Industry Outlook: Top Market Research Trends for 2020
The market research industry has seen significant growth over the last five years and according to projections, that growth will continue. First Research, Inc. reports the global market research industry to be a $45 billion dollar affair. In the U.S. alone, over 44,000 market research service providers in the U.S. generate approximately $23 billion in combined annual revenue.
3 Major Market Research Trends to Watch in 2020
The insights industry always moves rapidly, with each year bringing new trends and challenges. As we head into 2020, let’s take a look at some of the biggest predictions for the market research industry.
Leveraging Social Media as a Research Methodology
Brands and researchers alike have taken notice – social data provides a huge opportunity for understanding consumers more deeply. Through conversations happening on social media, as well as customer service technologies like chatbots and other forms of “social listening”, brands now have access to a wealth of data related to consumers’:
- Behaviors
- Motivations
- Sentiments
- Priorities
- Product needs and desires
- Complaints or areas of dissatisfaction
Going beyond traditional metrics such as sales and revenue, social data gets not only at the what but also the why of buyer behaviors.
Rising Demand for Customized Research
Increasing competition and shorter product life cycles put added pressure on marketing, sales, and product managers to deliver results again and again. In addition, personalization continues to be one of the biggest trends driving marketing.
Only a customized research project can give a holistic, laser-targeted view of your marketplace, not the “market in general”. Rather than using speculative or abstract data, analysts, researchers, marketing professionals and brands are focusing on practical and actionable data to help:
- Enhance and individualize customer experience
- Identify key trends and purchase drivers
- Uncover and prioritize opportunities within a particular market segment
Putting the Spotlight on Millennials
Roughly considered to be those born between 1980 and 2000, millennials encompass the largest consumer group since the baby boomers. Estimates put their total numbers between 80 and 95 million.
Just a few of the reasons why marketers and researchers are paying close attention to this massive group of shoppers:
- Despite being the first truly digital generation, millennials still place a high value on the in-store experience. This means researchers and retailers must seek to understand them in a variety of purchasing scenarios.
- Millennials are entering their prime spending years. As many millennials are reaching their 30s, their collective spending power is reported at around $1.4 trillion.
Millennials browse, spend, and interact with brands and products in vastly different ways than previous generations. Thus, they demand attention and innovation from brand and product marketers.
As always, we’ll be watching closely to see what unfolds for 2020 and beyond. Tell us, what are the biggest trends you’ve seen in the past year?
