No matter what business you are in, you cannot expect to stay competitive in your field without proper market research. This crucial process not only enables you to understand your target audience better but also empowers you to place your products or services in the right segment. No wonder, companies spend millions of dollars annually on market research. Businesses that want to spend more time and resources on their core revenue-generating activities often outsource market research. By adopting outsourcing, companies can save up 60% on operational costs and enhance their operational efficiency. But simply jumping into the bandwagon of outsourcing, won’t add any value to your business unless you have a clear understanding of what to expect from your service provider. In this exhaustive blog, we will give you a clear picture of what to expect from your vendor while outsourcing market research services and how to make the most of this business practice.
Market research: An overview
Statistics reveal that the global revenue of the market research industry was more than $43 billion in 2018. While North America generated about 45% of this revenue, Europe remained a close second with its share of 35%. During this assessment period, online surveys emerged as the most common type of quantitative research with more than 80% of businesses going for it. While phone surveys contributed to 30%, face-to-face interviews accounted for 23% of the marketing research efforts. Further studies suggest, this trend will gain momentum in 2020 and the scope of market research services will also become more pervasive. So, while outsourcing your market research process to a third party vendor, you should have clarity on what to expect in terms of services and allied activities.
How to identify a good market research service provider
The outsourcing industry offers a wide variety of market research services ranging from primary data collection to consumer behavior prediction. They also offer customized packages to suit your individual needs. But, you as a client need a comprehensive package that covers the whole gamut of services related to market research. In simple terms, getting primary market research data from the vendor and then processing it on your own won’t prove to be a viable outsourcing solution. The mark of a good service provider is that they will not only give you well-researched primary data but will also provide additional services including:
- Market/Industry Research
- List Building
- Data Cleansing
- Data Enrichment
- Web Research
- Data Mining
Market/Industry Research
The mark of a good market research service provider is their ability to capture the relevant data from a wide variety of sources. To get the desired results from market research, it is imperative that you have access to the most suitable skill sets. So, it is a good idea to go for a service provider that gives you a dedicated market research professional with the right amount of technical knowledge and experience. Such a team of professionals can do extensive market research through telephonic interviews and internet research.
List building
While the market research process identifies the demography of your target audience, it also gives you rich data on the contact details of your target audience. Having everything in the same place and in a haphazard manner won’t add any value to your business or conversion rates. A good market research service provider will give you exclusive data on the contact details of your target audience. You can expect well-crafted and accurate mailing lists as part of your outsourced market research services. The mailing lists compilation experts of your vendor will work on your market research data and filter out the mailing list data from it.
Data Cleansing
The raw data collected from various resources is usually in different formats and forms. Processing this data to get industry insights is not only difficult but also very expensive. So, it makes sense to include data cleansing in your contract with the service provider. In this process, your vendor will compile all the data in a uniform format, weed out inconsistent and duplicate entries and present it to you in ready to use format.
Data Enrichment
Data enrichment should be an integral part of your market research outsourcing contract. In this process, the data enrichment experts add value to the existing market research data by conducting further research on related subjects. For example, if your primary need is data on the consumption of beverages in a particular demography, you should also have information about the outlets serving these drinks. This additional information enables you to chart out effective marketing strategies that add to your bottom line in the longer run. A good market research service provider will offer data enrichment services as part and parcel of the contract.
Web research
While the primary market research data is collected with the help of telephonic interviews and surveys, a lot of relevant information is available on the internet as well. While hiring dedicated market research experts with a reputed vendor, you should also ensure that they are adept at conducting research on the web. The internet is a rich source of industry insights, statistics, and other related data. The web research experts will help you leverage the power of the internet in your market research endeavor.
Data Mining
It is the process of adding value to the market research data with the help of built-in machine learning and algorithms. Data mining derives deep insights from your existing databases and other stores of information. Data mining for market research is the perfect way to get a more comprehensive view of your customers. It enables you to learn more about consumer preferences, get a peek into purchasing histories, gather demographic, gender, location, other profile data, and much more. A good service provider will give you data mining services as part of the market research project.
Get them for the industry leader
SunTec India, a renowned outsourcing company with an industry vintage of more than two decades, is your ideal partner to outsource market research services. The well-diversified team of market research professionals at SunTec gives you the most comprehensive services within quick turnaround time. Over the years, we have served diverse industry verticals with customized market research services. For more details on our offerings, write to us at info@suntecindia.com.
