Management & Marketing no. 3/2013

Eight contemporary trends in the market research industry

Alina BARBU,
Cegedim Strategic Data Romania

Abstract. As the market has changed to adopt new advertising techniques and consumers’ input, market research faces times of great challenges – and great opportunities. This paper details eight current trends in market research: rethinking working concepts as basic as the well-known purchase funnel; integrating the digital medium into research techniques; investigating the consumer through passive techniques; dealing with the era of big data; translating consumers’ word-of-mouth into insights; balancing in-depth technical knowledge and understanding of the “the big picture”; adopting international innovation locally; facing potential data privacy issues. These trends are meant to help marketing and market research practitioners understand how the industry is changing around them and how they must adapt in order to survive. The contemporary environment is both challenging and full of opportunities: companies brave enough to adapt to the industry changes as they happen, who acknowledge and incorporate new methods of addressing and studying consumers – are those who will have an undeniable competitive advantage in the long run.

Keyword: market research trends, digital research, passive research, big data, user-generated content, data privacy.

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