Customers can speak positively about a product category and still use it infrequently. They may value convenience but tolerate a complicated routine, or say sustainability matters while choosing whichever option is available nearby.
These differences are useful research questions. What happens in everyday life? Which constraints shape the choice? When does a stated preference influence behaviour, and when does something else take priority?
Usage and attitude research connects these parts of the customer’s experience. It examines what people report doing, what they believe and the situations in which products become useful, frustrating or irrelevant.
What Is Usage and Attitude Research?
A usage and attitude study, often called a U&A study, investigates how people use a category or product and how they think and feel about it. It can cover purchasing, frequency, occasions, routines, motivations, barriers and unmet needs.
Usage questions examine behaviour: what was bought, where it was used and how often. Attitude questions examine perceptions, expectations and beliefs. The study considers both while recognising that attitudes do not always predict actions.
A U&A survey usually collects self-reported behaviour. Where possible, diaries, observation or suitable transactional data can provide additional evidence rather than treating recall as a complete record.
What Business Decisions Can a U&A Study Support?
A study can help identify underserved occasions, understand why people stop using a category, improve an offer or refine communication. It can also establish a category baseline before more focused research.
For example, a brand considering a smaller pack needs to understand when customers use the product, how much they need and what they do with leftovers. General satisfaction scores may not answer those questions.
Define the decision before designing the questionnaire. A broad study without priorities can produce many charts while leaving the team uncertain about what to change.
What Should the Study Cover?
Category involvement and current behaviour
Establish who buys, who uses and who influences the choice. Ask about recent purchases, usage frequency, quantities, channels and alternatives.
Use a recall period that suits the behaviour. A weekly question may work for a frequently purchased item but poorly for a product bought only a few times a year.
Usage occasions and context
Explore when, where and with whom the product is used. Identify the task or need behind the occasion, including workarounds and products used together.
Occasion-level analysis can reveal differences hidden by customer averages. The same person may choose convenience on a working day and take a different approach at the weekend.
Attitudes and expectations
Investigate what people value, worry about and expect. Keep concepts separate: convenience, trust and quality should not be combined into one ambiguous question.
Allow people to disagree or indicate that an issue is not relevant. Avoid wording that implies a socially desirable answer.
Barriers, lapsing and non-use
Include relevant people who use the category less often, stopped using it or have considered it without trying. Ask what prevented use and what they chose instead.
Different barriers require different responses. Poor availability, unclear value, difficult preparation and a bad previous experience cannot all be solved through the same advertising message.
Unmet needs and compromises
Explore where existing options fall short and how customers cope. Ask about recent situations when the product did not meet expectations.
Distinguish a minor irritation from a problem that affects choice or repeated use. A useful opportunity needs more than an interesting comment.
How to Design a Useful Usage and Attitude Study
Step 1: Define the category and research decisions
Agree what belongs inside the study, which alternatives matter and whose behaviour the findings should describe.
Internal category definitions may differ from customers’ definitions. Early interviews can reveal substitutes or workarounds that would otherwise be excluded from the questionnaire.
Step 2: Explore experiences qualitatively
Use interviews or observations to understand routines and customer language. Ask participants to describe concrete occasions rather than speculate about how people generally behave.
The purpose is to develop useful hypotheses and measures. A few detailed interviews should not be used to estimate the prevalence of a behaviour across the market.
Step 3: Build the sample around the intended audience
Define eligibility and relevant groups before recruitment. Consider current users, lapsed users and non-users according to the decision.
For a Bangalore-focused study, account for the relevant channels, neighbourhoods and language needs. Document recruitment limitations. Results from a convenient online sample should not automatically be generalised to the entire city.
Step 4: Design and pilot the questionnaire
Start with accessible questions about recent behaviour before exploring more abstract attitudes. Use clear definitions and response options that cover realistic situations.
Pilot the survey with appropriate participants to identify confusion, missing answers and excessive burden. ResearchFox’s guide to market research survey questions provides a related framework for improving wording.
