Market research in a downturn: why online communities will win
So the Bank of England shocked the market today with a 1.5% cut in interest rates. Perhaps an indication that things are looking far from rosy in the economy at the moment. It’s an interesting time to be working at a growing business. Today we won another new client at FreshNetworks, to build and manage an online research community for a major museum here in the UK. We are growing when others are becoming more concerned about their business going forward. When I meet others in the market research industry, people at agencies and even at brands, one question that seems to be on everybody’s lips at the moment is “how exactly will the economic downturn impact research?” We’ve posted before about how brands can innovate through an economic downturn, but what about the agencies themselves?
I think that the impact on the industry will really depends on what basis agencies are selling and who their clients are. Of course there are always the counter-cyclical sectors (take-away food, insurance, accountancy and bunk bed retailers) but the real argument in the economy is going to be the ROI one. Proving the return on investment of what you offer is more important than ever.
This may mean that the services and solutions that agencies offer to clients will need to be more tightly tailored, but the outlook i probably less gloomy than in other sectors. Businesses more than ever before need to get it right first time with what they take to market, and need to make sure they are really up-to-speed with their changing needs, habits, beliefs and intentions. In this kind of climate, research is more important than ever.
What agencies will need to do is innovate and offer ways for brands to get more out of each piece of research they do and to bring research earlier into the development cycle. Brands need to get things right when they send a new product to market, launch a new website or a new marketing campaign. The piece we won today for the museum is in category - the online research community we are building is about involving their visitors throughout a process of change and development, rather than testing ideas with them once prototypes are built.
Research needs to play a stronger role supporting brands and provide them greater value for money, but it is and will continue to be essential throughout the economic downturn. The agencies that work are those who are client focused and who are embracing new techniques and innovations to help deliver value to clients. That’s why I think we’ve seen a real surge in interest in online research communities in the last few months, and why we at FreshNetworks suspect at least this segment of the industry will flourish over the coming year.
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