Traditional marketing research originated in advertising agencies in the 1950s, as an adjunct to the account planning function.Gradually, these MR departments blossomed as full-fledged MR companies, eg. IMRB of India’s genesis was in the HTA. Manufacturers set up MR departments to interpret data later. Vikram Sarabhai set up ORG to do retail audit of pharmaceuticals.
Of late, Gigna US has shut up their MR department and it has been replaced by Marketing Analytics department. The digital era is influencing MR not only abroad, but in India too. Instead of long consumer tracking surveys, we could have microsurveys and intercepts. Data scientists could be assigned the insight management. Instead of rear-view analytics of trditional MR, there would be focus on predictive analytics.
There are multiple data streams these days. There is traffic to the brand’s web site. There are social media. The buzz here has to be monitored. The comments in the blogs must be factored in. Traditionally, data from the syndicated research flowed in. Research was commissioned. Consumer behaviour was mapped. The focus was on past data. Marketing analytics calls for new set of skills. There has to be training datasets to help project intended behaviour. Experiments are run in real life. They are run in behavioral labs. Models are built and validated. All this is done without diluting the core MR and consumer behaviour.
MR is transforming into Marketing Analytics. Traditional skills and new age skills coverage.