online and mobile-optimised
reporting solutions.
These are more holistic solutions
that are able to capture and
analyse in-the-moment feedback
alongside data gathered from
a wide variety of direct and
indirect channels.
This has enabled newer, more
responsive players to quickly
develop the capabilities to
deliver feedback in ways that
enable businesses to make
faster, smarter decisions.
This shift in technology and
behaviours
is
forcing
an
abrupt rethink for MR agencies
delivering research data to their
clients.
If traditional Market Research
practitioners are to secure longterm, value-based partnerships
in the future, they must learn
from newer entrants to the
industry and embrace their
innovative reporting strategies.
The rise of the dashboard
One cutting-edge innovation
that is helping to rebrand MR is
live dashboards.
Dashboards have seen extensive
investment over the past three
years and have been widely
adopted by forward-thinking MR
organisations.
This is much more than a
technological evolution. It is
representative of a much deeper
sentiment among some MR
groups that the industry needs a
rebrand.
Key influencers believe that
moving away from ‘Market
Research’ and towards ‘Decision
Insights’ much more accurately
reflects the role that research
should play in the decision-making
process of businesses (Research
Business Daily Report 25th Aug
2014).
Dashboards enable companies
to gain meaningful insight much
faster by simplifying complex
volumes of data into manageable,
bite-sized portions – while still
being based on accurate and indepth research.
Traditionalists may argue that
this simply isn’t research, but as
the clients paying the bills are
timepoor and highly pressured,
speed, simplicity and insight are
quickly overtaking demand for
detail.
Interactive
and
intuitive,
dashboards give clients a handson experience, empower them
to test different scenarios and
provide an immediate response
to their queries.
Dashboards and other newer and
developing forms of research
reporting are putting clients
back in control of understanding
and
manipulating
data
themselves, bringing them closer
to the nuances of their business
and giving them more targeted
information for decision making.
Online dashboards can help
to build a true partnership
between MR companies and
their clients. A strategic move
from a client-supplier to partnerpartner
relationship.
This
business relationship is built
on trust between both parties.
A move for MR companies
from
only
capturing
data,
analysing it and delivering it
to provide continuous advice.
Dashboards bring a continuous
MR
development
since
MR
companies
bring
statistical
expertise
and
continuous
advice to their clients. Data
is constantly changing which
means that the MR client’s need
continuous analysis, advice and
interpretation of the data.
End-to-end mobile
While live, online dashboards are
already proving their worth, the
rise and rise of mobile technology
is also having a ma jor impact on
the way research clients behave
and the technology solutions that
providers are developing.
The sheer numbers of mobile
devices in use means there are
many more points of contact
available to researchers.
This doesn’t just apply to
respondents. It’s also key in
understanding how to more
effectively
share
research
results with key stakeholders,
both within and outside an
organisation. It’s no surprise
that we expect the use of mobile
in research reporting to grow
quickly in the next two years.
At the moment, however, we
only tend to see mobile survey
dashboards used by specialist
fieldwork companies who need
to turn projects around to their
clients in a matter of hours
from launch, rather than in the
days or weeks that used to be
acceptable.
Our experience also shows that
mobile reporting seems to have
taken off much more in Asia than
in Europe and North America.
This may be due to the vast
geographical
distances
that
fieldworkers often have to deal
with in transferring field insights
to end clients.
AIP,
Asia’s
largest
fieldwork