Outsourcing Market Research Contributes to Strategic Business Growth

Market research, as a major segment of the BPO industry, aims to make companies cognizant about the reasons behind buying your products, their needs, and demands, likes and dislikes, the competitors in the market, market trends, and why you will win over your peers. It also includes consumer behavior, the personal, societal, and cultural factors that influence buying behavior. Research helps with essential insights on the new market entry, leading to adopting strategies to improve the marketing business process, achieve the overall strategic growth.

According to the Market Research Services Global Market Report 2020-30: COVID 19 Impact and Recovery, the global market research service market is expected to fall from $75 billion in 2019 to $74 billion in 2020 at a rate CAGR of -2.4% annually. The recovery is expected at a CAGR of 4% starting from 2021, reaching to $82.9 billion in 2023.

Market research companies are making headway to more advanced services with superior analytics and measurement metrics. Organizations are investing in custom tools to endure the competition in delivering market research insights and recommendations.

Expansion in the international market is a significant business strategy to raise revenue and profitability. Some organizations generate more revenue from the global market as compared to the domestic ones. For example, in the year 2014, Apple reported revenue growth of 60% from the international market. Market research services are vital when it comes to accelerating business.

How Market Research Services Helped Companies Achieve Business Goals?

Market research is a crucial part of companies of all sizes, and big many big names owe their success to it.  Let’s see how market research played an important role in the accelerating the business processes of the following organizations:

1. Procter & Gamble (P&G)

Outsourcing is not limited to startups; it is an excellent solution for giant companies as well. Back in the year 2000, P&G, as any other product companies were faced with maintaining a competitive advantage in the rapidly evolving market. While managing all operations in-house, the company switched its gears to outsourcing product innovation and market research to boost innovation.

This spurred the results as the innovation and productivity augmented by 60%, and revenue exceeded $10 billion generated through 400 new products.

2. McDonald’s

The giant among the fast-food chains across the world hugely relied on market research services to continue with the ongoing trend. The company was affected by food scandal in 2014 and 2015, But they made a strong resurgence with a proper market research and consumer-driven approach.

They researched the product and prices, marketing channels, the most visited restaurants. This helped them to assess if they were serving healthy food. With the market insights, they launched campaigns to manifest that meat, chicken nuggets, and patties are good while making changes to their menu.

3. Nest

Nest has reinvented home products to create a smart home. Nest and Google have joined to become Google Nest. With market research and consumer surveys, they were able to understand if their products were functioning correctly and then rooms for improvements based on their customer reviews and increased their sales eventually.

4. Oregon Chai

Lori Woolfrey, the Co-founder and VP Marketing of Oregon Chai, decided to hire a market research firm to conduct a focus group study for a new product launch. They used market research to evaluate the taste and also to measure the response of the public to the proposed advertisement. Considering all the insights, Oregon Chai developed its new product and was able to successfully launch the product that is very close to the customer choices.

Market Research – In-house or Outsource?

Entering a new market with the existing portfolio or launching new products and services is not a small feat. Deciding on whether to outsource market research needs depends on the cost and benefit analysis of the organization.

According to Philip Kotler, the author of  Marketing Management: The Millennium Edition (Prentice Hall, 2000: 105), “companies normally budget marketing research at 1 percent to 2 percent of company sales.” With a clear picture of the market research budget, you must compare the cost of outsourcing versus the cost of hiring an individual or a team in-house to conduct market research.

The process of providing the best solutions to the customers is always preceded by thorough market research, and often outsourcing market research services have shown outstanding results. Large organizations rely on business process outsourcing to achieve targeted results while focusing on important internal processes.

While expanding in the international market, it makes more sense to outsource market research services to a market research company in the new region. Companies can fetch more detailed market insights on the target markets, choices, likes and dislikes, cultural and societal factors, competitors in the local market, and much more.

However, it is imperative to opt for a background check of the company offering market research services before zeroing on one. Checking their track records, their tenure as an outsource company, their success stories, clientele, budget, and data security are pivotal components in the vendor verification process. Here are some of the vital points to be considered while outsourcing market research services for your company:

1. Business Objectives The vendor must clearly understand your market research goals and objectives before engaging in the process along with an in-depth knowledge of the target market, geographical location, cultural, societal and regulatory norms, and specifications.
2. Communication The market research partner must have a clear communication protocol to avoid communication breakdown, which hampers the expected output.
3. Data Security One of the most viable threats to outsourcing is related to data security. Confirm if the vendor is abiding by the data security regulations while having a robust data protection infrastructure and policy.
4. Competency Ensure the outsourcing partner has immense market research competency. Check their portfolio and customer reviews for a close evaluation.
5. Risk Mitigation Inquire about their outsourcing report structure so that you can receive the accurate progress report while the market research project is on.

Successful entrepreneurs invest in market research services to gain detailed market insights related to, based on which they make strategic business decisions. Irrespective of a new business or a new market-entry, market research helps in analyzing the target market, the demand, and supply chain, determining the sales and marketing strategies, new product, and service ideas and much more.

Outsourcing market research requirements save you while uncovering crucial information with the proper methodologies, strategies, technologies, and experienced market research analysts in their team. Contact us to know about how we can derive your business growth when you outsource market services to us.

-Backoffice Pro

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