GRIT REPORT

GREENBOOK RESEARCH INDUSTRY TRENDS REPORT

NEW IN THIS EDITION: THE GRIT FUTURE LIST

Meet the honorees leading our industry into the future (page 39)

Www.GreenBook.org/GRIT 2018 Q3–Q4

 CONTENTS
4 Foreword

5 Executive Summary

6 Methodology and Sample

20 Adoption of Emerging Methods

28 The Net on Nonconscious Measurement

33 Usage of Traditional Methodologies

39 The GRIT Future List

45 Buzz Topics: Hype or Game Changers?

50 Satisfaction With Suppliers

56 Drivers of Supplier Selection

62 Investment Priorities

68 The Business Outlook

101 The Evolving Researcher Role & Skills

109 Industry Benchmarking

119 Final Thoughts

1
 COMMENTARY
CONTACTS:
18 The Missing Ingredient to Product Innovation Success:
Agile Audience Intelligence – Matt Warta, GutCheck
LEONARD F. MURPHY
Chief Editor & Principal Consultant 26 New Qualitative Methods are Poised for Growth
(770) 985-4904 – Rick Kelly, Products & Research, FUEL CYCLE
[email protected]
31 Forget Faster and Cheaper: Why the Vendor-Client Relationship
Matters More than You Think – Raj Manocha, Methodify
LUKAS POSPICHAL
Managing Director 37 Accelerate Your Insights Gathering: Focus on Driving Efficiencies
(212) 849-2753 Within Your Sample Supply Chain – Richard Thornton, Cint
[email protected]
48 Programmatic Sampling... the Right Way
– Michael McCrary, PureSpectrum

55 Successfully Curating Online Qual Is Now the Greatest Challenge

– Rebecca West, Civicom®

60 Quality in Survey Data Starts Before the Research

– Melanie Courtright, Dynata

GREENBOOK
66 You Know the Value of Qual, How Tech Allows It to Scale
– Zach Simmons, Discuss.io
New York AMA Communication Services Inc.
234 5th Avenue, 74 The Stark Truth of Behavior-Based Growth in CPG: Some Things Will Never
New York, NY 10001 Change, but Your Customers Keep Evolving – Chris Enger, Periscope® By McKinsey

100 For the Future of Market Research: Scalability Is at the Heart of Success
Www.GreenBook.org/GRIT – Steve Phillips, ZappiStore

Go to GREENBOOK.ORG/GRIT to read the GRIT Report online or to 106 To Create Better Experiences for Customers, First Enable Your Agile Teams to Make
access all GRIT data and charts via an interactive dashboard which Better Decisions – Basil Shariff, Alpha
you can use for your own analysis.
117 To Become Insights-Driven, We Need to Change the Way We Think About Research
– Mark Hammer, Bloomfire

2
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

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3
 FOREWORD
Welcome to the 24th edition of the GreenBook Research Now, on to the “good stuff”! In this edition, we explore a
Industry Trends Report, using data collected in Q3 & Q4 of 2018. variety of topics, some new and some that our readers have
Perhaps more than ever before, GRIT is emblematic already come to depend on GRIT to cover. These include:
of both the need and the challenge of the market research adoption of emerging methods, the use of traditional
industry. The need to provide clear direction for key methods, satisfaction levels with suppliers, the drivers of
stakeholders via the research process only continues to grow supplier selection, investment priorities for researchers, the
in importance, and part of the way to do that is via looking financial outlook and projected spending, the evolving role
at trends over time. However, the survey as an instrument, and activities of researchers, buzz topics such as automation
especially a large tracker like GRIT, is becoming increasingly or AI, and the next iteration of our industry benchmark. All
challenging to field. “meat and potatoes” topics that the industry can use to help
In preparing for this wave of the study, issues with provide strategic direction in the year ahead.
balancing form factor considerations (mobile vs. desktops), Also, new in this edition is the debut of the GRIT Future
keeping respondent engagement high, ongoing optimization List, a crowdsourced submission process but expert curated and
of question design, and of course the tension between judged list of those researchers who are making a real impact
tracking questions and new areas we want to explore on now and should be watched as industry leaders in the future.
length of interview are real challenges that impact not just The result of all this? A report that we think is insightful,
us, but the industry as a whole. We feel your pain colleagues! impactful, and actionable just like any good research report
What does that mean for this report? Well, one is a should be.
slightly smaller base size than previous waves, although GRIT is a community effort and our authors,
it is still large enough that the study is more than simply commentary providers, sample partners, advertisers, and LEONARD F. MURPHY
directional, while being shy of what we would call entirely most especially research partners make it all possible. Executive Editor & Producer,
representative. However, GRIT has always walked that line, Special thanks go out to the organizations who helped GreenBook
so that is not a significant issue. with data collection and analysis: AYTM – Ask Your Target [email protected]
Perhaps a more important question is what does it mean Market, Deckchair Data, Gen2 Advisors, Infotools, Ipsos (770) 985-4904
for the future? We’re examining that now, and although we Neuro and Behavior Science, Lightspeed, Nelson Whipple
don’t have clear answers yet, it is safe to say that GRIT will Consulting, NewMR, OfficeReports, Potentiate, Research Go to
continue to evolve and in the years ahead we’ll continue to be Now, Researchscape International, Stakeholder Advisory www.GreenBook.org/GRIT
to access all GRIT
“in the trenches” with the rest of the industry to adapt to the Services, and students from the Michigan State University data and charts
same changes impacting us all. MMR program.
As always, I think you will find the story this report is
telling (with your help!) informative, and useful. Enjoy!
4
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

EMERGING METHOD ADOPTION

% of companies
EMERGING METHOD ADOPTION who are using
by 80 80 or considering
hic technology in 2018
rap 76 76

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
og 75 74 % of companies
Inf (top 2 box)
who are using
y
EMERGING METHOD ADOPTION
80 80
70
or considering
h ic b
rap 76 76 technology in 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
75 62
og 74 60 60
Inf 58 58 (top 2Online
box) Communities and
70 % of companies
whoMobile First Surveys continue
are using
to lead the pack as formerly
by 80 80 62 or considering
emerging methods that are
hic 60 60 46
technology in 2018 use,and
rap 76 76 58 58 Online
now Communities
in mainstream and

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
75 43 43
Inf
og
INVESTMENT PRIORITIES 74
70
42
39 39
to
(topMobile
2digital
lead has
based)
box)
First Surveys
qual
the pack
(mobilecontinue
finallyascome
& PC
formerly
into
What is being invested 34
46 33 33 emerging
it’s own.methods that are
Social Media
in highlights the cannibalization Visalization and Dashboards 62 43 43 now in mainstream
Analytics and Big Data alsouse, and
that is currently going
on within the industry. INVESTMENT PRIORITIES 47% 56% 42% 48%
60 60
58 58
42
39 39 Online
digital
Mobile
continue
based)
Communities
qual
First
has
(mobile
to grow, &
Surveys
finally come
and
butPC
continue
into
AllWhat is being invested
stakeholders are vying Analytics unfortunately not by
34
in 43% 44% 38% 53% 33 33 to lead
suppliers; the clients
it’s own. pack asare
Social formerly
Media
using
tohighlights the cannibalization
control more of the process Visalization and Dashboards
that is currently emerging
Analytics
them moreand methods
andBig that
Data
going are
also
outside
and leverage it forgoing
greater Data collection techniques 47% 56% 42% 48%
46
43 43 now MRin mainstream
of continue to grow,
for those use,
butand
solutions.
valueon within the
delivery,
All with
often
stakeholders
one another
industry.
competing
are for
vying INVESTMENT
Analytics PRIORITIES 26% 42% 19% 28% 42
39 39 digital
based)
qual
unfortunately (mobile
hasclients
not
finally come
&
by PC
into
to What ismore
control being
of invested
the process DIY Solutions 43% 44% 38% 53% suppliers; are using
positioning. Technology is the 34
ingreat
highlights the itcannibalization
andequalizer,
leverage forwho
greater 33% 19% 31% 16% 33 33 them it’smore
own.and Social
goingMedia
outside
but owns Data collection
Visalization andtechniques
Dashboards
valuethat is currently
delivery, often going
competing On Te Mo So W Big Mo Mo Mi Be Re Ey Fa Pr Ap Vi Cr Int Bio Se W Analytics
of MR forand Bigsolutions.
those Data also
the value prop Data Integration 26% 42%
47% 19% 48%
56% 42% 28% lin xt A bi cia e b b b cr h s e c e d p r tu o e me nso ar e
is on within
with one theupindustry.
another for eC n le l M cam Data ile Q ile E o-su avio earc Tra ial a icti lied al E wds rnet r a continue to grow, but
of tric /Us bles
very much for grabs.
DIY Solutions
Analytics 28% 23% 19% 24% om alyt Firs ed -B A u th rv ra h ck
i
na on N nv o u unfortunately not by
All stakeholders
positioning. are vying
Technology is the
Sample quality and/or management mu ics t Su ia A ase naly alita nog eys l Eco Gam ng lysis Mar euro iron rcin Thi Resp age -Ba suppliers; clients are using
to control
great more of
equalizer, butthe process
who owns 33% 19%
43% 31% 53%
44% 38% 16% n r n d t ti ra n ifi k s m g n g o /T se
14% 25% 11% 33% On Te Moitie So Wveys Bigalyt MoInte Miocs Mive Be phyRe Ey om Fa cat Pr Ap Vi ets Cr cienInt ent Bio Se s W nse ele d them Re more and going outside
and leverage
the valueit for
propgreater Integrationtechniques
Data collection lin x b s c e i c r
b v b c h s e ic c i o e p r t o c e s n e m
e t An ile ial
bc
a Da s ile ie ile o-s avi
r ea Tr s Mial n dic lie ual wd e rne /Vime so ara etr ofseMR for those solutions.
a
value delivery,
is very muchoften
up forcompeting
grabs. New data types (Ex.Passive data, visual data) 28% 23%
26% 24%
42% 19% 28% Co a F M m ta Qw E u o c r a
c o n a iot d E so r t
t tu ri r b /U l y D rc
with one another for mm lytic irst edia -Ba Ana uals thno rvey ral E h Ga kingdelsalys n M Neu nviro urc of T al Rc Re sag es-B ata h
Sample quality and/or management 13% 22% 15% 18%
un s Su s it s co m is ark ro n in hin ea sp e a
positioning. Technology is the DIY Solutions
itie rve Ana ed I lytic ative grap no ific ets scie me g gs lity on /Te sed
ys l y n s h m a n s l em Re
great equalizer, but who owns Corporate Insights Full-Service Research Providers Management Consultancies
14% 19%
33% 25% 31%
Advertising
11% 16%
33%
/ PR Agencies s tic terv y ic ti o nc ts/ e
On Te M S W B Ms Mie M B R E Fs M Pn A V C Ine BVirt Se W etr se
the value prop New
Data data types (Ex.Passive data, visual data)
Integration lin xt A obi ocia ebc ig D obi obwis icro eha ese ye T aciaod redi ppli irtua row tern iom ua ns ea y D arc
is very much up for grabs. 13% 23%
22% 19%
15% 24%
18% eC na le F l M am ata le Q le E -su vior arch rac l aenls ctio ed N l En dso et o etrl iRce or/U rable ata h
28% om lyt irs ed -B thn rve al kin aly n u ali sa
A u v f s
PRIORITY
Sample quality FACTORS
and/or management IN METHOD SELECTION
Corporate Insights Full-Service Research Providers Management Consultancies Advertising / PR Agencies IN-DEMAND SKILLS
mu ics t Su ia A ase
nit rve na d I
n
tic
a
aly lita
tiv r
e ap h
G
og ys Eco am g
no ific
sis Ma r ke
e ur
os
i
ts cien ent
n
r
r o c in T h
m g ing
s
R esty ge Ba
po /
-
ns Tele ed R
s
14% 25% 11% 33% ies ys lyti nte s y mi a
cs tion ce s/V e me es
Research is becoming far cs rvi
New data types (Ex.Passive ew Mo irtu try Organizations
ea not only need
more technologically driven How do you prioritize yourdata, visual data)
selection of methods If you could add one individual with a needed s de al rch
Da employees who can tell
vs. service based, with the
focus on “cheaper, faster, PRIORITY FACTORS
to use for the typical IN METHOD SELECTION
research project? 13% 22% 15% 18%
TECHNOLOGY
IN-DEMAND SKILLS
skill in your organization, what skill would it be?
ls 34% Re
ali
ty
ta
a story but are also proficient
in handling data; the long
Research is becoming far Corporate Insights Full-Service Research Providers Management Consultancies Advertising / PR Agencies
better
more
(quality of insights)” DRIVEN Organizations
predicted era not only need
of polymaths
being technologically driven
the driving trifecta for How do you prioritize your selection of methods If you could add one individual with a needed whoemployees who can tellwith
are both comfortable
vs. service based, with
making both investment the to use for the typical research project? skill in your organization, what skill would it be? 34% a story
data frombut
anyare also proficient
source, and most
TECHNOLOGY IN-DEMAND SKILLS 21%
focus on “cheaper,
decisions
better (quality
faster,
and methodology
of insights)”
selection. PRIORITY FACTORS IN METHOD SELECTION DRIVEN 19%
inimportantly
handling data;
predicted
business
can the
era of
impact
long
deliver
polymaths
with that data,
Research
being is becoming
the driving trifectafar
for QUALITY OF INSIGHTS GENERATED
Organizations
who are both
seems not arrived.
only need
to comfortable
have with
more technologically
making driven
both investment How do you prioritize your selection of methods 80% FASTER If you could add one individual with a needed dataemployees who can
from any source, tellmost
and
vs. serviceand
decisions based, with the
methodology to use for the typical researchSPEED OF RESULTS
project? 10%
skill in your organization,19%
whatskill would it be?
21% 34% a story but are can
importantly alsodeliver
proficient
“cheaper, faster,
focus onselection. 32% TECHNOLOGY in handling data;
withthe long
QUALITY OF INSIGHTS GENERATED CHEAPER business impact that data,
DRIVEN
FASTERBETTER
better (quality of insights)” PRICE predicted
seems to era of polymaths
have arrived.
being the driving trifecta for SERVICE 28% 80% Critical Thinking, Sales and Business Storytelling Data Analyctics who are both comfortable with
making both investment BASED SPEED OF RESULTS 10%Strategy and Innovation Knowledge and Visualisation and Data Science data from any source, and most
decisions and methodology 32% 21%
CHEAPER 19% importantly can deliver
selection.
SERVICE PRICE
QUALITY OF INSIGHTS GENERATED BETTER business impact with that data,
28% Critical Thinking, Sales and Business Storytelling Data Analyctics
DRIVERS
BASED OF SUPPLIER SATISFACTION
80% FASTER BUZZ TOPICS:
Strategy and Innovation HYPE
Knowledge OR GAME CHANGERS?and Data Science
and Visualisation
seems to have arrived.

SPEED OF RESULTS 10%

Winning relationships
CONDUCTING THE RESEARH
32% CHEAPER 84% - STORYTELLING
Big Data, Automation,
is one thing, keeping them AI and Storytelling/Data
DRIVERS
SERVICE OF SUPPLIER
PRICE
SATISFACTION
0.29 BETTER
Suppliers and buyers
BUZZ TOPICS: HYPE OR GAME CHANGERS?
82% - BIG
DataDATA
is another. For most Buyers, 0.18 28% agree that value for 75%
Critical Thinking, Sales and Business Storytelling Analyctics Visualization are considered
research has become BASED
REPORTING RESEARCH RESULTS
Strategy and Innovation Knowledge and Visualisation 76% - AUTOMATION
and Data Science gamechangers, with other buzz
cost, conducting the
isnot
Winning relationships
a transactional
onea thing,
relationship,
keeping
partnership. them
Buyer CONDUCTING THE RESEARH 0.25
research and andreporting
GAME 72% -- AI
84% STORYTELLING
Bigstill
topics Data,
AI mode.
see”
Automation,
largely in “wait and
and Storytelling/Data
The combination
issatisfaction
another. For most
with Buyers,
suppliers
0.12
0.29 Suppliers
research
agree thatresults
buyers
value are
CHANGERS 82% - BIG DATA Visualization
of technologyare considered
to innovate the
research has become
depends on measurable DRIVERS OF SUPPLIER SATISFACTION
VALUE FOR COST
0.20
REPORTING RESEARCH RESULTS
0.18
significant
for
drivers
cost, conducting the of BUZZ TOPICS: HYPE OR GAME CHANGERS?
75%
50% 49% -- AUTOMATION
76% VR/AR
42% - MARKETPLACE
gamechangers,
process and good with analytical
other buzz
transactional
adrivers
Winning
not
relationship,
(cost, timeliness)
relationships
a partnership. Buyer
and 0.15
0.25 overall satisfaction.
research and reporting GAME 72% - AI
41% - ATRIBUTION ANALYTCIS
topics
see”Big
still largelywith
skills combined
Data,
mode.
in “wait
Automation,
to The
and
strategic
combination
providers’
issatisfaction
toone
execute
overall ability
thing, with
keeping
the them
suppliers
work and
UNDERSTANDING YOUR0.12
BUSINESS
CONDUCTING THE RESEARH
research results are CHANGERS
WAIT 84% - STORYTELLING
29% of
thinking
AI and
technology
impact
get to business
Storytelling/Data
is the to innovate
dominant the
trend
VALUE FOR COST 0.16
0.29 Suppliers and buyers 50%
25% 49% -- VR/AR
82%
BLOCKCHAIN
BIG DATA
is depends
another.
reportFor
research
drivers
on
(cost,has
most Buyers,
themeasurable
results.
becomeand
timeliness)
0.18
INTERCATING WITH SENIOR MANAGEMENT
0.15
0.20 significant
agree that drivers of
value for 75% AND SEE 42% - AUTOMATION
76% MARKETPLACE
Visualization
process and
gamechangers,
skills combinedwith
are considered
good
in insights. analytical
withother buzz
strategic
REPORTING RESEARCH RESULTS
0.13 overall
cost, satisfaction.
conducting the
a transactional
notexecute
to
relationship,
providers’ overall
a partnership.
the work
ability
Buyer
and
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS 0.25
Buyers
research and reporting GAME
WAIT
41% Buzz
72% -- AI Topics ANALYTCIS
ATRIBUTION
Top 2 Box
topics
see”
impact
still to
thinking
mode.
largely
is theThe
get toinbusiness
“wait and
combination
dominant trend
DESIGNING THE RESEARCH
0.12 PLAN
0.16 25%
0% CHANGERS 29% - BLOCKCHAIN
50%2016AND SEE
satisfaction
report thewith suppliers
results. VALUE FOR COST 0.12 MANAGEMENT research
Supliers results are of technology to innovate the
in insights.
INTERCATING WITH SENIOR 2017 201849% - VR/AR
depends on measurable 0.20 significant drivers of process and good analytical
drivers (cost, timeliness) and 0.13 0.15 Buyers 42% - MARKETPLACE
Buzz Topics skills combined with strategic
providers’ overall ability DESIGNING THE RESEARCH PLAN
overall satisfaction. 41% - Top
ATRIBUTION
2 Box ANALYTCIS thinking to get to business
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BUSINESS 0%
to execute the work and 0.12 0.16 Supliers 25%2016 WAIT 2017 201829% - BLOCKCHAIN impact is the dominant trend
report the results.
INTERCATING WITH SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND SEE in insights.
0.13 Buyers Buzz Topics
DESIGNING THE RESEARCH PLAN
0% Top 2 Box
0.12 Supliers 2016 2017 2018

5
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

GRIT respondents are recruited via email and social media Some differences in countries and regions exist as well, so
channels by GreenBook and GRIT partners. These lists are some variances should be expected in certain findings based
comprised of both research providers and clients. on sample artifacts. However, we have strived to call out
As has been true for the past several waves, more of regional differences in our analysis when that appears to be
the respondents come directly through GreenBook email a significant factor in results. Overall, we see the composition
invitations than all other sources combined, and respondents of the sample remaining fairly stable both in terms of
from the United States comprise over half of all responses. firmographics and regionality. We have found that issues
For this report, the analysis is based on 1,260 completed Because of the unique sampling approach we use, once of form factor, length of
interview, and engagement
interviews, although for some questions, base sizes may field is completed we go through a rigorous cleaning process do play a role in the
be lower due to skip patterns, rotations, routing, and other to remove duplicate responses, low quality responses (it does completion rate of the study
factors. Unless otherwise noted, all analyses should be happen, even with researchers as the sample universe), and
assumed to be based on the total sample. any other type of response that we determine to be subpar.
The sample size for this latest wave is less than previous A note on naming convention for all trending data: GRIT
waves, although not significantly so. As mentioned in the editions are described by the time period each study was
Foreword, we have found that issues of form factor, length of fielded and published. This is the Q3-Q4 2018 edition because
interview, and engagement do play a role in the completion data collection occurred in November and December of 2018
rate of the study and in future waves we will continue to try and it is being published in Q1 2019.
to adapt to that reality.

6
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

Here is a comparison of sample size of the most recent GRIT editions:

GRIT SAMPLE SIZE TREND

Q3-Q4 Q1-Q2 Q3-Q4 Q1-Q2 Q3-Q4 Q1-Q2 Q3-Q4 Q1-Q2 Q3-Q4

GRIT Edition 2014 2015 2015 2016 2016 2017 2017 2018 2018

Sample size 2030 1879 1585 2144 1637 2942 1533 4241 1260

BUYERS VS. SUPPLIERS TREND

100%

75%

50%

25%

0
Q3-Q4 2014 Q1-Q2 2015 Q3-Q4 2015 Q1-Q2 2016 Q3-Q4 2016 Q1-Q2 2017 Q3-Q4 2017 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4 2018
Clients  Suppliers

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Methodology and Sample

The mix of respondents has varied slightly GRIT Sample Organizational Affiliation Over Time
wave on wave of this study, but within narrow
bands. For this edition, we hold steady at 74% Full-Service Research Provider 43%

of respondents identifying themselves as

Corporate Insights Professional 23%
being suppliers (n=931) and 26% identifying
themselves as clients (n=329). There is little Research Freelancer/Consultant 11%

difference regionally in this mix.

Sample/Panel Provider 4%

On the supplier side, we have achieved a good Survey Platform or Software Provider 4%

cross-section of the various sectors of the

Marketing, PR, or other user of research outputs 3%
industry, even if over 40% of respondents
describe themselves as working within full- Academic or other Not-for-Profit Organization 2%

service agencies. Proportionally, representation

Advertising/PR Agency Researcher 2%
from all industry sectors has remained
relatively constant across each wave of the Management Consultancy Researcher 2%

study. Interestingly, participants who identify

Data Collection Services firm (CATI/Online) 2%
themselves as “Freelancers/Consultants” are
the third largest segment of respondents at 11%, Other Software Provider (Statistical, Text Analytics,
Visualization, etc.) 2%

while the combination of more “tech-centric”

Business Intelligence, Analytics, or Big Data 2%
suppliers such as sample providers, technology Solutions Provider

providers, etc.. collectively make up 12% of the Focus Group Facility (physical) 1%

sample population.
Other Data Collection/Field/Tab Services Provider 1%

Secondary Research or Desk Research 0%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

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 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

In looking only at self-identified Buyers of GRIT Client Respondents by VERTICAL

research, we have a well-rounded sample of
Consumer Discretionary 7% 6% Information Technology
respondents from many sectors, ensuring
a wide breadth of experience and views are
represented from our client-side colleagues. Consumer Staples 15% 8% Media/Entertainment

The proportion is also roughly analogous to

Energy/Utilities 1% 17% Other
the categories of largest buyers identified in
other industry reports with Consumer Staples,
Healthcare, Financial Services and Media Financial Services 13%
making up over half of the sample.
5% Professional
Services

1% Real Estate
Health Care 13%

6% Retail

Telecommunication
Industrials 4% 4% Services

Regional sample sizes remained relatively GRIT Participation by Region

consistent, with minor variances within 60%

each region. As previously noted, North

American respondents comprised nearly 50%

60% of the sample, with Europe at 23% and

Asia at 8% and the rest of the world making 40%

up the balance.
30%

20%

10%

0%
North America Europe Asia South America Oceania Middle East Africa

9
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

In exploring the physical location of GRIT GRIT RESPONDENTS BY COUNTRY

participants via IP matching, we find that 72
different countries are represented within the
sample, with respondent density shown in the
map on the right.

GRIT respondents generally fall into 3 camps, GRIT SAMPLE BY SIZE OF ORGANIZATION
with each representing roughly one third
of the sample: small organizations (under
11 people), mid-sized organizations (11 to 100 1001 or more 17% 22% 1–4
people), and large organizations with over
100 employees. This has remained broadly 501–1000 5% 72 different countries
are represented
consistent over the last several waves.
11% 5–10 within the sample
101–500 15%

9% 11–20
51–100 9%
12% 21–50

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 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

Organizational Focus by Company Size When looking at organizational focus, unsurprisingly we

see a higher incidence of large companies in the Corporate
60% Researcher and Full Service Provider categories, with a
reasonable distribution across most other segments; Freelancer/
Consultant being the smallest organizations by employees.