Step 5: Analyse behaviour and attitudes together
Compare occasions, frequency, barriers and perceptions across meaningful groups. Check whether an apparent pattern remains when other relevant differences are considered.
An association does not establish causation. If frequent users express greater confidence, the study alone may not show whether confidence encourages use or repeated use builds confidence.
Step 6: Prioritise opportunities and validate them
Evaluate how many relevant customers experience the problem, how important it is and whether the business can address it.
Translate the finding into a proposition, product change or operational improvement. Then use an appropriate concept test, pilot or follow-up study to investigate whether the proposed response works.
Examples of Questions to Include
Useful questions connect a defined behaviour with a specific period or occasion. The exact wording should be adapted and piloted for the category.
- When did you last use a product from this category?
- Thinking about that occasion, where were you and what were you trying to do?
- Which product or alternative did you choose?
- What influenced that choice?
- What, if anything, was difficult about using it?
- What did you do when your preferred option was unavailable?
- Which changes would make the experience more useful, and why?
Avoid asking participants to explain every behaviour perfectly. Some decisions are habitual or difficult to recall. Allow uncertainty and use additional methods where the decision requires stronger evidence.
Example: Understanding Infrequent Use of a Food Product
Imagine a food brand finding that people like its product but buy it only occasionally. A U&A study might investigate preparation routines, household preferences, pack sizes and availability.
Interviews could suggest that customers associate the product with one narrow occasion. A broader survey could assess how common that association is within the sampled audience, while a diary study could examine actual preparation situations.
This is a hypothetical illustration. It does not establish that any particular barrier exists. It shows how the research can move from a broad concern about low frequency to specific explanations that can be tested.
How U&A Differs from Other Research
A U&A study provides a broad picture of category behaviour and beliefs. Segmentation research groups people according to meaningful differences. Brand tracking monitors selected brand measures over time. Journey mapping examines the sequence of interactions around an experience.
These approaches can support one another. A U&A study may reveal differences that inform customer segmentation research, or identify an experience problem that needs deeper customer journey mapping.
Choose the next method according to the unresolved decision rather than expecting one broad survey to answer every question.
What Should the Final Report Deliver?
A useful report should explain the audience, sample, methods and limitations before drawing conclusions. It should identify the behaviours and occasions that matter, the main barriers and the opportunities supported by evidence.
Give each recommended action a clear rationale. Explain which findings support it, what remains uncertain and what further test is needed.
Avoid presenting every difference as commercially important. A small group with an unusual preference may be interesting but difficult to reach or serve profitably. Prioritisation should connect customer relevance with delivery capability and business objectives.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Recruiting only loyal customers.
- Treating all reported behaviour as accurately remembered.
- Asking broad attitude questions without purchase or usage context.
- Using double-barrelled questions that combine several ideas.
- Assuming a correlation explains cause and effect.
- Reporting overall averages that hide important occasion differences.
- Recommending a launch before validating the proposed solution.
How ResearchFox Can Help
ResearchFox lists usage and attitude studies within its consumer research capabilities. A focused brief can connect category habits, customer expectations and unmet needs with product, positioning or marketing decisions.
The starting point is to define what the organisation needs to decide and which customers can provide relevant evidence. The resulting study should make those decisions more informed and easier to evaluate.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does U&A stand for?
U&A stands for usage and attitude. It describes research into how people use a category or product and the perceptions, expectations and beliefs associated with that use.
Is U&A research the same as a satisfaction survey?
No. Satisfaction research evaluates experiences against expectations. U&A research can cover the wider category, including routines, purchase occasions, non-use and alternatives, even among people who are not customers of the brand.
Can a U&A study identify new product opportunities?
It can reveal unmet needs and situations where current options fall short. Proposed solutions still need further evaluation before the findings are treated as evidence of demand for a specific new product.
Should non-users be included?
Include them when the decision concerns adoption or category growth. Define relevant non-users carefully and analyse their responses separately from current users where appropriate.
How often should the study be repeated?
Repeat it when category behaviour or the business decision justifies an update. If tracking change, keep key definitions and measures comparable and document any changes in sample or method.
