Abstract:

The ABN AMRO bank has outsourced the Consumer Marketing Research Department. The NIPO the major Marketing Research company in the Netherlands handles all the marketing research for the consumer market. The NIPO consultant has responsibility for the marketing research budget and operates while staying within the NIPO organisation as a member of the ABN AMRO organisation. This construction is seen as most profitable by both ABN AMRO and NIPO. In this paper we will discuss the way this remarkable construction works in practice. This paper focuses on the instruments created to solidify the marketing research importance in the ABN AMRO organisation. One has to keep in mind that this is a very unusual construction and that therefore these instruments partly are created out of necessity: the consultant not being able to be in the organisation for a great amount of time. First of all attention is paid to the research agenda. The research agenda serves the need to economise on the research budget while at the same time bringing more structure to it. The research agenda describes in a most detailed form the scope and goal of all the research projects that cater to the information need of the ABN AMRO organisation.