GreenBook heeft de 25e editie van het GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report (GRIT) gepubliceerd over het eerste half jaar 2019. Ray Poynter deelt de meest opvallende resultaten uit de Business & Innovation editie van dit rapport.
by Ray Poynter
1 The Key Opportunities
The key opportunities for market research and insights are AI (including machine learning), Automation, Big Data, and Data Analytics, and enabling Faster Decisions. What makes this list interesting is partly what is in the list, but partly what is not in the list. Agile is not a specific mention (the buzz may be fading on that one), sampling and data collection are not specific mentions, and nor is neuro.
2 Research Budgets Trending Down
In 2014 about 10% of clients said their budgets were decreasing, now in 2019 that number is close to 30%, and the downward trend is clear. One of the key drivers for many clients is to be able to do more with less. The hope is that AI and Automation (along with better processes) will facilitate more being done with less. The key drivers of clients whose budgets increased were an increased need for insights and the C-suite being convinced of the value of insight.
3 What Defines ‘Success’?
Most suppliers and most clients said that the vast majority of projects were successful. Both suppliers and clients defined success partly in terms of adding value and finding something new. But, beyond that there were differences. Suppliers tended to mention creativity, uniqueness, methodology, and technology – i.e. what they did. Clients tended to mention speed, access to the data, additional answers, service and aiding decision making – i.e. what they received.
4 Innovative Suppliers
The list of the most innovative suppliers has become more stable over the last few years, with most of the top ten being the ‘usual suspects’, companies that value being seen to be innovative. This list is headed by Ipsos, Nielsen, and Kantar – three companies that are large but also who focus on being innovative (in a way that was much less evident a few years ago). Beyond these three are the new innovative classics such as LRW, Zappi, System 1 and Insites Consulting – most of whom are strong in some regions (e.g. LRW in North America and Insites in Europe), but weak in some other regions.
The main message for research companies not in the top 50, and especially those not in the new sub-category listings (e.g. the most innovative Data Analytics) is that unless you are truly not innovative, you are doing yourselves an injustice by not promoting yourself better.
5 Research Innovation is Mostly Led by CPG/FMCG Companies
The importance of brands such as Unilever, P&G, Pepsi, Coke, Nestlé, Mars Wrigley, J&J, and Danone is clearly shown by the GRIT study. These companies dominate the list of the 25 most innovative clients, this sector does many more research projects than other sectors, and leaders such as Unilever’s Stan Sthanunathan and BV Pradeep and Danone’s Elaine Rodrigo have engaged the research world and help drive the industry forward.
By contrast, companies from sectors such as transport, retail, telcos, and finance tend to be absent from lists of companies making an impact on the research world.
6 Lack of Internal Cohesion
Perhaps the key finding from this study is the quantification of how little coherence there is inside both Supplier and Client organizations about the role of the organization. Participants were asked to identify their organization and then choose from a range of functions that describe their company (if a supplier) or team (if a client). In those cases where there were multiple responses from the same organization, there was substantial disagreement about whether the organization was full-service, analytics, strategic etc.
Download het rapport via Greenbook.org
Over GRIT
Greenbook analyseert al sinds 2010 de marktonderzoeksindustrie en maakt jaarlijks een rangschikking van de 50 meest innovatieve marktonderzoeksbureaus, op basis van input van ongeveer 1533 marketing en insights professionals uit 75 landen.
Ray Poynter
Op 24 oktober organiseert de MOA de MOAcademy “Finding and communicating the story in the data; identifying the insights” met Ray Poynter als workshopleider. Meer informatie.
Bronnen: Greenbook.org, Six Things I Learned From the Latest GRIT Report, by Ray Poynter, 16 July 2019