ESOMAR Compares Worldwide Research Costs

A typical survey will cost over a third more to conduct in the USA or Japan than it does in the UK, France or Germany, according to new research from ESOMAR, the World Association of Research Professionals. The 2003 Research Prices Study invited 407 member companies worldwide to quote for six different types of project.

An overall index for each country across all six projects shows a wide variation in the costs of research.

INDEX Average Index

2003 RESEARCH PRICE OVERALL
	Average Index
USA	242	Italy	92
Japan	230	Brazil	88
Sweden	180	Mexico	84
UK	170	Greece	81
Australia	166	Portugal	77
France	158	Czech Republic	76
South Africa	157	China	70
Germany	152	Turkey	70
Belgium	138	Poland	52
Netherlands	137	Russia	50
Hong Kong	123	Ukraine	48
Finland	116	Argentina	47
Spain	115	India	37
Austria	105	Bulgaria	29
South Korea	96
Source: 2003 ESOMAR Prices Study

For each project, research companies were asked to say if they conducted that particular type of study frequently, occasionally or hardly ever. There is a strong correlation between this and the price quoted: a research supplier who conducts a study of a particular kind only rarely is likely to quote a price 62% higher than a supplier who does so frequently. The finding should encourage buyers to look for prior experience of a sector or technique when getting proposals and quotations.

There is no suggestion that the range of quotations is narrower in markets where research is better established, as might have been expected. Even in mature markets such as the USA and Germany, there is a wide variation in prices quoted by different research agencies.

The six projects for which quotations were invited were:

• A national usage and attitude survey
• A tracking study on washing powders
• A computer assisted advertising pre-test
• Four group discussions
• A customer satisfaction survey using the web
• A business to business telephone survey

Other information collected by the study includes the average charge for:

• a day's work by a junior researcher with up to two years' experience
• a day's work for a senior researcher with five years' experience
• a day for a senior data analyst and
• one hour's use of a call centre including the costs of one interviewer and national telephone charges.

Fieldwork was conducted between January and February 2003 and a total of 407 research companies, which are all listed in the ESOMAR Directory, participated in the study.

The 2003 ESOMAR Research Prices Study is available free to all ESOMAR members and can otherwise be purchased from ESOMAR: email@esomar.org or www.esomar.org

ESOMAR aims to promote the use of Opinion and Market Research for improving decision making in business and society world-wide, and has 4000 members in 100 countries.

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

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