In my post titled ‘Recession in market research industry: Pandemic or Infodemic?’, I wrote about the effect of recession on the market research industry. It is clearly evident that the market research offshoring has taken a hit and corporates and market research agencies are evaluating avenues to cut costs without affecting productivity.

A recent report by Rock Hopper Research titled ‘Research Industry Trends 2009 Survey’ talks about the various trends witnessed in the market research industry for the current year. Apart from these, the report talks about the impact of recession on offshoring and the impact of social media research against the traditional research techniques. One finding which corroborates what I wrote in my blog was that the clients have become more demanding and want results faster. The other interesting finding from the report was that more and more (63% of the 512 respondent base) corporates are looking to conduct their own surveys with in-house staff and the internet. However, I still question how long corporates can sustain and add quality to research need by using in-house techniques, rather than entrusting it to experienced domain experts.

Another interesting finding from the report was that outsourcing would not see positive growth for the current year. That leaves us thinking, how does that bode for the market research landscape? More and more corporates are now hooked on to social media research techniques and with the help of tools like Google Social Search and companies tracking social media websites, corporates have an opportunity to procure analytical data without investing heavily in market research companies. Worth a punt?? In the short run, maybe yes. Corporates might look at quick solutions to address immediate issues and challenges. They might be successful as well. However continuous research and tracking is what is required in order to fully understand consumer needs. Continuous tracking requires domain specific resources and the right tracking tools that are being offered by research agencies. If the corporates look at continuous tracking it would require additional time and cost to allocate that to an internal resource. Research expertise from professional market research agencies is second to none. The market research industry is definitely here to stay. Like all sectors it would see up and down based on market conditions and demand for services. However, with every sector looking to know its consumers in order to retain them, market research seems to be the only solution! Care to differ?