The marketing research profession got six big wakeup calls in 2009.
1) Online research panels proven to produce different results
The ARF Foundations of Quality research compared results from the exact same questionnaire across 17 online research panels fielded at two different points in time (two weeks apart). We found that the test retest reliability of each panel was high but that results differed across panels by more than you would think based on sample sizes. This insight led to the ARF Quality Enhancement Process, a series of metrics, planning, and reporting templates intended to control for this effect.
2) Cell phones are primary for close to 40 percent of U.S. households.
The most recent CDC NHIS survey found that 23 percent of all U.S. households are cell phone-only (46 percent of those aged 25-29) and another 15 percent have landlines but are cell phone-primary. The Media Ratings council has said that media research must have a solution for this, implying that landline-only research can no longer be equated with probability sampling. Nielsen, Arbitron and Knowledge Networks have all switched to addressed-based sampling methods to restore probability sampling properties.
3) Listening becomes a source of insights and marketing intelligence that anyone can access.
Listening is a way of hearing in real time what people want to talk about, rather than what marketing wants to talk about. Google's team of economists proved that what people are searching for predicts many things, from the geographic spread of the flu to auto sales right down to the brand. The research team must embrace listening as well as asking (i.e. surveys) to remain relevant and get to the front-end of marketing innovation.
4) Marketing research still struggling to be recognized as having significant impact
The ARF research transformation initiative has brought many leaders together and conducted executive interviewing in 2009 among 20 research leaders. The consensus is that the research team is often brought in too late in the process, viewed by many below the C-suite as an expense rather than an investment, and as an impediment rather than an enabler.
5) Media companies and advertisers form CIMM
The leading media companies and advertisers came together to create the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, making a clear statement to the industry that they intend to turbo-charge innovation in media measurement. Why? They believe existing media metrics are not keeping up with the fast-paced evolution towards the multi-tasking, multi-platform, long-tail way that people consume media.
6) Shopper research takes center stage at understanding the effects of the recession.
Numerous studies about the effect of the recession focused on changes in shopping patterns and increases in buying store brands. In other words, shopper research became as important as consumer research this year, especially on the big issue that was keeping marketers up at night.
Discussion Questions: What wake-up calls do you think the market research community heard in 2009? Of the points mentioned in the article, which represents the biggest challenge for marketing research providers? Which ones are most underestimated or which most overestimated?