Over the past month I have been amazed by how busy most of my contacts and clients are (most of my clients being research agencies, conference companies, and training agencies). If my contacts are a reasonably representative the market research industry would appear to be back with a bang, despite the woes often reported in our trade magazines. Certainly I am busier than I have been for years, with only a few days left to sell before August.
I wonder if one of the issues is that our industry downsized too far during the recession? In particular, are there now too few junior researchers, i.e. the people who do most of the work?
As a keen student of economics, I would ‘intellectually’ expect to see prices rise, since demand seems to be outstripping supply, especially for the large or complex projects. However, I wonder if market research companies have become too cowed by the recession and might persist in offering give away prices?
At the moment I am processing the ESOMAR Prices data and they will be publishing the findings in June, in Research World. I am at the stage where I still don’t know how prices will compare with 2007, and I wonder if we will see that there has been large scale cost cutting? (Of course, once I do know, I won’t be saying until the report comes out in June).
So, how busy are you? I have put a poll on my page in MRSpace, click here to see the poll and to vote (if you want to).
Things are certainly moving VERY quickly this year...all gears go!
Posted by: Praz | April 16, 2010 at 06:15 AM
Ray, factor in the outsourced consideration. I would be amazed if price sensitivity displayed anything so soon after a recession when people still don't know what shape it will be.
Posted by: Dan Foreman | April 15, 2010 at 11:10 PM
hi Ray, i feel that more clients are saying "yes, get going quickly" much more quickly and much more frequently than last year. Just as busy with proposals and pitches but work is being commissioned FAST
Posted by: Peter Harris | April 14, 2010 at 12:11 PM