Abstract:

I referred to the "agency or consultancy" side of the business, because there is no generally accepted definition of our business: are we market research agencies, are we marketing research consultants, are we research suppliers? Here, we are approaching the heart of one of the problems which hinders the development of our business, which robs us of the confidence and clarity of vision enjoyed by the average lawyer, accountant, engineer or, dare I say, management consultant. I also believe that my point is more applicable to those of us who call ourselves "business researchers" than to consumer researchers. The poor old business researcher finds himself in a squeeze: brought up in a cottage industry where, traditionally, it was all right to cobble together a report, and offer appropriate bedside consultancy to his client, on the basis of a relatively small number of "selective" interviews, he has over the years come under increasing pressure to acquire the research professionalism of his consumer counterparts whilst at the same time sneering at their "mindless number crunching".