50%
GRIT RESPONDENT TENURE
80%

60%
40%

40%

20%
30%

0
16 - 20
0 - 1 years 2 - 5 years 6 - 10 years 11 - 15 years 20+ years
years
Clients  Suppliers
20%

10%

0%
Full-Service Research
Provider

Corporate Insights
Professional

Research Freelancer/
Consultant

Academic or other Not-for-

Profit Organization

Advertising/PR Agency
Researcher

Management Consultancy
Researcher

Focus Group Facility

(physical)

Data Collection Services

firm (CATI/Online)

Other Data Collection/

Field/Tab Services Provider

Sample/Panel Provider

Survey Platform or
Software Provider

Other Software Provider

(Statistical, Text Analytics,
Visualization, etc.)

Business Intelligence,
Analytics, or Big Data
Solutions Provider

Secondary Research or
Desk Research

Marketing, PR, or other

1001 or more   501 - 1000   101 - 500   51 - 100   21 - 50   11 - 20   5 - 10   1 - 4 user of research outputs

11
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

In analyzing other firmographic questions, Decision Making Role

the GRIT sample is comprised of largely
senior level research professionals. A I do not participate in 15% I am the key decision
30% maker on strategic issues
strategic decision making
whopping 74% of all client-side and 42% of for my organization.

supplier side respondents have worked in the

industry for over 20 years.
I am a member of a team I am a key influencer on
responsible for strategic 26% 30% strategic issues for my
decision making organization.
If tenure is a proxy for role seniority then
it should be no surprise that 60% of GRIT
respondents identify themselves as key
decision makes/influencers on strategic GRIT RESPONDENT TITLES
issues within their organizations.
Associate

Almost 50% of GRIT respondents are in C-Suite

senior-level roles within their organizations. Department Head

Executive Management

General Manager

Group Director The GRIT sample is

comprised of largely senior
Group Manager
level research professionals.
Owner A whopping 74% of all
Partner or part owner
client-side and 42% of
supplier side respondents
Principal have worked in the industry
Professor/Instructor for over 20 years
Project Manager

Research Assistant

Research Director

Vice President

Other title (please specify)

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Clients  Suppliers

12
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

BUDGET DECISION MAKERS

Among those completing the GRIT survey, Role In Developing Annual Budget for Research Group
more than two-thirds have primary
Primary
responsibility for or actively participate in responsibility More than two-thirds have
their research group’s annual budget within primary responsibility for
Actively participate or actively participate in
both buyers and suppliers. but do not have
their research group’s
the primary
responsibility annual budget within both
Those who are the key decision makers for buyers and suppliers
Provide some input
but not actively
strategic decisions for their organization also involved

tend to have primary responsibility for their

group’s annual research budget. Of those Not involved at all

who are key influencers of decisions for

their organization, more than two-thirds are I don't know
either the primary decision-maker for their
group’s annual research budget or actively 0 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Clients  Suppliers
participate in developing it.

As one might expect, smaller companies are Employee Size Likely Key Decision Maker or Influencer for Research Budget
Darker green indicates position is among the most likely to be influential;
more likely to have an owner, partner or part- (Buyers and Suppliers) lighter green indicates lesser, but substantial, likelihood to influence

Research Director
Department Head
owner who has primary responsibility or

General Manager

Project Manager
Group Manager/
/ Executive Man-

search Assistant
Owner/ partner/

/ Vice President
Principal / C-Suite

Group Director/

Associate/Re-
part owner

strong influence in both strategic decisions

agement

Other
for the organization and for the research
budget. In fact, for companies with fewer
than 100 employees, the owner has a strong
influence on research budgets; this likely 1 to 4 employees

accounts for much of the overlap we see 5 to 10 employees

11 to 100 employees
between responsibility for the organization’s
101 to 1000 employees
strategy and for the research budget.
1001 or more

13
Role In Developing Annual Budget for Research Group

Strategic decision-making role

within your organization

The key decision

A key influencer Member of a team Do not participate
maker

Primary responsibility 86% 38% 19% 4% Corporate insights

professionals stand out for
having responsibility assigned
Actively participate, but not primary 8% 43% 31% 19% to a Group Director, Group
Manager, Department Head,
or Research Director
Provide some input 3% 11% 29% 27%

Not involved at all 3% 8% 21% 49%

14
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

At companies with more than 100 employees, budget In terms of professional focus, owners are heavily involved in
responsibilities are more likely to belong to Principal/C- the research budget process among buyer/supplier organizations
Suite/Executive Management or the Group Director/Group with few employees. Corporate insights professionals stand out
Manager/Department Head. for having responsibility assigned to a Group Director, Group
Manager, Department Head, or Research Director.

Professional or Likely Key Decision Maker or Influencer for Research Budget

Organization Focus Darker green indicates position is among the most likely to be influential;
lighter green indicates lesser, but substantial, likelihood to influence
(Buyers and Suppliers)

Research Director
Department Head
Principal / C-Suite

General Manager

Project Manager
/ Executive Man-

Group Manager/

search Assistant
Owner/ partner/

/ Vice President

Group Director/

Associate/Re-
part owner

agement

Other
Full-Service Research/Ad/PR agency

Corporate Insights Professional

Sample/Panel Provider

Data collection agency

Platform/Software Provider

Marketing, PR, or other user of research outputs

Research Freelancer/Consultant

Management Consultancy Researcher

Business Intelligence, Analytics, or Big Data Solutions Provider

Academic or other Not-for-Profit Organization

Other

15
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

The allocation of decision-making responsibility for research Industry Likely Key Decision Maker or Influencer for Research Budget
Darker green indicates position is among the most likely to be influential;
budget within buyer industries is likely a function of the (Buyers) lighter green indicates lesser, but substantial, likelihood to influence

Research Director
Department Head
distribution of employee sizes within each category. While

General Manager

Project Manager
Group Manager/
/ Executive Man-

search Assistant
/ Vice President
Principal / C-Suite

Group Director/

Associate/Re-
Health Care
the goal of categorization is usually focused solely on

agement

Other
maximizing within-category similarity and between-category
differences, the categorizations in this section have the added
requirement of creating useful sample sizes within each
category. This requirement may have reduced some within- Consumer
(discretionary, staples)
category similarity, resulting in a larger proportion of light
Consumer (media/
green boxes in the table. entertainment, retail)
Health Care
Buyers with the largest budgets tend to be at larger Services
companies, so responsibility for the research budget tends Tech
to be assigned to a Group Director, Group Manager, or Other
Department Head, or Research Director.

As larger project volumes tend to be associated with Total Likely Key Decision Maker or Influencer for Research Budget
Darker green indicates position is among the most likely to be influential;
larger budgets, decision-making for companies with Annual lighter green indicates lesser, but substantial, likelihood to influence

Research

Research Director
Department Head
higher project volumes also tend to assign budget

General Manager

Project Manager
Group Manager/
/ Executive Man-

search Assistant
/ Vice President
Principal / C-Suite

Group Director/

Associate/Re-
Health Care
responsibility to a Group Director, Group Manager, or Budget

agement

Other
Department Head, or Research Director. (Buyers)

As we consider the value of the GRIT Report for providing

strategic direction, the composition of senior level Under $1M

respondents with budget responsibility or influence adds $1M to $3M

$3M to $5M
extra credibility to the analyses herein as important insights
$5M $30M
that accurately reflect the trends we have identified as
More than $30M
worthy of careful evaluation across the industry.

16
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Methodology and Sample

Annual Number Likely Key Decision Maker or Influencer for Research Budget
of Projects Darker green indicates position is among the most likely to be influential;
lighter green indicates lesser, but substantial, likelihood to influence
(Buyers)

Research Director
Department Head
General Manager

Project Manager
Group Manager/
/ Executive Man-

search Assistant
/ Vice President
Principal / C-Suite

Group Director/

Associate/Re-
Health Care

agement

Other
Less than 25

25 to 50

51 to 100

101 to 250

More than 250

The Big Picture

The combination of the large sample size globally, the diverse However, as always, we should remind our readers The composition of senior
professional affiliation and the deeply experienced nature that despite the robust sample size, the GRIT Report level respondents with budget
responsibility or influence adds
of our participants continues to make the GRIT Report is not meant to be a census or representative sample, extra credibility to the analysis
particularly impactful and worthy of careful reading by the but rather a snapshot of the widest swath of insights
industry as a whole. professionals we can achieve. The report and its
findings are representative of this sample, and
although we believe it to be broadly representative
of the industry, there are most certainly some
geographical and industry subset gaps. With that
in mind, we consider it “strongly directional” and
recommend that you view it the same way.
17
 GRIT Commentary

The Missing Ingredient to Product Innovation

Success: Agile Audience Intelligence
Matt Warta
CEO and Co-Founder, GutCheck
Twitter: @mwarta  |  Website: www.gutcheckit.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/matt-warta/

ith more than 79% of respondents from larger Brands know the path to growth is through innovation.
W companies (500 people +) indicating that both More than 75% of respondents from large companies
automation and big data analysis, including synthesis of are focused on their company’s growth strategy; more
multiple data types, are game changers or interesting trends, specifically, insights buyers have top priorities of delivering
these techniques have taken center stage in our industry. recommendations that answer business objectives (74%) and
Automation has been applied in tactical areas like concept, help grow their business (66%). So how can brands innovate
copy, and claims testing, allowing brands to sort through and get better at creating strategies to drive even more
opportunities faster and more affordably, quickly killing success? By connecting these two seemingly disparate game
bad ideas to focus on the good. While the use of big data changers—automation and big data—to better identify and
and multiple data types hasn’t been fully utilized yet, it’s understand their most profitable audiences upstream in an
certainly picking up steam in the industry when it comes to agile, actionable way. This enables the right audience-centric
obtaining and applying deeper, more holistic insights to gain decisions that quickly lead to successful innovations that
a competitive advantage. The true opportunity brands now help grow their business.
have is in combining these two techniques in an agile way
and applying them to audience intelligence upstream in the
innovation process.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

18
 GRIT Commentary

Traditionally, audience insights have been incomplete combined survey and big data to identify and understand
and limited to what a survey or qualitative can do, and this sub-segment. The combined data allowed them to
the methods are slow and expensive. Traditional audience determine the size of the prize; pinpoint the features that
intelligence is where concept and copy testing were six years warranted focus during development; understand how to
ago before automation. Moving and iterating quickly in the apply this audience’s personality insights to communicate
front end of the innovation process leads to agile audience effectively; and determine which digital attributes and
intelligence, the key to competing with disruptive brands which channels to activate against for optimal reach. These
that steal share—like Dollar Shave Club, who identified a insights were gathered in a couple of weeks for the cost of a
highly sought-after market niche, put that audience at the couple of focus groups.
center of everything, and used modern marketing to activate
against that audience. This allowed them to scale from $0 By adopting modern solutions that bring agility to audience
to $200M in revenue in five years before being acquired by understanding —upstream in the innovation process —
Unilever for $1B. Traditional audience understanding is ill- brands can accelerate time to market and compete in a
equipped to drive the real-time, specific insights needed to smarter way using multi-layered insights that enable them
compete in today’s dynamic market. to take a more personalized, effective approach leading to
successful consumer-based strategies. The next frontier
By using a connected data approach (fusing survey and of agile is about building audiences and agility up front
behavioral data), there are a number of ways to identify and and applying this rational connection to each stage of
understand audiences quickly and affordably. For example, development to win. Enabled by big data and automation,
to capitalize on their most profitable group of customers, one we get agile audience intelligence to drive growth at scale
of our clients in the tech space needed to identify and profile through innovation.
an early adopter audience within their segmentation. They

19
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

ADOPTION
OF EMERGING
METHODS
Marketing Research Support Worldwide
In looking at what research approaches/methods are in Let Us Facilitate Your Web-Enabled Market Research
use or under consideration, it is important to remember
that the GRIT sample is not a representative sample of the
market research population. The GRIT sample tends to be GET A PROJECT QUOTE
drawn from those more engaged with the future of research, [email protected]
so the ‘in use’ figures will tend to be higher than for the
wider market research population. The GRIT report’s key
usefulness lies in the relativities between the approaches,
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the trends over time, and the differences between key groups
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Surveys was used, and this had reached the point where 75%
of participants said they were using Mobile Surveys. So, from
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has, not surprisingly, reduced the ‘In Use’ figure, to 50% for
the Total sample in 2017 and 54% in 2018.
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20
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

ADOPTION OF EMERGING METHODS

THE OVERALL PICTURE

Table 1 shows the 21 approaches included in the GRIT study Under
In Use Interest
ranked in terms of how many people said they were already Rank Label (%)
Consideration (%)
(%)
using these techniques. Remember, ‘using a technique’ does
not necessarily means using it heavily, it may mean it is 1 Online Communities 59 21 80

sometimes used, and sometimes not. 2 Mobile First Surveys 54 22 76

As in 2017, Online Communities top the list with 59% 5 Text Analytics 51 29 80
saying they are In Use, and a further 21% listing them
3 Webcam-Based Interviews 51 23 75
as Under Consideration, giving a total Interest score of
4 Social Media Analytics 49 26 76
80%. Just behind Online Communities there are a group
of four techniques that are perhaps (along with Online 6 Big Data Analytics 45 29 74

Communities) the new mainstream (or the mainstream of 7 Mobile Qualitative 43 26 70

the new). These four are: Mobile First Surveys (54% In Use, 8 Eye Tracking 38 19 58
76% Interest), Text Analytics (51%, 80%), Webcam-based
10 Mobile Ethnography 38 24 62
Interviews (51%, 75%), and Social Media Analytics (49%, 76%).
9 Micro-surveys 33 27 60
The remaining 16 items can be divided into three groups,
11 Behavioral Economics Models 32 28 60
Strong Niche, Middle Niche and Small Niche. The Strong
Niche ranges from Behavioral Economics Models (32% In 13 Research Gamification 26 32 58
Use) to Big Data Analytics (45% In Use). These items are in 12 Facial analysis 24 22 46
widespread, but not mainstream use. 15 Prediction Markets 21 22 43
The Middle Niche runs from Applied Neuroscience (20%
14 Applied Neuroscience 20 22 43
In Use) to Research Gamification (26% In Use). This group
16 Crowdsourcing 18 22 39
tends to be the provenance of specialized agencies and
researchers. 17 Virtual Environments/Virtual Reality 17 25 42

The Small Niche ranges from Wearables Based Research 18 Biometric Response 16 18 34
(9% In Use) to Crowdsourcing (18% In Use). These approaches 19 Internet of Things 15 24 39
are by any measure small and not in widespread use.
20 Sensor/Usage/Telemetry Data 13 20 33

21 Wearables Based Research 9 24 33

21
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

ADOPTION OF EMERGING METHODS

STABILITY WITH SOME INCREASES

Table 2 shows the ‘In Use’ data from August 2014 to 2014 Aug 2015 Oct 2016 Nov 2017 Oct 2018 Nov 12 month
Table 2 (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) Change (%)
November 2018, a period of four years. The data shows that
Online Communities 56 50 59 60 59 -1
there are changes, but only a few of them are big enough
Mobile First Surveys -- -- -- 50 54 4
to catch the eye. Given the nature of the data, sampling
Text Analytics 40 38 46 46 51 5
variation etc, we tend to ignore anything smaller than plus
Webcam-Based
or minus 5%. 34 33 43 47 51 4
Interviews
Social Media
46 43 52 43 49 6
The main increases amongst the more mainstream Analytics

approaches are: Big Data Analytics (+7%), Social Media Big Data Analytics 32 34 38 38 45 7

Analytics (+6%), and Text Analytics (+5%). All three of Mobile Qualitative 37 34 42 44 43 -1
Eye Tracking 34 28 35 34 38 4
these share the characteristic of focusing on non-survey
Mobile Ethnography 30 31 33 35 38 3
data – an area that other studies suggest is the main
Micro-surveys 25 25 35 34 33 -1
driver of growth in market research and insights. The
Behavioral
only other approach that showed a shift of more than 5% 25 21 29 29 32 3
Economics Models
was Virtual Reality, which is perhaps a combination of an Research
23 20 25 25 26 1
increase and a correction, since the 2018 estimate of 17% Gamification

was also the score in 2014. Facial analysis 18 18 24 20 24 4

Prediction Markets 19 17 24 19 21 2
Applied Neuroscience 13 15 16 21 20 -1
Most of the approaches that are in the group we
Crowdsourcing 17 12 16 15 18 3
described as the Small Niche do not appear to be showing
Virtual
any sign of expanding beyond their small group of users. 17 10 14 11 17 6
Environments/VR
Biometric Response 13 10 12 12 16 4
We also checked the open-ended suggestions for Internet of Things 12 9 14 12 15 3
emerging techniques that were not part of the existing Sensor/Usage/
-- 7 11 11 13 2
survey. The most common responses were Chatbots and Telemetry Data
Wearables Based
Machine Learning. 7 8 10 9 9 0
Research
Mobile Surveys 64 68 75 -- -- --

22
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

ADOPTION OF EMERGING METHODS

BUYERS AND SUPPLIERS

There are a couple of good reasons why Suppliers might say they are using Buyer Supplier Supplier – Total
Table 3 (%) (%) Buyer (%) (%)
more research techniques than research Buyers/Users:
Research Gamification 17 29 12 26
1. Suppliers typically work with many companies, and may use a different
Mobile Qualitative 35 46 11 43
range of techniques with different clients. Of course, it is also true that
Mobile First Surveys 48 56 8 54
large clients use many researcher suppliers.
Mobile Ethnography 33 40 7 38
2. Suppliers need to know all of the details of the research they are providing,
Webcam-Based
such as whether Research Gamification is used in the design and what 49 52 3 51
Interviews
proportion of the surveys are completed via mobile device. A research Wearables Based
8 10 2 9
buyer may want to know this too, but in many cases the buyer of the Models

research is less involved in these details. Virtual Environments/

16 17 1 17
Virtual Reality
Biometric Response 15 16 1 16
Table 3 shows the ‘In Use’ data for Buyers and Suppliers of market research, Behavioral
31 32 1 32
and the right-hand column contrasts the results. Economics Models
The pattern of techniques and approaches in use is similar between Applied Neuroscience
20 21 1 20
methods
Buyers and Sellers (not surprisingly) with an r-squared value of 83%.
Micro-surveys 33 33 0 33
However, there are some interesting differences.
Text Analytics 52 51 -1 51
In several of the technical areas of research the percentage of suppliers
Eye Tracking 39 38 -1 38
using them is higher than the buyers, for example: Research Gamification
Facial Analysis 25 24 -1 24
(Suppliers 29%, Buyers 17%), Mobile Qualitative (Suppliers 46%, Buyers 35%),
Internet of things 16 14 -2 15
and Mobile First Surveys (Suppliers 56%, Buyers 48%). Crowdsourcing 20 17 -3 18
However, the more interesting cases are those where the Buyers are more Prediction Markets 24 20 -4 21
likely to be using an approach than the Suppliers. The two key ones being: Sensor/Usage/
16 12 -4 13
Social Media Analytics (Buyers 63%, Suppliers 45%) and Big Data Analytics Telemetry Data

(Buyers 55%, Suppliers 41%). This finding is consistent with earlier waves of Online Communities 64 57 -7 59

GRIT and we believe it indicates that for these two services many clients are Big Data Analysis 55 41 -14 45
Social Media Analysis 63 45 -18 49
buying from non-MR suppliers.
Base 329 931 13

23
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

ADOPTION OF EMERGING METHODS

DIFFERENCES BY REGION
There are few interesting differences by Region. However, North Europe APAC Other
the main message is that the advanced market research Table 4 America (%) (%) (%)
(%)
world is essentially a similar place.
Online Communities 58 62 59 60
Mobile First Surveys 51 56 55 65
Table 4 shows the data for North America, Europe, APAC, and
Text Analytics 52 51 53 45
Other – regions that have been determined by sample size
Webcam-Based Interviews 55 49 47 39
and geography.
Social Media Analysis 48 48 52 59
Big Data Analysis 47 38 45 49
The cells highlighted in light green are higher than the other
Mobile Qualitative 45 44 34 49
regions, the cells in orange are lower than the other regions Eye Tracking 35 51 33 40
– i.e. they have differences that are likely to be significant. Mobile Ethnography 40 33 39 43
Given the small sample size for Other (and its diverse nature) Micro-surveys 31 34 35 49
we have not looked at the differences in detail. Behavioural Economics Models 30 37 33 33
Research Gamification 24 32 23 26
There are relatively few cells that show differences, and Facial Analysis 22 32 21 25
in most cases these are simply a difference in degree, Prediction Markets 20 20 23 39
for example, in Europe the ‘In Use’ figure for Applied Applied Neuroscience methods 17 26 18 30
Neuroscience Methods is 26%, compared 17% for North Crowdsourcing 18 17 17 21

America and 18% for APAC. However, this difference still Virtual Environments/
17 18 11 16
Virtual Reality
means that Applied Neuroscience Methods is one of the less-
Biometric Response 15 18 15 20
adopted techniques.
Internet of things 15 11 19 13
Sensor/Usage/
13 16 10 9
The one standout difference, that will be worth monitoring in Telemetry Data
the future, is the very high score for eye-tracking in Europe Wearables Based Models 10 9 8 9
(51%) compared with North America (35%) and APAC (33%). Base 743 287 150 80

24
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

ADOPTION OF EMERGING METHODS

The Big Picture

The two main messages are A) over the last four years
things have been relatively stable, and B) that the advanced
research world is pretty similar globally (yes you can find
differences, but the overall pattern is one of similarity).

The stability message is of particular interest to those

championing the exciting approaches that have yet to
take off, for example Biometrics, Wearables, IoT and
Neuromarketing. When and if we see these techniques
becoming more mainstream, we will see them moving up the
GRIT league table – but there is no sign of that yet.

If you are running a middle-sized organization then the data

suggest that unless you are an outlier, you should be using
FAST | AUTOMATED | EASY TO USE | DIY
Mobile First Surveys and Online Communities, some of the
techniques in the middle of the table, and perhaps one of the
emergent techniques in the bottom group.

The main worry for market research providers is the

suggestion from the data that many research buyers are
MORE THAN JUST A SURVEY PLATFORM
turning to non-market research sources for their Big Data
and Social Media Analytics – something the GRIT report has FAST 24|7 access to Toluna’s global community
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25
 GRIT Commentary

New Qualitative Methods are

Poised for Growth
Rick Kelly
Senior Vice President, Products & Research, FUEL CYCLE
Email: [email protected] | Twitter: @_rickkelly | Website: www.fuelcycle.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rhkelly/

ince the 2014 wave of the GRIT report, the fastest growing zz Qualitative research often provides the highest
S methods under use or consideration are qualitative - fidelity data
webcam-based interviews (+10%), text analytics (+9%), and Qualitative research often gives room for consumer
facial analysis (+7%). At Fuel Cycle, we are deeply committed expression in a way that surveys cannot. No matter
to bringing qualitative research into the modern era and are how easy-to-use a survey platform is, it still is an
excited to see this trend. We expect this to continue as machine imposition on respondent behavior (in other words,
learning and new technology becomes more commonplace. respondents conform to the researcher’s framework,
rather than being able to express themselves freely).
The Unique Value of Qualitative Methods zz Qualitative research provides richness not available
in surveys
A hammer isn’t the best tool for a screw, and not every insights The adage “a picture speaks a thousand words” is very
question can be solved with a survey. While we are very strong true. Substantial differences exist between viewing
proponents of surveys, qualitative research provides unique aggregated Likert scales representing how consumers
benefits that are not easily replaced by surveys or other highly feel about cooking dinner versus observing actual
structured research methods. Below are three ways qualitative dinner preparations in a consumer’s home.
methods can be better than quantitative:

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

26
 GRIT Commentary

zz Qualitative research enables discovery not available in Without the intention of being self-indulgent, I’ll share
surveys some of the steps Fuel Cycle has taken to make qualitative
Because of its tendency toward organic interaction, research accessible to organizations that need to operate in
qualitative research often aids in discovery of customer a fast-paced business environment.
use cases, jobs-to-be-done, and emotions in a way that zz Enabled text analytics: Using machine learning, text is
highly structured research cannot. analyzed, categorized, and tagged in real-time to provide
summaries of frequent topics and sentiment analysis
Without reservation, Fuel Cycle believes that the research around themes of interest.
question at hand should dictate the research methodology zz Enabled computer vision: Again, using machine learning,
and never the other way around. There are many business photos and videos are analyzed for objects, emotions and
questions better served through deep, exploratory work text meaningful to researchers. We are able to extract
rather than traditional quantitative methodologies. brand names, emotions on faces, and identify landmarks
Fortunately, the barriers to conducting rapid qualitative of interest…in near real-time.
research are declining rapidly. zz Began mobile-first video interviewing: Using consumers’
smartphones, we’re able to conduct video interviews on
The New Era of Qualitative Methods the fly, wherever respondents are - whether that’s in a
grocery store, at their desk, or at an event.
Traditionally, qualitative research has been time-intensive,
expensive and entirely unscalable. These barriers We expect researchers to increasingly adopt machine
prevented the adoption of qualitative research by many learning and mobile-first technologies for qualitative
organizations. But now, ubiquitous computing (due to research because they allows researchers to conduct
smartphones), easy-to-use software, and machine learning research faster, more efficiently, and with many of
are giving researchers capabilities to conduct qualitative the benefits of traditional qualitative methods. It is
research at a pace and cost not possible a few years ago. our expectation than in another GRIT report in four
years, we will see near universal adoption of qualitative
methodologies that are now considered emerging.

27
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

THE NET ON
NONCONSCIOUS Eventually we expect to see

MEASUREMENT “neurometrics” (defined as any

metric capturing nonconscious
response) playing a major
contributory role to predicting
behavior
As we began in 2017, we continue a deeper dive on the emerging methods that fall under
the “Nonconscious Measurement” umbrella due to continuing strong interest in how these
approaches can deliver value to the insights function.

