Reflections of 2017
December 13, 2017Happy New Year 2018
December 31, 2017
This year was a big year for market research. As we look back on the year, there were several trends in the industry that we noticed.
Industry Consolidation Continues
The merger of Research Now and SSI has been the talk of the market research world, and the sample industry specifically, since it took place back in October. With the two largest sample providers in the industry combining, there are many outstanding questions. EMI will be following the merger closely to best help our clients through it. We have monitored other large mergers (Prodege and MyPoints and SSI/Instantly) and successfully advised our clients through them.
DIY Tools Peaking?
For years, DIY tools have been exploding with so many options in the market place, with new platforms popping up and companies developing and launching their own versions. In 2017, though, we started to notice a trend of the market moving away from them. The feedback we have seen is that they are not as efficient as some expected and unless the user is an expert, the margin of error is very high. We expect to see some consolidation in this area in the coming year.
Concerns of Data Quality Increase
At many of the conferences this year, we noticed that a consistent topic on many attendees’ minds was that they had a hard time with the quality of their sample. This lead many firms to mention that they had a hard time developing any trust with the providers they work with because they had been burned recently with bad data. EMI has a strict panel partner assessment that only 30% of applicants pass, ensuring we only utilize partners with data quality standards as high as ours.
We are excited to see what new trends will emerge in 2018; have a Happy New Year!
