‘You can’t do your job without it’: Why protecting research budgets matters

In the second part of our series on market research, we explore if spending 5% of your budget on market research still holds true in challenging economic times – and the consequences if you ignore it.

Brand spend on market research has fallen – yet again – according to the latest IPA Bellwether report, which shows a further 2.9% drop in the amount brands invested in the discipline, continuing a downward trend that has persisted for a decade now.

Marketing Week columnist Mark Ritson once wrote that investing 5% of your budget into market research was essential if you want the remaining 95% to be spent properly.

But have marketers really fallen out of love with market research or are restricted budgets and rising costs to blame for the continued drop in spend?

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Are brands losing belief in market research?

Josh Stephenson

According to data shared exclusively with Marketing Week, net spend on market research has been negative for the best part of a decade with some businesses turning to data and cheaper research sources. In the first part of a series looking at the use of market research by brands, we explore what sits behind the shift and some of the consequences.