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March 16, 2020
A look into the changing atmosphere of the insights industry.
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Editor’s Note: This subsection is featured in the GRIT Insights Practice Report. The GRIT Insights Practice Report is your #1 guide to brand success in the insights industry, featuring the GRIT Future List, client perspectives, and emerging methodologies. You’ll learn what’s making strides, what trends are worth following, and where your company fits into it all.
2019 had more twists and turns than a Netflix blockbuster. New players invested in the industry: private investment firm Bain Capital acquiring a 60 percent share of Kantar and SAP buying Qualtrics for $8 billion. There was also a changing of the old guard: GfK sold a chunk of its business to Ipsos and some former rivals joined forces with the merger and integration of Research Now and SSI. Toluna celebrates its 20th anniversary next year and we’ve learned a few things… We doubled down on technology more than two years ago. We saw that the real vet of companies that succeed would be those who claim to be and those who truly are technology-based. The way forward for market research is speed, quality, and agility combined with automation, for maximum efficiency, enabling users to focus on interpreting results and the business implications.
The market research industry is late to adopt Artificial Intelligence, but it is now a staple. Retail has benefitted from its capabilities for customer FAQs and reviews for years as peer appraisals of product color, fit and quality drive a majority of buying decisions. The technology that empowers personalization, identifying positive or negative customer experiences; text analysis, the words that frequently appear online in connection with products; and trend identification, price fluctuation based on popularity, will soon be embedded in research near you. AI and machine learning will also provide opportunities to mine data more effectively from both primary and secondary sources.
Market research industry consolidation means customers may have less choice – with fewer, bigger research platforms. By default, consumer package goods, financial, telecommunications and media & entertainment corporations may soon do all their testing – from ideation to business analysis to commercialization – with a single research partner, leading to bigger brand and firm partnerships. Industry consolidation offers well-known challenges. Consolidated industry sectors can have relatively high barriers to entry, lack of differentiated products, and potentially few, well-established brands with high-profit margins.
It can also mean that larger firms end up with more business, potentially stunting creativity and competition. In the market research sector, single partner testing without the checks and balances of diverse inputs could result in worse and not better decision making.
People and partnerships. People. Toluna always looks to hire the best and the brightest. And then we encourage them to stay. We always want fresh energy from people with non-traditional backgrounds. Our value of meritocracy gives them the chance to build real careers. Partnerships. We are always open to non-traditional partnerships. For example, first- and third-party data are on a collision course. Privacy and compliance regulations could encourage third-party data aggregators to seek new alliances. First-party data companies will benefit from the hundreds of extra data points that third-party data brings to research results. The consolidation of both data types could power companies to make even better and more nuanced business decisions.
Technology will continue to advance. Industry basics are not going to change: Speed remains constant. What was fast last year will not be in 2025 but research has to offer the flexibility to fit with iterative innovation processes. Agility means using tools and techniques which factor speed and rigor into the process simultaneously, so work of high quality can be delivered at a faster pace. As technology continues to evolve and standardize, a benefit of industry consolidation should be that the end data will be more actionable, faster and better quality.
Be a person who makes bold moves. People who take calculated risks will do better than those who are too safe. Be with your clients with laser focus discipline on their needs. Know what they are thinking and what they need just as they realize it themselves. When you are with clients in the action, you can never lose.
Disclaimer
The views, opinions, data, and methodologies expressed above are those of the contributor(s) and do not necessarily reflect or represent the official policies, positions, or beliefs of Greenbook.
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