A brand new report landed on our desks just last week, called The British Research Barometer, compiled by publisher MrWeb and B2B research experts Circle Research. The report explored the views of 140 market research professionals that reside in agencies and client side roles within a range of businesses, from SMEs to organisations with more than 5,000 employees.
It’s a refreshing alternative to some of the more US-centric reports that exist and intended to provide a regular snapshot of the UK’s market research industry. Overall it paints a positive picture of the performance of the market research industry, though much of the market reporting has been driven by PwC’s figures, which I believe include a great many analytics and consulting firms which can skew things.
The report delves into a number of key trends, including the potential over-optimism of agencies, the integration of multiple data sources, storytelling, the client-agency partnership and the adoption of methodologies new and old.
Research communities and mobile diary studies, both qualitative methods supported by Further’s technologies, have a good showing, with 36% and 29% of all respondents using them in the last 12-months. This, on the back of the fact that qualitative research delivers much less revenue to agencies than quantitative research, is a strong showing.
Research communities were also predicted to be the second biggest growth areas, with almost 50% of respondents stating that they planned to use them more in the coming 12 months.
Gathering human insight (through listening, observing, engaging) helps brand understand the difference and value they can add to someone’s life. It is important in a marketing world where humanising brands is essential to counter the change in control, from brand to consumer.
Research communities are especially good for delivering true human insight at speed and scale, and they are a platform for collaboration and engagement when done well.
If you’d like to learn more about research communities, how to build and manage successful ones or which technologies to use...
Download our Guide to Qualitative Research Methods
