What's on the Radar for Market Research in 2012

The GRIT Report (Greenbook Industry Trends Report) is almost out but Leonard Murphy has already shared some really interesting trends that will interest you -- the top emerging industry research techniques.  One very interesting outcome is that the results are consistent with last year and that means that the participants in the study are following through with the trends they were most interested in.  Here are the top trends discussed in the study:

  • Online communities

  • Data mining

  • Social media analytics

  • Text

  • Mobile Surveys

By the looks of the data, market researchers are extremely interested in all of these, and they are still looking at the best ways to utilize them.  

An interesting finding is that "client side" researchers are leading with suppliers lagging behind.  Murphy doesn't speculate much about why this is, but as a "client side" marketer, I suspect that the preponderance of social media tools, mobile marketing techniques and general access to customer feedback is driving the demand.

How can market research professionals leverage these trends?

While some client research departments are well staffed with savvy research professionals, many companies have cut costs in that area and this provides a big opportunity for research providers and professionals to help guide clients in the best ways to use and leverage the overwhelming amount of data that these new techniques provide and to help clients determine which techniques will yield the best results.

To read the article and get more detailed data results, click over to The


Market Research and Privacy

It was only a matter of time before the Facebook privacy debate hit market research.  We all want to have ACCESS to information about others, but we don't want anyone else to know what we are doing.  Well, technology doesn't always work that way.

For example, the great thing about using mobile devices for online surveys is that you can be fairly certain that the person to whom the device is registered is the person responding to the survey.  The same is true if you use Facebook to share surveys or log into or register for your site.  But this invariably brings up the privacy debate.

In this article re-printed on Research Access, Tamara Barber provides a summary of a lively and informative discussion on market research and privacy.  The discussion revolved around social media primarily, but you can expect this conversation to go further and deeper as more advanced market research techniques become the norm.

Comments