NONCONSIOUS MEASURES TRENDING SLIGHTLY UPWARD IN 2018

With over half of the research industry using some form of
In Use 2018 In Use 2017 Delta
nonconscious measurement tools, it is apparent that the role Labels (%) (%) (%)
of the nonconscious in capturing response to advertising
and marketing stimuli has hit critical mass. Moreover, the Net Nonconsious Measures 57 53 4
numbers continue to trend upward, albeit slowly, which is
Eye Tracking 38 34 4
also encouraging.
Behavioral Economics Models 32 29 3
This can be perceived as a triumph of the scientific revolution
in market research. Advances in understanding of brain and Facial Analysis 24 20 4

perceptual science, along with psychology and behavioral

Applied Neuroscience (EEG) 20 21 -1
science, together with the tools available to measure these
response phenomena, have opened doors to understanding Biometric Response 16 12 4
of consumer response in a far more thorough and holistic N=1260 N=1533

manner than ever before.

28
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

THE NET ON NONCONSCIOUS MEASUREMENT

With the expansion of nonconsious measures integrated Under

In Use 2018 Total Interest
into conscious questioning, we can now answer questions (%) Consideration (%)
2018 (%)
that evaded us for decades prior. Some memorable examples:
“Why didn’t people buy the leading brand at the same rate
Net Nonconsious Measures 57 25 82
after the package change?” Eye tracking proved they never
noticed the brand name. (Tropicana); “Why didn’t the ad for
Eye Tracking 38 19 58
a beloved snack item succeed in the market?’ (EEG revealed
that the photos of the food were negatively received, and
later confirmed with qual to be unappetizing.) “Why do Behavioral Economics Models 32 28 60
shoppers buy more under certain conditions?” (Biometrics
support that getting a gift or free sample puts people in a
Facial Analysis 24 22 46
better mood and leads to less defensive purchasing.)

Applied Neuroscience (EEG) 20 22 43

Eventually we expect to see “neurometrics” (defined as any
metric capturing nonconscious response) playing a major
contributory role to predicting behavior. This is already Biometric Response 16 18 34
evident in some early modeling work and academic research
conducted by Professors Brian Knutson (Stamford), Carolyn
Yoon (University of Michigan) and others.

It is also worth noting that “Total Interest,” that is, growth. There may be multiple factors contributing to this Increased usage and
the combination of using nonconsious measures on increase in interest. For instance, advances in biometrics now growing interest in
Biometrics suggests that
an individual or aggregate basis already, plus “Under make it possible to test multiple respondents with results the market is responsive
Consideration”, reflects a solid majority of the industry in virtual real time. This was demonstrated in the Super to practical solutions that
at 82% for all nonconscious measures combined, and Bowl Study Ipsos conducted in 2018 testing reaction to the deliver immediate results
along with high value
continues to trend upward. Super Bowl ads with a live theater audience and reporting for relatively low cost
the response to all game ads the next morning. Second,
Levels of interest in individual methods, shown below, is biometrics are sensitive to all kinds of stimuli while being
essentially holding steady year-to-year with Behavioral relatively easy and inexpensive to administer.
Economics, Eye Tracking and Biometrics showing slight

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 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

THE NET ON NONCONSCIOUS MEASUREMENT

Increased usage and growing interest in Biometrics

Total Interest Total Interest Delta
suggests that the market is responsive to practical 2018 (%) 2017 (%) (%)

solutions that deliver immediate results along with high

value for relatively low cost. Net Nonconsious Measures 82 80 2

We also see, anecdotally, large increases in use of Eye Tracking 58 55 3

Reaction Time Testing baked into studies for all types of
topics including brand asset evaluation, image tracking, Behavioral Economics Models 60 58 2

communication impact, as well as product and package

Facial Analysis 43 44 -1
alternative perceptions. We are hoping that Reaction
Time Testing will be included in next year’s Grit Report to
Applied Neuroscience (EEG) 43 45 -2
measure this trend more fully.

Biometric Response 34 33 1

n=1260 n= 1533

The Big Picture

In sum, it was a good year for Neurometrics and an even In sum, it was a good year for
better year for science in the realm of understanding
Neurometrics and an even
consumer response. This is not to say that marketing will
ever stop being an art, but that our ability to understand better year for science in
the “why” of consumer response and ultimately predict the realm of understanding
the “how” of better achieving marketing goals is finally
consumer response
on the fast track to achievement.

30
 GRIT Commentary

FORGET FASTER AND CHEAPER: WHY THE

VENDOR-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MATTERS MORE
THAN YOU THINK
Raj Manocha
President, Methodify
Email: [email protected]  |  Website: www.methodify.it
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/raj-manocha-8616397/

ith trillions of available data points to help brands Ranking second is the relationship the vendor has with the
W power their marketing efforts, brands today are client and their organization—and in my opinion, this is
being paralyzed by the amount of customer data they the most significant differentiator considering the power
have coming in. automated market research has to transform the way
brands are making business decisions today.
But herein lies a problem; as organizations evolve to
become more customer-centric they often struggle to keep With the availability of new automated online research
up with the research demand and tell a meaningful story platforms rooted in proven scientific methods, brands can
with the data they have. now collect customer feedback within 24 hours or less,
garnering customer insights on a more regular basis to
Data is the most valuable brand asset. Technology help steer them in the right direction. This ability to bring
advancements like automation, AI and machine learning customers “into the boardroom” more often throughout
are making data collection just that much easier. In this product and marketing development is accelerating
edition of the GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report, decision making; we’re finally able to keep up with the pace
data quality tops the list for both clients and agencies of the customer.
as the most important factor in selecting a supplier or
partner. But let’s be honest, that’s simply table stakes in
the business of market research.
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

31
 GRIT Commentary

For many organizations, though, the shift to involve As with any paradigm shift in the way people work, finding
customer feedback more often through this test-and- the right technology partner is vital. Automation in market
learn approach will require a significant amount of research opens the door to new ways of collaboration, new
change management. Rather than be structured around skills and new roles. At Methodify, we work with our clients
their products or services, they will need to reorganize to not only adapt and customize the technology for their
themselves around the consumer. However, we still see respective organizations; we also help them evolve through
many organizations trying to figure out how they can this transformation.
use automated market research to reach their customers,
instead of understanding how to connect it across all parts The right technology partner shows passion for the
of their organization so that it truly becomes a hub of client’s business and focuses on the outcomes. They ensure
customer intelligence and validation. companies have access to better information to power their
decision making, ultimately leading to stronger business
Companies like BMO Harris Bank have seen the positive results. They also help solve problems and make sense of the
business impact this iterative research process can have technology, so that every level of the organization across
on their business. In fact, it’s led to the creation of a different departments understands its potential and those
human-centric design group that supports new product who will use it regularly are empowered to do so.
development and programs while keeping the customer
at the heart of the decision-making process. As a result, After all, as the hugely successful serial entrepreneur
their insights professionals are getting called into strategy Richard Branson once said, “Any fool can make something
meetings with marketing teams because their marketing complicated. It is hard to make something simple.”
teams know that they can deliver insights they need when
they need it. They are increasingly realizing that data being
delivered at the right time can help them make decisions in
almost near real-time, instead of waiting weeks or months
before they get their insights.

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USAGE OF TRADITIONAL
METHODOLOGIES

For many years GRIT has been tracking the shifts in usage of researchers are incorporating the new with the tried and
traditional methodologies as a counter-balance to emerging true. In this section we explore that topic more fully.
approaches in order to provide a more holistic view of how

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

First, we’d like to understand your usage of Quantitative vs. Qualitative approaches. We define Quantitative
The split between quantitative and qualitative research has as any approach that utilizes statistics to analyze the data. Qualitative is any approach that is not dependent
on statistics to analyze the data. Please assign a percentage based on the proportion of research projects
remained stable over the past three years: 62% quant, 34% you have used them on. Your answer must total 100%. 

qual, and 4% other. 2016 2017 2018

(%) (%) (%)

There was little meaningful difference between suppliers and Quantitative 62 60 62

buyers or regionally in this mix, although there is a slightly
Qualitative 33 35 34
greater usage of qualitative methods in “emerging markets”.

Other 5 5 4
The key takeaway is that the research process still largely
follows the “qual followed by quant” process and dichotomy,
despite the emergence of “qualiquant” hybrid approaches.
The key takeaway is that the research process still largely follows
the “qual followed by quant” process and dichotomy, despite the
emergence of “qualiquant” hybrid approaches

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USAGE OF TRADITIONAL METHODOLOGIES

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Those who used quantitative research were asked to rank Automation continues to dominate data collection for
the top three data collection methods that they had used the quantitative projects.
most in 2018.

3 Most Used First Second Third

Elements Quantitative (%) (%) (%)
Methods (%)

Online Surveys 79 59 14 5
Mobile Surveys 53 5 38 11
CATI 30 6 13 11
Face-to-Face 23 6 7 10
CAPI 17 4 6 7
Mail 7 1 2 4
Biometrics/Neuromarketing 7 2 2 4
Automated Measures/People Meters 6 1 1 3
Other quant technique(s): 4 1 1 1
IVR 2 0 1 2

The majority of researchers use online and mobile surveys Real-time conversational techniques take a back-
in their portfolio of their top three techniques. In fact, 59% seat to driverless surveys: 30% of quants rate CATI
of quant researchers rate online surveys the number-one (Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing) in their
method, with no other method being ranked first by more top-three methods, 23% put face-to-face there, and 17%
than 6% of participants. Mobile-only surveys are ranked rate CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing)
second by 38%. However, the third survey technique that in their top three.
automates the interviewing process, IVR (Interactive
Voice Response), was ranked in the top three by only 2% Biometrics and people meters were each a top-three
of researchers—even during an election year in the United method for only 6-7% of quantitative researchers.
States, when the method is more prevalent.

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USAGE OF TRADITIONAL METHODOLOGIES

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
While the most popular quantitative methods have qualitative research has innovated by embracing
removed the human from the loop, qualitative research asynchronous communication.
is still highly personal. Instead of looking to automation,

Please rank your most frequently used qualitative methods from the
Most used at the top to the Least used at the bottom.

Elements

Qualitative Methods Ranked 3 Most Used

Qualitative First Second Third
Methods (%) (%) (%)
(%)

1:N In Person Focus Groups 58 33 16 9

01:01 In Person IDIs 42 11 20 11
01:01 Telephone IDIs 27 11 8 7
N:N Discussions Using Online Communities 25 9 8 8
1:N Mobile (diaries, image collection, etc.) 19 3 7 9
01:01 Online IDIs with webcams 15 4 5 5
01:01 In-Store/Shopping Observations 14 3 4 7
N:N Bulletin Board Studies 13 3 5 5
1:N Online Focus Groups with webcams 10 2 4 4
N:N Chat (text-based) Online Focus Groups 8 2 3 3
0:N Monitoring Blogs 5 1 1 3
Other qual method(s): 5 2 2 1
01:01 Chat (text-based) Online IDIs 4 1 2 1
1:N Telephone Focus Groups 3 0 1 2
01:01 Automated Interviewing via AI systems 2 0 1 1

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USAGE OF TRADITIONAL METHODOLOGIES

In-person focus groups continue their domination of The traditional dichotomy between one-on-one and
qualitative research and were the only technique rated group interviews was long ago split by Bulletin Board
in the top three by a majority of qualitative researchers Studies, which allow many-to-many conversations,
(58%). Its domination as a technique is unmatched: initiated by other participants and continued
it would be as if the dominant quant method today asynchronously, as members and moderators log on
still were surveys delivered by mail! Moderator-led at different times. Online communities are the most
discussions (1:N) have moved to the virtual world, with popular many-to-many technique, ranked in the top
online focus groups with webcams rated in the top three three by 25%, followed by Bulletin Board Studies at 13%,
by 10% of respondents, and beating out telephone focus and text-based groups at 8%.
groups (3%). IDIs (In Depth Interviews) are the next most
widely used technique after traditional focus groups, with In stark contrast to quant work, automated techniques
42% ranking in-person IDIs in their top three techniques, are among the least widely used methods of qual work:
27% ranking telephone IDIs there, 15% for Online IDIs, and blog monitoring is a top-three technique for only 5% of
4% for chat-based IDIs. researchers, and automated interviewing for only 2%. Instead of looking to
automation, qualitative
research has innovated by
embracing asynchronous
communication

The Big Picture

The day may come when humans are engineered completely “chatbots” usage in these methods, as well as perhaps the
out of quant work, but today is not that day: qualitative growth of hybrid methods that do “qual at quant scale”, but
research will remain a manual, interactive, engaging process for now incremental innovation in the process vs. the method
for the foreseeable future. As AI and Machine Learning is the story.
technology increases in efficacy we may see an increase in

36
 GRIT Commentary

Accelerate your Insights Gathering:

Focus on driving efficiencies within
your Sample Supply Chain
Richard Thornton
COO & Deputy CEO, Cint
Email: [email protected]  |  Website: www.cint.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/thorntonrichard/

he market research industry is in a constant flux, privacy protection. Given this evolution, one area
T with more and more companies either embarking marketers and researchers are starting to focus on
on or currently in transformational phases, shifting their and optimize is the market research sample supply
businesses to survive and thrive within this ever increasingly chain. It remains today an area of friction for many
digital world. Opportunities are rife, driven by brands looking buyers, lacking in standardization, optimization and
to make decisions based on consumer and business insights overall efficiency.
to stay relevant and eye-catching to consumers. This trend In commerce, the supply chain consists of the
drives the need for more and better quality data, as well as purchasing of goods (procurement), the delivery of
faster and smarter ways to collect data, especially traditional products (fulfillment) and the storage of products to
survey data and behavioral data. be sold (warehousing). In this process, sample supply
Underpinning this all is both technology and compliance chain management and technology adoption are
– never before have we seen the market research industry, at the top of all successful MR / Insights gathering
typically relatively conservative and slow-moving, companies’ priority lists. This is especially true if they
change and be as disruptive (or disrupted!) as we are wish to reduce their operating costs and streamline
today. Technology is helping to shape the future of an their research processes to gain faster, smarter and
entire industry, while legislation such as the EU’s GDPR less costly access to actionable insights.
is governing and prioritizing consumer consent and data

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

37
 GRIT Commentary

What we can learn from Apple’s supply chain available sample to participate in the research process is the
management equivalent of warehousing or the storing of goods.
It is here that marketers and researchers can implement
It’s not just e-commerce companies that focus on supply strategies and technologies to speed up the process of
chain management and making every single step more gaining actionable insights faster, smarter and in a less costly
efficient. Big Players like Apple also focus on supply chain way – especially in the sampling/data collection phase of the
efficiencies. Specifically, Tim Cook – Apple’s CEO and former research process.
Chief Operating Officer – is known for believing that supply
chain management is key to running a successful business. Transforming the research process
His efforts to overall haul Apple’s supply chain operations
were a cornerstone in Apple’s turnaround in the late 1990s. The broader trend of digital transformation is putting the
This change to the supy chain helped Apple to introduce spotlight on market research organizations, who are also
the iPhone to the world at a cost that the market could under significant pressure to evolve their own businesses
bear, from its inception, a leading factor in their business’ in order to keep pace with the modern buyers’ demands for
profitability. less expensive, but still highly efficient and agile research
The supply chain is also a fundamental part of the methods. It is vital that marketers and researchers adopt
market research process, which watered down, consists concepts, tactics and emerging technologies to properly
of five key steps: 1 – the concept phase, 2 – the survey/data manage and transform their sample supply chain.
collection tool development phase, 3 – the sampling or data Marketers are being held to higher standards and
collection phase, 4 – the data analysis phase, and 5 – the are setting greater goals for reaching the exact survey
action taking / storytelling phase based on the research respondents required to receive relevant audience insights
results (the insights). The sample supply chain is concealed while driving speed, agility, profitability and performance,
in the middle step – the sampling process. Here, the purchase all while reducing operating costs. Market research
of sample (research participants) represents the purchase organizations who adopt agile and bleeding edge technology
of products, connecting the purchased sample (research to optimize the sample supply chain will experience a
respondent) equals the fulfillment, and panels housing the dramatic efficiency and scale gain.

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 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

Presenting:

THE GRIT
FUTURE
LIST
Insights’ Next Generation of Leaders

The GRIT Future List recognizes leadership, professional growth, personal

integrity, and a passion for excellence in the next generation of insight
creators, users, and communicators. We are pleased to present and honor
the sixteen rising stars in the expanding insights universe.

Presented by: Sponsored by:

39 The Guide for Buyers of Market Research

the grit future list www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

To the Future of Insights

GreenBook and Zappi are proud to announce the A big thank you to this year’s judging panel:
inaugural GRIT Future List — an awards program to
inspire, support, and celebrate young leaders who are
driving consumer insights forward in important and
unexpected ways.

The List recognizes leadership, professional growth, Anouar El Haji Greg Archibald Ivy Esquero Jacob Ayoub Jodie Wang
personal integrity, and a passion for excellence in Veylinx Gen2 Advisors WE Communications SalesForce Midea

the next generation of insight creators, users, and

communicators. These honorees have exceptional
academic backgrounds, advanced career performances,
and a wide variety of research and volunteer roles.
They’ve published research, received numerous collective
awards and accolades, and performed at conferences Kate Hooper Kristi Zuhlke Lukas Pospichal Marie Wolfe Steve Phillips
(including TED) around the world. Women’s World KnowledgeHound GreenBook Unilever Zappi
Banking

With hundreds of nominations of incredibly impressive

submissions, this year’s judging process was a challenge.
Greg Archibald of Gen2 Advisors, a Future List judge,
describes his experience while reviewing the candidates: Each of these honorees has less than a decade of experience
“We couldn’t have asked for a better group of leaders to in the insights industry, yet all are paving their way to being
feature this first year. This list makes me feel incredibly a recognizable and lasting name in our field. We are pleased
optimistic about the future of our industry.” and excited to bring to you the future leaders of insights.

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the grit future list www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

GRIT FUTURE LIST HONOREES

Ana Iorga Arundati Dandapani

CEO and Chief Neuroscientist, Buyer Brain Volunteer, Generation1.ca
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/anaiorga/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/arundati/

From the nominator: Dr. Iorga is a Medical Doctor with a PhD in Consumer From the nominator: Arundati is a resilient and proactive digital media,

“Ana is a pioneer Neuroscience and a double MBA in Marketing & Finance. “Her gaze is set on communications and marketing research professional.
of the industry, She founded Buyer Brain, a consumer neuroscience the future, even as As a new immigrant to Canada, she is focused on
using Neuroscience company that delivers non-conscious insights. She is her actions shape the intersecting North American research infrastructure
techniques to uncover the co-editor/author of Ethics & Neuromarketing and present in her quest for with the entrepreneurial economics of other
non-conscious insights.” serves as a Mentor with the Founders Institute, the a more inclusive, diverse geographies to address complex global challenges. She

world’s premier pre-seed startup accelerator. Ana is the and interesting industry has served Canada’s MRIA in multiple capacities and is

youngest and only female Board Member of NMSBA. that’s truly representative the upcoming Vice-Chair of the Emerging Leaders Task
of our world.” Force Committee.

Britt Calvert Dan Robbins

Director, Ipsos Director, Head of Ad & Programming Research, Roku
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/brittcalvert/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/drobbins2/

From the nominator: Britt is a researcher with a passion for helping From the nominator: Dan oversees measurement and insights across Roku’s

“Britt is committed companies make better products. She works within “Dan is continuously media businesses and recently steered the launch of
to mentoring young Ipsos’ Innovation service line to guide her clients’ seeking new Roku Ad Insights. Two years ago, he was the first and
researchers to ensure product and packaging development initiatives. Britt opportunities to better only ad researcher at Roku and today leads a team
they respect the dedicates her time to offering training sessions for advance the field and that produces 120+ studies yearly. He has presented
importance of consumer junior analysts and is always looking for new ways to get the organization.” at a number of conferences and published Op-Eds on
focused quantitative closer to ‘real’ insights. Britt hopes to someday compete platforms like Media Village and AdExchanger. Dan was
research, all while in Supermarket Sweep. named to the 2018 Broadcasting & Cable 40 under 40.
bringing genuine
integrity to everything
she does.”

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the grit future list www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

GRIT FUTURE LIST HONOREES (CONT.)

Frank Beirne Jacci Weber

Vice President, Technology and Data Science, Dig Insights Manager, Consumer Insights, The Wendy’s Company
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/frankbeirne/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jacciweber/

From the nominator: After just 3 years in market research, Frank leads a From the nominator: As a proud Marketing Research M.S. graduate from

“Frank leads an cross-disciplinary team of scientists and developers “Jacci is a passionate, Michigan State, Jacci is passionate about promoting
interdisciplinary team that’s bridging the gap between buzzword and business creative, and innovative insights careers, especially to college students. She is a
that is bringing market solution. One of his greatest accomplishments has been market researcher and driving force behind MSMR’s alumni activities and has
research into the supporting Dig Insights move from a traditional market advocate. She is an helped provide invaluable input on a student/alumni
next generation. He research company to an innovative tech market research influential champion in mentoring program. At Wendy’s, she has incorporated
shares his knowledge company through the creation, implementation and connecting students/ virtual reality into studies, started the Consumer
in order to mold new ongoing support of Upsiide and Dig Sandbox. alumni with the Insights internship program, and is a highly requested
researchers and further business world.” team member by senior leaders.
advance the industry.”

Jeanne Milam John Papadakis

Director, Customer and Market Insights, Salesforce CEO, Co-Founder, Pollfish
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jeannemilam Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/papadakisjohn/

From the nominator: Jeanne leads business benchmarks that inform From the nominator: John Papadakis has led Pollfish since its inception in

“Jeanne transformed strategy and drive action across Salesforce. She is “John has founded a 2013. As co-founder and CEO, he manages corporate
the Salesforce annual passionate about quantitative research and being a company that commits direction and strategy across all departments, as well as
global relationship study, champion for the voice of the customer. Jeanne is itself to changing the leads communication of Pollfish’s vision and strategy to
which now provides constantly learning new tools and technologies (like speed, cost, and quality clients, investors, and partners. John used his experience
actionable results that the Einstein Discovery AI product) to elevate the of market research for in mobile development and love of genuine insights to
drive strategic decisions quality and effectiveness of her research. Prior to the better.” create an entirely new methodology to formalize the
for the CEO & Board of Salesforce, she was at Millward Brown. process called Organic Sampling.
Directors.”

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the grit future list www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

GRIT FUTURE LIST HONOREES (CONT.)

Keshav Malani Leigh Caldwell

CEO, Powr of You Co-founder, Irrational Agency
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/keshavmalani Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/leighcaldwell/

From the nominator: Keshav is bringing a new ethos and authenticity From the nominator: Leigh is a cognitive economist, bringing cutting-edge

“Keshav has something to the Market Research industry with innovative “Leigh is pioneering science, like the new System 3, into market research. He
special—he is great passive behavior tech solutions—from instant data new methods for builds advanced nonconscious technology at Irrational
to work with and and analytics to smart surveys. His background is in understanding System 3 Agency, wrote The Psychology of Price and recently
uniquely positioned to Strategy and Data Analytics, while working at Deloitte, thinking. His research is gave a TEDx talk on how computer-simulated worlds
drive innovation in the LinkedIn, and Telefonica. truly innovative.” can solve social challenges like the gender pay gap. He
industry.” is working on a number of new endeavors, including

‘micro-market-research’ for the microfinance industry.

Liz Gross Melinda Han Williams

Founder and CEO, Campus Sonar VP of Data Science and Analytics, Dstillery
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lizgross/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/melindahan/

From the nominator: Dr. Gross is a researcher, marketer, and entrepreneur From the nominator: Melinda works to demystify AI and Machine Learning

“Dr. Gross and her committed to establishing social listening as a source “Melinda is a trailblazer through talks, articles, blog posts, and publications. Her
team are pioneering of business intelligence in higher education. She is an widely-recognized for peer-reviewed journal publications have been cited over
the art and science award-winning speaker, author, of The Higher Ed Social reshaping the consumer 8,000 times. She invented a consumer segmentation
of listening in higher Listening Handbook, and enthusiastic traveler. Liz was insights landscape process called Audience Mix. Previously, Melinda worked
education marketing, named a ‘Mover and Shaker’ by the 2018 Social Shakeup through innovative as a physicist developing nanoscale transistors and
communication, and Show. Find her on Twitter: @LizGross144. marketing technology third generation photovoltaics. Melinda holds a Ph.D. in
fundraising at a time tools. She is a thought Applied Physics from Columbia University.
when the industry leader, leveraging her
desperately needs help.” expertise to educate the
industry about machine
learning.”
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the grit future list www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

GRIT FUTURE LIST HONOREES (CONT.)

Preriit Souda Remy Denton

Director, PSA Consultants Ltd Director of Research and Atlanta Location Manager, SKIM
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/preritsouda/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/remyldenton/

From the nominator: For last 10 years, Preriit has been developing new ways From the nominator: Remy has a passion for training new researchers and

“Preriit pushes the to extract data from hundreds of otherwise untouched “Remy is the heartbeat innovative solutions. At SKIM, she is responsible for
boundaries of what data sources and analyzing them with a variety of of our company. the growth and development of a team of researchers
can be learned from AI-enabled methods leading to better outcomes for She is committed to in Atlanta, evolving internal processes throughout
digital analytics: from businesses and society. He previously led Kantar TNS the growth of the North America, and serves on the company’s global
text, pictures, and UK’s offering on Digital Media analytics and recently marketing research transformation team. She is a proud board of advisers
much more.” started his own company consulting with clients from a industry, as well as member for both UGA MMR and UTA MSMR, UGA

range of sectors around the globe. the next generation of mentor, and has founded MMR internship program at
researchers.” Ipsos and SKIM.

