2009 Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals

Helping our clients to understand the rapidly changing marketplace for market research services, we commissioned the
2009 Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals. Among other invaluable information, this year's report contains data about market research budgets decomposed by industry, company size, and number of employees -- helping market research organizations better plan for a turbulent 2009.

Conducted between January 5 and January 19, 2009, 612 Market research professionals completed an online survey -- producing a completion rate of 72.7% and a data tolerance of +/- 4.0%. The 2009 survey includes many questions from the 2008, 2007, and 2005 research initiatives -- providing a longitudinal perspective.

Information Sources Used by Market Research Professionals

Survey data continues to be used by nearly all market research professionals while all other methods (with the exception of Company Sales Data) experienced decreases. When conducting survey research, online is the most commonly employed survey technique.

Important Attributes of Market Research Suppliers

Market research professionals believe the quality of the collected data and derived insights are the most important attributes when selecting a market research supplier. However in 2009, cost has become important to buyers of market research.

To view and understand the supplier attributes important to buyers of online sample or online survey software, please refer to the in-depth report.

Market Research Supplier Rankings

Based upon the overwhelmingly positive reaction to last year's Market Research Supplier Rankings, we expanded the categories and number of companies for which we solicited customer feedback. Below are the categories and the number of companies that obtained a reportable sample size.

Category	Reported Companies
Online Sample	10
Full Service	15
Syndicated Research	9
Online Survey Software	19

2009 Market Research Budgets

Overall, buyers of market research services expect their 2009 budgets to decrease by 9.5% over 2008 -- reversing a 20 year trend of annual spending increases. While there is variation within budget decreases across industries, the largest corporations (and the largest buyers) are seeking to shrink their budgets the most.

In this turbulent time, this data is a "must read" for planning and resource allocation purposes.

Attitudes Toward the Role of Market Research

Innovation remains a prized attribute within the market research world. However, the 2009 survey reveals fewer organizations perceive market research companies to be a business partner.

Market Research Job Challenges

Market research professionals are expecting 2009 to be a brutal year. Driven by slowing demand, shrinking resources, and "clients who want more and more deliverables for less and less money," 80% of market research professionals believe their job will be more difficult in 2009.

2009 Compensation

With only 43% of all market research professionals expecting a raise in 2009, the average expected salary increase is 2.4% -- down from 4.0% in 2008. Below are the average 2009 salaries for common market research titles.

Job Title	Average 2009 Salary	Average 2008 Salary	Percent Change
Research Analyst	$51,687	$51,314	0.7%
Project Director	$59,396	$60,878	-2.4%
Senior Project Director	$60,535	$71,423	-15.2%
Senior Research Analyst	$68,645	$67,875	1.1%
Account Executive/Manager	$71,097	$73,366	-3.1%
Senior Account Executive/Manager	$85,500	$93,833	-8.9%
Research Manager/Director	$87,321	$83,054	5.1%
Senior Research Manager/Director	$101,741	$104,037	-2.2%
Vice President	$126,019	$123,438	2.1%
Senior Vice President	$131,088	$126,328	3.8%
Average (All Job Titles)	$92,101	$90,650	1.6%

For detailed 2009 compensation statistics (salary, bonus and raise) by title, years of experience, and industry role, please refer to the in-depth report.

Hiring Trends

Less than one-third of all surveyed market research professionals expect to hire in 2009 reflecting a significant decrease from prior years. However, the positions in greatest demand continue to be entry level market research jobs, project managers, and market research managers.

Offshoring Market Research Jobs

With surprise, there appears to be a significant reduction in the amount of offshoring conducted within the market research industry. Perhaps this is driven by attitudes, perceived quality issues, and the effort often required to review and revise work performed overseas.

To understand the shifting attitudes toward offshoring in the market research industry, satisfaction with offshored services, and related trends, please refer to the in-depth report.

Online Survey Cooperation and Completion Rates

Market research professionals continue to be concerned about low online survey cooperation and completion rates. Fortunately, however, clients view online surveys as a valuable decision-making tool.

Frequent contact and lengthy surveys are viewed by market research professionals as key drivers of low online survey cooperation and completion rates.

To understand additional contributing factors and potential solutions to reverse the trend of declining online survey cooperation and completion rates, please refer to the in-depth report.

Detailed Report

The complete, in-depth report provides additional analysis and quantitative data.

About MarketResearchCareers

MarketResearchCareers is the career website with the most comprehensive database of resumes and jobs focusing exclusively on the Market Research industry

Visited monthly by nearly half of all market research professionals in the United States and possessing the resumes of nearly 20,000 market researchers, MarketResearchCareers is your market research staffing headquarters. See why so many corporate hiring managers, human resource professionals, market research suppliers, and thousands of skilled researchers turn to MarketResearchCareers to fill their market research jobs.

Please contact Mike Carroll at 1-800-872-5401 or mcarroll@marketresearchcareers.com for permission to use these results.