GreenBook® Research Industry Trends Report

Spring 2011The two overall dimensions that seem to bestdifferentiate among those who view a respectivecompany as innovative are their interests andfeelings toward various new and traditionalresearch methodologies, and how well knownand/or established a company is. Factors thatloaded heavily on this second dimension (X-Axis)included researchers opinion on sources wherethey typically look for information on researchfirms such as conferences, journals, tradeassociations as well as blogs and social media.It’s important to think about what we areactually looking at here. It’s not the companies perse. We are looking at those research professionalswhom these companies have moved enough to saythat “company XYZ is innovative”.So, looking at the upper right quadrant,researchers who put far higher value onexperimental/cutting edge techniques, and arenot as concerned with pedigree are more likely tothink of BrainJuicer and PeanutLabs as innovative.Both of these companies have some veryinteresting non traditional approaches to research.In addition, both are masterful marketers and stay“on message” via all their marketing channels.Thus, their perception in the marketplaceindicates a high degree of success with their brandmessaging strategy.Synovate and Vision Critical on the other handin the bottom right quadrant may appeal more toresearchers who are less concerned with pedigree;they may in fact be new to research themselves.This also explains the fact that they appreciatetheir traditional online offering. These companiesmay be innovative in how they serve these moretraditional/basic needs.Researchers who seem to prefer a mix oftraditional and experimental methodologies, orsaid a different way, experimental techniqueswith a strong basis in traditional methodology,are likely to prefer the Honomichl top-5 firmslike Nielsen, TNS, GfK, etc... A surprise in thisarea of the chart was Anderson Analytics. WhileAnderson Analytics is a newer company clearlyadvocating a newer methodology (text analytics)the firm still seems to appeal to researcherswho value traditional established brands. Is thisdue to the perception that a focus on analyticaltechniques and technology vs. data collectionmethodologies is associated with those qualities?We think so; Anderson Analytics’s overall brandpositioning appeals to the risk averse andtraditional MR respondent.Furthest toward the upper left, Nielsen’s fansseem to value a little more experimentation,perhaps because Nielsen is so established this addscomfort to exploring new techniques.Ultimately, we believe that this analysis showsus how researchers view themselves, and withwhat firms they most identify.It will be interesting to observe how theserankings change over time, especially within thecontext of a dynamic of overall change within themarket research space that will only accelerateover the next few years.Ultimately, we believe that thisanalysis shows us how researchersview themselves, and with what firmsthey most identify.www.greenbook.org23