Using your favorite search engine, locate the websites for two research firms. C
ID: 421739 • Letter: U
Question
Using your favorite search engine, locate the websites for two research firms. Conduct a review of the services offered by these two different research firms. What types of tools do they use, and how effective are those tools? Then, write an essay responding to the following questions/topics, evaluating each research firm’s capability of providing valuable services to its customers.
1. Contrast the services and tools provided by the two research firms.
2. Explain the advantages of utilizing these research firms.
3. Discuss why a company might decide to save the money and utilize its in-house team as opposed to one of these firms.
4. Explain how the tools discussed in the lecture might enable more companies to complete their research internally.
Explanation / Answer
Markets Strategies International is a market research firm that mainly deals with research in consumer and retail industries, energy, financial services, healthcare, technology and telecommunication. The company works by designing and implementing intellectually based qualitative and quantitative research and offers meaningful results that enable businesses make sound decisions which are well informed (Market Strategies International website: Online). The company uses various techniques and tools that are customized according to the needs of a particular company. They for instance, they use interactive desktop simulators which are optimized according to a product design, pricing and forecasting. They isolate the most effective messaging and predict what best efforts in an organization can be combined to increase customer loyalty. These tools therefore enable a company to make sound decisions in the company to sustain a customer base and extend its market reach (Market Strategies International website: Online).
Another company is eMarketer. This company also deals with market research but the methods used by this company are different from that in Market Strategies International. It uses purely digital marketing research as its tool. The data they use is also based on digital based data types (The eMarketer: Online). What this company basically does is to gather data points. Their source of information unlike Market Strategies International is other research firms, measurement companies, the media and Marketing agencies. In addition, they also interview some of the most successful and influential experts in research. The company digs out information from its sources and then question the underlying assumptions of each of their findings. Therefore this company unlike the former concentrates on combined methodologies from the best researchers outside the company and analyse them (The eMarketer: Online).
There are many advantages of using an independent company to carry out research for a company. According to DJS research Ltd, using an external consultant firm, removes any aspect of biasness in findings. Internal research methodologies may be full of biasness since the company’s employees are involved therefore they may at some point favour certain ideologies being researched as compared to external research firms. Biasness may cast a shadow of doubt on research findings since such information may not be accurate. Secondly a company may lack the expertise to carry out a research its employees, may also be inexperienced or even may be unwilling to employ people with research expertise and in this case, research firms come in handy. An experienced researcher will use special techniques that are specially made to extract the required information and also accuracy of the information is guaranteed (Budhwar & Sparrow, 2002). It is also important to point out that this type of research would be effective and therefore the recommendations would be weightier and taken into consideration with a keen interest. The results will be delivered within strict timelines.
Apart from this, such a company would aid in the selling process. The research finding of its analysis may help a company understand the business environment and therefore understand the interests of clients. The company will therefore strive to satisfy these needs. A market research firm also ensures that a company meets its objectives by offering complete research solutions. The knowledge, skills and experience results in improvement of the way the company handles its business (Zikmund & Babin, 2006). A research company also enables a business to save on cost since they do not have to employ permanent research staff. This is because research is a seasonal activity which is not carried out throughout the year. If the company was to employ permanent research staff, the company would have to pay salaries for underutilised labour during the low seasons.
A company may result into using an in-house based research team based on a number of factors. For instance a company may be too small to be able to afford the services of an external researcher and also the level of their research needs may be too low therefore removing the need of having an external researcher who consumes a lot of time and expenses. Another concern is that external companies may not actually fit into the culture of a certain company. Therefore they do not know how such a company carries out its business and thus find it difficult to accomplish its tasks. It therefore takes time before the research can begin because they have to first understand how the company operates. In-house based research would be easier to carry out because the staffs are already aware of the company operations. There is also the question of matters of interest (Zikmund & Babin, 2006). Will the external researcher be interested in helping the company out or the money they get paid? Most research companies may do a shoddy job because they are after the profits not working for the interests of the company. Also external researcher may not be reliable since it may be also be serving the company’s competitors and in the process may sell out the company’s trade secrets to their competitors (Budhwar & Sparrow, 2002).).
Internal research based on the research tools explained can be achieved by first setting up a research department in the company this department may acquire its data for analysis from several sources such as salespersons. They provide first-hand information since they know how a company’s product is performing in the market. They can also know about the retailers’ reaction towards the firm’s product. This can be aided by creating periodical reports on such behaviour (Budhwar & Sparrow, 2002).). Consumer data using representative samples can also be used for investigation with regards to price, quality and use of the company’s product. The company should also be willing to avail company sales reports to the research department so that thorough analysis of such data is done with ease to enable the department carry out successful market research
References
Budhwar, P. S., & Sparrow, P. R. (2002). An integrative framework for understanding cross-national human resource management practices.Human Resource Management Review, 12(3), 377-403.
Market Strategies International website (online).
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.