Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

Are US Market Researchers on par or better than their European colleagues?

Here’s my theory.

USA has a population of about 300 million, EU population is also about 300 million. However, the EU is nowhere near as homogenous as the US market. Most EU marketing researchers seem to be more qualitative and/or jack of all trades. i.e. they usually work for smaller companies and have to take on a broader role.

On the other hand because of the size and homogeneity of the US market, this allows for specialization. So someone can spend all their time learning every detail about applying a certain multivariate technique to a problem. A luxury EU researchers generally don’t have. Here in the USA someone can actually spend the better part of their life analyzing the optimal marketing mix for Jello pudding by following Nielsen Scanner data week to week. Boring, but I bet they get good at it.

Of course it’s a weakness for US researchers as well. Specialization leads to serious deficiencies in some areas, and blind reliance on team members who hopefully know what they are doing…

Which is better? I’m thinking specialization to the degree it’s encouraged in the US can’t be good for total product quality. Of course it does allow for the occasional cool/new technique. But of course our European brothers and sisters can be pretty creative sometimes too.

What do you think?

- Tom H. C. Anderson