The future of research companies seems to be quite promising. According to the latest GreenBook (GRIT) Report, the majority of businesses are increasing their research budgets. This trend is explained by the fact that old marketing methods are not effective anymore. Consumers are becoming smarter and more exigent every day. Thus, companies operating in fast growing industries are forced to respond to the newly emerging needs of their customers to stay competitive. In order to achieve this, companies look for qualitative consumers’ behavioral data to underpin their marketing campaigns. That’s why the reliance on consumer-focused research will continue to grow in coming years. 

Now let’s take a closer look at some data from the report (refer to graph below). 39% of surveyed companies indicated that in 2017 their research budgets were higher than in 2016. The majority of respondents also mentioned that they are planning to steadily increase their budgets in the next few years. For 32% of companies, research budgets remained the same, while only 30% indicated that they reduced their research expenses in 2017. 

Source: GreenBook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) Report, 2017

Predictably, research budgets of companies working in fast-growing sectors have seen the largest increase. For instance, around 50% of companies operating in IT, healthcare, energy/utilities and retail sectors boosted their research expenses in 2017. On the other side of the scale are consumer staples, consumer discretionary and real estate companies which faced research budget cuts of 50%, 30%, and 25% respectively. It’s also worth mentioning that, according to the GreenBook report, both negative and positive trends have no correlation with firms’ size and are related to the current situation in their particular sectors of the economy. 

In case you are planning to compete for a share of the increased budgets of your clients, be ready to provide them with affordable and effective research solutions. CoolTool platform might be just the right option for you.