Naughty or Nice? Video Games Top Santa's "Nice" List for Electronics While Netbooks Replace Coal!
November 26, 2009
Rockhopper Research, in partnership with Peanut Labs and MRGA, announces CEST 2009 – a survey of 1,000+ holiday shoppers conducted November 19 and 20. The full summary report – Consumer Electronics Shopping Trends: Holidays 2009 will be released today. Some highlights include:
Electronic gifts of various types are on the lists of 83% of holiday shoppers
Walmart and Best Buy are projected to sell 65% of all planned electronics purchases
Amazon will sell more electronics than Sears and Kmart combined
Online shoppers plan to buy more electronic items per person than in-store shoppers
A free copy of the summary report is available for download at:
Consumer Electronics for Holidays 2009.pdf
Rockhopper Research is also offering details on these and other findings, including detailed projections for major brands, different types of electronic items, major retail outlets, and how they are projected to intersect.
For more information on how brands will fare across electronics items and which retailers are favored for the hottest items, contact
Rockhopper Research on the web or contact
Mary Samuelson or
Bill Weylock.
The Research Industry Trends 2009 Report is now available!
Since 2003, Rockhopper Research has collaborated with select industry partners to produce the annual Research Industry Trends (RIT) report. Initially focused on data collection issues, the scope of RIT has expanded to include directions in outsourcing, advances in technology, and inter-relationships among research providers/suppliers and clients/buyers. Along with Rockhopper, co-sponsors for RIT 2009 were
Pioneer Marketing Research,
Greenfield Online, the
GreenBook Marketing Research Directory,
Qualitative Insights, and the
MRGA.
The impact of a severe economic downturn is of course the big story for 2009, but a trend more significant for the future of the industry is the shift from traditional data collection modes to social media and mobile communications. Rather than reaching “homes” through telephone and surface mail, researchers are increasingly trying to reach individuals wherever they gather through their cells and social network sites.
In the last quarter of 2008, when data was collected for RIT 2008, there was apprehension about the economy and a marked decline in confidence from RIT 2007. Researchers still, however, expected demand to increase during 2009. Providers were slightly more optimistic than clients, but two-thirds overall expected growth. In RIT 2008 there was some sentiment that the research industry might be “counter-cyclical” and at least somewhat insulated from the worst impact of a recession – on the theory that companies would use research to seize advantage in a more competitive environment.
For RIT 2009, respondents had a very different attitude. A razor-thin majority of providers, with more confidence coming from those with some operations or data collection outside the US, expected growth for the overall year of 2009. US-only providers were negative, with only 42% expecting a growth year.
Most striking of all, however, was the sharp (>50%) decline in client confidence. Only 31% of clients expected to see growth for the year as a whole. This has been a bad year.
For RIT 2009 more than half (57%) of respondents reported at least some decline in revenue, and one-fourth experienced “significant” to “severe” impact on revenue. A happy 22% reported increased revenue.
Among the respondents who have experienced declining revenue, 27% are confident that they are in recovery or have already seen upturns in business and revenue. A further 44% think the worst is over, expect that they will see improvement before the end of 2009, but have not yet had any actual good news. Another 29% expect the current depressed business and revenue to continue through the end of the year or even to worsen (8%).
The situation in the economy is fluid, and attitudes may have shifted since data was collected in August. At that time, however, the predominant outlook seemed to be hope resting on a foundation of uncertainty.
Pressure on prices and budgets resulting from the recession are a serious matter for over 85% of all respondents participating. It is not the only serious issue, however. Large majorities agree that:
- Research is becoming commoditized with clients less willing to pay for quality (73%)
- Clients are demanding shorter timelines for projects and faster delivery of findings (70%)
- Non-researcher management are conducting their own surveys on the internet (63%)
Additionally, 45% see less demand for primary research because managers think they can learn anything they need from the web. And 44% have problems with RFPs from purchasing departments that seem to treat research consulting as if it was a flatcar of widgets.
Taken together these issues point to a loss of respect for professional research. Research is seen as a commodity: an area that can be squeezed on price with no harm to the mission. Under severe economic constraints and without strong confidence in a rebound, researchers say they have made do with less (staff, time, revenue) and are stepping up to provide quality faster and cheaper than formerly.
While it is hard to fault this response in a economic crisis, it can only validate client suspicions that they have been paying too much for research and that providers can make do with much less money.
The key questions seem to be:
- How long can a healthy industry operate on low margin with insufficient resources? The strain is already apparent as many shops have closed their doors since 2008.
- What should be done to support a perception that research is a valuable resource that demands great expertise and experience and that investing in quality is smart business?
Past trends continue. Online, panel, mobile and (somewhat surprisingly) in-person intercepts are slated to grow at the expense of CATI, Mail, and IVR.
Over half of all respondents expect an increase in their use of online surveys, with growth projected in all of the following areas:
- Online communities
- Online panels
- Mobile/SMS
- Blogs
Rather than trying to reach everyone at home, researchers are taking studies to respondents where they gather and interact and are using new media. Landlines and carried mail are in decline.Looking farther into the future, respondents see these trends continuing through 2010. Two-thirds see an increase in mobile phone surveys and within social media (“online communities”).
One of the more interesting things to follow in the next few years will be the extent to which voice interviewing ports over to mobile and web surveys. While surface mail does seem to be losing traction rapidly, it is much too early to write off CATI.
Qualitative researchers also expect more research using social media, an increase in blog monitoring, and a decline in text-chat online focus groups. The most growth is expected in hybrid approaches. The margin of change is narrower for traditional focus groups and traditional IDIs – both in person and by telephone. If any qualitative research modes decrease, it will most likely be one of those.
Providers who can demonstrate stand-out expertise in fielding social media research seem extremely well positioned for 2010.
In contrast to all past years, respondents do not report an increase in outsourcing for 2009.
Three quarters expect the same level as in 2008, and more expect outsourcing to diminish (15%) than expect it to increase (10%).
It seems possible that providers under severe price pressure may be bringing everything they can in-house to save money and increase control over timing and quality.
To download the report, simply click on the links below and follow the instructions. There is no cost for the report and we hope all of our colleagues who view it find as much value in it as we have.
Research Industry Trends 2009 Final Report.pdf
Please note that you will need Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to read the file. If you don't have Acrobat Reader, please click
here.
The PDF also contains a dashboard affording you the ability to interact with key data points. In order to use the dashboard you may need to update your version of Flash – another free download from Adobe. Please click
here.
More details on the results of this survey may be obtained by contacting:
Bill Weylock
Rockhopper Research
bweylock@rockhopperresearch.com
323-822-1700
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