An additional 17% of companies said they were considering mobile surveys, and 22% online communities. This brings the two approaches into the ‘mainstream’ bracket, according to the latest version of the report, based on 2,144 interviews ( 78% research provider or supplier; 22% research buyer or client). 

The next most used/ considered methodologies were social media analytics ( 48% used; 28% considered), text analytics ( 45%; 27%) and mobile qualitative ( 44%; 27%). 

The report also revealed the extent to which automation has been adopted across research: charting and infographics is currently used or under consideration as an automated process for 72% of suppliers and 66% of buyers, while for text analysis this figure is 67% for suppliers and 61% for buyers. Survey data analysis has similar levels of automation ( 66% suppliers; 60% buyers), while automated social media analysis is more favoured by buyers ( 70%, compared with suppliers’ 62%). 

The most in-demand training topics for researchers have been highlighted as ‘finding the story in the data’ ( 38%) and data visualisation skills ( 33%). Broader training requirements are ‘aligning business needs to research methods’ ( 33%) and ‘introduction to emerging technologies and methods’ ( 32%). 

The full report can be accessed here.