MARKETING RESEARCH

LANDSCAPE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 Introduction 29 Analyst Bottom Line

4 Executive Summary 30 Acknowledgments

5 Marketing Research’s Importance & Focus 31 About SurveyGizmo

9 Initiating & Conducting Research 32 About Demand Metric

14 Methods & Tools 33 Appendix A – Survey Background

20 Education, Capabilities, Credibility & Impact 34 Appendix B – New Tools Used in the Last Year

24 Challenges & The Future of Research

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is involved in a lot of big decisions, many of them involving risk: whether to enter a new market, how to respond to
competitive pressure, if a new product launch makes sense or what services to offer. Ideally, these decisions are driven by data,
and quite often that data is the product of research. Marketing research can help mitigate risk, and while research
conclusions themselves don’t make decisions, decision-makers value having research to guide them.

The marketing organization is often responsible for conducting the research that influences many of these decisions. Housing
this responsibility in the marketing organization seems logical given the nature of the decisions the research influences.
However, “marketing” and “marketing research” are not interchangeable functions. While they are related, even a brilliant
marketing team isn’t necessarily equipped to properly conduct marketing research. There’s simply too much at stake for
marketing to lead research efforts and draw conclusions based on flawed methods and faulty assumptions. This is not to say
that the marketing organization can’t conduct marketing research effectively, but does it do so?

In a study sponsored by SurveyGizmo, Demand Metric partnered with the Marketing Research Association (MRA) to
provide a unique view of marketing research from two perspectives. The first is from the perspective of the marketing
community – CMOs, vice-presidents of marketing, directors of marketing and their teams that have marketing research on their
list of responsibilities. The second view comes from corporate marketing researchers who are members of the MRA whose
focus and specialty is marketing research.

As this report will reveal, there are differences in how these two groups approach conducting marketing research. By
comparing and contrasting the focus, methods, tools, importance and capabilities between these groups, marketers
will have data and parameters to help them become more effective marketing researchers.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Primary research for this study was done using a survey, and the data analysis provides these key findings:

 The top two research focus areas for marketers and marketing researchers alike are Customers and the Market.

 Marketing researchers serve a more balanced group of research initiators than do marketers, who primarily address their own
research needs.

 It if far more common for marketers to conduct marketing research in small companies (30%) than larger ones (7%).

 Marketing researchers conduct research far more frequently than marketers: 63% of marketing researchers conduct daily or
ongoing research, compared to just 15% of marketers.

 In a ranking of tools used to conduct marketing research, statistical analysis tools are virtually tied for first place for
marketing researchers, but rank seventh for marketers.

 Over three-fourths of marketers report that they don’t have the capabilities to tackle advanced marketing research questions.

 Over 90% of both marketers and marketing researchers project their marketing research workload will stay the same
or increase in 2014 compared to 2013.

This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. Data for this study was gathered using two
identical surveys, one of which was fielded to the Demand Metric marketing community, the other to members of the Marketing
Research Association. This approach created the opportunity to compare how these groups conduct marketing research. For
more details on the survey participants, please see the Appendix A.
MARKETING RESEARCH’S IMPORTANCE & FOCUS
Figure 1: 83% of marketers believe marketing research is moderately or very important to their
organizations, and 91% of marketing researchers feel this same way.

Importance of Marketing Research

Marketers Marketing Researchers

60% As stated in the introduction, research supports many

important decisions.
50% 54%
The first question the study survey asked was to gauge the
40% perception of the importance of marketing research.
43%
40%
37% The results of this question are presented in Figure 1.
30%

Marketers and marketing researchers alike attach a

20%
high importance to the work of marketing research.
10%
The fact that marketing researchers attach greater
importance to it should surprise no one – it is the focus of
0% their work.
Moderately important Very important

Marketing Research Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=307

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MARKETING RESEARCH’S IMPORTANCE & FOCUS
Figure 2: More marketing researchers are focused on customers, product and service research
than are marketers.
When it comes to marketing research efforts, does the
Marketing Research Focus Areas focus between these groups differ? The survey presented
Marketing Researchers Marketers the following for participants to identify their research focus:

19%  Customers: to determine satisfaction, preferences,

Other
10% perception, Net Promoter Score, etc.
65%  Market: to understand trends, share, brand awareness,
Service
49% direction, gain insights, etc.
76%
Product
57%  Competitors: to detect competitive threats, share, etc.
58%  Product: to get ideas for new products, features,
Competitors
66%
measure reliability, satisfaction, etc.
84%
Market
85%  Service: to measure service quality or other attributes of
89% services provided.
Customers
80%
 Other research types
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Participants were able to select any of these areas of focus
that applied to them, and Figure 2 summarizes the results
for each group in this study.
Marketing Research Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=307

The statistically significant differences in the focus

areas of research were for the “Product”, “Service”
6 and “Other” response options.
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