Buyers demand ‘more for less' amid recession

UK-- Agencies need to find innovative ways to do “more with less” in order to keep up with client demand during the recession, according to a survey by Virtual Surveys.

The study, looking at the outlook for research in a recession, was conducted earlier this month among past, current and prospective clients of the UK agency.

Almost half of the companies surveyed said they expect to spend less on research this year than last – although fifteen per cent still expected to increase spending.

In the words of one client, the challenge for agencies is to “think outside the box and inside the budget”.

One of the few bright spots was online research communities (perhaps not surprisingly as this is a Virtual Surveys specialism), with 32% of firms surveyed expecting to spend more in this area, and only 6% expecting to spend less.

Eighty four per cent of respondents said they believed the recession would last a year or more.

• Look out for the May edition of Research Magazine, where we'll be exploring in more depth the issues raised in this survey.

Author: Robert Bain

Comments (1)

This is not our experience. We carry out surveys in all methodologies, CATI, CAPI and CAWI, including running a Kent based access panel. We are finding that clients want to be sure that the data they are getting is above all reliable and are tending to either use ‘traditional ‘ methodologies or, if the survey is web based, to ensure that respondents are not self selecting. This normally means using traditional methods for recruiting respondents for on line work or by using community ‘panels' such as a clients customer base.

This is not the time to reduce the quality of data by poor recruiting methods. Clients budgets may be cut but the research that is carried out has to be accurate.

Mike Thompson

Managing director

Lake Market Research