The recent IIeX (Insight & Innovation Exchange) event in Amsterdam was a great opportunity to catch up with what people across the market research industry are talking about. Amongst the huge number of exciting talks delivered over the two days you could clearly see a number of key themes are driving change in our industry at the moment and these are the big four we picked out:
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Go Mobile Or Go Home: Mobile optimised survey design is no longer just a “nice to have” option for online studies. Failing to provide survey designs which encourage mobile device users automatically compromises the data collected. Surveys need to be designed to be shorter, easier to fill out on mobile devices and make use of audio and video capture to obtain depth.
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Implicit Is The New Black: Implicit measures are now a fairly mature and evidentially supported area of market research. They should not be overlooked in any piece of research examining associations or modelling decision a making processes. These measures capture instinctive, emotional responses to complement the more considered responses generated by explicit questioning.
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CONresearchTEXT: There is a huge amount of information to be gained from the context of respondents’ experiences and a world of influences we cannot afford to ignore. Designing a study to take as much of this into account as possible provides a far richer picture of how brands are experienced and decisions about them made. Technology and psychology both have key roles to play here.
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Consultancy Or Bust: Commoditisation of the research process is spreading from the middle outwards as fieldwork, scripting, charting and even basic insight generation become more automated. Margins are expected to grow, but at the expense of a large number of jobs as automation is adopted in an effort to compete.
It’s clear that the rapid advances in technology, psychology and neuroscience our industry has been experiencing have resulted in an exciting period of evolution for market research. New tools and methodologies are giving us access to a greater breadth and depth of information than ever before. The challenge we now face is to evolve with the market and take full advantage of the opportunities these advances have presented.