Sara Picazo Lutton Tricia Houston

Head of UK Ad Research, Twitter Founder / COO, MMR LIVE
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/sara-picazo-lutton-237b9aa/ Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/patriciabhouston/

From the nominator: Sara works to prove the value of Twitter advertising From the nominator: Tricia applauds brands that create human-centric

“Sara is one of the best through insights and measurement. She has led award “Houston is a marketing feedback experiences. She and MMR LIVE are on a
young research leaders winning research, winning Best Paper Award at the research expert mission to help organizations apply the same care to
I have ever worked with. 2017 ESOMAR Congress and the Peter Cooper Award consultant, experiential the experience of feedback touch points as they do to
Her project on Twitter for Qualitative Excellence, as well as the 2017 MRS New marketing aficionado, crafting overall CX. They then operationalize the results
Global B2B positioning Consumer Insights award. Previously in a commercial and innovative to help brands go further, faster. She is the President-
was the single most role, Sara developed Twitter’s commercial presence entrepreneur. She has elect of the Insights Association’s Southeast Chapter, a
impactful research across EMEA including Spain, Italy and the Nordics. created a new niche UGA MMR Board Member, and a WIRe Exec Member.
project Twitter has done in marketing research
in the last 2 years.” and is a rising star who
exemplifies the spirit of
our industry.”
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BUZZ TOPICS:
HYPE OR GAME
CHANGERS?
Measuring sentiment around new concepts and topics as
they enter the research and data industry has proven an
effective tool in predicting their traction and adoption.
In previous years, automation, big data, and storytelling/
visualization have had stronger sentiment, and in the past
three years we have certainly seen progress in the tools,
techniques and interest in these topics.
Using Insights Technology to Help People
Feel, Connect & Share
In 2018, those three topics remain the strongest scores for
being a game changer and an interesting trend. This year, the
big change is in enthusiasm for Artificial Intelligence, gaining
21 points, and now with 41% of participants calling it a game
changer. Artificial Intelligence was also a theme in emerging
and new research approaches including chatbots, machine
learning, and voice recognition technologies. These findings
are very similar across both buyers and sellers, and when
looking at the data by regions.
Engaging Activities • Innovative Technology • Study Design

When we combine “Top 2 Box” of “A Game Changer” and Project Management • Programming • Recruiting • Analysis
“An Interesting Trend” we see a “league table” similar to the
Emerging Methods analysis that give a combined score that Learn more at www.AhaOnlineResearch.com
clearly demonstrates those topics that are the ones to watch or Call 810.599.9440 for a Demo.

as they impact the industry.

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 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

BUZZ TOPICS: HYPE OR GAME CHANGERS?

Wave
Buzz Topics – Top 2 Box 2016 Oct 2017 Oct 2018 Oct
(%) (%) (%)

Automation 70 66 76

AI (Artificial Intelligence) 45 51 72

Marketplaces (such as for sample, talent, software, etc.) 45 37 42

Big Data (including synthesis of multiple data sets/types) 76 77 82

Storytelling & Data Visualization 74 83 84 This year, the big change is

VR/AR 43 37 49
in enthusiasm for Artificial
Intelligence, gaining 21
Attribution Analytics and Single Source Data 46 36 41 points, and now with 41%
of participants calling
Blockchain applications N/A N/A 29 it a game changer

Not surprisingly, blockchain as the new entrant has the to the advertising sector. Marketplaces may be the oldest
highest “too early to tell” scores, and when combined trend among the topics, but still hasn’t reached high potential
with “not sure” results in 56% of participants indicating with 22% of people saying it’s too early to tell and 27% saying
uncertainty about its future. Attribution Analytics had the they aren’t sure.
highest “not sure” scores, likely due to its specific application

Storytelling & Attribution Analytics Blockchain

Automation Artificial Intelligence Marketplaces Big Data VR/AR
Buzz Topics (%) (%) (%) (%) Visualization
(%)
(%) & Single Source Data applications
(%)
(%)

Game Changer 45 41 9 49 39 13 13 11

An Interesting Trend 31 31 32 33 46 35 29 18

Too Early To Tell 11 20 22 7 3 28 16 33

Much Ado About Nothing 4 4 9 8 9 12 5 14

Not Sure 9 4 27 4 4 12 38 23

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BUZZ TOPICS: HYPE OR GAME CHANGERS?

If these results are directional guidance for potential ahead, clearly automation, AI, Big Data, ad Storytelling &
areas to focus on investing time and resources in the year Visualization should be at the top of the list for consideration.

Buzz Topics 2018 Sentiment

Blockchain applications

Attribution Analytics & Single Source Data

VR/AR

Storytelling & Visualization

Big Data

MarketplacesM

Artificial Intelligence
Automation, AI, Big Data, ad
Storytelling & Visualization
Automation
should be at the
top of the list for consideration
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Game Changer   An Interesting Trend   Too Early To Tell   Much Ado About Nothing   Not Sure

The Big Picture

As an industry, we are incredibly aligned on our we will focus on growth drivers, which presents a theme of
opportunities. Buyers, sellers, and all regions are focused new products, services, and markets. Following emerging
on using broader, more integrated data, along with AI and industry trends, especially when aligned with research
automation, to tell better stories and yield more value buyers, enables suppliers to evolve their strategies and make
in business decision-making. While marketplaces and more informed choices regarding talent, skills, training, and
blockchain are focused on improving the supply chain, technology investments.
they haven’t yet proven their efficacy. Later in the report,

47
 GRIT Commentary
PURESPECTRUM

Programmatic Sampling...
the Right Way
Michael McCrary
CEO & Founder, PureSpectrum
Twitter: @SpectrumChoice  |  Website: www.purespectrum.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/michael-mccrary

s an industry, we’ve been sold that programmatic We all know that poor sample quality is damaging to
A sample buying is better, faster, and cheaper. all parties. However, I’d like to represent the supplier’s
Sadly, it is often harder or inferior to working directly perspective. Suppliers spend millions of dollars a year
with your favorite sample providers. When founding — and rising continuously — on marketing to acquire
PureSpectrum, my goal was to drive value for buyers members. To survive, they’re often forced to find lower
and suppliers through time savings, improved quality, cost member acquisition strategies, resulting in sending
and fulfillment confidence. Our mission was to clean lower quality traffic when project economics demand it.
up the mess before the industry lost faith in self-serve,
automation, and DIY altogether. Additionally, there’s a major user experience issue that
doesn’t get enough ink: surveys are often dreadful.
You’ve probably heard online sample compared to online At scale, only 10 to 20% of people that start a survey
advertising or ad-tech over the past few years. Online successfully complete it. This is overwhelmingly due to
sample is like ad-tech in a lot of ways with two major asynchronous information to the suppliers. Why? On
exceptions: average, a newly recruited member must attempt 5 to
1. Advertising has virtually an endless supply of websites 10 surveys before they receive a positive reward for the
on which to serve ads, whereas survey panels are effort. Keep in mind, one bad experience from an early
much more finite.
2. The process of participating in surveys is downright
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gnarly.

48
 GRIT Commentary
PURESPECTRUM

termination is often enough to sour the panel member For example, one of our clients realized a 300% improvement
for life. This is a messy and complex issue but has a huge in delivery after switching to End-to-End Automation!
opportunity to improve everyone’s life who relies on data Without changing any screener criteria, the number of
to make decisions. survey attempts resulting in quota failure was reduced to
almost zero. By tripling the qualifying ratio, the respondent
It turns out that when done properly, automation starts experience radically improved and overall conversion
to solve these issues through what we call End-to-End skyrocketed, boosting the per-click economics of their
Automation. End-to-End goes beyond DIY, self-serve and projects. This leads to better performance with suppliers,
programmatic. resulting in higher delivery. Furthermore, after optimizing
their workflow, both their employees and suppliers can focus
So, how does End-to-End work? Surveys have lots of quotas on adding value to clients instead of sending hundreds of
that are constantly changing and are rarely available in emails and tracking quotas over the course of a weekend.
real-time to suppliers. The quota information lives inside
data collection platforms like FocusVision’s Decipher, The hype about programmatic and automation is true and,
Qualtrics, Confirmit, Simple Opinions, CMix and others, if done properly, has huge time and monetary benefit to
and we refer to that information as “The Truth”. your firm. At PureSpectrum, we are helping both brands and
agencies get to the heart of their consumer faster through
When PureSpectrum’s sample management platform is automating their workflows.
integrated with the data collection platforms and suppliers
are integrated into PureSpectrum, this converts your
normal individual 50/50 male/female quotas into specified
quotas with nested age and gender, which is all setup and
managed by automation. When done right, good things
start to happen!

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SATISFACTION
WITH SUPPLIERS

Returning in this wave of GRIT is our exploration of

satisfaction levels of suppliers by clients, combined with
how suppliers see themselves. Although many individual
companies on both sides have formalized programs for
capturing satisfaction data, it is a perennial challenge for the
industry and GRIT is the only effort that looks at this across
the industry in aggregate.

BUYER SATISFACTION
WITH SUPPLIERS Knowledge sharing
The satisfaction of corporate researchers with suppliers software for insights teams
has remained steady across a range of strategic and tactical
Help your insights break through to decision-makers by
attributes since the GRIT report began measuring this three giving them a centralized, searchable hub for all your
years ago. The majority are very or completely satisfied with most important research.
how providers design the research plan (60%) and conduct
the research (66%). Value for cost remains in last place, www.bloomfire.com
hovering between 14-16% the past three years.

BF-Knowledge sharing software for insights teams Ad FINAL-for-editing.indd 1 11/28/18 9:46 AM

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SATISFACTION WITH SUPPLIERS

Corporate researchers have become even less satisfied with

business recommendations (24% in 2016 to 17% in 2018) and
data visualization (24% to 17%).

2016 Oct 2017 Oct 2018 Oct

Top 2 Box (%) (%) (%)

Conducting the research Strategic 67 71 66

Designing the research plan Strategic - 60 60

Understanding the issue to be researched Strategic 45 45 44

Project Management/Service Tactical - 46 44

Implementing the research plan Tactical - 47 43

Data analysis Tactical 45 43 40

Reporting research results Strategic 38 43 36

Timeliness of deliverables Tactical 33 29 32

Managing scope or project specification changes Tactical - 34 32

Interacting with senior management Strategic - 34 31

Understanding their business Strategic 24 24 23

Recommending business actions based on the research Strategic 23 21 19

Data visualization Tactical 24 21 17

Value for cost Tactical 15 14 16

Project management related    Research relevant to organization    Data analysis and reporting

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SATISFACTION WITH SUPPLIERS

Overall, 49% of corporate researchers are very Drivers of Satisfaction (All Potential Drivers)
or completely satisfied with their research
providers. A regression analysis of each Conducting
the research
attribute to overall satisfaction suggests that
buyer satisfaction with suppliers depends
Reporting
on measurable drivers (cost, timeliness) and research results
providers’ overall ability to execute the work and
report the results.
Value for cost

Buyers may think suppliers have a limited role

short of “business partners;” buyers don’t seem Understanding
your business
to value understanding the business, interacting
with senior management, or recommending
business action from the research. Interacting with
senior management

Designing the
research plan

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%

Clients  Suppliers

Providers, on the other hand, think satisfaction depends on Buyers and suppliers agree that value for the cost and Overall, 49% of corporate
nuances that either don’t matter to buyers (understanding conducting the research are significant drivers. Buyers researchers are very or
completely satisfied with
client’s business, interacting with senior management) or and suppliers also agree that reporting research results is their research providers
that the buyer takes for granted as part of conducting the a significant strategic driver. Buyers, however, place more
research (i.e., implementing the research plan). emphasis on data visualization than do suppliers.

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SATISFACTION WITH SUPPLIERS

SATISFACTION DRIVERS
To improve satisfaction, rather than maintain it at the same the perceptions of corporate researchers: conducting the
levels it has been at these past three years, research suppliers research, reporting research results, and value for cost.
need to pay more attention to those factors that most drive

Satisfaction drivers
Regression of strategic and tactical satisfaction questions on overall satisfaction

Supplier Buyer Supplier Buyer Supplier

Buyer All All Strategic Strategic Tactical Tactical

Understanding your business 0.16 0.18

Understanding the issue to be researched

Designing the research plan 0.12 0.3 0.13

Conducting the research 0.29 0.18 0.28 0.2

Reporting research results 0.25 0.12 0.28 0.15

Recommending business actions based on the research

Interacting with senior management 0.13 0.14

Implementing the research plan 0.1

Data analysis 0.17 0.16

Data visualization 0.21

Timeliness of deliverables 0.21

Project Management/Service 0.11

Managing scope or project specification changes 0.12

Value for Cost 0.2 0.15 0.22 0.16

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SATISFACTION WITH SUPPLIERS

In this analysis, all suppliers have been pooled together Final note: this is a regression-based analysis, so any variable
regardless of focus area, region, or other variables. Analyses with low variance will not be significant. For example, if all
that take supplier profiles into account may provide different buyers are highly satisfied with suppliers on implementing
results and insights. For example, data visualization was the research plan, it will not be a significant driver (even
not significant for suppliers (although it was for buyers). though it may, in fact, be critical). Similarly, if all have low
This may be due to the mix of suppliers in the sample; satisfaction, it will also not be significant (though it may
sample providers, for example, might not encounter data represent an opportunity to create differentiation). The
visualization issues, and this might confound the results. distinctions between strategic and tactical may not be
Inclusion of other variables may increase the variance significant and are worthy of re-examination in future waves.
explained. For example, length of relationship may have a
significant influence on satisfaction.

Research suppliers need to

The Big Picture pay more attention to those
factors that most drive
the perceptions of corporate
Despite the ongoing discussion in the research industry for Of course, another factor that we did not ask in this wave researchers: conducting the
suppliers to be considered “integrated partners”, according is whether the mix of strategic suppliers is changing with research, reporting research
results, and value for cost
to this analysis of research buyers the relationship appears more strategy consultancies, marketing agencies, and niche
to be far more transactional in most cases. That isn’t to say suppliers taking the “partner” role vs. research suppliers.
the drive to be more consultative and generating insights Concurrently, as we witness the merger of large technology
that help deliver real organizational impact isn’t a worthy platforms into global IT organizations, even the tactical
goal, and certainly there are advantages to developing deep research may be squeezed by far larger and scalable
relationships, but perhaps driven by the rise of automation technology partnerships offering the promise of enterprise
and DIY tools, the opportunity for most “traditional” wide synergies vs. ad hoc implementations. Time will tell how
suppliers may be limited to winning the business based on this changing competitive landscape impacts the industry.
the “cheaper, faster, better” rubric on a case by case basis. We
would argue that the more strategic the research, the greater
opportunity for partnership may be, while the more tactical
the effort is, the less opportunity there is.

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 GRIT Commentary

Successfully Curating Online Qual Is Now

the Greatest Challenge
Rebecca West
Global Vice President, Marketing Research Services, Civicom® Marketing Research Services
Email: [email protected] | Twitter: @CivicomMRS | Website: www.CivicomMRS.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-west-11b4999

ou’re a star at online qualitative research. You’ve just Those days ended five or more years ago. This was when
Y completed an important set of focus groups, or a long researchers started clipping chunks of content from each
list of IDIs. You’ve got tons of great video. Now what do you interview and patching it together into a set of insights and
do with it? clients realized they didn’t have to sit through live sessions
to get the gist of the message. At that time, an insights video
It wasn’t too many years ago that clients would actually sit made from a set of 30 IDIs or six focus groups might run for
through entire interviews, joining a live focus group event an entire hour. Typically, these clips would each run at least
on mute so they could be present virtually during the actual five minutes.
research. They were entranced with the ability to sit right in
their office and be part of insights-gathering in real time as Those days are over too. Clients are like the rest of us. The
it happened live in another part of the country or elsewhere average human attention span used to be about twenty
in the world. It was fascinating to be a silent participant. In minutes. It’s now fallen to about eight seconds. This is in
those days, we had up to ten clients at a time who would join general due to social media. The average video on Instagram
on mute to watch an entire set of interviews or groups. is 30 seconds, on Twitter 45, on Facebook one minute. Over
fifteen percent of Superbowl ads are under 15 seconds.

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55
 GRIT Commentary

It seems impossible to hold people’s attention in this day and The key is to capture the client’s attention long enough to
age. Clients spend hours a week or even a day viewing short, make your point and have them get it. Start with viewing
concise videos on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, that some video on the key social media sites while thinking about
condition them to get the point within 15-30 seconds. As a your amassed video content and your client’s point of view.
result, in presenting a client report, you don’t have a captive
audience. You have just the opposite: an easily distracted, Keep your videos brief so they meet viewer expectations.
easily bored client that wants to be surprised and delighted. If there’s something that you really want your client to
And this is the older crowd. Soon millennial clients will run internalize, put it in the absolute very first frames of your
the world - quickly followed by digital natives, and as a rule, videos. Keep your videos under two minutes each. Research
you can count on the fact that they will not read lengthy shows that after two minutes, viewers lose interest. The last
text-based research reports. thing you want is a client audience that ignores the fruits
of your labor. If you follow simple guidelines to hold your
This is a lot of pressure for you, the researcher. You became client’s attention, you’ll stand a better chance of having them
a researcher because you had an expertise in identifying value your work.
insights, and not necessarily an interest in becoming a
Hollywood-level media director. But this is the role you now You have to solve the pain points of curating the
find yourself thrust into in order to get your point across overwhelming amount of video content that today’s research
to your client when delivering your report. You have to ask studies produce. To do so, start with a video management
yourself, can you get the client’s attention long enough to and curation tool such as Glide Central® from Civicom® that
make your case and prove your worth in this new short-clip can help you make sense of all of this content while enabling
visual environment? you to easily generate the great clips you need to make your
presentation sing. Then on top of already being a proficiently
expert researcher you will also be a savvy content curator
with know-how that can handle any client demographic you
are faced with serving.

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DRIVERS OF
SUPPLIER SELECTION

In the previous section we explored the Important Factors in Selecting a Supplier/Partner

drivers of supplier satisfaction and the Data quality
relationship as a whole between buyers and
Relationship with me/my org.
suppliers; we also wanted to understand
fundamentally what factors are important General pricing

for picking a supplier. Service levels

To get to that insight we asked “Thinking

Innovative approach or tools
about the decisions that go into choosing
Thought leadership
partner/supplier relationships, please select
the 3 attributes you think are the most Reputation

important from the list below.” Use of technology

The most frequently selected item was
Negotiated rate cards
Data Quality. One of the things to keep in
mind is that this sort of question tends to Global Offices

reflect two elements, a) how essential is it Local to me

to get this right and b) whether it is easy to

Size of organization
get this right. So, for example, if all or most
suppliers were offering high quality data 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

it is likely that Data Quality would not be

the most important item on the list. That Buyers have experience with subpar data
suggests that buyers have experience with quality, making it high in their consideration set
subpar data quality, making it high in their
consideration set.

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DRIVERS OF SUPPLIER SELECTION

Behind Data Quality there are four closely-grouped items: The bottom four were rated as important by very, very few
Relationship With Me and My Organization, General Pricing, people. Negotiated Rate Cards are much less important
Service Levels, and Innovative Approach or Tools. It is than General Pricing. Global Offices, Local to Me, and Size of
interesting to note how important Innovation is compared Organisation are not relevant in the sense that if these are
with the much more lowly ranked Use of Technology. right, but if Data Quality, Relationship, Pricing and Service
In the middle-ground there are two ‘softer’ attributes, levels are not right they don’t swing the decision.
Thought Leadership and Reputation.

CLIENTS AND AGENCIES

Contrasting the views of clients and agencies produces five
Client Agency Difference
differences that are large enough comment on, as shown in Key factors in Choosing Suppliers/Partners (%) (%) (%)

the table below.

Data quality 58 50 8
Clients had an even higher score for Data Quality than
Thought leadership 36 25 11
Agencies (58% versus 50%). This may reflect the fact that
Relationship with me or my organization 40 47 -8
Agencies are in a better position to monitor and control data
quality. For example, if they are using a panel company or General pricing 36 46 -10
data scientist as a supplier, they can manage the project in
Reputation 19 29 -10
ways likely to produce better data. For clients, the number of
Base 329 931
levers (for controlling the data) are often fewer.

Thought Leadership is lower for Agencies, perhaps they feel The other two items are both ones that are of higher The other two items are
they are able to add the Thought Leadership. But on the importance to agencies than clients, namely Relationship both ones that are of higher
importance to agencies than
other hand, Reputation is higher amongst Agencies, perhaps with Me and My Organization and General Pricing. In both clients, namely Relationship
because it is a factor that helps sell their products and of these cases, these are factors that help shape the product with Me and My Organization
services and supports high prices. and profitability of the product the agency is delivering to and General Pricing
the end client.

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DRIVERS OF SUPPLIER SELECTION

REGIONS
The sample size permits analysis of three distinct regions,
Key factors in Choosing North America Europe APAC Other
North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. This analysis Suppliers/Partners (%) (%) (%) (%)

identified just four of the factors as showing meaningful

regional differences. All four cases are most clearly described Data quality 55 48 45 49
in terms of North America being higher or lower than the
other regions. Thought leadership 33 22 24 14

North America shows more stated importance for Data Service levels 37 45 41 40
Quality and Thought Leadership. In terms of Data Quality
we believe that this is being driven by a greater awareness Use of technology 10 13 20 15
of data quality issues, rather by differences in either data
Base 743 287 150 80
quality or the need for data quality.

The two factors where North America has lower stated

importance values than the other regions are Service Levels
and for Use of Technology.

THE BIG PICTURE

A buyer may want all twelve (12) of the items on this list, enough or not. They may like it when the supplier is “Local to
but there will often be a hierarchy. For example, they may Me”, but it is the Relationship and Service that will determine
want Negotiated Rate Cards, but what is really driving the whether they are happy.
business choice is whether the Pricing they achieve is good

59
 GRIT Commentary

Quality in Survey Data Starts

Before the Research
Melanie Courtright
EVP, Global Research Science, Dynata
Email: [email protected]  |  Website: www.dynata.com
Twitter: @melcourtright  |  Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-courtright-42b28a6

s researchers, we regularly (and rightly) focus on Optimizing the sample frame to minimize bias and variance.
A quality at a micro level – within a set of survey data, The bias-variance dilemma is typically associated with data
for example. modeling and machine learning. However, it also affects
For consumers of research insights, however, quality is sample frames in nonprobability research.
a broader and more fundamental issue, as a client reminded Bias in a sample is an inverse measure of
me when explaining what quality meant to his organization: representativeness; a high-bias sample delivers results that
“Quality is being confident that you can trust the data to accurately represent are not representative. Picture a tight grouping of darts, all to
the audience, so you can make the right decision at the speed of business.” one side of the dartboard.
Variance is an inverse measure of representativeness
Achieving this level of quality requires a multi-faceted over time, or consistency; imagine darts scattered randomly
commitment to high standards and best practices across the dartboard. A high-variance sample will deliver
throughout the research process. It starts with the data for results that change unpredictably – especially problematic
the sample used to conduct research, particularly online. for tracker studies.
Because online research is nonprobability sampling, Fortunately, quality-conscious sample data providers can
it requires greater rigor in sourcing if the sample is to use multiple techniques to minimize both faults.
be accurately representative and yield data to support
important business decisions.

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60
 GRIT Commentary

Reducing bias requires a diverse sample frame incorporating to a range of surveys, to avoid burn-out or over-familiarity
a wide population reach, best achieved by data sources with research interests.
recruited from multiple channels: Reducing variance requires consistency in the sample
zz Loyalty programs, often associated with travel, yield high- and the research experience. Providers need to establish a
worth individuals and are a good source for professionals stable recruiting effort to avoid imbalances from intensive
for B2B sample; short-term recruiting. They should bring sample into panels
zz Open recruitment through mass-market digital advertising using a tested, consistent data-based approach that they can
draws sample from all over the internet and broadens demonstrate and explain.
representativeness nationally and internationally; Providers should also strive to ensure a consistent, high
zz Affiliate networks utilize partnerships with web-centric quality research experience, with fit-for-purpose survey
companies to build traffic and reach innovators, early designs, robust technology to ensure accessibility, and an
adopters and hard-to-reach segments; expert delivery team to assist clients as needed in creating
zz Mobile apps are a valuable source for younger sample and administering studies.
and data sharers – and increasingly important to How do you know if your provider is successfully
representativeness as mobile Internet use surges past minimizing bias and variance? Ask for measures of
desktop access. representativeness: How does their sample frame compare
By using all these channels to gather data and recruit a to objective benchmarks in the general population
large and diverse sample frame, research providers can bring for characteristics like home ownership, TV viewing,
together samples that are accurately representative for a employment, and illness? How does it compare to these
broad range of studies. benchmarks over time?
Beyond recruiting, providers should support client Optimizing the bias-variance tradeoff in your sample is
research with a variety of rewards that reflect different just one element of a multi-faceted commitment to quality in
interests and motivations, such as calibrated gratuities for research data – and absolutely essential for insights that can
B2C surveys and access to results for B2B participation. be used to advance business goals with confidence.
Finally, providers should ensure that their sample is exposed

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INVESTMENT PRIORITIES

The headline news from this data is nearly every part of the Technology Investment Levels by Company Size
research industry has been investing more in technology
100%
and automation over the last year. Half of respondents
claimed their businesses were spending more money and 20%
spending significantly more compared to only 5% decreasing
their investment. 75%

Leading the investment charge are medium sizes research

businesses and the more naturally tech led businesses – 80%
of sample and survey platform business have increased their 50%
base line investment in technology in 2018 compared to 58%
of full-service research business.

