Research ROI Unmeasurable, Say Pharma Firms

Pharma companies are moving away from the idea of hard ROI measurement for their market research, according to a study by US-based Cutting Edge Information. 74% of surveyed companies do not attempt to calculate ROI for MR.

The report, Improve Market Research Impact, says these firms are concentrating instead on levels of satisfaction of internal clients for research. Of the 74%, 39% do not conduct any sort of performance measurement.

The view that hard measurement of ROI is infeasible grows out of the fact that market research comes so early in the chain of events leading to a project launch - it is far removed from the end result. Lead report author Jordan Stone comments: 'Because of its increased prominence in contributing to central strategy and key stakeholder decisions, many market research groups have shifted their focus from trying to directly tie market research to the success of products. With clients such as business development, ensuring the customer is satisfied and utilizing to the fullest the deliverables and insights communicated has become a better means by which to gauge market research success.'

The report is based on surveys and interviews with top executives from 30+ companies, and provides strategies for maximizing market research's reach and impact and winning stakeholder support. Information includes US and rest-of-world market research budgets, 2007 and 2008; departments that contribute funding to market research; brand-level market research spending and MR spending for 13 therapeutic areas, by phase; MR analyst pay, by level of experience; and information on outsourcing practices and budgets.

Web site: www.cuttingedgeinfo.com .

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

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