Top Trends of the Decade: Looking Ahead
In the previous post we noted that our industry is driven by data and information, which meant huge changes in the nature of our work over the last ten years. Looking ahead, here are what we predict will be the five biggest trends that will shape market research challenges in the decade to come:
- Data visualization and graphics will become more important. The technology for amazing visualization tools is almost there, along with a growing realization that presenting data needs to be far more intuitive.
- The value-add of insight and interpretation will become essential, not optional. With new technologies, any monkey can now collect data, and half those monkeys can dump it into a tool that makes a chart. But what does it all mean? What’s the story?
- Focus groups will become a thing of the past, in favor of qualitative ethnography and MROCs (Market Research Online Communities). Usually focus groups are not the ideal way to answer the questions that clients have, but clients value hearing and seeing their customers. New technologies have made better methods more accessible.
- Data integration from multiple sources and areas within an organization will become a new imperative. There are lots of data in lots of places. One huge challenge over the next decade will be to bring multiple (and multiplying) sources of data together, connect the dots, and create intelligence.
- Intellectual expertise to sort through, integrate, and interpret the explosion of data will become key.
Versta Research will be staying ahead of these trends over the next ten years to ensure that you get comprehensive, focused, and deep knowledge of your markets. We offer help from high level experts who have rigorous training and who have the ability transform your data into stories that you can use.
–Joe Hopper, Ph.D.