Client-side Researchers 'Lead Analytics Adoption'

US client-side market researchers are significantly more likely to use 'Next Generation' analytics techniques than their supplier-side counterparts, according to a report released by non-profit networking organization Next Gen Market Research (NGMR).

Of the 855 NGMR members polled, client-side market researchers were much more likely to cite data mining, web analytics, CRM analytics, social network analysis and blog mining as the tools they currently use, compared with their agency-side equivalents.

'This is an alarming development,' said NGMR founder Tom Anderson, Managing Partner of Anderson Analytics. 'The research industry should be leading the way in 'next generation' insights, but in many cases clients are instead taking it upon themselves to develop ways to generate new insights from an increasing plethora of data sources.'

Conversely, the study also found that research clients are more attached to traditional focus groups than suppliers and conduct them more often.

On the subject of offshoring, NGMR says clients (59%) and suppliers (69%) agree that 'Offshoring is not as profitable as others think and is fraught with risk'. Anderson is the founder of The Foundation for Transparency in Offshoring (FTO), which was set up with the express intention of bridging 'a serious transparency gap between research providers and clients'.

Additionally, gaps exist between the research activities clients consider suitable for offshoring and those thought suitable by suppliers. In particular, suppliers who offshore were considerably more comfortable offshoring concept and ad/copy testing.

However, clients were more likely to approve of offshoring multivariate research work, which Anderson believes suggests clients and suppliers may have different understandings of 'multivariate' projects and/or offshoring in general.

Full results of the NGMR study are free to download at www.nextgenmr.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.