October is a busy month for marketing research conference-going: CASRO just finished its annual meeting and next week brings the Corporate Researchers Conference (CRC) and the annual QRCA gathering. The week after that comes TMRE.
As you’re mingling with other corporate researchers during the breaks, before sessions start or at functions like our Cocktails with Quirk’s event (which we’re holding in Dallas next week in conjunction with the CRC), if you’re searching for conversation fodder, perhaps the following nuggets will help.
They’re drawn from the responses to an open-end (“What questions should we ask corporate researchers in future surveys?”) that we included in our first-ever survey of corporate researchers. And while the exercise was nominally designed to help us craft the 2014 iteration of the survey, I thought researchers might be interested to read a sampling of what their peers are currently curious about (the November issue of Quirk’s will have my full recap of the study findings):
“Do you think the value of research – value as seen by upper management – has increased, decreased or stayed the same over the last five years? Has the research budget changed in a similar fashion? Is your company focused on the short term (as in the next 12 months at most) or does it place value/importance on longer-range planning (five+ years)?”
“How do they manage wearing dual hats: consulting their internal partners and managing research suppliers/project workload?”
“What efforts, if any, are underway to train researchers how to blend findings and insights from multiple methodological streams when executing a project?”
“What percent of research is conducted in-house vs. outsourced? How do you determine which projects are outsourced? Who are your typical clients for research projects (executives, product managers, etc.)? What percentage of your research is primary vs. secondary? How do you go about sharing past research with internal clients? How do you calculate ROI for research projects?”
“How long have you been/do you expect to stay in the market research profession? Where else can you/have you leveraged your market research skills to get out of the niche of just being a researcher?”
“What opportunities exist within your department for personal development in various research methodologies (essentially, is there cross-training or more of a ‘divide and conquer’ style?)?”
“I’d like to understand more about diffusing insights within an organization. It’s one thing to be good at conducting research but getting a company to listen to it is another matter.”
“Is your department getting involved in customer experience efforts within your organization?”
“I think it’s interesting to know the backgrounds of corporate market researchers. I’ve been working in this field for many years and the ones that I’ve seen with the best skills are those that have spent some time on the vendor side.”
“I’d be interested in understanding the extent to which firms are beginning to outsource their corporate research function and what the drivers are (budget, headcount management, perceived credibility/believability).”
“Suppose for a moment that the whole ‘place at the table’ debate that has been going on for 25 years is baloney. If management is never going to invite market researchers into the high-level decision-making meetings, how else can we ensure that research results are considered when decisions are made?”