Abstract:

ESOMAR’s Director General Finn Raben has rightly pointed out the absolute critical role of client-side researchers in determining the future of our industry. Yet, how well do major corporations actually manage their consumer insights functions? Are they leveraging them for real competitive advantage or are they treating them as a necessary functional "add on"? How embedded are CI functions in their companies' strategic decision-making? How are they resourced? Where does the budget lie? Are we spending less or more on research post-recession? And how innovative are corporate researchers really? All of these questions, posed in the most comprehensive study of insights management ever undertaken, are answered in this paper. Plus we offer a brand new segmentation of the different types of consumer insights function.