Abstract
Boost Market Research's Profile and Performance
Market research knowledge proves critical in decision making throughout the
product lifecycle. Despite their importance, however, market research teams
absorbed significant resource losses during the global economic downturn. As
the economy stabilizes, these groups are positioned to both grow in influence
and to deliver unique decision support throughout their organizations.
Teams that succeed in these efforts build strong cross-functional ties and
proactively address the needs of their internal clients. They also establish
connections with senior leadership to boost autonomy and insulate themselves
from potential resource cuts.
Use this report's in-depth benchmarks for market research operations,
including budgets, staffing and structural details, to improve team management
and raise market research's internal strategic profile:
Win valuable resources for market research
Adequate staffing and budgetary support are crucial to building teams that
perform requested studies alongside their own proactive projects. Learn which
departments fund market research teams, and benchmark phase-by-phase market
research budgets. Reinforce the team using compensation, training and
outsourcing data.
Empower market research to make actionable recommendations
Getting senior management to recognize market research's full value is a
significant challenge for many teams. Learn how top-performing companies
elevate the profile of market research teams and integrate them with
high-level strategic groups, and explore how leaders measure ROI.
Drive high-performing market research operations
Market research teams must often maximize limited resources. Allocate those
resources strategically using phase-by-phase benchmarks for 15 specific market
research techniques, and track the time necessary to complete 7 major market
research studies. Finally, weigh the pros and cons of online activities and
tools.
Excerpts:
The following excerpt is a key finding taken from the full report's executive summary:
Give Market Research Teams Power to Effect Change
Market research teams should not be only seen as a support function. Burying
market research under another team risks stifling its ability to run
wide-scale studies in a timely and cost-effective fashion. This does not mean
market research teams need to be their own independent function, however. Many
surveyed market research teams run effectively under marketing or other
departments.
In some instances, aligning market research under another department is more
effective than placing market research as its own department. Strategic
alignments allow the team to be intimately familiar with the department in
which it is placed. For example, a market research team that is focused on a
particular brand will have access to brand-level data if it is placed under
the brand team. This set-up removes a step involved with working across two
distinctly different groups.
The danger, however, is when the larger group does not understand the
importance of market research. Companies need to make sure that if they do
place market research under another department, they are not demoting its
importance. To do this, market research teams need to be given an equal voice
and they need to be tied in with stakeholders. Market research teams need
sufficient access to resources to be maximally effective. If given the funding
to conduct research and a voice to ensure that research is considered, market
research teams will improve the returns of decisions undertaken by the company.
Report Statistics
- Published: 2012
- Total Number of Pages: 146
- Total Number of Metrics: 500+
- Total Number of Charts and Diagrams: 100+
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Market Research Team Structure and Staffing
Chapter Benefits
- Structure market research teams to reflect portfolio needs.
- Adequately staff, train and compensate your market research team.
- Build strong cross-functional communication with stakeholders to avoid
duplication of efforts and ensure the best use of resources.
- Examine on-the-ground examples of different structures for market research
teams.
- Evaluate and compare the groups involved in collecting and analyzing
market research.
- Leverage outsourcing to optimize limited market research team resources.
Key Metrics
54 charts focused on market research teams' structure, funding sources and
outsourcing practices. Data are often broken down by company type: small
companies, large companies and large company affiliate offices.
- Percentage of companies with market research as a stand-alone function
- Percentage of companies with marketed products
- Scope of responsibility for market research teams (brand-aligned or ad hoc)
- Therapeutic areas supported by market research teams (by company type)
- Market research team structure (by company type)
- Age of market research teams (by company type)
- Groups responsible for collecting and analyzing market research (by
company type)
- Market research funding methods (by company type)
- Departments contributing to market research funding (by company type)
- Percentage of market research budget contributed by departments (by
company type)
- Market research team staffing (by company type and per product)
- Percentage of market research teams that use contract employees
- Percentage of contract employees (at companies that use contract employees)
- Annual compensation for market research analysts, managers and executives
- Hours of training provided to market research analysts (newly hired,
first-year and annually)
- Percentage of market research teams that use preferred vendor relationships
- Department managing relationships with market research vendors
- Percentage of US and ex-US market research budget outsourced (by company
type)
- Market research activities outsourced
Chapter 2: Market Research Team Budgets and Activities
Chapter Benefits
- Benchmark market research team budgets to win critical resources and
proactively perform research.
- Make the most out of limited market research budgets.
- Boost efficiency - identify which activities to conduct, and when.
- Maximize market research's ability to impact key areas, such as
reimbursement and physician perception of brands.
- Perform market research activities that drive product value in downstream
development and marketing.
- Track the funding levels and duration of 7 key market research studies.
- Leverage online tools to cut costs and optimize market research
capabilities.
- Implement best practices from top-performing companies for measuring ROI
on market research efforts.
Key Metrics
39 charts focused on market research budgets, data collection tools and
studies. Data are often broken out by company type: small companies, large
companies and large company affiliate offices. Information is also frequently
broken down by clinical phase: Pre-Clinical through post-launch.
- Market research budgets (by company type)
- Market research budget (Phase 2, Phase 3, registration and product launch,
and post-launch)
- Annual mature product budget (by company type)
- Phase in which market research teams begin supporting products
- Studies performed by market research teams (by company type)
- Market research budget allocation (by clinical phase)
- Percentage of companies that use online communities to gather market
research
- Effectiveness ratings of online communities to gather market research
- Types of online tools used to gather information
- Methods for measuring return on investment
Percentage of companies using specific tools and methods to gather market research (by clinical phase):
- Conventions and meetings
- Customer/patient visits
- False flag job seekers
- Face-to-face interviews
- Government, advocacy groups and payer reps
- Internet portals
- Mail surveys
- Mystery shoppers
- Online databases
- Phantom interviews
- Predictive techniques
- Sampling
- Telephone surveys
- Usability testing
- Web-based surveys
Time required to perform 7 major market research studies:
- Market sizing
- Needs assessment
- Competitor analysis
- Brand awareness
- Pricing
- Market potential
- Concept testing
Chapter 3: Market Research Team Challenges and Trends
Chapter Benefits
- Ensure that market research teams have the opportunity, authority, and
resources to provide independent, proactive recommendations.
- Elevate market research teams' profiles within the company to assert
actionable suggestions to key stakeholders.
- Clarify reporting relationships and interfunctional roles to improve
cross-functional coordination.
- Leverage new tools to save money and drive efficiency.
- Invest in primary research for emerging markets to cull valuable insights
and impact critical decisions.
- Balance quantitative and qualitative studies when making decisions to
lower costs and optimize market research opportunities.
Key Metrics
11 charts focused on market research effectiveness, challenges, and budget
allocation. Data are often broken out by company type: small companies, large
companies and large company affiliate offices.
- Self-ratings of market research effectiveness (by company type)
- Most significant market research challenges (by company type)
- Prevalence of systems to share past market research findings
- Budget allocation for primary and secondary research
- Budget allocation for qualitative and quantitative studies
