What changes for MR?
The use of communities will grow; but media agencies rather than MR agencies will be the core suppliers. More clients will be starting to understand campaign success through social media monitoring. Expect to see a continued shift away from what some clients see as comparatively slow and expensive classic tracking studies – some will move into faster forms of data collection and processing; and savvy suppliers of internet data with days rather than weeks turnaround will find a senior business audience. Mobile will be the flavour of the year as clients look to get closer to behaviour; initially this will have a qualitative flavour but there will be exciting behaviour collections of mobile data in the future. Alongside this expect more discussion of cultural understanding as BRIC markets become increasingly important to marketing headquarters.
What does not change?
Multi-country U&A’s will continue to be commissioned; especially as clients look to understand fast changing environments (whether it is the technology category or emerging markets). Last year it was the low income consumer, this year expect more on the rural consumer, and on the emerging middle class in BRIC markets. Big brands will continue to use focus groups and surveys to understand strategic issues because they are familiar. We will continue to hear about those savvy prosumers, youth and early adopters who are changing categories. Finally, both research agencies and insight teams will continue to discuss the need to be more like business consultants and less like information providers.
Thanks for participating in this collaborative one-day event! Even though I didn’t mention mobile research in my predictions, I should have. I’m also very curious to see all of the uses for mobile technologies in the coming years.