The Research Industry Trends (RIT) Report is coming soon, and it promises to be quite revealing.
Tom Anderson promos the RIT a bit over at Next Gen Market Research. It’s worth a look.
The top two concerns are:
1. The non-representative nature of online samples
2. Quality of online sample is worse than most believe
Clearly these [...]

Will 50% of the work being done at market research firms today become “unnecessary” in three years?
Marshall Toplansky, President of WiseWindow, explores this question and scans the horizon of market research in a new MRA Alert article. For those MRA members, I highly recommend reading Toplansky’s article titled “Measuring the Future of Market Research.”
Reading [...]

Recently Alastair Gordon has asked “who’ll own MR in 2020?”
By this Gordon means to ask which players will dominate the market research industry.
His thesis is that the answer changes based on the year, but that one probable future is the rise, and ultimate dominance of the sub-contracting firms upon which full-service shops often depend. [...]

Ian Lewis has an exceptionally good piece in March’s Research World.
Ideally, it should be read in tandem with his January Quirk’s piece titled “Ten keys to increasing the impact of research” and with his comments on this website.
Although I highly recommend that you read (and re-read) Ian’s piece in Research World and draw [...]

Is what we currently think of as the market research industry building the future of its business, or is innovation more likely to come from outside the traditional players?
I’m inclined to believe that major innovation will not come from the large players and will come mostly from outside what we think of today as “the [...]

It is not difficult to see how prediction markets could become another useful tool in the market researcher’s toolkit.
For those interested in prediction markets I strongly recommend David Rothschild’s article in this month’s Public Opinion Quarterly (AAPOR’s publication).
Although Rothschild’s article focuses on “comparing prediction markets, polls and their biases”, the implications of his article stretch [...]

Peter Van Brunt addresses a colleague who feels that MR just “isn’t fun anymore.”
His colleague’s frustrations:
1. Too much email communication rather than face to face.
2. Increased speed of communication and deadline expectations.
3. Non-traditional competition from “non-researchers purporting to do or know how to do MR”.
The first is a general societal frustration.
I’ll address [...]

Tom Ewing asks:
“Are the Kids Alright?”
What are they thinking about the future of market research?
Why aren’t we hearing from them?
My take:
I don’t think we’re asking their opinion and I’m not sure the industry is listening.
But, I would add another option somewhat related to “they’re too busy doing amazing stuff.”
“They’re in industries, businesses and functions that [...]

Ian Lewis’ “A Road Map to Increased Relevance” in this month’s edition of Quirk’s is a nice complement to the November BCG study and the Research Industry Trends report. By reading these three one gets a well rounded picture of the industry today and a glimpse at the industry in the future.
Of course, the [...]

Is market research occupying a strategic or a tactical role?
The answer to this question seems to come from two different data sets:
1. MREB Business Alignment Survey
2. BCG Consumer Insight Benchmarking 2009
Several data points from these two surveys seem to work together in painting a solid picture of market research’s role.
a. [...]