25%

The research industry has been investing more

in technology and automation over the last year

0
Under 20 20-100 100-500 500-1000 1000+ employees
employees
A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease

62
 0
25%
50%
75%
100%

63
Other parts of the research industry

Management Consultancies

Data Collection Services firms (CATI/Online)

INVESTMENT PRIORITIES

technology investment growth.

Full-Service Research Providers

Software Providers (Statistical, Text Analytics,

Visualization, etc.)

Business Intelligence, Analytics, or Big Data

Technology Investment Levels by Supplier Type
slightly ahead of North American businesses in terms of

Solutions Providers
At a pan regional level, Asia and Europe appear to be pulling

Survey Platform or Software Providers

Sample/Panel Providers

0
25%
50%
75%
100%

Africa

Australia/ NZ/Pacific Islands

North America

Central & South America

A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease
Technology Investment Levels by Region

Europe

Asia

Middle East
www.GreenBook.org/GRIT
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

INVESTMENT PRIORITIES

WHAT IS BEING INVESTED IN?

What is being invested in highlights the cannibalization Technologies Being Invested In
that is currently going on within the industry. Client
60%
based business are ramping up their analytics and data
50%
visualisation capability to enable them to take more
control over their data from research companies. Full 40%

service agencies are investing more in data collection 30%

techniques, analytics and visualisation to wrest more
20%
control over the research processes from sample and big
data solutions providers. 10%

0%

Sample quality and/

or management

Data collection
techniques

New data types

(Ex. Passive data,
visual data)

Analytics

Visualization and
Dashboards

DIY Solutions

Data integration
including
warehousing and
meta-analysis type
platforms
The sample businesses are investing in improving their DIY
solutions and automating their sample supply to take back
more control from survey platform and software providers.
The survey platform and software providers are investing in
Corporate Insights   Full-Service Research Providers   Management Consultancies   Advertising/ PR Agencies
analytics visualisation tools and sample provision capacities
to help them more effectively circumvent sample and Technologies Being Invested In by Supplier Type
research business and gain more direct client business. This 80%
circular tension indicates an industry under tremendous 70%
flux, and as previously pointed out in multiple sections, 60%
the role of a changing competitive landscape anchored at 50%
strategy consulting at one end and technology at the other 40%
continues to drive the evolution of the industry. 30%

20%
Looking more generally, the two big areas of investment 10%
by the research industry in 2018 are improved data 0%
Sample
quality and/or
management

Data collection
techniques

New data types

(Ex. Passive data,
visual data)

Analytics

Visualization and
Dashboards

DIY Solutions

Data integration
including
warehousing and
meta-analysis type
platforms
visualisation and analytics capabilities.

Sample/ Panel Providers   Survey Platform or Software Providers   Software Provider (Statistical, Text Analytics, Visualization, etc.)

64 Business Intelligence, Analytics, or Big Data Solutions Providers   Data Collection Services firm (CATI/Online)
 www.GreenBook.org/GRIT

INVESTMENT PRIORITIES

HOW DO RESEARCHERS DECIDE ON WHAT METHODOLOGY TO USE?

Examining the answers given by researchers, they are How you prioritize your selection of methods to
use for the typical research project
probably not that surprising. It’s all about the quality of 100%

insights each method offers. 80% rank this as the first or

second most important factor. After this speed of delivery
slightly trumps price as second priority and innovation 75%

factors lead secondary considerations to do with ease of

synthesis or scalability of solutions. The fact that scalability
is last and speed second, highlights the often very short term 50%

and tactical nature of research activity the industry conducts

and perhaps is something for the industry to think about.
25%

0
Quality of insights Speed of results Price Innovative approach Ease of synthesis Scalability
generated with other sources
First  Second  Third  Fourth  Fifth  Sixth

THE BIG PICTURE

A consistent theme is reinforced by these data: research is What does this mean for the future, especially for Research is becoming far
becoming far more technologically driven vs. service based, the supplier community? We suggest a focus on more technologically driven vs.
service based, with the focus
with the focus on “cheaper, faster, better (quality of insights)” productization, price and speed efficiency, and the on “cheaper, faster, better
being the driving trifecta for making both investment ability to integrate with a broader business intelligence (quality of insights)” being
decisions and methodology selection. This isn’t new per se, we framework within client organizations may be not just the driving trifecta for making
both investment decisions
have been talking about this for years, but one of the goals of fruitful, but existentially necessary. and methodology selection
GRIT is to quantify the macro-trend analysis that occurs via
other channels and this edition does that.

65
 GRIT Commentary

You know the value of qual,

how tech allows it to scale
Zach Simmons
Founder & CEO, Discuss.io
Email: [email protected] | Twitter: @discuss_io | Website: www.discuss.io
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/discuss-io

nsurprisingly, tech spend isn’t going anywhere. When we look at the breakdown of the methods in the
U Surprisingly, it hasn’t claimed more of a piece of the industry, the GRIT report heavily favors quantitative
market. Why is that? research, which makes up 62% of work, as compared to
According to the GRIT Survey results, above everything qualitative’s 33%. Naturally, favor for quantitative then gets
else, brands are looking for quality of insights, speed of translated into the problems that people are focused on
results, and price from the methods in which they invest. fixing and where they’re investing. For example, respondents
Technology promises us all of these, but sometimes the reported spending the most of their time on the execution
promise is greater than the deliverable. of projects and analysis of results. So it makes sense that
Whereas only 12% of respondents said that the use of the greatest spend is in visualization and dashboards and
technology was an important attribute, 25% characterized analytics.
innovative approaches or tools as important. This shows However, when you look at the breakdown of
us that brands are looking for more than technology for methodologies used for qualitative research, in-person
technology’s sake - they are looking to solve real business continues to reign supreme, with 58% of people still using in-
problems. Nonetheless, we know that the market is investing person focus groups and 42% using in-person IDIs. Why has
in technology (16% report a significant increase and 33% the market been so slow to adapt to qualitative technologies,
report a slight increase in spend). as they have embraced quantitative?

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 GRIT Commentary

Not so long ago, quantitative research went through the Drowning in big data, brands often struggle to connect the
same transition from offline to online. People feared the dots in a way that allows them to be predictive or uncover
change because they assumed that it would mean lower reasons behind particular behaviors. Not only do they
quality. However, as the industry shifted, they found that want to understand the consumer better, but they want to
technology actually enabled them to do much more than enable key stakeholders beyond the Insights department
they could in-person. as well. In a TED talk, tech ethnographer, Tricia Wang,
says that true business impact comes at the intersection
We predict that the qualitative space will have the of big data and what she calls “thick” data (ie stories and
same destiny conversations). Without both, she warns, the results can be
At Discuss.io, we’ve automated time consuming catastrophic.
administrative work like project setup and key moment video If in-person research will fade in favor of online
generation, freeing up our clients to focus on more impactful methodologies is not the question. The real question
work. When we talk to our clients, they tell us time and time is when full adoption will happen and why it’s not
again that their real job is to consult internal stakeholders on happening faster. If the GRIT results teach us anything,
how insights can inform business decisions. And yet, we see it’s that in order to have successful adoption, we need to
with GRIT that only 12.28% of their time is being spent on this provide quality results, quickly, and at competitive prices.
effort. That’s bad for everyone. Technology should work for you, not the other way around.
We see our clients using Discuss.io to scale their
qualitative efforts, leveraging enterprise-wide deals to
scale empathy-building initiatives (what we call Consumer
Connect programs) and more formal research projects.
Our clients tell us that they save 4-6 weeks when they use
Discuss.io, as opposed to in-person methodologies.

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OUTLOOK

Overall confidence in the future of the global insights

industry, as a whole, is strong among both buyers
and suppliers, and this confidence is mirrored in their
optimism about their company (suppliers) and the
insights function at their company (buyers). More
buyers are experiencing research spending increases
We Help Brands Make
compared to those in the last GRIT report, and most Human Connections.
suppliers continue to experience revenue increases,
and these increases correlate with more investment
in technology and human resources. Though the
insights industry is filled with diverse players, they
face a common challenge to accomplish more, faster
Consumers don’t buy brands. People do.
and cheaper. One way or another, everyone seems to That’s why our insight strategists focus on the whole person, not just the consumer. By
recognizing a person’s life experience as the biggest influencer in how they make decisions about
be grappling with the issue of whether this challenge brands, we are able to have a conversation that gets them to open up, share deeper insights and
reveal bigger opportunities. The result? Insightful clarity and strategic direction that can transform
is a barrier or an opportunity. a brand and a business.

Learn more at www.realitycheck/humaninsights

Narrative Empathic 90/10 Rule Insights

Mindset Listening Analysis Activation

Chicago + St. Louis + London + New York City + Sao Paulo + Sydney + Louisville + Detroit + Miami + Denver + San Francisco + Seattle + San Antonio

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TREND: BUYER SPENDING/SUPPLIER REVENUE

Compared to the past year, spending on research projects Revenue Trend (Supplier)
100%
has been dynamic: the percentage of buyers who increased
spend AND the percentage who decreased spend are at
their highest points since early 2017. The Q1/Q2 2017 report 75%
documented the beginning of a sluggish spending period:
buyers who decreased spend spiked while the number that
increased steadily declined until the current period. The 50%

industry is once again in a period where most buyers are

either increasing or decreasing spend.
25%
Continuing a trend, most suppliers report increased
revenue over the last year, although that number has
declined since the last GRIT report. The difference splits 0
Q3-Q4 2017 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4 2018
nearly equally between those whose revenue stayed the same
and those whose decreased. Increase  Stay about the same  Decrease

Research Spending Trend (Buyers)

100%

75%

50%

25%

0
2014 Q1-Q2 2015 Q3-Q4 2015 Q1-Q2 2016 Q3-Q4 2016 Q1-Q2 2017 Q3-Q4 2017 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4 2018
Increase  Stay about the same  Decrease

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The likelihood that a supplier increased revenue was greater

than the likelihood a buyer increased spending. Further,
suppliers were more likely to significantly increase revenue
than a buyer was to significantly increase spending. If
we take revenue increase as a proxy for supplier health WHAT SETS US APART?
and spending increase as a proxy for insight function or
department health (acknowledging they are not perfect
proxies), we can say that both groups, on average, are healthy,
and that suppliers, on average, are enjoying better health
than insights functions/departments at buyer companies.

Research Spending (Buyer)/Revenue (Supplier) Trend

Significant increase

Slight increase

Stay about same

Slight decrease A collaborative and consultative approach

A lifetime of experience and expertise in our fields
A passion for new ways to engage your target
Global and hybrid solutions at our fingertips
Significant decrease
Discover the full value of the Schlesinger advantage at
SchlesingerGroup.com.
0 10% 20% 30% 40%
Clients  Suppliers

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TREND: TOTAL ANNUAL RESEARCH BUDGET AND NUMBER OF PROJECTS

The proportion of buyers with annual project budgets of less Currently, the “More than $5M” category has declined
than $1M has been fairly consistent over time, while there has sharply, while the “$1M to $3M” category spiked, probably
been more fluctuation across the larger budget categories. absorbing buyers from the higher and lower categories.
If we take revenue increase
Total Annual Research Budget (Buyer) as a proxy for supplier health
and spending increase as
a proxy for insight function
40%
39% 38%
or department health
37% (acknowledging they are
36%
not perfect proxies), we can
35% say that both groups, on
32% 33% 32% average, are healthy, and that
30% 30% suppliers, on average, are
29% 30% 29% enjoying better health than
insights functions/departments
at buyer companies

20%
Q1-Q2 2017 Q3-Q4 2017 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4 2018
More than $5M   $1M to $5M   Under $1M

To find the point where budget category Change from Change from
2017 Q3-Q4 2018 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4
contraction begins, we break down the “$5M % of Buyers (%) (%) Preceding (%) Preceding
Period (%) Period (%)
or more” category and find fewer budgets of
$10M or more, while the size of the $5M to Under $1M 37.2 34.5 -3 32.2 -2

$10M category has increased slightly: $1M to $3M 22.5 19.2 -3 26.2 +7

$3M to $5M 10.4 10.0 No change 11.9 +2

$5M to $10M 8.1 8.7 +1 10.8 +2

$10M to $30M 12.1 13.5 +1 10.1 -3

More than $30M 9.7 14.2 +5 8.7 -5

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This contraction at the top end suggests that overall Research Spending Trend by Total Annual Research Budget (Buyer)
spending for research projects may be suffering, but it is not 100%
a conclusion that can be drawn from the survey questions.

Buyers with total (current) annual budgets in excess of $30M

75%
were far more likely to have decreases in spending than
those with smaller budgets; some of those could have been in
the “More than $30M” category in the last GRIT report. The
significant decreases (8%) match the significant increases 50%
(8%), but the slight decreases overwhelm the slight increases,
46% to 21%. The next largest category, those with (current)
budgets of $10M to $30M, was the category most likely to
25%
have stagnant budgets.

Although we get into small sample sizes (n = 21), if we look at

just those buyers with a current budget over $10M who had a 0
spending decrease, we find:
zz 57% are from consumer goods (discretionary and staples,
versus 25% that increased or stayed the same)
zz 48% are from companies with 51 to 500 employees
(compared to 26% who increased or stayed the same)
Under $1M $1M to $3M $3M to $5M $5M to $10M $10M to $30M More than $30M

A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease
These two sources (to the extent they don’t overlap) of
the contraction are buyers in consumer industries and
those from companies of 51 to 500 employees. In fact, when
discussing the reasons for their revenue decline, several
suppliers referenced the budget situation in CPG as a factor. This contraction at the top end suggests that overall
spending for research projects may be suffering, but it is not
a conclusion that can be drawn from the survey questions
Similar to annual budgets, the category representing the largest
project volume contracted, (from 22% of buyers to 15%).

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Annual Number of Projects (Buyer)

35%

30% 29% 30%

27%
27% 26% Buyers mentioned that they
25% 24%
24% 22% are bundling more objectives
23% 23% into individual projects
22%
20% to achieve efficiencies
18% 19%
17%
15%
15%
14% 13%
10%
9% 9%
8%
5%

0
Q1-Q2 2017 Q3-Q4 2017 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4 2018
More than 250   151 to 250   51 to 150   25 to 50   Less than 25

As with annual budgets, the upper category Change from Change from
2017 Q3-Q4 2018 Q1-Q2 2018 Q3-Q4
% of Buyers (%) (%) Preceding (%) Preceding
had experienced a spike across the preceding Period (%) Period (%)
two periods. Less than 25 26.5 27.1 +1 23.5 -4
25 to 50 23.1 19.5 -4 24.1 5
Changes in project volume are difficult to 51 to 150 28.6 21.9 -7 30.0 8

interpret at a macro level. On the surface, 151 to 250 8.9 9.5 +1 7.8 -2

fewer projects may suggest less work or More than 250 12.9 22.1 +9 14.7 -7

money to go around, but a few buyers

mentioned that they are bundling more of cost; in others, it may mean that buyers are reducing the volume
objectives into individual projects to achieve of work they are doing and objectives they are addressing (one GRIT
efficiencies. In some cases, fewer projects may respondent mentioned that their insights department budget was
mean a smaller number of larger projects with being reduced in order to fund a new group that would address some
the same objectives and relative magnitude of the organization’s objectives in a different way).

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 GRIT Commentary

The stark truth of behavior-based

growth in CPG
Some things will never change, but your customers keep evolving

Chris Enger
Partner, Periscope® By McKinsey
Email: [email protected]  |  Twitter: twitter.com/periscope_solns
Website: www.periscope-solutions.com  |  Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/chris-enger-5375786/

he CPG industry is currently facing an unprecedented There are many more challenges too, but what is true of
T growth challenge. When looking at data from all of them is that the only way to overcome them and
McKinsey CPA, Capital IQ and Datastream, confidence has find the opportunities to grow your CPG market share,
doubled since 2011, yet growth has dropped 10% over the same is to understand how your portfolio is performing at a
period. Competition for consumer spend is higher than ever, very granular level, the trends in the market, as well as
and eyeballs are being pulled in every direction as brands consumer needs, occasions and behaviors. You may feel
seek to secure their loyalty and revenue. Shoppers are you do this already through demand planning tools, but
changing too: Millennials are more diverse, sophisticated and they do not help you understand how consumers are
demanding than any previous generation of shoppers and behaving or what influences that behavior, it only tells you
increasingly shun big brands. Big brands are also suffering what they ultimately bought. Having the understanding
at the hands of smaller nimble start-ups that use technology of how they reached that final action, is the critical
to drive huge operational cost savings and magnify their component to growth success.
marketing muscle. Consumers are also taking a much more
ethical view when making buying decisions, and expect
transparency from their brands.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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 GRIT Commentary

Many big players have tried to out maneuver competitors By focusing on behaviors rather than simple demand,
either through marketing spend or heavy discounting. But Growth Maps better enable breakthrough innovation
in the long run it won’t work, it will simply train consumers and growth into completely new domains. It is a fact-
to only buy a brand when it is on sale and nobody wins in a based approach to identifying growth priorities, which
market built on that premise. decomposes drivers of consumer behavior and brings the
consumer journey to life. This can then be used to drive
A behavior-based approach to growth product innovation, whether through design or marketing.

Growth Mapping is the new way to align what There are many variables involved in gaining these
manufacturers make with what consumers want. It combines insights, that the only effective way to achieve the
different types of segmentation – of people (demographic), development of Growth Maps is through Machine
their choices (behavioral), and their underlying needs – to Learning. This is a key component, one that uses the
detect and unlock new sources of volume-driven growth, be brute force of computing power to identify the key
it from existing, neighboring, or new categories, channels, segmentations and their drivers, by identifying patterns in
markets, and brands. hours, that could take a human team weeks – if they found
them at all! Combined with consumer sentiment analysis,
Growth Mapping turns big data into a fact base for the entire these attributes can be automatically segmented and
organization to rally around and prioritize growth initiatives visualized in a way that allows portfolio teams to quickly
according to their prospective payoff. It helps companies to make decisions on future product lines, designs, and even
answer a series of key questions: categories to invest in.
zz What are consumers purchasing and using?
zz Why are consumers choosing products and brands? The future of CPG growth is not out-marketing
zz Who are our current and potential consumers? or discounting the competition, its entirely about
zz How is the market evolving over time? understanding your customers and what drives them – and
zz What are emerging trends that are fulfilling unmet needs that is something that has never changed.

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TRENDS: DEPARTMENT SIZE & TECHNOLOGY SPEND

For both buyers and suppliers, department or research Change in Department Size (Buyer; Full-Time Positions)
group size increased, decreased or stayed the same in similar 50%
45% 45%
proportions as in the 2017 Q3-Q4 GRIT report. In fact, those 34% 36%
25%
proportions are similar for each change category across 20% 19%
suppliers and buyers. Whether this suggests a conservation
0
of skills and human resources within the industry, Q3-Q4 2017 Q3-Q4 2018
Increase  No significant change  Decrease
emphasizes a symbiotic relationship between buyers and
suppliers, or something else is a topic for further exploration. Change in Department Size (Supplier; Full-Time Positions)
50%
45% 43%
Similarly, technology spend trends display continuity from 38% 39%
25%
the last report. Increases and decreases among suppliers and 18%
17%
buyers continued at similar levels, both wave-to-wave and
0
supplier to buyer. Increasing spend continues to be more Q3-Q4 2017 Q3-Q4 2018
Increase  No significant change  Decrease
common than maintaining the same level or decreasing.
Change in Technology Spend (Buyer)
Despite what some may fear, the investment in technology 50% 51% 49%

does not seem to come at the expense of research head count. 42% 46%
25%
Overall, 52% of GRIT study participants show the same trend
for technology spending as for department size, with one in four 6% 4%
0
increasing both. Comments from study participants commonly Q3-Q4 2017 Q3-Q4 2018
Increase  No significant change  Decrease
mention the pressure to provide cheaper and faster solutions and
that technology such as DIY tools facilitate that mission nicely. Change in Technology Spend (Supplier)
55% 54%
However, they also commonly mention the need to increase 50%

their capabilities and that the way to accomplish that is to add 39% 41%
25%
human and technology resources. Some buyers mentioned that
technology enables them to become more efficient, and the 7% 4%
0
benefit of that efficiency is to enable their department to handle Q3-Q4 2017 Q3-Q4 2018
Increase  No significant change  Decrease
more work that otherwise could not be addressed.

76
For 10% of companies, however, the increase Technology Spending Trend Despite what some may
in technology spend coincides with a fear, the investment in
technology does not seem
decrease in head count, a pattern consistent Stay the to come at the expense
Increase Decrease Total
with the concern that automation threatens Department Size Trend (%) Same (%) (%) of research head count
(%)
jobs. Of buyers who increased technology
Increase 26 11 1 38
spend while decreasing head count, over 50%
serve consumer markets (these companies Stay the Same 18 24 1 43
comprise only one third of companies that
Decrease 10 6 2 18
increased tech spend but did not decrease
department size). Total 54 41 4 100

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DEEP DIVE: SPENDING AND REVENUE TREND DRIVERS

Decreases in buyer spending were driven by internal and In some cases, the budget/cost constraints were driven
external forces. By far, the most frequently named cause of from outside the research area; other times, from within.
reduced spending was budget and cost constraints. Other Some buyers believe that spending will rebound once they Some buyers believe that
significant factors include macro-environmental pressures establish a more efficient model and demonstrate ROI. spending will rebound
once they establish a
and adoption of tech-enabled tools. more efficient model
and demonstrate ROI
Constraints from Outside the Department Constraints from Within the Department
zz Short term economic forces impacting the entire zz We’ve made a concerted effort to spend more efficiently
organization has placed tremendous pressure on all – cutting out certain vendors, consolidating work with
departments to become leaner and more agile. Most of preferred vendors, and shifting work away from outside
the cost reductions impacted areas that were considered providers to our own team. So I haven’t “lost” budget, I’ve
wasteful or unnecessary. There is likely to be an increase intentionally reduced my spend by being more effective.
in research investment in the future, but there will be zz Change in department leadership and decision makers.
a much stronger emphasis on proving ROI for research zz My leader screwed up our budget and is now trying to
expenditure. backtrack and get rid of things he deems unnecessary,
zz Change in strategic direction with core business managed even though we have tried to tell him they ARE necessary.
for stabilization, not growth. It’s going to be a rough year.
zz Business performance was weak and we needed to make
big cuts to save profits.
zz Our department has been reduced headcount-wise so we
don’t have the resources to produce as much research.
zz Budget cuts, departments spend their budgets for other
things than research. Macro Environment
Budget/Cost Constraints
zz Marketing budget cuts impact the company’s

Tech Enabled Tools

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When buyers cited external forces as reasons for reduced spend, explanations were vague. Cost constraints, the macro-
When they cited tech-enabled tools, the comments seem more proactive and positive and are environment, and tech-
enabled tools were leading
linked to the idea of being able to do more with the same or fewer resources. reasons given for decreases
in supplier revenue
Macro-Environment Tech-Enabled Tools
zz Government austerity. zz Automation and DIY.
zz Economic downturns. zz Move to tech-enabled tools has resulted in cost of research. coming down, but total number
zz Macroeconomic impact of projects is up significantly.
on business. zz Automation: we conduct more surveys from online communities and tracker.
zz Using faster, cheaper DIY type tools more often.

Some other responses cite internal restructuring that removed budget or stalled
spend and unique circumstances that created a spending spike in 2017.
zz Team was split and lost budget to a new non-insights
team that was created.
zz Acquired another company, divested key brands,
no strategic direction necessitating research as the
company determines future structure.
zz 2017 had a peak due to strategic transformation
initiatives for the business. Increased Competition
zz Launched two new products this year so more
research was done last year. Macro Environment
Similarly, cost constraints, the macro-environment, and tech- Budget/Cost Constraints
enabled tools were leading reasons given for decreases in
supplier revenue. In addition, suppliers pointed to internal
Tech Enabled Tools New Work Lacking
changes, increased competition, and lower volume of work due Organizational Changes
to loss of recurring work or inability to win new work. Their
comments seem to reflect the interconnectedness of revenue
influences and could be classified under multiple themes.

