New GRIT Future List Announced in Insights Practice Report!

Welcome to the 26th edition of the GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report, using data collected in Q3 & Q4 of 2019. Starting with the previous edition we began a program to restructure each report topically to focus on different aspects of the industry. That edition focused on broad issues related to business dynamics of the industry itself and was called the GRIT Business & Innovation Report. This is the inaugural edition of the GRIT Insights Practice Report. 

Insights Practice

In this report we tackle the nuts and bolts of the industry; we explore a variety of topics, some new and some that our readers have already come to depend on GRIT to cover. 

These include: 

• Adoption of emerging methods
• The use of traditional methods
• Satisfaction levels with suppliers
• The drivers of supplier selection
• Investment priorities for researchers
• The business outlook and projected spending
• The evolving role and activities of researchers
• Buzz topics such as automation or AI
• In-demand skill sets

All are focused on fundamental issues related to the practice of research that the industry can use to help provide strategic direction in the year ahead. 

Also, this edition contains the return of the GRIT Future list, a crowdsourced submission process that is expert-curated and judged, of those researchers who are making a real impact now and should be watched as industry leaders in the future.  

One of the major changes we made to this version of GRIT is that we adapted our Lumascape segmentation model as the model we use for viewing all results. Although often in the report itself we just focus on Buyer vs. Supplier or regional differences, this new integration will allow for far more consistency across all waves of GRIT and deeper analyses that we plan to make available via other channels later this year.  

What to Look Forward to

Perhaps more than ever before, GRIT is emblematic of both the need and the challenge of the market research industry. The need to provide clear direction for key stakeholders via the research process only continues to grow in importance, and part of the way to do that is via looking at trends over time. However, the survey as an instrument, especially a large tracker like GRIT, is becoming increasingly challenging to field. Both the instrument and the report have to evolve to more effectively meet the needs of those who use it, and new ways to derive value from the data that are outside the constraints of a report must a core focus. We are moving to adapt to these challenges like everyone else, so expect to see further changes in the future in response to that imperative.   

What’s Changed

As we established in the previous edition some analyses are now in an Appendix section where you can access descriptions of methodologies and a deeper dive into certain topics/descriptions. These analyses are important and valuable and were moved solely to increase usability of the overall report. 

Acknowledgements 

Last but not least thanks must be given. GRIT is a community effort and our authors, commentary providers, sample partners, advertisers, and most especially research partners make it all possible. Special thanks go out to the organizations who helped with data collection and analysis: AYTM – Ask Your Target Market, Braingroup Global, Gen2 Advisors, Infotools, Inguo, Insights Association, Knowledgehound, Lightspeed, MRII, NewMR, OfficeReports and Potentiate.  We couldn’t pull this off without their generous time, energy, and expertise.