Editor's note: Brian Fletcher is vice president at Insights in Marketing LLC, a Wilmette, Ill., research company. He can be reached at info@insightsinmarketing.com. This article appeared in the April 21, 2014, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter.

As 2014 rolls right along, it's filled with great promise and opportunity, as well as great challenges. With advances in technology, psychology, data collection and the manner in which we understand consumer behavior, it's important, as marketing researchers, that we do more than just track buyers. We need to make it a priority to understand the industry as a whole - and that includes understanding ourselves.This year, as in past years, Insights in Marketing LLC committed to taking stock of what we, as marketers, learned in 2013. By delving into all of the data swirling at our fingertips, we've applied it to the future and devised a list of the top five trends impacting the marketing research world in 2014.

The Internet is changing how we consume information. Whether you think the Web is making us smarter or dumber, one thing is certain: Consumers prefer simple messages to in-depth screeds. Easily-repeatable messages and powerful images work better to tell stories while also increasing consumer engagement and sharing in digital and social media.Marketing researchers must help marketers address this trend by identifying the briefest, most compelling and most motivating messages about a product or service. To support this objective, research projects themselves must be more focused and more flexible, driving directly to the heart of the issue. By designing studies with fewer respondents, smaller focus groups and shorter surveys, researchers adapt flexibly and nimbly to changing needs while providing streamlined information.

Content marketing - the process of providing information online to drive traffic and inform and engage consumers - is growing in importance i...