market research needs of a food company. The module gathers information about how much of the time are tables occupied by customers, and, consequently, how many remain idle. Now, this highly valuable insight tells a manager two things: 1) whether they need more customers (if tables are empty part of the time), and 2) whether it’s time to expand to accommodate the growing demand (if tables are always busy).
We’ve mentioned that counting customers is one way to evaluate results of marketing efforts. Another key parameter in market research is getting to know customers’ real-world reaction first-hand. Previously, that would mean having a supervisor or a marketing team observe the results themselves. Now the machines can do it, too! Advanced video management solutions like Xeoma offer various tools for that:
Do you want to know what emotions your banner triggers in those who see it? Or maybe just know the overall mood people have when they go through your store? The Emotion recognition tool in Xeoma is designed to recognize 7 basic human emotions (happiness, surprise, neutrality, anger, disgust, fear and sadness) of people in sight so it can help you get an insight on what customers truly feel about a promo stand, a new product, digital innovations, or an ad – it shows on their face.
Flexibility is what makes Xeoma video management solution stand out. We have already mentioned Xeoma’s unique Eye Tracking, and it comes in handy in this market research goal just as well. It will help you see if your ads are as attention-drawing as you want them to be, which of several side-by-side promo shields attracts the gaze more, etc.
Combination with a Loitering Detector – a module that helps detect someone who has been staying around for a set period of time – truly unfolds the potential of other tools in Xeoma. Loitering Detector will indicate an interest from a person standing in place, and will help engage other video analytical tools like Eye Tracking or Face Recognition.
Another Xeoma’s innovative tool for market research, Voice-to-Text, often called Speech Recognition for its ability to recognize words and phrases that sound around the camera, is perfect for finding out whether customers are discussing a promotional campaign, their reaction to a banner or an ad, etc. It can react to certain words you set, and it can write down what it hears for your team to analyze, saving hundreds of hours that would have been spent had they chosen to listen to raw audio recordings.
Xeoma has a number of features that makes video surveillance in marketing not just a passive bystander that witnesses events, counting and gathering statistics. Instead, it can assist your marketing efforts quite actively.
Let’s start with the Loitering Detector module, a perfect companion that we have already introduced earlier in this article. The logic of its use in market research is simple: if a person is standing in front of a certain shopping window for some time, it must mean they are interested in the products there – but still hesitating. That’s where targeted advertising comes into play, helping to convert potential customers into actual buyers. Set your Xeoma to launch a reaction of choice when it detects idling with the Loitering Detector – for example, automated “Sending Email” to let a manager engage with the customer, or an “HTTP Request Sender” – a module that sends network commands – to start a promo video about the product a customer is looking at, on a TV next to the stand. It can be something else, too – Xeoma has over a dozen of various reactions available!
Install video cameras behind the cashier counter to capture customer faces using Face Recognition when they’re making a loyalty card. This face image will be added to their profile and when these customers are later spotted walking by the store (detected by another camera, such as one used for visitor counting), you can send them an instant text or email with a special offer while they’re still nearby. This increases the chances that they’ll come back in and make a purchase.
People are naturally drawn to new and innovative technology because of its novelty factor. Xeoma’s work-in-progress Fashion Store module is designed to draw customers in by turning any standard monitor into a virtual dressing room, where users can virtually “try on” products using their avatar’s head and body dimensions.
Another simple yet effective method to attract attention involves displaying live camera feeds on large screens. For example, a sushi restaurant could show the preparation of a customer’s order while they wait nearby, or an auto repair shop can showcase ongoing car repairs. Factories can display the assembly process of heavy machinery, and zoos can broadcast footage from different animal enclosures.
With features like timelapse compression, hours of video recordings can be condensed into breathtaking clips in just seconds. Additionally, by automatically switching between live camera feeds on a screen, you can keep visitors engaged continuously. These live streams can also be embedded onto a company’s blog, website, or even a YouTube channel to build trust and provide entertainment.
AFTERWORD
Market research is a high-demand field of expertise for a reason, crucial for any business looking to stay ahead of the competition and meet customer needs effectively. It can help a business gather priceless data that has a limitless potential to multiply their profits – or cut losses.
Luckily, with video management software like Xeoma, utilizing video surveillance not only addresses other essential security and operational requirements that most businesses already manage with camera systems – it also fulfills market research tasks. Xeoma enhances this dual functionality by providing comprehensive solutions that streamline both market research and day-to-day operations, making it an indispensable tool for modern businesses.
April 4, 2025
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