Across the economic landscape, the general trend is that of contraction.  On both the supply and demand side of the equation, people and businesses are cutting back.  Behaviors are changing and in such a fluid environment, knowledge and insight are more important than ever.  For marketers, acting on a program of insight is going to help them know what is going on with their customers and more importantly where they are heading.  Knowing this before the economy regains its footing will put agencies and their brands ahead of the curve.

Market research can help brands better determine their product, their competitive position and target market.  This research also dictates the strategy for their marketing campaign.  On StrategicMarketSegmentation.com Linda Morton writes, ”From initially researching your product and market, to assuring that your marketing campaigns are successful, marketing research affects your bottom line and business success.”

There is no question that research has a direct impact on your bottom line as well as brand perception.  If you get it right and do the research, far fewer resources will be spent and many more consumers will be happier.  Martin Day writes, “Market research will help you better communicate - Your current customers experiences are a valuable information source, not only will they allow you to gauge how well you currently meet their expectations they can also tell you where you are getting things right and more importantly where you are getting things wrong.”

If done in a “one off” fashion brands can lose the values discussed by Martin.  Whereas market research minimizes risk.

The need to be aware and informed is clear, particularly in such a difficult environment.  At the Lab we are working with agencies and brands to leverage the uniqueness of the Lab’s facility and infrastructure to provide near real world environments.

The Lab’s efforts are helping marketers understand and study consumer behavior and product insight across not only emerging media categories but in more traditional areas.  We are also forging unique research partnerships to not only expand our capacity internally but to make our assets available to outside research firms and independent agencies.

Brands seeking valuable insight will find many projects on the horizon.   The Lab is working with a few to help them become more efficient, successful and ultimately more interesting to consumers.  2009 is a critical year to dedicate resources to this type of insight and information.  Position yourself now to be able to take first action when the recovery starts.

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