Jeffery Hunter
We have a reasonable picture of the nature of the change in the North American and Western European markets, but the picture is less clear as we move into other markets.
In 2013, the Cambiar Future of Research project was conducted in Mexico, with the support of the de la Riva Research Group and ARIA – the Americas Research Industry Alliance. This was the first time that the Future of Research study had been conducted outside the United States, and it provides interesting insights into the market research industry in Mexico (and interesting comparisons with North America).
The study was an online survey of both client researchers and agency researchers conducted during August and September of 2012. Over 200 professionals were invited to participate, and 37 client-side researchers and 42 agency researchers completed the survey. The sample size does not permit partitioning into smaller groups (other than agency and client), but the observations within and across these groups are nonetheless insightful.
Researchers in Mexico expect major change
Researchers in Mexico expect the industry to change: 38% expect that there will be major transformation, and another 32% expect that there will be significant, albeit not fundamental, change. Only 3% expect no change. Half of the researchers in Mexico expect that change will be evident by 2015.
Agency researchers are more likely to believe that the industry will undergo major transformation than client researchers, who believe that change is happening and will happen, but in a more evolutionary way.
In comparing US and Mexican researchers, US researchers are more aggressive in their expectation of transformational change.
Researchers in Mexico entertain the prospect of a dramatically different competitive landscape
Researchers in Mexico entertain the notion that the competitive landscape could be quite different in the future. Of the top three contenders for industry leadership in 2020, only one – WPP – is a traditional research agency. The future is sufficiently opaque among researchers in Mexico that the projected leading 2020 market research company could be one that emerges in the next five to ten years.
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