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Disrupting Market
Research
ZANDI BREHMER AND LISA HOLMES
Not to be distributed without permission.
4 Global Trends
Disrupting Market
Research
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1 Introduction
© Euromonitor International
Introduction
Market researchers understand that the pace of global change today is unprecedented. Technological
developments, shifting economic power, population change, environmental pressures and evolving
consumer values underpin disruptions in nearly every industry worldwide. Market research is no
exception.
According to ESOMAR’s Global Market Research 2017 report, the market research industry as a whole
continues to see annual growth between two and three percent from a $44.5bn base. Seemingly slow
and steady at the surface, market research has never been viewed as a fast paced industry. However,
these growth rates mask dramatic shifts and innovations within the industry as technology collides with
traditional research approaches. Over the backdrop of this shift, clients seek competitive advantage
through faster, deeper insights, often resulting in three conflicting demands:
Market researchers are increasingly asked to be all things at once: accurate yet fast, tech-savvy yet
methodologically pure, robust in detail yet able to quickly and succinctly deliver visual insights.
© Euromonitor International
2 Introduction
The market research industry is at an exciting moment of evolution with disruption occurring in both
research execution and delivery. To help make sense of this change, Euromonitor International identified
the four biggest global trends impacting the role of the market researcher of tomorrow:
This white paper explores the major global trends disrupting the market research industry through 2030,
providing actionable recommendations to market researchers on how to set themselves up for success
and meet the evolving and tensioned needs of tomorrow’s client.
© Euromonitor International
Automation and DIY Tools: A
New Need for Unprecedented
Speed
The world is more competitive than ever and clients increasingly look to
market research partners to make quick, informed decisions to stay ahead
of the competition. Investment in technology such as automation and
client-facing do-it-yourself (DIY) tools is a critical component to delivering
on-demand insights and solutions. The rapid investment in automated
technology and sustained proliferation of DIY tools will continue to create
some of the largest changes for the market research industry for years to come.
More market research and insights departments are reporting directly into strategy and the c-suite,
enabling faster decision-making at the highest levels of the company. Simultaneously, market research and
insight tools are also moving to frontline employees. Companies are decentralizing the decision-making
process and empowering mid-level employees to innovate faster, clearing bottlenecks and streamlining
reporting and approval structures.
Successful automation and DIY strategies for market research will increasingly limit or eliminate manual
research “busy work” and let clients build their own story without sifting through pages of tables and
analysis. Executed correctly, these strategies lead to more satisfied clients and more engaged researchers.
© Euromonitor International
4 Automation and DIY Tools: A New Need for Unprecedented Speed
Automating where possible helps smaller, resource-tight insights teams serve a wider, growing set of
customers.
Providing client-facing DIY tools has a similarly positive impact on the researcher and client experience.
DIY tools have the power to put information into the hands of front-line decision makers exactly when
they need it. These tools also create new challenges such as potential misinterpretation from users who
have little time for long reports or presentations, making both design and education a critical component
researchers must spearhead.
Consumers everywhere now conduct their own research before buying a product, selecting a restaurant or
planning a vacation. We are becoming a DIY culture. These self-service and DIY approaches have made their
way into market research, with clients seeking to explore and manipulate data independently. This desire
for self-service reinforces the “on demand” nature of client needs. Just as travel aggregator sites such as
Expedia sort search results for users and enable more detailed filtering, successful researchers give clients
topline findings and implications alongside the tools, quickly answering additional business questions.
© Euromonitor International
Automation and DIY Tools: A New Need for Unprecedented Speed 5
Here, market research can take a lesson from the tech start-up world and adopt the agile process of:
start, pause / review, change direction, re-start and repeat as needed. In this way, iteration and speed go
hand-in-hand, forcing market researchers to become more nimble and adept at building faster insights to
drive decisions, even with imperfect data.
© Euromonitor International
Big Data and Predictive
Analytics: Making Humans
More Important than Ever
Big data, in its simplest form, refers to a massive volume of data which can
be either structured, highly organized and searchable, or unstructured,
non-coded and unsearchable. Big data is typically analyzed computationally
using machine learning, revealing patterns, trends and associations in human behaviour and business
operations. The power of big data and machine learning is the ability to conduct predictive analytics
and develop models that learn from the data, identify patterns and make decisions with minimal human
intervention.
Technology enables the market research industry to collect vast amounts of data in real time and predict
where and how consumers and markets will evolve next. This creates major changes for the industry in
the years to come.
© Euromonitor International
Big Data and Predictive Analytics: Making Humans More Important than Ever 7
© Euromonitor International
8 Big Data and Predictive Analytics: Making Humans More Important than Ever
© Euromonitor International
Transparency and Trust:
Baring it All
Our growing ability to collect masses of virtual data and easily scrape, analyze
and share information creates immediate demand for tighter standards and
transparency. On the back of big data, equally big concerns around what is
collected and how it is used are rampant. Further, the era of “fake news” is
proliferating alongside a steep rise in market research tools and alternatives.
Market researchers must proactively meet both growing concerns on privacy
and scepticism in data sources on two fronts: first, by providing clients with
radical transparency at every stage of the research process and second, by fostering close partnerships
based on trust.
The EU’s new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) launched with the intention of adding
transparency to consumer data storage and use and has spurred tech giants such as Facebook to adopt
the practices globally. While the direct implications of GDPR and similar regulations on market research
manifest in stricter guidelines for consumer data collection and storage, the industry should arguably
be paying more attention to the underlying trend of greater demand for transparency. Building and
maintaining the trust of consumers sharing their data is critical to having quality research inputs. Market
researchers should do more than the minimum required by GDPR or other governing regulation and be as
open about their usage of consumer data with consumers as they are with clients.
