We love market research. Throughout our careers we have helped marketers to make better decisions using rigid and relevant insights. Below you will find a number of blogs, reflecting our opinion and view on developments in the insights industry.
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Market research is meaningless if you’re answering the wrong questions. March 2018 a book was released with the thought provoking title ‘What’s the Question?’. The authors claim the book contains the universal key to more efficient and effective market research. The book shows how a better mutual understanding between researcher and marketeer will increase the value for money the insights industry can offer. The book was written by Dutch market researchers Erik de Kort and Durk Bosma, who worked together at Research International and have been entrepreneurs and independent market research consultants for more than a decade.

To deliver insights, why?-questions are needed. Just knowing 'what' isn't enough. We need to understand 'why' as well, in order to be able to tell our clients 'now what'.

Insights: why isn’t market research delivering them?A key word in today’s market research is ‘insight’. Market research must deliver new insights. Let’s have a closer look at what is meant with this term.

Why Market Research is Like Drilling for Oil Imagine that you work for an oil company and the president of Uzkagesia asks you to drill for oil in his country. You are not familiar with the country and no one has ever drilled for oil there. How would you tackle this? A plea for giving more attention to problem analysis in market research and investing time in finding out what question you should really answer and in what way, instead of merely talking about tools and methodology.

The costs of market research are not the biggest issue. It’s the value it delivers. What value has listening closely to your target group? Deep understanding of (potential) customers is a crucial condition for competing in an ever faster economy. The costs for market research are dwarfed by the benefits of constantly being in touch with your target audience!

The most promising new market research tool comes from the 19th century. The question what 'new' market research methodology will provide the most meaningful insights according to insiders?' has a surprising answer. It is not sexy new tools like neuro measurement or facial coding, but the answer is the ancient art of ethnography.

4 ways to achieve more impact. More proactivity, inventiveness and ultimately impact is expected from us market researchers. That’s nothing new, but the 'Future of Insights' report reveals how we can achieve this. In this blog, I discuss some things we market researchers can do with the recommendations in the report. As a result: market research with more impact.

The one question every market researcher should ask. The question that market researcher and their clients must always answer clearly before the start of every research project: what decision(s) are the outcomes used for? In other words, which buttons can be pushed?

Judge or explorer: The future role of the market researcher In 2016 a very interesting article was published about the future of the insights industry: "The future of insights project”. The good news: there is consensus on what market research should be all about. Both marketeers and market researchers believe that insights professionals should play a strategic consultative role. But how remains the question.

Bridging the gap between market researcher and marketeer The essence of the market research trade is getting lost in the mire of big data, gamification and a constant stream of shiny new tools. Meanwhile, the gap between market researchers and marketeers is bigger than it ever was.