Time to Outsource Market Research?

In this month's edition of MarketResearchCareers' newsletter, we will examine the attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of outsourcing all or part of the Market Research function.

This is often a fiercely debated topic, and we thought it might be helpful and constructive to frame the topic by sharing the responses of more than 700 market research professionals representing suppliers ("MR Suppliers") and corporate research departments ("MR Buyers").

 

Incidence of MR Outsourcing
Currently, 1 out of 4 firms currently locate a portion of their MR staff overseas to help reduce expenses.

While MR Suppliers are more likely to offshore (1 in 3), nearly 1 in 7 MR Buyers place research staff in other countries to lower costs.

 

Satisfaction with Outsourced MR
While nearly half (46%) of market research professionals have purchased or used offshored MR services, more than half (55%) are satisfied with the results.

 

Attitudes Toward Offshoring MR
Despite helping to control expenses, many market research professionals (44%) believe offshoring reduces overall research quality without providing overwhelming speed/turnaround improvements.

 

Intentions to Offshore
The intent to offshore Market Research jobs to lower costs remains unchanged in 2008 at nearly one in seven. For the second year, MR Suppliers have a greater intent (17.7%) to “offshore” positions compared to MR Buyers (9.3%).

 

MR Pros Speak Up about Offshoring
The opinions of market research professionals are quite varied on the topic of offshoring all or parts of the Market Research function. Below are some specific comments.

• "The decision to off-shore is unique to each company and what products and services they provide."
• "It is not an option; it is necessary to stay competitive."
• "You have the availability of being able to produce product 24/7."
• "Offshoring is fine for certain tasks and certain types of data collection."
• "We should keep research within the borders if we are studying the phenomenon within the borders."
• "Language barriers and time zones are the biggest obstacles to success."
• "Unless there are safeguards in place to ensure quality, offshoring produces lower quality results."
• "I think this is a bad practice in general and significantly impacts quality control."
• "Not a good idea; offshores do not have the insights of local markets."
• "In theory, it looks like a wonderful business practice. But we spent more time cleaning up issues from "offshoring" than if we would have done the work in-house."

Q: What additional thoughts or comments, if any, do you have regarding the use of 'offshoring' within the market research industry? (Please be as specific as possible) Selected verbatim comments.
 

The above data were obtained from more than 700 market research professionals in Q1, 2008 and is available within the in-depth industry report, 2008 Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals.

 

Mike Carroll
800-872-5401
mcarroll@marketresearchcareers.com
www.marketresearchcareers.com