Market Research in 2020: Our Predictions

2020 is going to be an exciting time for marketing research! Over the last few years, we have been experiencing growth, exciting new technologies have been introduced, and organizations are leveraging efficiencies to provide more value to their clients. 

Here are a few predictions we have for this year as we kick off a new decade:

Blockchain takes a Big Leap

While Blockchain companies flew a little under the radar in 2019, expect them to be loud in 2020 as numerous companies start beta testing and fully launching. You should expect to see a flurry of white papers and blogs discussing their quality improvements over more traditional panels.  

Continued Industry Consolidation

We don’t expect the industry consolidation we have seen over the past couple of years to slow down any time soon.  We expect big names will both merge, as well as scoop up smaller, more tech-driven companies to improve their offerings and drive growth.  

Demand for Research Automation will Continue to Grow

The need for speed and efficiencies will not go away.  As organizations look for ways to get insights quicker and more efficiently, more will turn to research automation.

Combining Multiple Data Sources for an Expanded Understanding

We expect to see increased pressure from clients on market research firms to combine survey data with other data.  Much of this will be combining survey data with customer data and various forms of third-party data as organizations attempt to improve insights and customer understanding from a more holistic view.

Overall, with these predictions for the market research industry, we expect this will create:

1. Opportunities for an increase in data quality, with improved validation methods, and along with the new privacy laws, an increase in ownership of personal data and monetization of this data.  Ideally, this grows the universe of survey-takers.
2. New jobs – particularly in big data and visualization.  Having the ability to take large amounts of data from multiple sources, including from a traditional survey, and effectively visualizing that data will be in high demand.

Here’s to making 2020 a great year!