Customer Success

How is 2011 Looking for Market Research?

January 11, 2011

Mostly because of the dreary economy, 2010 was not an easy year for the market research industry. Will 2011 provide a bounce back opportunity?

Market researchers would likely prefer to forget last year. With the economic crash slowly leveling out and beginning to recover, the industry had to adjust in many of the same ways that consumers and businesses did. Market research companies were forced to focus on how they could add value and innovate in ways that would better their clients’ marketing strategy and product positioning.

So if 2010’s less than ideal results did anything, it caused those companies to rethink the way market research will be done in the future. Research Magazine polled some of the most respected industry voices, asking them to offer one word to describe 2010. Some of the responses included transformation, listening, and consolidation. Each of those words suggest the industry is ready to evolve.

That means that not all was lost last year. Reineke Reitsma of Consumer Market Research at Forrester believes that evolution means several new trends will take precedence in 2011. Those trends, she argues, will revolve around organization, technology, and social media.

Market researchers will need to use social media as a source of information. They’ll need to acclimate themselves to technology and use it to their advantage to drive efficiency and change. And, lastly, they must keep innovating to better their own research methodologies. Here are some more specific trends to look out for in 2011:

Social media will become a lot bigger…

Mashable gathered and published some great statistics in May that displayed social media’s explosive growth over the last year. Some of them are pretty incredible when they’re put in context. For example:

  • If Facebook were a country, it would now have the third highest population in the world
  • In just over four minutes, more than 100 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube
  • Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the populations of Sweden, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, and Panama

Those numbers will continue to grow. This year, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter will become a larger component of companies’ PR programs and it will be crucial for market researchers to determine ways to understand the different social media outbursts.

For example, researchers need to do a better job analyzing negative outbursts and comprehending how harmful they may be to companies’ reputations. In addition, they must possess the ability to distinguish a genuine issue from one that’s simply receiving a lot of hype.

It will be a researcher’s job to strategically integrate social media into their research, exercising care when interpreting their findings, and reporting issues and concerns to their companies in a timely manner.

Market researchers will use technology to improve or replace existing processes…

In the coming year, market researchers will be much more likely to use new technology to analyze large data sets and uncover emerging trends. They’ll also use more data and text mining, and analytic tools specific to their businesses in order to better understand their research.

Because of the value that technology provides researchers, they’ll also spend more time trying to understand how that technology can propel them closer to their own vision, mission and values.

The industry will come together to create a long-term vision…

There has been growing concern whether market research will even exist in 30 years. As a generally traditional industry, 2010 saw market researchers talking about how to prepare for the future. They need their work to remain relevant, which means that it needs to improve quality and efficiency, all while becoming more economical.

In order to do that, market researchers will need to solidify their vision, mission and values in 2011. That could mean industry collaboration to improve how researchers share their findings and work with other departments to identify relevant technologies that will keep companies and organizations up to date.

Last year wasn’t exactly a standout one for market researchers, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t productive. There’s plenty the industry can learn from 2010 as it plans for 2011 and beyond. Every industry is forced to evolve at some point to remain relevant and last year was a reminder to market researchers that now might be their time.

Do you think any other trends will emerge in 2011? If so, what are they and how will they alter the industry?

Co-Founder

Faria Rahman is the Co-Founder of <a href="https://www.treemarc.com/">Treemarc</a> which, uses machine learning to make it easy for businesses to order custom packaging and product nesting in a few minutes. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at Northbridge Financial Corporation, a leading commercial property and casualty insurance management company offering a wide range of innovative solutions to Canadian businesses. Faria also worked at OpenView from 2010 to 2011 where she was part of the Market Research team.