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Budget and cost constraints arise from internal and external particularly in CPG, which ripple through to the balance
pressures. Internally, zero-based budgeting is mentioned sheet for suppliers. Macro-environmental factors include
often and sometimes money is invested in efforts that have the industry shift away from traditional research, client
not yet produced revenue. Budget constraints from outside adoption of automation and taking work in-house, political
the company include clients putting more pressure on each uncertainty, and poor economic situations.
project to reduce price, and the pressure that clients feel,

Budget/Cost Constraints Macro-Environment

zz Zero-based budgeting. zz Industry is changing – moving away from surveys
zz Time and cost Investments in other areas to grow the to a broader mix of data and moving more toward
company. Didn’t pan out – yet. automation; we need to move more nimbly in these areas. The mainstreaming of tech-
zz Client’s need for services remains the same, but they zz Clients want to pay less for more work and consumers enabled tools translates
into lost business, in the
want them delivered faster/cheaper/lower level of are more and more fatigued with research so it has worst case, and price
quality that could get them in trouble later down the become harder to collect information. reductions if the supplier
line. We are looking for ways to deliver at their request zz Change! Clients, market dynamics and influences that retains the business
level without giving them a “cheap” product or service. commoditize insights professionals, consolidation of
Our business culture seems to be moving to a “minimum large research houses that scoop jobs with bargain
qualifications” model rather than a model of expertise basement prices, and need to expand beyond Canadian
with long term value. market which is a small, cheap and depressed market
zz Pressure on client budgets, particularly in CPG. Brand thanks to current political and economic climate.
Tracking needing a significant evolution/disruption zz Companies keeping more work in house. Decline in
(clients and suppliers not going fast enough). research budgets.
zz CPG firms especially going through budget/staff cuts zz Uncertainty in the political climate affected our main
and not spending on custom work. client’s expenditure.
zz Less FMCG income. zz Uncertainty in the UK market over Brexit.
zz Overall, it is a decrease business across industries
zz Economy is bad in many countries, and the research
industry is getting extremely competitive.
zz Global economic situation in particular in Latin America.
zz Economical and government changes in the

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The mainstreaming of tech-enabled tools translates into Lack of Work – Need for New Client Development
lost business, in the worst case, and price reductions if the zz Loss of sales staff.
supplier retains the business. Comments relative to internal zz Less demand, lower lead generation effort on our part.
changes are reminders that researchers in larger companies zz Largest client is dormant this year.
are vulnerable to restructuring and that those in smaller zz Was very busy in 2017, but little time to develop new client relationships.
companies are vulnerable to loss of key personnel. Little carry over work from 2017 left 2018 somewhat dry. Larger client’s
work is cyclical and while 2017 was very strong, 2018 is less so, with 2019
Tech-Enabled Tools already in planning.
zz Lower spending by clients, clients using more DIY tools. zz Main client has reduced the number of assignments/projects for which I
zz Clients conducting surveys themselves with Survey specialise, plus decrease number of additional projects.
Monkey and other similar platforms. zz Too much reliance on repeat business from existing clients.
zz Market has changed and while working for a supply-side zz Corporations getting rid of the strategic insight departments and/or
research firm, the demand for syndicated research has connections within corporations retiring/being laid off -- so personal
gone down. Clients have access to data online. connection to decision makers being lost.
zz More cost effective ways of research using technology.
zz Our clients are using more the traditional research Lack of Work: Not Competitive
methods so they had decline in project amount. zz We have a sales organization that is incapable of articulating value
Automation and pricing implications are the main factor. of a research product that is outdated due to a lack of innovation,
paired with ever-increasing client expectations around time to value
Internal Changes and ROI on their spend.
zz Change in market and internal organization structure. zz Dollars not going toward high quality custom quantitative research.
zz Consolidation of research group, decrease in custom zz Lack of innovation.
business. zz Competition from non-traditional MR players.
zz “Too high” price positioning leading to numerous project losses. In
Generally, those who work for suppliers see immediate and reaction, a decision to lower down price to get back volume, but
dramatic impact of sales results. Many comments focused on additional volume gained not yet sufficient to compensate.
the lack of time for client development and the over-reliance zz More “do it yourself” options; also stronger competition in the
on a small number of large clients. Others lamented their lack marketplace.
of competitiveness, either on price or offering, especially in zz Tough market, big projects lost.
the context of producing more faster and cheaper. zz Not competitive enough on price and innovative techniques.

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To address the spending decline, buyers mentioned changing Why do you believe there was decline?
strategy and increasing the focus on research (demonstrating
50%
value) throughout the company.

Change Strategy
40%
zz Use more versatile research vendors and do more complex
studies with multiple objectives.
zz Work with other teams to co-fund projects.
30%
zz Technology is allowing us to change the way we conduct
research. We have a lot of information available to be
analyzed and many questions are answered not only 20%
on primary research, but using big data analytics and
secondary sources.
zz Lean more on communities (great value and speed). 10%
zz Keep driving to make our research more productive.
zz Lower sample size, put pressure on suppliers, more “In-
house research” approach, less cost demanding projects. 0%
Budget/Cost Macro Tech-Enabled New Work Organizational Increased
Constraints Environment Tools Lacking Changes Competition
Clients  Suppliers

Increase Focus on Research (Demonstrate Value)

zz Show what research can provide for the company, its zz Need to manage expectations from research ... many
value. stakeholders expect magic, new insights all the time, Others lamented their lack
zz Demonstrate ROI of studies. research to solve all their business problems, consumers of competitiveness, either on
price or offering, especially
zz Continue to emphasize that the real power is going to to tell them what they want, etc., but, in reality, many of in the context of producing
come from the combination of behavioral and attitudinal these cannot be answered by market research alone. more faster and cheaper
data. Data analytics is still the big buzz winner of the
moment...eventually businesses will realize we should
have focused on adding (to more traditional insights/
research approaches) instead of replacing.

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Other responses to the decline include “MR needs

to deliver higher value from data and insights”
Product Innovation
and “doing nothing” because the reduction was
Increase Marketing
And Promotion Change Strategy
appropriate, caused by an unusual spike, or will
be offset via efficiency gains.
zz Do nothing. [The reduction]’s appropriate.

Tech Enabled Tools

zz Nothing. We launched two new products this
year, so more research was done last year.
zz Nothing; continue to use fast/cheap tools as

Diversify Client Base

appropriate.

Educate Clients Wait It Out

Suppliers will address revenue declines via tech-enabled tools

and improving sales and marketing efforts.

Tech-Enabled Tools Improve Sales & Marketing

zz Bring in work efficiency through automation to zz Hire sales support, simplify offering, standardize and
drive value for overhead costs incurred. Ramp up scale solutions.
sales and business development efforts to gain more zz Higher priority on direct-to-client sales growth.
custom and syndicated business. zz Ensure we have a wider pool of clients – not be reliant
zz Focus on custom research while looking for ways to on 1-2 big clients.
leverage AI. zz Focus on forward selling.
zz Specialization, new approaches that can’t be
replicated by clients (AI, Platforms, multi-data
sources, predictive analytics).

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What, if anything, will you do to address the decline?

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
Wait It Out Change Strategy Increase Focus Better Value Tech-Enabled Increase Educate Clients Product Diversify Client
on Research Delivery Tools Marketing and Innovation Base
Promotion
Clients  Suppliers

Some will focus on innovating their offerings Innovation

and the way they do business. zz Innovate and recruit smarter people.
zz We are focusing on new revenue streams as well as
affordable options for clients.
zz Improving our knowledge of new technologies.
zz Partner with firms delivering alternative sources of data.
zz Concentrate and invest in growth areas while disrupting
brand tracking.

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Buyers gave diverse reasons to explain their increased

Client Centricity
spending, including a change in strategy and product
innovation (or business innovation).
Hard Work
and Focus
Change Strategy
Being Data Driven Better Insights

Product Innovation
Client Stakeholder Demand Increase

Change in Strategy Product Innovation/Business Innovation

zz New customer insight function zz New products.
zz New leadership, more focus on marketing zz A new product added to the portfolio.
zz Setting a goal to drive strategy from data. zz Research and development.
zz The Consumer Insights department didn’t exist zz The development of a new brand for our business.
before this year zz Innovative approach to marketing & decision making
zz The creation in 2018 of a specific Business Intelligence which should be planned based on digitally driven market
department to design and execute research projects insights.
for all areas of the company. This function was zz Need to provide innovative products and make sure the
previously handled by the Marketing department. ones we have are adequately serving the market.
zz Use of an actual experimentation platform as zz The need to innovate and better understand new
opposed to the shams we used to use.
zz Better process integration
zz Return to traditional methodologies
zz Management focus on having metrics and data (even
if they don’t know why or how to connect

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Different types of focus also spurred the increase. These included enhanced focus of the
company on the customer or consumer and improved focus on the end user of the research.
A sense of urgency around growth and the recognition of the work produced by the insights
team also lead to more spending, and improved focus in particular areas, such as digital
solutions, were also credited with helping to increase spending.

Client (& Customer)-Centricity Hard Work & Focus

zz A focus on customer centricity. zz Strategic focus on business implications zz Focus on growth sectors.
zz Consumer centric thinking is driving rather than simply results or insights. zz Focusing in digital solutions.
the business. Consulting with organizations to drive zz More targeted and focused sales strategy.
zz Need for customer-based insights to help change and impact of their insights work. zz Demand. We did good work and other
drive senior management planning. zz Urgency around business results, limited people wanted to participate, so they
category growth and the need to develop were willing to contribute funds to the
consumer relevant solutions to steal research budget.
market share from competitors. zz Providing good work including innovative
zz Intense focus on growth from the most methodologies and visually compelling
senior levels of management research projects. Better insights.
zz Intense focus on growth.

Buyers also mentioned:

zz Better business results, improved economy
zz New needs, strategic project that is not done every year.
zz Better understanding of the value it adds A sense of urgency around growth and the recognition of the
work produced by the insights team also lead to more spending

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Reasons for supplier revenue growth were diverse, and two

stood out as mentioned more frequently, product innovation
and increasing the client base. They mirror two of the reasons Quality Of Service Increase
for revenue decline: lack of a competitive offering and need
More Or Bigger Projects
for new client development. These are often mentioned
Sales
in tandem, and go hand-in-hand with use of new tools and New Tools And Technology Sector Growth

Product Innovation
technology and client-centricity. In several cases, suppliers
mention that new products or technology enable them to
reach out to new clients that were previously not accessible.
Automation
Improve Skills And Knowledge
Change Strategy
Brand Awareness Increase
Client Centricity
New Tools and Technology

Increase Client Base

zz Absorbing new technologies and data-based research
products.
zz Exceptional data visualization along with good press and
lots of networking.
zz SaaS technology platform scalability and stability;
industry adoption of non-conscious techniques; industry
adoption of implicit as a top non-conscious technique Product Innovation
zz Automation, product marketing, positioning our software zz New products.
as ‘experimentation’ complementary to more traditional zz Unique research approaches and client relations. Reasons for supplier revenue
market research. zz Transition from traditional to agile MR & rolling out new growth were diverse,
and two stood out as
zz Transformational software development and big product solutions. mentioned more frequently,
partnership contracts. zz Delivering innovative solutions. product innovation and
zz We continue to investigate new methodologies, while pro- zz Innovative methods and expanded marketing focus. increasing the client base
viding strong research that clients can base decisions on. zz Custom studies, innovative designs, thought leadership.
zz Automatization, in-housing. zz Do innovative research, not like this questionnaire. Come
zz Massive shift to automated/programmatic sampling. on guys.
zz Adoption of programmatic and automation zz We’re capturing share from the big guys due to innovation.

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Increased Client Base Client-Centricity

zz Innovations in new marketplaces, expanding into our zz Internal reorganisation to provide clarity and stronger
whitespace and understanding what the customer is client focus.
looking for. zz Innovation, client orientation, better presentations with
zz Our push for obtaining a new and continued customer base storytelling, and quality service.
is what has driven our growth. We have several account zz Innovation, agility and client-centricity.
managers and the owners of the company actively seeking zz Relationships that are built on trust & attention to detail.
new customers to combine with our current customer base. zz Increased level of client servicing and offerings, addition
zz Focusing intensively on generating new business, and of good salespeople.
letting clients/marketing lead the development of projects/ zz Clients who value my services and have given repeat
methodologies in some cases. business.
zz Diversification of client base zz Changing business mix, focusing on more profitable
zz Adding more new clients than losing existing ones. lines of work and working with direct clients rather than
zz Finding and nurturing dissatisfied clients of other agencies. subcontracting.
zz We acquired more international customers. zz Superior client relationship management and new
reporting tools. Some suppliers also
mentioned that revenue
growth was influenced by
Some suppliers also mentioned that revenue growth was influenced by improving knowledge improving knowledge and
and skills, especially relationship-building skills. Hiring played an important part in growing skills, especially relationship-
their capabilities. building skills. Hiring
played an important part in
growing their capabilities
Improved Skills and Knowledge
zz Innovation, new products and superb people with the zz Service levels; relationship management; support for
right skills. client needs; technical skills; innovation.
zz Specific skills for specific markets. zz Innovation. Business knowledge
zz More internal understanding and engagement. zz Client business knowledge, being a partner from
zz Skill development within the team, better business question research, trendy emerging tech offering.
development/relationship building. zz We actively engaged in new business development this
year; last year we spent time revamping our systems,
our knowledgebase, our documentation, our methods &
our network.
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Though not designed specifically for this What do you think drove growth?
purpose, additional data from the GRIT 30%

survey provides more insight into why

certain buyers increased spending or
revenue. Key themes that emerge from both
buyers and suppliers provide clues to the
secrets of their successes:
zz Future growth strategy is always top of
20%
mind in their company’s culture.
zz Increased spending and revenue is
correlated with increased technology
spending and increasing the size of their
department. It is not clear which drives
which, and maybe it doesn’t need to be; the
associations may be the logical outcomes
10%
of a growth-centered culture.
zz At least some individuals are not fully
subscribed to project work so they can
focus on working on the business, not just
in the business.
zz They share active dashboards and
visualization tools with their clients. 0%
Change Strategy

Product Innovation

Client Centricity

Hard Work and Focus

Client Stakeholder Demand

Increase

Being Data-Driven

Better Insights

More or Bigger Projects

Improve Skills & Knowledge

New Tools &

Technology

Sector Growth

Quality of Service
Increase

Sales

Brand Awareness
Increase

Client Base Increase

Automation
Although these buyers have increased
spending on technology tools, they do not
prioritize innovation above other factors
Clients  Suppliers
when evaluating a research methodology.
Given that they are also more likely to be
completely satisfied with the value for the
cost they get from their suppliers, they

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may have a clear vision of where value lies. From that Perhaps ironically, while some of these activities are
perspective and within the context of comments shared prominent among buyers who spend less, they are also
earlier in this section, they may understand innovation to prominent among suppliers who increased revenue. Perhaps
be an enabler of the benefits they get from research, but not suppliers who are key business partners need to engage
a benefit on its own. in these activities so they better understand the business;
perhaps members of the research group don’t need to Although uyers have
Buyers who decreased spending seem to fit the because they are already embedded in the culture and have increased spending
on technology tools,
firmographics discussed earlier in terms of industry and more opportunities to interact with others internally. they do not prioritize
research budget amount. Interestingly, they tend to be more innovation above other
involved with client staff meetings, corporate level strategic These suppliers also focus on exploring new methods, factors when evaluating a
research methodology
planning, senior management interaction, and measuring technologies, and business models and are likely to use
project ROI. From a certain point of view, it seems counter- multiple data sources to address study objectives. With a
intuitive that buyers who participate in these ways are more integrative point of view, they may be good partners
spending less on research projects when such behavior for those who want to choose methodologies based on the
would be expected to produce positive outcomes. On the potential for delivered value. A supplier with a broader range
other hand, some of the information discussed earlier of tools may be less likely to try to fit research objectives into
supports the following hypotheses: an inappropriate box.
zz Some buyers with these behaviors consider reduced
spending to be a positive outcome because they have, for It is also interesting that these suppliers are more likely
example, reduced waste. to believe that clients are not at all satisfied with their
zz Some buyers may have been forced to adopt these suppliers. Perhaps they are highly critical of other suppliers
behaviors because their company faces a crisis. and thus are able to position themselves as “outsiders.” This
zz For others, these particular activities may cannibalize hypothesis seems to fit with the comments shared earlier,
time from core activities that produce the most value. which seemed to be spiced with “attitude.”

A supplier with a broader range of tools may be less likely to

try to fit research objectives into an inappropriate box

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To summarize the findings from the survey, buyers who increased spending are more
likely to have these characteristics compared to buyers who did not:

COMPANY CHARACTERISTICS WHAT THEY DO On the flip side, characteristics that are more
zz Service or technology industry zz Always/frequently gives access to active prominent among buyers who decreased
zz In business 11–20 years dashboards and visualization tools to clients spending include:
zz 101 to 1,000 employees zz Less than “frequently,” their organization zz Serve a consumer market
zz Conduct either fewer than 25 or 51 to regularly interacts with senior stakeholders zz Have total annual research project
100 research projects annually zz Are not considering or do not use: budgets of $30M or more
zz Online communities zz Conduct more than 250 projects
zz Eye tracking annually
zz Applied neuroscience zz Have been In business 20+ years
zz Decreased full-time equivalent
STRATEGIES THEY USE PERSONAL SITUATION positions in department
zz Increase full-time equivalent positions zz Spends no time: zz Always/frequently:
in department zz designing research projects zz Participate in clients’ staff meetings
zz Increase spending on technology tools zz presenting to results to key stakeholders zz Involved in strategic planning
zz Always/frequently focus on future zz Completely satisfied with value for the cost sessions at the corporate level
growth strategy zz Regularly interact with senior
zz Do not prioritize innovation highly stakeholders
when choosing methods (rank zz Measure the ROI impact of the
“innovative approach” last in method projects they conduct
prioritization criteria) zz Less than “frequently” give access to
active dashboards and visualization
Note: these characteristics appear more frequently among buyers who tools to clients
increased spending; buyers with other characteristics that were not as
prominent also increased spending.

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Suppliers who increased revenue are more likely to have these characteristics compared to suppliers who did not:

COMPANY CHARACTERISTICS WHAT THEY DO Note: these characteristics also appear

zz 11 to 1,000 employees zz Do not use: more frequently among buyers who
zz Sample/Panel Provider zz In-person focus groups or CATI increased spending suggesting consistency
zz Platform/Software Provider zz Discussions Using Online Communities with the Benchmark measures reported
zz Use mobile surveys herein in a proceeding section. However,
STRATEGIES THEY USE zz Use at least one quant method we should note that buyers with other
zz Always/frequently focus on future zz Always/frequently characteristics that were not as prominent
growth strategy zz Gives access to active dashboards and visualization also increased spending.
zz Increase full-time equivalent positions tools to our clients
in department zz Involved in strategic planning sessions at the corporate It may be that this class of suppliers
zz Increase spending on technology tools level. channel the assumption that Buyers
including: zz Participate in clients’ staff meetings. are dissatisfied overall into a strategy
zz Sample quality and/or management zz Use multiple data sources instead of a single study to to keep driving the relationship and
zz DIY solutions address business issues. deliverables top exceed expectations, and/
zz Data integration including zz Explore new methods, technologies, business models or to tightly control expectations based
warehousing and meta-analysis type and partners on their offerings as distinct from the
platforms zz Use biometrics or neuromarketing plus “other” methods broader “insights consultancy” type of
zz Rank scalability highly not mentioned in the GRIT survey expectations.
zz Considers internal leverage a highly
important element of a market PERSONAL SITUATION Suppliers whose revenue decreased are
research study zz Spends little time managing research projects or not at all homogeneous, but a couple of
analyzing/interpreting results characteristics pop out:
zz Regarding buyer satisfaction with providers, more likely to zz Have 1 to 4 employees
believe: zz Research Freelancer/Consultant
zz Buyers are not at all satisfied with them
zz Buyers are not highly satisfied with providers’ data
analysis or recommendations

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INDUSTRY & PROFESSIONAL FOCUS

Buyers in services (professional and financial Research Spending Trend by Industry (Buyer)
services) and tech (information technology 100%

and telecommunications services) were

mostly likely to have increased spending 75%
(45% of each) while those in consumer
(discretionary, staples) had the most
50%
decreases (44%). Although both sectors
experienced the same proportionate amount
25%
of increases, twice as many had significant
increases among services than among tech.
0
Services Consumer (media/ Health Care Consumer Tech Other
entertainment, (discretionary,
retail) staples)
A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease

Consumer (discretionary, staples) and Total Annual Research Budget by Industry (Buyer)
health care have the highest proportion 100%
of budgets of $10M or more. The smallest
budgets are concentrated in consumer
75%
(media/entertainment, retail), services, and
other sectors.
50%

25%

0
Consumer Health Care Tech Consumer (media/ Services Other
(discretionary, entertainment,
staples) retail)

$30M or more   $11M to $30M   $5M to $10M   $3M to $5M   $1M to $3M   Under $1M

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Among suppliers, sample/panel providers and platform/ Annual Number of Projects by Industry (Buyer)
software providers have the highest proportions of
100%
companies that increased revenue. The highest proportions
of decreased revenue are among research freelancers/
consultants, full service research/Ad & PR agencies,
75%
management consultancies, and “others.”

50%

25%

0 Consumer Health Care Consumer (media/ Tech Services Other

(discretionary, entertainment,
staples) retail)
More than 250   151 to 250   51 to 150   25 to 30   Less than 25

Revenue Trend by Professional Focus (Supplier)

100%

75%

50%

25%

0
Sample/ Panel Survey Platform or Business Intelligence, Data Collection Servic- Management Consul- Corporate Insights Full-Service Research Research Freelancer/ Other
Provider Software Provider Analytics, or Big Data es firm tancy Researcher Professional Provider Consultant
Solutions Provider

A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease

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GLOBAL REGION
Europe has the highest
Proportions of spending increases were similar across global The proportion of budgets $10M or more is around 20% of proportion of budgets under
$3M at 70%, compared to
regions, with regions outside of North America and Europe buyers in each region, although skewed more toward budgets 56% for North America and
slightly higher. Those regions, however, also had slightly of over $30M outside of North America. Europe has the 58% for all other regions
more decreases, resulting in the smallest proportion of highest proportion of budgets under $3M at 70%, compared
spending that stayed the same. to 56% for North America and 58% for all other regions.

Research Spending Trend by Global Region (Buyer) Total Annual Research Budget by Global Region (Buyer)
100% 100%

75% 75%

50% 50%

25% 25%

0 0
North America Europe All Others North America Europe All Others
(US, Canada & Mexico) (US, Canada & Mexico)
A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease $30M or more   $11M to $30M   $5M to $10M   $3M to $5M   $1M to $3M   Under $1M

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Europe has the lowest proportion of project volume in excess Regarding supplier revenue, the proportions of spending Revenue decreases are
of 150 per year (16%) compared to North America (24%) and increases were similar for North America (58%), Asia, (58%), most frequent among
Central & South American
other regions (26%). North America has the lowest proportion Europe (57%), and Africa/Middle East (51%). Proportions were suppliers (33%)
of project volumes 50 or fewer (45%) compared to Europe lower for Central & South America (42%) and Australia/NZ/PI
(57%) and all other regions (51%) (40%). Revenue decreases are most frequent among Central &
South American suppliers (33%)

Total Annual Research Budget by Global Region (Buyer) Annual Number of Projects by Global Region (Buyer)
100% 100%

75% 75%

50% 50%

25% 25%

0 0
North America (US, Europe Asia Central & South Australia/NZ/ Africa/ North America Europe All Others
Canada & Mexico) America Pacific Islands Middle East (US, Canada & Mexico)
A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease More than 250   151 to 250   51 to 150   25 to 30   Less than 25

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EMPLOYEE SIZE
Spending increases were more frequent among buyers with The buyers that employ the most people are not the ones
101 to 1,000 employees (48%), where decreases were also with the largest annual budgets for research projects; that
the least frequent (18%). Companies with more than 1,000 distinction belongs to buyers with 101 to 1,000 employees. The
employees had the highest proportion of unchanged budgets proportion of those buyers who have budgets of more than
(49%), and companies with 100 employees or fewer have the $30 million is more than three times the proportion of buyers
most frequent decreases (around 30% of buyers). with more than 1,000 employees. Aside from that, annual
budget size seems to correlate well with employee size.

