Marketing budgets sustained, insight budgets reduced

Chart of the day: Market research budgets have been cut whilst marketing budgets are being sustained

Market research (increasingly referred to as "insight") budgets are taking another cut this year, according to research by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, whilst marketing budgets overall have not grown. As few as 8% of respondents signaled growth in their insight budget whilst just over 26% of respondents indicated marketing budget growth. The analysis shows it's the worst prediction for market research in over four years of data collection.

One reason for the fall in budget could be that businesses are using non-traditional research methods, doing fewer large-scale annual research projects and instead focusing on more cheaper, innovative techniques, such as the use of research communities, online focus groups and cheaper providers such as Survey Monkey Audience, Ask You Target Market and Toluna Quick Surveys, rather than using agencies.

That's the optimistic case. The pessimistic case is the businesses are failing to invest in quality market research, which will lead to poor marketing decisions. Make sure you arm your marketing team with the data they need to spend their budget most effectively. Often cutting market research is a false economy which will lead to expensive mistakes further down the line.

• Source:  IPA Bellwether report and MRS Research Live
• Sample: 300 UK marketing professionals
• Recommended resource: Research is important for your business, it helps you to drive your marketing strategy, therefore, we recommend creating personas. Our Persona research Guide shows you how.

Contributer : Smart Insights