Market research industry is struggling with conventional methods of conducting research. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning is dominating almost everything, and hence the need of improvement is not restricted simply to research methodologies.

Innovative and proven ways of web research and data mining for collecting data are required, which only outsourced market research data collection companies are experts at.

Data collection; first step in market research process

Research firms of all sizes and not just Fortune 100 companies such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google, are constantly on the hunt to employ various types of data collection methods useful in conducting qualitative or quantitative market research. It will help them to move beyond those static, reactive market research workflows & deliver real-time insights to their consumers.

Apart from data collection there are various other challenges including:

Need of expertise in different types of data entry

How to use market research data sources

How to find the best market research outsourcing companies in India, etc.

Enlisted are 3 market research data management challenges:

1. Data related value addition

The challenge of accessing quality and representative data from niche audience is prime. Market research companies are now required to be more than just data and insight providers and are expected to make value addition to their services. They should partner with businesses by truly understanding data management & data modeling to suffice the client’s business needs.

Market research data sources have increased immensely with the advent of internet. Market insights nowadays are supposed to be derived from petabytes of dirty data that requires data cleansing to enrich it and make it analytics ready. Research firms need to have data collection & cleansing companies on their side, delivering holistic data management solutions right from data collection to data entry, and data processing to data categorization and validation.

Inability of market research analysts to provide consistent value addition is also one of the major challenges that are growing big. Data consultancies like Deloitte, McKinsey, IBM, etc., and big data suppliers including Google and Facebook, are household names and have succeeded in capturing a huge customer base through their master data management capabilities. Leading consultancies have entered the race of digitized data management by providing innovative data and analytics solutions according to the nature of market research.

2. Technological advancements in data management

Data collection and scrubbing methodologies with help of advanced technology are gaining momentum, but research firms are not equipped to leverage it. If advanced data collection technologies like chatbots, GPS tracking, cookies and meters for web tracking and several other online alternatives are presenting great advantages, they require the knowledge of utilizing and integrating its capabilities. The challenge is to keep pace with innovations while maintaining quality standards and statistical validity.

It is a bigger threat as compared to other data management challenges mentioned above. Non-traditional research companies (tech/consultants) are gaining market shares with leaps and bounds, whereas traditional market research suppliers are stuck in the past with being too purist, too reactive, and too slow.

3. Data representation

On one hand conventional research players are struggling to improve data collection and combating huge datasets in excel worksheets to glean insights. But market research data collection and processing experts are using automatic data capture software to gather qualitative and relevant information from diversified data sources in stipulated time frames.

Data representation by old school research firms has absolutely no storytelling element to it. But the newbies conveniently transform complex data into actionable business insights with help of tools & platforms like Tableau, PowerBI, QlikView, SaaS, etc. They further present it in interactive and intuitive dashboards, infographics, graphs, heat maps, charts and other visualizations to develop clients through the C-Suite relationships.

Market research data management solutions

With expertise and experience spanning from board room to data centers, it is the outsourced data collection solution providers helping market research firms achieve their business goals. They transform massive amount of data into real insights to better serve customers and to maintain and grow revenue streams. Leverage their deep domain consulting knowledge, leadership in information technology and business process management capabilities across market research value chain from data collection to data cleansing and analysis and reporting, to your business benefit.