When to Resume your Slashed and Burned Market Research Budget

Worldwide market research budgets have been slashed.  Much of this is my own primary research in Asia, North America and Europe in the past 3 weeks speaking among colleagues and clients on-the-ground.  In the US, management has decimated their budgets often to zero; or US marketers have not released funds, even if they have been allocated budgets.  In Europe, budgets have been dramatically reduced, but not eliminated as in the US.  Asia and the Middle East have also reduced their market research budgets.  Clearly, corporate management has focused on survival in this horrific global recession.  But research shows that management should very closely look at when to resume their currently slashed and burned budgets.

Optimizing Corporate Websites for ROI

Companies need to be where their customers and stakeholders are.  More than ever, the web is a crucial point-of-contact between businesses and their stakeholders. In this recession, web surfers are spending sleepless nights surfing the web for entertainment, insights and other content that is meaningful for them.

Richard Branson’s Recession Advice

Branson gave advice on youtube from an entrepreneurial perspective

On Large & Small Companies

"I think big companeis are going to retrench and there's going to be a lot of people laid off from big companies. And therefore, a lot of those people who are laid off can be entrepreneurs in the future, and I think will be the entrepreneurs in the future. There are also going to be a lot of small companies out there that have still got reasonable cash flow and...lines of credit. And I think those kinds of companies and Virgin Included must try to help expand out of this problem, They must look for opportunities, and there will be hundreds of opportunities around. They must get out and employ people. They're going ot find their cost base is going to be less right now. They're going to be able to employ people at most liekly slighty at cost ef fective ways than in the past. And I think if thousands of small companies can try to fill in the gaps that some of the bigger companies..."

Maximizing your Research Budget in a Recession

How to Maximize your Research Budget in a Recession
Ruth Stanat, President and CEO SIS International Research
January 28, 2009

The Recession

Clearly, this deep global recession has taken it toll on marketing departments and market research and competitive intelligence budgets. Senior executives, strategic planning and marketing departments face the following challenge of how to continue the following initiatives with a reduced research budget:

  • Global expansion plans
  • Customer satisfaction tracking
  • Competitor intelligence monitoring
  • Market opportunity/market sizing projects
  • Customer and brand loyalty projects
  • New product development tests
  • Ad tests

The Challenge and Opportunity of a Reduced Research Budget