© Euromonitor International
10 Transparency and Trust:
Baring it All
© Euromonitor International
Transparency and Trust:
Baring it All 11
© Euromonitor International
12 Partnership 3.0: Upping the Market Research Game
The preceding trends shed light on how market research is set to get more
technical and complex. New tools, inputs and best practices will blur as
users tap directly into market research to speed decision making and stay
competitive. This new environment creates a need for market researchers to
redefine how they partner in the future.
As a result, market researchers today have shifted to “partnership 2.0” and are better communicators
throughout the entire research process. They are more engaged in asking “why” up front to drive stronger
solution design, proactively deliver preliminary results, react and reshape next phases of research based
on their expertise and learn alongside their clients in real-time. This has facilitated greater co-ownership
of projects, stronger final results and happier clients.
The shift to “partnership 2.0,” which stole from the books of management consulting, was necessary
for market research to deliver even greater value for clients. While this precedent will remain, the
fast evolution of the market research landscape now calls for a similar rise to action to fill new, more
challenging gaps for clients.
In the necessary evolution to “partnership 3.0,” market research must provide more guidance than ever.
This will be one of the largest fundamental shifts from today and, as aforementioned, requires staying the
expert while guiding and educating clients on which tools to use as options proliferate. This means getting
involved even earlier and helping clients strategize their investment. But the job will not stop there.
Market research partners of tomorrow must get more hands-on as they help clients maintain focus and
work toward actions, not just insights.
© Euromonitor International
Partnership 3.0: Upping the Market Research Game 13
Deliver a bold, consultative story that solves the client’s main problem
No matter how excellent the customer service throughout the process, market research will ultimately
be judged by the results. To deliver a great final product, the strongest partners will focus on solving the
main client problem from start to finish of the project, cutting noise and distraction all the way to the
final delivery. Further, an excellent partner will become synonymous with being an excellent storyteller
and trusted advisor. This means laying out the “so what?” for clients supported by relevant research facts.
Beyond the “so what?,” the best partners of tomorrow will push storytelling to “now what?” and even
“then what?” recommendations.
© Euromonitor International
Pulling it all Together
Market researchers are more pressed than ever to deliver accurate, insightful solutions for clients with
shorter turnaround times and smaller budgets. To be successful, researchers should embrace new
technologies available for streamlining and automating data collection and analysis, freeing time for
higher-level problem solving and storytelling. Researchers who rise from being considered a provider
to a true partner will have the advantage with greater latitude to explore the right methodologies and
solutions. This approach, however, is easier said than done. New technology means mastering new tools
and developing skillsets outside of the traditional researcher’s background. Faster delivery times can
mean trading reports and tables for shorter, to-the-point visuals. Reliance on “big data” often means
working with huge amounts of consumer information that now needs to be handled transparently. At a
high level, the growing tensions facing market researchers can be boiled down to the following:
Long-term success in market research will be striking the right balance across each of the items above,
while remaining nimble enough to drift toward one end of the spectrum or the other depending on
immediate client needs. True partners will coach clients to move toward the middle and trust the
researcher to find the right balance.
Though challenges and change lay ahead, there will always be a need for smart, flexible market researchers
who teach and empower their clients. While technology and automation may be encroaching on the
market researcher’s territory, people are needed to uncover key insights, implications and context. The
best insights teams of the future will combine tech experts with client problem-solvers to provide bold,
story-led solutions and push the boundaries of tomorrow.
© Euromonitor International
About the Authors
ZANDI BREHMER
Head of Client Innovation
Euromonitor International
Connect on Linkedin
Known for her strategic thinking, Zandi executes Euromonitor’s most unique projects. Her
experience spans across the entire innovation process, including exploratory trends mapping,
workshop-led idea generation, sizing the prize, and concept testing. She is an expert in megatrend
analysis and helping clients to build innovation frameworks that facilitate long-term, proactive
thinking that avoids disruption. She has worked with FMCG, packaging, retail, finance, and other
service clients. In addition to leading a team of project experts, she is responsible for developing
and promoting new methods for conducting research that support clients’ unique innovation needs.
Prior to joining Euromonitor, Zandi was a senior analyst for GfK Strategic Innovation in Chicago.
She has been published in the Journal of Applied Business and Economics and has a Bachelor
of Business Administration (Marketing) and a Bachelor of Arts (Spanish) from the University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh. In 2018, Zandi received her MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
© Euromonitor International
16 About the Authors
LISA HOLMES
Survey Manager
Euromonitor International
Connect on Linkedin | Twitter
As Euromonitor’s Survey Manager, Lisa oversees a team of survey specialists whose work includes:
survey development, fieldwork management, data cleaning, rigorous data analysis, and insightful
reporting. While at Euromonitor, Lisa has reported on a wide range of topics, including technology,
shopping trends, economic outlook and consumer types. Lisa specializes in synthesizing the results
of Euromonitor’s global consumer surveys into reports, articles and datagraphics that highlight key
findings and business implications, particularly focusing on the consumer path to purchase and
consumer segmentation.
Lisa joined Euromonitor in 2012 and became Survey Manager in early 2017. Prior to joining
Euromonitor, Lisa was Senior Research Analyst at a high-profile private wealth management
research firm. Lisa has worked closely with clients and industry experts to develop surveys and
reports that help clients better understand the market and serve their customers. Lisa earned her
bachelor’s degree in Economics from Carleton College and her MBA at Northwestern’s Kellogg
School of Management.
© Euromonitor International
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