Research Spending Trend by Employee Size (Buyer) Total Annual Research Budget by Employee Size (Buyer)
100%

100%

75%

75%

50%

50%

25%
25%

0 0
1-4 5-10 11-100 101-1000 1001 or more 1-4 5-10 11-100 101-1000 1001 or more
A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same $30M or more   $11M to $30M   $5M to $10M   $3M to $5M   $1M to $3M   Under $1M

Slight decrease   A significant decrease

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Similar to annual budgets, the proportions of large project Proportion of revenue increases are highest among suppliers The buyers that employ
volumes are highest among buyers with 101 to 1,000 with 11 to 1,000 employees (around two-thirds of suppliers) and the most people are not
the ones with the largest
employees. Below the 1,001 or More Employees category, lowest among those with 10 or fewer employees (around 40%). annual budgets for research
project volume seems to correlate well with employee size. Revenue decreases occurred for 31% of suppliers with fewer projects; that distinction
than 5 employees; each other category has 22% or lower. belongs to buyers with
101 to 1,000 employees

Annual Number of Projects by Employee Size (Buyer) Revenue Trend by Employee Size (Supplier)

100% 100%

75% 75%

50% 50%

25% 25%

0 0
1-4 5-10 11-100 101-1000 1001 or more 1-4 5-10 11-100 101-1000 1001 or more

More than 250   151 to 250   51 to 150   25 to 30   Less than 25 A significant increase   A slight increase   Stayed about the same   A slight decrease   A significant decrease

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THE BIG PICTURE While DIY tools have been

cited as a threat to suppliers’
business, automation does
Overall, the insights industry is optimistic at the moment, staffing spending seem to follow revenue/spend trends, and not appear to be cannibalizing
and about its future, and “healthy”, with most suppliers those on the positive side of those trends tend to live and jobs – at least not yet
experiencing revenue increases and more buyers breathe growth strategy; apparently, they appreciate the
increasing spending. At the same time, the industry is value that technology-based and human resources bring
aware of dark clouds that can bring hard rain: political to the table. Investing in technology while reducing staff
turmoil, competitive threats from dissimilar challengers, seems to be an isolated phenomenon driven by companies
uncertainty over what position to take on technology, with large budgets who are doing poorly. Some others view
whether to specialize or diversify, and the riskiness of technology as a way to improve efficiency and allow them
having too many eggs in too few baskets, particularly to work through an impossible backlog of projects. Such a
when influential buyers’ budgets are in flux. More scenario would improve their department’s standing in the
importantly, the gauntlet is still down regarding better, company and likely result in more hires.
cheaper and faster, and everyone must respond. Finally, it is important to appreciate diversity in
Times seem to be hardest on the very largest and the the industry. Buyers who have increased spend seem to
very smallest players. Buyers with research budgets over appreciate a mix of traditional and new methodologies as
$10M have decreased spend, and that ripples throughout long as they deliver the necessary value at an affordable
the industry. At the other end of the spectrum, freelancers cost. Suppliers who have increased revenue seem to believe
and suppliers with fewer than five employees also have that a broader portfolio of methods will make them more
seen revenue decrease; perhaps larger suppliers have successful and don’t rely on a single source of data for their Buyers who have increased
gone after their work because competition is so intense in conclusions. The insights industry continues to support a spend seem to appreciate
a mix of traditional and new
their space or DIY tools have made them less relevant. Or broad portfolio of expertise, and each player must figure out methodologies as long as they
perhaps, like many smaller suppliers, they rely on a single, how to maximize their strengths vis a vis “faster/cheaper” deliver the necessary value at
large client that isn’t producing and have few candidate and the type of clients in their network. Some buyers may be an affordable cost. Suppliers
who have increased revenue
replacements in the pipeline. partial to single sourcing while others may prefer a la carte. seem to believe that a broader
While DIY tools have been cited as a threat to For some, the right conclusion will be to add capabilities; portfolio of methods will make
suppliers’ business, automation does not appear to be for others, it will be to hone their expertise and client them more successful and
don’t rely on a single source
cannibalizing jobs – at least not yet. Technology and development skills. of data for their conclusions

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 GRIT Commentary

For the Future of Market Research:

Scalability is at the Heart of Success
Steve Phillips
CEO, ZappiStore
Email: [email protected]  |  Twitter: @stevepresearch  |  Website: www.zappistore.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/steve-phillips-2121ab/

e all feel the pressure for quick results. We all know Where the trends come unstuck is in the comparative
W the importance of counterbalancing short-term de-prioritisation of scalability and synthesis with other
success with making a difference longer term; of not just sources or, in the way I would like to address this,
winning the battle but winning the war. The industry is standardization. While it’s easy to see how automation
awash with automation. Its speed and cost efficiency is makes insight faster and cheaper, better through
helping the insights community win micro battles it could automation will only really come as a direct result of
never have won before. But the really exciting opportunities scalability and standardization.
lie in wait and they very much depend on us looking beyond
the next project. In any business, if you want success and growth, then
scalability is paramount. Rather than continually
The GRIT report tells us that nearly every part of the market reinvent the wheel, you need to develop standard ways
research industry has been investing more in technology of doing things in order to scale efficiently. This not
and automation this past year. This is good to hear and no only facilitates speed, but also allows you to generate
surprise. It points out that the top considerations in selecting learnings and improvements through meta comparisons
a research approach map to the holy trinity of better, faster, across projects. It means you can communicate in a
cheaper, and in that order. This is again, very healthy. common language across your organisation.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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 GRIT Commentary

Businesses that supply and consume insight are no This level of analytic performance genuinely represents
different of course, hence the importance of normative ‘better’ for the industry, but data and method must be
databases for decades now. But big normative databases standardized and scaled. Platforms such as Zappi’s are
are often inflexible, out of date, too generic or black- building solutions and analytical capabilities that allow
boxed. They are synonymous with the old world of market an insights buyer to realize the value of a standardized
research. In the new world, the computational power of dataset. We ensure that the methods our users select
tech platforms offer the opportunity of meta analysis encourage or enforce consistency so that as their dataset
and prediction on an unprecedented level. This is the grows, so does the analytical potential.
ability to crunch enormous volumes of data collected
across projects, brands, categories, non-survey sources The challenge to tech platforms is to demonstrate enough
(e.g. media, social) and uncover relationships which help value with early adopting users such that scalability and
answer organisational questions and predict outcomes that standardization become must haves. In an industry that
would take hundreds of hours or may never be reached by is often reactive and tactical, the challenge to buyers is to
a human. A tech platform will also learn and improve its keep longer term analytical opportunities firmly in mind.
output the more you feed information to it.

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THE EVOLVING
RESEARCHER
ROLE & SKILLS
In the classrooms of Advanced Degree programs centered on Take the journey
Market Research around the world, students are presented
Experience the benefits
with and taught to hone a myriad of skills: qualitative of our technology
research, quantitative research, presentation, sales, analysis,
pricing, positioning and more. But how do these skills stack
up to what employers are saying they want and need? What
should degree students and continuing education seekers
be focusing their efforts on in school (as well as in our
internships and professional lives) to ensure that what they
are bringing to the table is what the market is looking for in
an ideal marketing research candidate? As researchers and
students of market research, our field is constantly evolving
Programmatic
as new technology is developed and methods improve and Sampling...
evolve. Our days in the industry will look different today
than they will in five years (or even one year for that matter), The Right Way
so we must constantly keep a pulse on what employers and
clients are looking for, and who and what they will find
valuable long term.
With that in mind, GRIT continues to explore the topic
of the skills that are in demand and the changing role of the
researcher and in this wave some compelling new insights @SpectrumChoice I purespectrum.com
were presented.

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THE EVOLVING RESEARCHER ROLE & SKILLS

IN DEMAND SKILLS
What should researchers make sure is the shining star on If you could add one individual with a needed skill
in your organization, what skill would it be?
their resume in 2019? Answer: Data Analysis or Data Science.
When asked the question “If you could add one individual 35%

with a needed skill in your organization, what skill would it

be?” nearly 35% of respondents gave an answer related to 30%

data analytics, data science, data modeling, big data or other

analytic skills. While our report in 2018 boasted design and 25%

storytelling as king, it took a slight dip and claimed only

20% of the responses. Clearly, organizations not only need 20%

employees who can tell a story but are also proficient in

handling data. The importance of other soft marketing skills 15%

is waning in favor of comfort and competence in data use and

interpretation. Employers want to see market researchers 10%

comfortable with not only analysis but with handling large

data sets and synthesizing data across many sources. 5%
From one respondent, a comment summed up the
essence of our overall findings: “I would love to hire someone 0
34% 21% 19% 15% 10% 9% 6% 4% 4% 3%
with a graphics design {background} who gets research.
Data Analytics and
Data Science

Storytelling and
Visualization

Sales and Busi-

ness Knowledge

Other Skills

Critical Thinking,
Strategy, and
Innovation

Software Develop-
er/Coding

Professional Work-
place Skills

Research Skills

Non-Research
Marketing Skills

AI/Machine
Learning
Infographics, storytelling, leveraging strong visuals, etc. is
critical to reporting. Anyone who can blend graphics with
research knowledge is an asset.”
This blend of skills is what employers find valuable. It
is important when it comes to data, to not only know it but What should researchers make
show it. Marketing research students and those seeking sure is the shining star on their
resume in 2019? Answer: Data
professional development should focus on fine-tuning their Analysis or Data Science
analytics skills, but ensuring that they don’t get so far into
the weeds that they cannot relay the message accurately and
sell their clients on their approach.

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THE EVOLVING RESEARCHER ROLE & SKILLS
As the role of researchers
change, so does the
composition of a typical
“day in the life” as it is spent
DAY IN THE LIFE OF A RESEARCHER on various research tasks

As the role of researchers change, so does the composition Overall

of a typical “day in the life” as it is spent on various
20
research tasks. When asked to describe a typical month’s
breakdown of different research tasks, respondents 15
provided the following:
10
Both managing research projects as well as analyzing and
reporting results of these projects occupy the largest portion 5
of time, accounting for nearly 20 hours a month each. The
next largest amount of time is spent on non-research related 0
14 19 19 10 13 9 16
work tasks, followed closely by designing research projects.
Designing research Managing the Analyzing Presenting results Consulting on Other research Other non-
Presenting the results of projects, consulting on their projects execution of interpreting, of projects to key implications or related work tasks research related
research projects charting and/or stakeholders forward planning that you spend work tasts that you
implications and other research-related work make up the reporting results of
projects
as a result of
research projects
more than an
hour in a a typical
spend more than
an hour on in a
month typical month
remainder of the work month. However, these hours can vary
depending on whether or not you are an insights buyer/client
or an insights provider/supplier. Time Spent: Buyer vs. Supplier
20

Both managing research projects as well as analyzing and

reporting results of these projects occupy the largest portion
15
of time, accounting for nearly 20 hours a month each. The
next largest amount of time is spent on non-research related
10
work tasks, followed closely by designing research projects.
Presenting the results of projects, consulting on their
implications and other research-related work make up the 5

remainder of the work month. However, these hours can vary

depending on whether or not you are an insights buyer/client 0
Designing research Managing the Analyzing Presenting results Consulting on Other research Other non-research
or an insights provider/supplier. projects execution of interpreting, of projects to key implications or related work tasks related work tasts
research projects charting and/or stakeholders forward planning that you spend that you spend
reporting results of as a result of more than an hour more than an hour
Clients  Suppliers projects research projects in a a typical month on in a typical
month

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WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 5 YEARS?

As we head further into our careers, data analysis will only What skills do you think will be most important for success for people
working in the research industry five years from now?
continue to grow more important, and we will need to stay on
top of those skills. However, our professional development 45%

should start to focus on some other areas as well in order to 40%

stay competitive in the marketplace. 35%

30%
Data analytics remains at the top, but it is followed closely
25%
by critical thinking, strategy and innovation. As we chart
20%
career paths in the research industry, development must
15%
begin to focus on the big picture beyond the data itself. It
is important to think critically, as informed by the data, 10%

and plan strategically for the future. Respondents also felt 5%

that sales and business knowledge and storytelling and 0

46% 42% 28% 22% 21% 20% 12% 6% 4% 3%
visualization are important skills to gain and develop as your

Data Analytics and

Data Science

Critical Thinking,
Strategy, and Inno-
vation

Sales and Business

Knowledge

Storytelling and
Visualization

Other Skills

Professional Work-
place Skills

Software Develop-
er/Coding

AI/Machine Learn-
ing

Research Skills

Non-Research Mar-
keting Skills
career progresses. The researcher of the future will require
not only top-notch data science skills but a broader, more
strategic focus.

A few quotes from respondents stood out and helped to sum up the general tone of the future
of marketing research:

“Agility, ability to master new skills, “Someone who has the ability to see through the clutter and “1. Basic understanding of new technologies in research, Data analytics remains at
curiosity, ability to understand find the best and simplest research solution, and also the including applications/benefits of AI. 2. Ability to the top, but it is followed
closely by critical thinking,
business problems NOT JUST ability to see when a larger solution is required. Someone influence other parts of the corporation, especially when
strategy and innovation
methodologies.” who has one foot in traditional and in newer methodologies; it comes to taking action on insights.”

old and new school working together works.”

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THE BIG PICTURE

How we think will become just as important, if not more focus or singular analysis acumen don’t appear to be the
important, that what we do. Market researchers must remain path to growth in the future. Instead, the long predicted era
current in technology and methods, but be sure to continue of polymaths who are both comfortable with data from any
to sharpen their business edge and creative mind. Certainly source, and most importantly can deliver business impact
“niche” expertise will have a role, but the era of process with that data, seems to have arrived.
oriented or even core research design, a methodology-centric

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 GRIT Commentary

To create better experiences for

customers, first enable your agile teams
to make better decisions
Basil Shariff
Customer Success Manager, Alpha
Email: [email protected]  |  Website: www.alphahq.com
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/basilshariff/

s customers, we can easily recognize when an As a rule, Amazon encourages employees to quickly
A experience is great. But as researchers, product generate 70% of the information needed in order to make
managers, and marketers, what roadmap can we follow a decision, so long as that decision is adjusted afterward
to create great experiences? At Alpha, our clients are the with rapid iteration. Clients using our platform rely
world’s most innovative organizations and teams, and on similar benchmarks and workflows, creating great
they’re not shy about sharing their craft. experiences by making small bets that offer directional
insight into customer preferences.
Take Amazon for example. In a 2017 letter to shareholders,
CEO Jeff Bezos illustrated the decision-making framework The new reality: fast and steady wins the race
his organization uses to continually deliver value to the
market faster: Consumer preferences change daily, as industry-shaking
“Most decisions should probably be made with somewhere around 70% terms like ‘cord cutting’ and ‘privacy concerns’ proliferate
of the information you wish you had. If you wait for 90%, in most cases, headlines. Keeping up has challenged once blue chip
you’re probably being slow...If you’re good at course correcting, being giants, reflected in the accelerating pace of turnover in
wrong may be less costly than you think, whereas being slow is going the Fortune 500.
to be expensive for sure.”

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 GRIT Commentary

You need an operating model specifically designed for this For example, an experiment might include testing
new reality. You may have deep expertise doing large-scale industry jargon with a handful of user interviews to
research to identify new market opportunities and optimize minimize confusion. Or it might involve split-testing user
go-to-market campaigns. But in between are thousands experiences with the prototyping phase to learn if target
of assumptions about customers that often go untested, users can figure out how to cancel their subscriptions.
leaving your agile product teams well below the information Neither set of assumptions requires exhaustive time or
threshold needed to make decisions. Agile teams sometimes resources to test, but both could prevent a major headache
take unconventional approaches to get quick feedback when down the line.
they don’t have access to the necessary tools.
Whether you use Alpha or you stitch together an
It isn’t uncommon to find time-crunched product managers assortment of DIY tools, researchers should partner
visiting nearby Starbucks to test prototypes with random with agile teams to ensure experiments are rigorous and
patrons. It’s not a rigorous practice by any means, which unbiased, without compromising speed. Fortunately, we’re
is why we built Alpha, a turnkey experimentation and beginning to see organizations aggressively make the
on-demand insights platform, to help them close the gap shift. A research leader and client of Alpha was recently
between market research cycles. tasked by her leadership team with helping her product
management colleagues find ways to continuously engage
Complement market research with with consumer feedback. She told us:
experimentation “It’s a new era – product teams are moving quickly and need data to

inform high-velocity decision-making. It’s important for us to enable

Agile teams at leading organizations utilize experimentation them to experiment rapidly throughout the entire process. In a world

to introduce data to daily decisions. Whereas market research that’s moving quicker than ever before, Alpha helps us always be on

is perfect for large, strategic activities like brand tracking the side of the consumer.”

or price elasticity, experimentation involves more tactical

roadmap prioritization and optimization activities within a To create better experiences for customers, start by
fast-turnaround agile environment. mastering the capability to rapidly and iteratively
experiment in between market research cycles.

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Over the past several waves of the GRIT survey, we asked a These top five attributes indicate a convergence between The results show a close
series of questions to better understand what drives success clients and research providers in knowing what is important alignment between the needs
and expectations of clients
for insights buyers and the research providers/partners they to the successful delivery of an engagement. and the mandates for delivery
work with. These findings represent the collective wisdom acknowledged by research
of those operating in the insights arena. At the highest level, Of further interest, however, are where discrepancies lie providers
there is substantial agreement between research providers between the two groups. Perhaps the most important area
and those whom they support with the areas of agreement of discrepancy is the ‘synthesis of results across multiple
reflecting much of the ongoing industry dialog. We asked data sources/types’. Dialog around this issue has reached
GRIT respondents to tell us their most important priorities a crescendo for those charged with bringing insights to
when executing a research project for maximum impact. business decisions as well as platform providers whose
Using a Max-Diff exercise, we asked respondents to rank tools enable the capability. This plays out organizationally
order a series of alternatives across 23 project attributes. for many on the client side with the integration trend
The results show us a close alignment between the needs for customer analytics and market insight functions. It
and expectations of clients and the mandates for delivery represents a pragmatic application of ‘big data’ analytics.
acknowledged by research providers. Topping the list of what The merger of understanding actual behaviors and the
is most important are five attributes: attitudes driving behavior is a powerful elixir in the search
zz There is a clear linkage to business objectives (#1 for clients for increasing the ROI of investment in insights. Clearly, this
and providers) is recognized by all parties.
zz Recommendations that help grow the business are delivered
zz A focused story conveys the outcomes
zz Executives implement action based on the results However, speed in the absence of linkage to
zz Agency executing the work understands my business business objectives or as an enabler to business
growth will fall short of business needs

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INDUSTRY BENCHMARKING

Of note is the importance of ‘generating a measurable Relative Importance of Priorities when Executing a Research Project
ROI’ in the analysis. ROI is inextricably linked to the top
Clear linkage to
five project attributes. Linking to business objectives and business objectives
Deliver reccomendations
delivering recommendations to grow the business enable to grow business
executives to act based on the results. The importance Provides a focused story
of this will continue to increase particularly if economic Execs implement action
based on results
headwinds appear in 2019. As budgets come under attack or
Understands my business
as the insights function is relegated to a lower priority in the
funding mandate, the ability to demonstrate the value of the Rigorous analysis

investment in insights will be critical While the measurement Synthesis of results across
multiple data sources
of ROI is a discussion on its own, the ability to successfully Appropriate sample frame
act based on recommendations provided, particularly when
Generates measurable ROI
actions lead to a more positive business outcome, is the
Connection between topic and
ultimate demonstration of ROI. Do not be surprised if this respondent's perspective

moves up the priority order in coming years. Experience with the agency

Flexibility of the agency

Commentary is also required concerning the positioning Interacts directly with key biz
partners to discuss findings
of ‘fast results’; toward the bottom of this year’s list. The
Engaging survey experience
need for ‘faster and cheaper’ has been a driving force behind for respondents

the development of platforms that increase efficiency and Value for price

reduce the labor necessary to implement a research effort. Creative reporting

The agile research movement was partially born out of this The use of
proven methodologies
need. However, this has been a theme for some time now and Agency brings a point of
view to every study
may well be an ‘assumed’ attribute for any research project
Innovativeness of the
making it less differentiating. However, speed in the absence research method

of linkage to business objectives or as an enabler to business Fast results

growth will fall short of business needs. Reputation of the agency

Collaborates with 3rd parties

for better solutions
Provides content for
external marketing comms
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

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Positioned just below ‘fast results’ is the reputation of the Sneak Peek – Benchmark Modeling
What Leads to Increasing Revenue for Research Providers?
agency. Significant market challenges faced by agencies with
a legacy of a strong reputation is a testament to the hard
reality that in today’s environment, a name doesn’t buy you
zz Generates measurable ROI
much good will. It’s about the delivery of impact whether you zz Fast results
are a global conglomerate or a boutique agency with specific
If These Project Attributes THEN REVENUE IS
expertise. The opportunity to succeed is there for those who are in the Top 6 for Importance … MORE LIKELY TO …
can deliver on the top five and additional elements.
zz Reputation of the agency
zz The use of proven methodologies

Interestingly, a preliminary exploration of attributes from Respondents were also asked to allocate 10 points across the
the Max-Diff exercise may be related to increasing revenue importance of three elements of the ‘ideal’ research project:
at a research provider show us the following. When either zz Knowledge leverage – the study design and execution
‘generates a measurable ROI’ or ‘fast results’ are ranked in allow us to get better data and generate richer knowledge
the top six project attributes for importance then research zz Internal leverage – the study leads to change within the
providers were more likely to report increasing revenue over organization. It impacts the hearts, minds and actions of
the past 12 months. Conversely, when either ‘reputation of executives and employees beyond the traditional
the agency’ or ‘the use of proven methodologies’ are ranked zz External leverage – the study leads to increased external
in the top six project attributes then the research provider visibility and has an impact on our sales and business.
was more likely to have experienced a decrease in revenue While there are not large differences between clients/buyers The lesson learned is that
during the past 12 months. While these are early findings that and research providers, research providers allocated an demonstrating ROI impact
leads to more work. Resting on
will be further explored and deepen as the benchmarking average of 4.0 points out of ten to knowledge leverage and your laurels does not
database grows, they are instructive. The lesson learned is less to internal leverage and external leverage (3.3 and 2.7
that demonstrating ROI impact leads to more work. Resting points respectively). Conversely, clients/buyers allocated
on your laurels does not. an average of 4.0 points to internal leverage and less to
knowledge leverage and external leverage (3.3 points and
2.7 points respectively as well). These differences are not
surprising given the role of buyers versus providers. Findings
inside and outside of North America are similar.
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INDUSTRY BENCHMARKING

So how well do clients/buyers and research providers say Comparison to the Ideal Project
they are delivering on the ‘ideal’ project? The answer is
not as well as needed. One could argue that, just like a diet,
0% Very Poorly 1%
consistency separates winners from losers when assessing
the probability of success. While achievement of the ideal
may not be realistic, getting close is certainly a necessary Somewhat
5% 7%
Poorly
objective to survive in a competitive business environment.
Yet in this wave of GRIT, only 9% of clients/buyers say their
average project compares to the ‘ideal’ project while two-in- 13% Neither Well 21%
nor Poorly
ten (22%) of research providers say it does. This differential
is certainly striking. Even when looking at those responding
who selected either ‘very well’ or ‘somewhat well’ this gap 61% Somewhat 63%
Well
exists, AND this top two comparison has held for the prior
two waves of GRIT. How to interpret this? Clients pay the
bills. They live in a world where they are more apt to get 22% Very Well 9%

direct feedback on the value of the work they do from those Clients  Suppliers

who use their insights. Hence, let’s give the nod to clients/
buyers. Research providers may simply be more optimistic
about the projects they produce and may be missing a bit of
the reality equation. While many research providers have Additional insight into this issue comes through a series of Yet in this wave of GRIT,
some variation of a customer satisfaction program in place, questions concerning the frequency in which research clients/ only 9% of clients/buyers
say their average project
the question is “How frequently do you engage in a deep buyers and research providers engage in specific activities. compares to the ‘ideal’
conversation with your client about the extent to which Those activities with the highest frequency of occurrence project while two-in-
your work has met their business objectives and how future across clients/buyers and research providers include: ten (22%) of research
providers say it does
improvements can be made?” Scratching the surface doesn’t zz Regularly interacting with senior stakeholders
work well to further excellence in meeting the business zz Ensuring the research is aligned with business objectives
objectives of research clients/buyers. zz Focusing on future growth strategy

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These are certainly key activities to ensure happen with Percent Saying Organization ‘Frequently’ or ‘Always’ Engages in Activity
regularity, but other activities may warrant further
Regularly interacts with 84%
exploration. For example, approximately half of those senior stakeholders 63%

responding indicated they promote the research conducted Ensures research aligned 76%
with business objectives 75%
to a broad audience. Raising the visibility of the value market
Focused on future 75%
insights brings to an organization is clearly a self-serving but growth strategy 71%

a very important endeavor. Yet, half of those responding do Involved in strategic planning 70%
at business unit level 42%
not engage in any such activity. This is an opportunity lost. If
Involved in strategic planning 63%
an insights team, whether on the provider or client side, does at corporate level 34%

not ‘toot its own horn’, no one will do it for them. Uses multiple data sources 63%
used/not single study 48%

Explores new methods, tech, 54%

Additionally, a remarkably low proportion of clients/buyers biz models and partners 70%

and research providers indicate they participate in client’s Promotes research conducted 54%
to broad audience 45%
staff meetings. Only four-in-ten clients/buyers say so and
Participates in client’s 38%
two-in-ten research providers do so. While obstacles to staff meetings 22%

participation undoubtedly exist, the ability to attend such Benchmarks itself against 35%
other organizations 34%
meetings is important for understanding the business
Gives access to dashboards 29%
context in which a research is occurring. If your insights and visualization tools 35%
team only attends 25% of such meetings this year, strive to Measures ROI impact of 22%
the projects conducted 26%
attend an additional 10% next year. It will have a meaningful
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
impact on the quality of the insight you provide.
Clients  Suppliers

Significant differences between research buyers and research team. They generally neither have the time nor budget to
providers are largely explained by their role and function. do so. Being a filtering mechanism that recommends which
For example, clients/buyers will have greater opportunity to new techniques are worthy and which are not can be a Raising the visibility of the
interact with strategic planning activities than will research relationship builder. value that insights bring to
an organization is a very
providers. Similarly, an important function that the provider important endeavor
community fulfills is to explore new methods, technology, Interestingly, there has been little meaningful change to
business models and partners. This is clearly a ‘value-add’ responses since GRIT’s 2017 Wave 1 study when this question
component to any relationship with a client-side insights was first introduced.

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OPTIMISM IN THE INDUSTRY

This wave of GRIT included a new series of questions on Optimism About Insights Industry by Spending Trend
optimism – optimism about the future of the respondent’s 100% 100%
company for research providers, future of the insights role
at their company for clients/buyers and the future of the
industry – asked of both groups.

75% 75%
Optimism is equally shared. Approximately, seven-in-ten
say they are either ‘very optimistic’ or ‘optimistic’ about the
future (Research Providers – 71%, Clients/Buyers – 65%).
Few, from either group, are pessimistic. That is good news.
50% 50%

We can take a step further and ask, “Is health correlated

to happiness?” Again, taking the spending and revenue
trends as proxies for “health” and “optimism” as a proxy
for “happiness,” we can see that maintaining or increasing 25% 25%

revenue/spend is related to greater optimism about the

future of the insights industry, while decreases are related
to less optimism.
0 0
Spending Spending Spending Revenue Revenue Revenue
Optimism about the industry is higher for suppliers whose Increased Stayed the Decreased Increased Stayed the Decreased
Same Same
revenue increased (64%) or stayed the same (72%) than for
suppliers whose revenue decreased (54%). Similarly, buyers BUYER SUPPLIER
whose spending increased or stayed the same express more Very Optimistic  Optimistic  Neither  Pessimistic  Very Pessimistic

optimism (68% each) than those whose spending decreased

(54%).

