Three takeaways on the future of market research from the Quirk's Event New York.
Editor's note: This is an edited version that originally appeared under the title, “Quirk’s New York 2022: Three Takeaways on the Future of Market Research,” by NewtonX, New York City, New York.
If you were at the Javits Center in New York City this past week, you no doubt felt the buzz of industry professionals excited about the future of market research. Driven by the growing need for data-driven insights, the Nielsen Norman Group anticipates the industry expanding to 100 million research professionals by 2050. Given this exponential growth, events like The Quirk’s Event New York are critical to staying relevant. If you didn’t make it, we’ve put together our recap of emerging industry standards and how to future-proof your research. 
Ensuring quality data collection
Data quality is more important now than ever. Relevancy depends on delivering not only fast results, but accurate ones. To source high quality data, leading organizations like P&G, Colgate, Pepsi, Ferrero, Pernod Ricard, L’Oreal and Aetna/CVS Health are utilizing research partners to improve fraud-detection capabilities and tighten requirements for respondents. While this results in higher incentives for participants, they make the case that better quality data is more cost-effective than making poorly-informed decisions off bad data – especially in the face of an evolving industry and economic uncertainty.
“Collaborating to connect market research investments with business impact adds value to both present and future partnerships to come.”
Tie research back to its impact
It’s not enough to have quality data; it must also be tied back to business impact. To build trust with organizational stakeholders, involve them in research so they can get a front seat to its path to impact. Cindy Chastain, SVP,customer experience and design, Mastercard, stressed the importance of democratizing research and including cross-functional partners in the research process. Collaborating to connect market research investments with business impact adds value both to present and future partnerships to come. 
Working together is the new normal
Collaboration between all sectors of the industry is fueling an exciting new frontier for market research: telling stories together. The pandemic changed how and where we work together. As a result, partners now have the opportunity to work on projects synchronously, not only while analyzing results but while crafting pathways to success, too. According to Elizabeth Pfeiffer, senior manager of consumer insights and analytics, Chobani, this includes vendors. While companies know their products best, vendors hold expertise in fielding and are expected to be collaborators. In a study led by Twitter and their two research partners to understand brand behavior on the social media platform, collaboration at every step of the project offered the chance to use three unique perspectives to interpret the most complex questions that arise out of research and add value to Twitter’s advertising stakeholders.
Market research is a modern industry – it’s grown remarkably from its humble beginnings. From call centers to online forums and now to mass surveys powered by automation, the volume of data available has exploded. Finding that quality data and collaboratively analyzing the business impact of those results is the future of the industry – and we are excited to continue trailblazing into this frontier.