What are the benefits to work with small, boutique market research agencies? Is it worth it? Are they trusted? Can they prepare, secure and coordinate large-scale research, not only in the Czech Republic?
Let’s take a look at how is the market research done in the Czech Republic. More than 20 years of experience in market research has opened my eyes and helped me to orient among both small and large suppliers. My long term experience in market research is almost evenly distributed between the boutique agency and the big giant. If I was a client doing research, I know who I would give it to or not. In order to make it easier for you, to facilitate some of your search and decision making, I would like to share my findings and tips with you.
For companies that can freely choose their own research vendor, it is better to work with someone who is “local” and needs to be in the same city. Someone who comes to you at any moment, discuss everything, set what you really need to know, as fast as you need and at reasonable prices. The longer you work with one such supplier, the more benefits you get from it. Maximum understanding of your business partners, the challenges and opportunities you face, and the maximum return on your investment in market research.
It is true that many clients are conducting surveys with large multinational companies for market research. Very often, they are branches of multinational corporations that are tied to decisions made by someone else at headquarters abroad without taking into account local needs and specifics. These clients cannot decide for themselves, they often “lack” something in these uniformed research projects, but they have a “global” prescription with whom to do the research. Quite often, they face the given and relentless templates applicable to the same research from Shanghai to Prague, and then it reminds the Czech saying that it slices like Bata manufactured shoes.
I am happy that lately there are more and more clients who come to the taste of small local boutique agencies and see their advantages. They want to maximize their expertise and the diversity of expert opinions of all those who ideally complement each other.
Do you have your own observations, comments or and questions? I would be happy to chat it over with you.
Lenka Harmon
Do you know what you can be sure of when you assign a survey into a small, boutique business?
- Deployment and determination to listen to you, how best to serve the client and make it through the process.
- You know who you are with from initial to the submission of a final report, a presentation or and workshop.
- Flexibility and creativity. Nontraditional approaches and innovations.
- Close cooperation, working side by side with the client.
- Deeper insight and understanding of client issues.
- Speed and speed of all processes.
- Affordability, you typically receive two or more surveys at the cost of one at a large agency.Emphasis always efficiency (the freedom to choose the best and most suitable solution and approaches for the client).
- Orientation and sense of detail. Clarity and care.
- Simplicity, clarity, practicality. Knows exactly what the client expects from the survey and from the outcomes.
- Awareness about more quality and proven suppliers in the market. Free choice and the choice of the best for subcontracting.
- Prerequisites and ability to approach, adapt and understand local conditions, customs, culture, locality also in case of foreign research.
- Local expertise, for example, focusing on “Czechness”
- Wide-angled point of view, adaptation to local settings, information uses in context and frames.
- Experience with implementation of results in marketing strategies. Linking different data sources. Strategic marketing and business thinking.
- Time and ability to prepare and implement workgroups over research settings or results, creative workshops, useful presentations.
- The enthusiasm and joy of having a nice job and working with you.