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A similar relationship holds true when insights workers Optimism About Insights Role by Spending Trend
consider optimism about their own situation (for suppliers, 100% 100%
their company; for buyers, the insights function at their
company. The relationship between optimism and revenue/
spend is more pronounced when the focus is closer to home,
so to speak; optimism is higher for:
zz Suppliers whose revenue increased (77%) or stayed the 75% 75%

same (70%) than for suppliers whose revenue decreased

(51%)
zz Buyers whose spending increased (72%) or stayed the same
(74%) than for buyers whose spending decreased (46%).
50% 50%

The revenue and spending trends are not completely

determinative of optimism; after all, 51% of suppliers whose
revenue decreased are still optimistic about their company.
This suggests that there are other factors to explore, but also
25% 25%
demonstrates that these trends are related to higher or lower
optimism about insight worker’s professional situations and
the industry in general. At the moment, health and happiness
seem strong.
0 0
Spending Spending Spending Revenue Revenue Revenue
Increased Stayed the Decreased Increased Stayed the Decreased
Same Same

BUYER SUPPLIER
Very Optimistic  Optimistic  Neither  Pessimistic  Very Pessimistic

Optimism about the insights industry is also equally shared.

Approximately two-thirds of each group are ‘very optimistic’ or
‘optimistic’. Where there is optimism, there is opportunity

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THE BIG PICTURE

Optimism about the insights industry is also equally shared. Benchmarking can help us understand what to do, but it
Approximately two-thirds of each group are ‘very optimistic’ remains up to us to make it happen.
or ‘optimistic’. Where there is optimism, there is opportunity.

Optimism Charts

Neither Optimistic

Pessimistic

Very Pessimistic
Prefer not to answer Very optimistic
Optimism: Company
Research Providers

Optimism: Insights Role

Clients/Buyers

Optimism: Insights Industry

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Clients/Buyers & Providers (Combined)
 GRIT Commentary

To Become Insights-Driven, We Need to

Change the Way We Think About Research
Mark Hammer
Chief Operating Officer, Bloomfire
Email: [email protected]  |  Twitter: @MrkHmmr
Website: www.bloomfire.com  |  Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/mmhammer/

top me if you’ve heard this one before: an insights significant impact on the organization. One study from
S team produces a research report that never goes the Boston Consulting Group found that only about half
beyond the line manager who commissioned it. The report of core business decisions are made with the influence of
contains information that could have changed the way the customer insights.
organization thinks about communicating with customers,
developing new products, or launching to new markets— if To overcome this problem, organizations need to change
only the right decision-makers had seen it. By failing to make the way they think about research, who is conducting it,
the research available to stakeholders across the organization, and how it is distributed.
the company misses out on several big opportunities.
Creating a Path to Insights
This lack of visibility is an unfortunately common problem
for many organizations with insights-generating teams. To start shifting the mindset and culture around insights,
According to this year’s GRIT report, almost half (46 percent) companies need to democratize research across their
of insights buyers or clients infrequently or never promote entire organization. In other words, business leaders
their research to the broadest appropriate audiences. Only need to give their insights teams a platform to share
14 percent of respondents said they always promote their their research and discover the research of their peers.
research to a broad audience. And when research isn’t getting
in front of key decision-makers, it’s not going to have a
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 GRIT Commentary

Employees at all levels and across all lines of business need to Rather than waiting for a line manager to commission
have access to this information—and know where to find it a new research project, team members can use their
through a self-service platform. When conducting research, organization’s self-service insights platform to explore
it can be hard to know who else will benefit from something existing research. If a team member has a question they
you’ve uncovered, so why risk restricting that information to want to investigate, they can start by searching for
the team that commissioned it? related research that other teams have conducted. From
there, they can use the information that others have
When research is democratized, insights teams are uncovered to go deeper on their topic of interest. They
better-positioned to identify larger trends that allow for may find that another team has done the research they
improvements to their current products and new products need to answer their question, saving their organization
that better meet market needs. For example, Capital from commissioning new research. By bringing in new
One, a Bloomfire customer, recently explained how they perspectives and synthesizing existing sources to learn
use their insights platform to share research about the something new, businesses can maximize the investment
customer journey across their lines of business. Because they’ve made in research.
this information is readily available across the organization,
every line of business can focus their work on a shared view The ability to democratize insights—and to draw
of the customer. connections between research sources— is a skill that
sets leading insights-generating organizations apart.
Gaining Insights from Unexpected Sources The democratization of research gives companies the
opportunity to gain insights from anywhere across their
When an organization successfully democratizes their data company, ultimately leading to a better understanding of
and research, they open up the door for both market research their customer and a better customer experience.
professionals and non-researchers to contribute ideas, engage
with the research, and ask questions.

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 Final Thoughts

For years, people have been saying that our industry is These tools and capabilities cover a wide variety of
changing. This edition of the GRIT confirms that the change applications – from method to business issues to research
is here, but incomplete. There is a clear bifurcation in what issues. Most of this can be attributed to technology (though
makes up marketing research. The first has to do with data there are some methodology and framework components in
and the second has to do with consulting. here as well). As of today, technology is still a differentiator,
but the gap is narrowing rather than expanding. We
From the data perspective, this is about using tools that can are quickly coming to a time where the technology will
help us gather traditional types of data in more efficient be available to any buyer and any supplier of research.
ways, gather new types of data, more effective analysis of Fortunately, both buyers and suppliers are investing in
data, and new ways to communicate that data to deliver technology – and not just the big players. The expectations
impact. This edition of the GRIT study is encouraging in that of technology driven research will be table stakes for all
more people are using these data tools to deliver greater projects and all relationships.
value. We see this in the high number of studies that clients
are conducting give the same budget (or smaller), we see The other side of the bifurcation is our ability to be
this in the variety of methodologies that are being used, and consultative to our clients – be they internal clients
we see this in the hiring trends and investment priorities of or external. Many may have a better definition, but
insights organizations. my definition is the ability to provide very actionable
recommendations about what the business should do – and
not just recommendations based on the results of a single
study. This is difficult – and that difficulty is reflected in
this edition of GRIT – client satisfaction with the strategic
components of research is very low overall satisfaction of
just 49% (Top 2 box).

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Final
(cont.)
Thoughts

We also know that this is important to clients. A single The data side of the bifurcation is on a solid path and I have
point of view from a single study is a lot less compelling no doubts about our continued innovation and improvement,
than it was – particularly for very strategic studies. Data albeit slower than most would like. The consulting side is in a
synthesis, multiple data streams, meta-analysis, and multi- more difficult place with significant process and intellectual
disciplinary recommendations are all components of being changes needed to make this happen. The needs of internal
able to provide business recommendations, rather than just and external clients will drive this change – whether through
research results. Though we are seeing some clients and changing the organization or changing the suppliers that
suppliers making these changes (evidenced by some of the support the organization.
investment priorities), this approach is still the exception
rather than the rule. Until this changes, the satisfaction I know this feels like being “half full and half empty”, and it
with being strategic partners in the business will remain is. But there are signs that it can be more than “half full” –
low and the work will be transactional. investment continues and is moving quickly downstream,
we actually are doing more with less, and there are a LOT
of very bright people in this industry (I know, I was one of
the judges for the GRIT Future List). That is a very powerful
combination of ingredients. Let’s get cooking.

Gregg Archibald
Managing Partner,
Gen2 Advisors

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Concept Originator & Design Partners Data Processing Advertisers
GRIT Executive Editor Keen as Mustard Deckchair Data Aha! Online Research
Leonard Murphy – GreenBook Idea Highway Infotools Bloomfire
OfficeReports Civicom® Marketing Research Services
Report & Questionnaire Research & Production Potentiate Ipsos
Gregg Archibald – Gen2Advisors AYTM – Ask Your Target Market PureSpectrum
Melanie Courtright – Dynata Deckchair Data Data Access RealityCheck Consulting
Larry Friedman, Ph.D. – GreenBook Dynata KnowledgeHound Schlesinger Group
Jeffrey Henning Gen2 Advisors OfficeReports SurveyMonkey Audience
– Researchscapes International Infotools Toluna
Elissa Moses Ipsos Neuro & Behavior Science Infographic & Lumascape Track Opinion Research
– Ipsos Neuro & Behavior Lightspeed AYTM – Ask Your Target Market
Leonard Murphy – GreenBook Michigan State University MMR
Ray Poynter – NewMR Nelson Whipple Consulting Publication
Jon Puleston – Lightspeed NewMR GreenBook
Jeffrey Resnick – Stakeholder OfficeReports
Advisory Services Potentiate Commentary Providers
Chris Robson – Deckchair Data Researchscape International Alpha
Allison Spoelhof – Michigan State Stakeholder Advisory Services Bloomfire
University MMR Program Cint
Sue York – NewMR Data Collection Civicom
AYTM - Ask Your Target Market Discuss.io Go to www.GreenBook.org/GRIT to access all
Project Coordinators Dynata GRIT data and charts via OfficeReports and
KnowledgeHound, which you can use for your
Elizabeth Le – GreenBook FUEL CYCLE
own analysis
Kristine Mensching – GreenBook GutCheck
Periscope
PureSpectrum
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Research & Production

AYTM – Ask Your Target Market Gen2 Advisors

aytm.com www.gen2advisors.com
AYTM is a market intelligence solution that is so advanced, it’s easy. Our team Gen2 Advisors is consulting and advisory firm supporting the insights industry.
of research experts offers a full range of quantitative and qualitative services, We support corporate researchers by identifying new suppliers, tools, technologies,
providing as much or as little assistance as you need. AYTM’s proprietary panels and methodologies to support the changing nature of marketing, budgets, and new
provide best-in-class levels of trust, quality, speed, and feasibility, with access to information opportunities. Suppliers can look to us for guidance on the impact of
over 25 million consumers in 26 countries, along with real-time pricing, guaranteed industry trends and market opportunities.
delivery time, and blazingly fast turnaround. Try our Personality Radar for quickly
creating powerful customer personas, advanced Max Diff, and Competitive
Topography for animated 3D mapping of customers’ brand perceptions.
KnowledgeHound
www.knowledgehound.com
KnowledgeHound features the first “search Driven Analytics” platform designed
specifically for customer insights so you can instantly find the exact answers you
Deckchair Data need when it matters most. Turn your customer data into a source of information that
deckchairdata.com can continually adapt to help solve ongoing business challenges. KnowledgeHound’s
Deckchair Data uncovers business insight through the combination of data analytics intuitive visualization engine allows anyone to create charts and tables on the fly so
and research. We partner with ambitious companies to provide insight that directly your customer data can be used to influence more decisions.
drives growth. We have significant expertise and experience in modern quantitative
and qualitative research, advanced analytics, data science and data strategy.

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Lightspeed OfficeReports
www.lightspeedresearch.com www.officereports.com
Quality-seeking researchers, marketers and brands choose Lightspeed as their OfficeReports is a powerful analytical reporting platform fully integrated in Microsoft
trusted global partner for digital data collection. Our innovative technology, proven Office that automates the process from data to final reports and presentations:
sampling methodologies and operational excellence facilitate a deep understanding • OfficeReports Analytics automates cross-tab and stat-test processes in Excel •
of consumer opinions and behavior. With 700 employees working in 14 countries, OfficeReports Link populates data from Excel into Infographics in PowerPoint
we maximize online research capabilities. We empower clients by revealing
information that is beneficial, providing clarity and research data that illuminates.
Headquartered in Warren, New Jersey, Lightspeed is part of Kantar, one of the world’s
leading data, insight and consultancy companies. For more information, visit www.
lightspeedresearch.com.
Dynata
www.dynata.com
As the established expert in digital market research data, Dynata optimizes market
research through its data assets, innovative solutions, and consultative services to
NewMR drive better business decisions and results for companies and agencies around the
newmr.org world. Founded in 1999, we were pioneers in originating online data sampling and
Helping co-create the future of market research. Combining the best of the new with created the first B2B panel, and continue to provide robust research data through
the best of the old. rigorous first-party consumer and B2B data collection for more than 3,000 clients
worldwide through our 11+ million panelists in more than 40 countries. As a trusted
provider of comprehensive research services and data solutions – such as survey
programming and optimizing sampling, and feature-rich automated research,
integrated data, and advertising measurement – we enable powerful insights for
competitive advantage.

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Researchscape International Keen as Mustard

www.researchscape.com www.mustardmarketing.com
We provide programming, hosting, and analysis services for survey research projects Keen as Mustard is a full service London, UK based marketing agency that specialises
using your own email house list or third-party panel. Starting at $1,995 when in marketing for data, research & insight. They have in house capabilities for PR,
purchased through our web store. branding, websites, content marketing and design.

IDEA
Highway
Stakeholder Advisory Services Idea Highway
www.stakeholderadvisory.com www.id-highway.com
Stakeholder Advisory Services partners with its clients to incorporate insights of Idea Highway is a strategic design studio with offices in Bucharest, Romania
key stakeholders within two critical areas for business success – ensuring alignment and Linz, Austria.
of the organization’s strategy and services with market needs and the management
of reputational risk. To achieve its mission, Stakeholder Advisory Services provides
a range of consulting services in reputation assessment, key customer relationship
management, development of customer advisory boards and business transformation
for the market insights industry. Nelson Whipple Consulting
Whether from new or traditional methods (or both), insights have to be credible
and relevant to be valuable. We help corporations and researchers generate game-
changing insights and maximize insight value by ensuring business issues (and
project resources) align with project design, research and analysis methods, and
communication. We offer project design and management as well as advice on current
projects, from design to drawing and communicating conclusions.

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Potentiate
www.potentiate.com
We’re an award-winning data intelligence company, bringing to light what your Infotools
customers, employees and the marketplace see in you and your others. Our www.infotools.com
priority is working with you to accelerate your business to the next level. Our Infotools is an award-winning software and services provider, with particular
consultative approach means you can rely on us to be focussed on outcomes. expertise in processing, analyzing, visualizing and sharing market research data.
When working with Potentiate, you can expect world-class technology, coupled We have almost three decades of experience working with both in-house corporate
with smart research design and consultancy. We’re dedicated to understanding insights teams as well as market research agencies. Our powerful cloud-based
your business and your challenges and we’ll tap into our full suite of services to software platform, Infotools Harmoni, is purpose-built for market research data. From
ensure you get the answers you need. data processing through to analysis, reporting, visualization, dashboards, distribution,
and data alerts – Harmoni is a true ‘data-to-decision-making’ solution. We also offer
data experts who can help with things like research design and management, data
design and organization, and insights discovery, analysis, visualization and reporting.

Michigan State University MMR

www.marketing.broad.msu.edu/msmr
The Broad Master of Science in Marketing Research is a specialized graduate-
level degree for people who want to build or accelerate their careers in marketing
research. There are two program formats: a one-year, full-time program that
starts in January, and a part-time, 21-month hybrid program that is mostly online,
with several on- campus sessions.

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Commentary Providers

Cint Methodify
www.cint.com www.methodify.it
“Cint is a software company developing technology to innovate the way insights Methodify, a Delvinia company, is an automated research platform that’s changing
are gathered. Cint specializes in API and SaaS solutions offering efficient, user- the way businesses access customer opinions. With a full range of industry-proven
friendly tools to access online consumer panels, as well as panel management research methods, Methodify enables marketers and researchers to automate their
software. Cint’s exchange platform is a fully transparent insights marketplace, brings research process and gain consumer insights within hours. From initial concept
together questions and answers from all around the world. Reach more than 40 testing to researching final products and ad campaigns—it’s the answer to the age-
million consumers in 80+ countries, all sourced via 1,500+ different panels owned by old brand question: How can we make better business decisions? For more, visit
publishers, local media outlets, market research agencies and non-profits.” methodify.it.

Civicom Discuss.io
www.civi.com www.discuss.io
Civicom® is a leading edge global service provider for marketing researchers Discuss.io enables live video conversations with on-demand, global recruitment,
worldwide. We work closely with insight professionals in developing solutions for and end-to-end service. Unearth and share consumer insights with your team and
transforming ideas into well-executed strategies, deploying effective telephone and across your company, quickly and easily. Make better business decisions and drive
web-enabled tools and solutions that hold no project too large, no locale too far, and innovation by engaging with consumers through real-time conversations. Today,
no respondent too difficult to reach. Discuss.io is powering consumer closeness through Consumer Connection at many of
the world’s leading brands. The company is headquartered in Seattle, WA, USA. Please
visit www.discuss.io for more details.

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FUEL CYCLE Dynata

www.fuelcycle.com www.dynata.com
Fuel Cycle is a mobile-first market research and community intelligence platform Dynata is the world’s leading global provider of first-party consumer and professional
for supercharging the relationship between brands and customers. From discussion data based on extensive, proprietary market research panels. Around this core
boards and live chats to gamification and rewards management, Fuel Cycle offers asset of opted-in, managed data, the company has built innovative data services and
an easily customizable and robust solution for brands and businesses to build high- solutions that bring the voice of the individual to the entire marketing spectrum, from
impact online experiences for their customers. research to marketing to advertising. Dynata serves more than 4,000 market research
agencies, media and advertising agencies, consulting and investment firms, and
healthcare and corporate customers in the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

GutCheck
www.gutcheckit.com
At GutCheck, we pioneered agile market research to provide our clients with ZappiStore
actionable answers and insights, globally, at the speed of their business. Our team www.zappistore.com
of full-service agile research experts—experienced in multiple tried-and-true By automating manual processes behind market research, ZappiStore enables clients
methodologies, not just agile ones—uses our online qualitative and quantitative and agencies to capitalize on the cost and time efficiencies technology unlocks and
platform to help clients make more confident business decisions by connecting them empower consumer insight by bringing it in the business decision process early and
with their target consumers more often and earlier on in development. often.

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Bloomfire Alphahq
bloomfire.com alphahq.com
Bloomfire’s Insights Platform helps teams curate and share their research and Alpha’s on-demand insights platform enables teams at the world’s leading
knowledge with the stakeholders who need it to make business decisions. The organizations to make data-driven decisions about users, products, and markets.
platform’s AI-powered search and multiple levels of categorization make it easy for
users to find exactly what they’re looking for: even words spoken in a video. And
thanks to the software’s mobile-friendly design, all platform users can access the
information they need, whenever they need it. PURESPECTRUM
PureSpectrum
www.purespectrum.com
PureSpectrum is an intelligent marketplace for buyers and sellers of online sample.
As a team of engineers, client advocates, and online sampling experts, we’re on a
Periscope mission to reinvent how sample is bought and sold. We won’t stop until we can
www.periscope-solutions.com deliver any audience, anywhere, with excellent quality, at a great price
The Periscope® By McKinsey platform offers a suite of Marketing & Sales solutions
that accelerate and sustain commercial transformation for businesses to drive
revenue growth. It combines prescriptive analytics and cloud based tools with expert
support and training. The platform leverages its world-leading IP (largely from
McKinsey but also other partners) and best-in-class technology to create actionable
insights that drive lasting performance improvement. The portfolio of solutions is
comprised of: Insight Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Customer Experience Solutions,
Category Solutions, Pricing Solutions, Performance Solutions and Sales Solutions.
These are complemented by ongoing client service and custom capability building
programs. www.periscope-solutions.com/

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Report and QuestioNnaire Contributors

Gregg Archibald – Gen2 Advisors Nelson Whipple – Independent Consultant

Gregg Archibald is a marketing researcher and strategist dedicated Currently an independent insights and research consultant, Nelson
to helping the research industry benefit from the consumer and has more than 30 years’ supplier-side experience managing market
technology changes that are making the field both more challenging research teams while directing internal Modeling and Analytics
and more exciting. He is the Managing Partner for Gen2 Advisors – a strategy and groups focused on advancing methodologies and processes. Diverse project work has
consulting firm for the marketing research industry. Gen2 Advisors works with both centered around preference analysis and simulations for Fortune 500 companies and
client side organizations and supplier organizations to capitalize on the changes for foreign equivalents in B2C and B2B markets such as mobile devices, personal financial
business transformation and success. Working with several Fortune 100 organizations services, CPG, industrial equipment, telecom services, and retail. His teams have been
has framed the vision of the future in client needs and opportunities. recognized for work such as developing advanced preference-based simulators and
R-based tools for Hierarchical Bayesian estimation.

Melanie Courtright – Dynata Jeffrey Henning – Researchscapes International

Melanie serves as Executive Vice President of Global Client Jeffrey Henning, PRC has personally conducted over 1,000 survey
Services at Dynata. Since joining the company in 2011, Melanie research projects. Before founding Researchscape in 2012, Jeffrey
has played an integral role shaping a team that is passionate co-founded Perseus Development Corporation, which introduced the
about research sampling, quality, and world class client service. She has also played first web-survey software, and Vovici, which pioneered the enterprise-
a key role in guiding the product development and thought leadership advances feedback management category. He also coined the #MRX hashtag on Twitter. Jeffrey is
made at the company. currently volunteering as the president of the Market Research Institute International, a
non-profit providing continuing education to the research industry.

Sue York – NewMR

Sue is the Chief Curator of NewMR, curating and organising the
Festival of NewMR, Radio NewMR and other NewMR online
learning events and a Market Research Consultant. Sue has a keen
interest in new methods and techniques and has co-authored a multi-country project
that explored respondents.

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Ray Poynter – NewMR Jeffrey Resnick – Stakeholder Advisory Services

Ray is a co-author of The Handbook of Mobile Market Research Jeff Resnick is founder of Stakeholder Advisory Services (www.
and The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research, co- stakeholderadvisory.com). Stakeholder Advisory Services partners
founder of NewMR.org, co-editor of the ESOMAR book Answers to with its clients to incorporate insights of key stakeholders within
Contemporary Market Research Questions, a content author for the University of two critical areas for business success – ensuring alignment of the organization’s
Georgia’s Principles of Market Research course and is the Managing Director of The strategy and services with market needs and the management of reputational risk.
Future Place, a UK-based consultancy, specialising in training. Prior to founding Stakeholder Advisory Services, Jeff held a variety of executive roles
at ORC International including President of its U.S. Group. Jeff is a political junkie by
nature and initiated and managed the CNN|ORC Poll for more than six years. He had
Jon Puleston – Lightspeed the honor of serving as Board Chair for CASRO (now the Insights Association) in 2012.
Jon Puleston is VP of Innovation of Lightspeed a Kantar
business, where he heads an international team called
QuestionArts specialising in the copy writing and design of Larry Friedman, Ph.D. – GreenBook
surveys and the development of specialist tools and technology for conducting Larry Friedman, Ph.D. is former Chief Research Officer, TNS North
research in the online and mobile arena. America. Larry has over nearly 40 years of experience in research
and has worked on both the client and research company sides of
market research. Larry consults extensively with senior level client executives on the
Leonard Murphy – GreenBook business implications of their research. He also publishes widely, and speaks before
Leonard Murphy is the executive editor and producer at numerous industry forums, including ARF, IIR, AMA and ESOMAR conferences.
GreenBook: guru in residence, influencer-in-chief and product He is a winner of a 2009 ARF “Great Mind in Innovation” Award. Larry’s market
mad scientist. Over the last 15 years, Lenny has served in various research experience began at General Foods Corporation. Since then he has worked
senior level roles, including CEO of full service agency Rockhopper Research, in numerous categories, including FMCG, financial services, pharmaceuticals (OTC
CEO of tech-driven BrandScan360 and Senior Partner of strategic consultancy and Rx), IT, telecoms, automotive and others. He has considerable experience in a
Gen2 Advisory Services. His focus is on collaboration with organizations to help wide variety of research areas, including brand equity research, tracking research,
advance innovation and strategic positioning of the market research industry, most communications research (digital and traditional), social media, customer experience
prominently as the Editor-in-Chief of the GreenBook Blog and GreenBook Research research, strategic/segmentation studies, and new product development. He has
Industry Trends Report, two of the most widely read and influential publications in extensive experience with integrating these different types of research and distilling
the global insights industry. larger strategic implications from them.

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Christopher Robson – Deckchair Data Allison Spoelhof – Michigan State University MMR
Chris is a Partner and Co-Founder of Deckchair Data. He is an Allison Spoelhof is an experienced marketer and researcher with
acknowledged expert in research methodology and data science, and 8 years of experience in the non-profit, higher education, public
a frequent speaker on advanced methods at industry conferences. and private sectors. She is currently the Director of Institutional
He strongly believes in the importance of solid methodology combined with a laser Effectiveness at Northwood University and recently graduated with her Master of
focus on the business problem. Science in Marketing Research degree from Michigan State University.

Elissa Moses – Ipsos

Elissa is the CEO, Neuro and Behavior Science at IPSOS, She is a
recognized Neuromarketing pioneer, with an extensive track record
innovating technology applications, leading change and developing
technology driven products and services. Her career spans client side (Gillette,
Seagram, Philips), Agency (BBDO, Grey, FCB) and consulting (The BrainWaves Group.)
She is also an author and frequent global speaker.

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GREENBOOK RESEARCH INDUSTRY TRENDS REPORT

2018 Q3–Q4

Www.GreenBook.org/GRIT