In-House or Third-Party Market Research

Understanding the customer behavior and gaining the crucial decision-making powers is essential for any business owner. Market research is cited to be the key and definitive solution to collect essential market data and competitor analysis for profitable business plans and marketing strategies. When it comes to choosing the best way to generate this information, companies are often confused between in-house and third party business analysis. While organizations can have total control over the in-house analysts, third-party experts have bountiful of professional experience. This dilemma needs definitive answers in terms of ideal resource, which is suitable for that company and the products or services that they are promoting.

In-House Vs. Paid Industry Research

Marketing research reports have become the need of the hours. They are equally significant for large enterprises and budding business startups. Both the aforementioned techniques of collecting market data have advantages and disadvantages of their own. In-house analysis is cost effective and it gives you the freedom of choosing the best people to work on the project. You can determine the skill level and expertise of the chosen researchers and check if it is necessary for the kind of project they are working on. Third party researchers on the other hand are trained professionals; with appropriate knowledge about the task they are assigned. They have access to different resources from outside and within the organization, which strengthens data collection.

Things to Consider

No matter which way you choose, awareness about all the internal and external factors affecting your business is the ultimate goal. Before choosing any one of the two, business owners need to consider several serious pointers. These factors are essential considering their impact on the end result of the research project. Following are some of the pointers that hold utmost importance in this crucial selection process:

Things to Consider in Market Research

• Savings: As mentioned before, in-house analysis is cost effective. Companies can utilize the saved money in buying professional tools and developing mobile apps or online questionnaires. However, one needs to be sure that the dedicated resource people are qualified enough to collect all the necessary data and compile accurate report.
• Total Costs: Although saving is an essential aspect, learning about total cost of the project is equally essential. Apart from financial concerns, this cost includes the resources and time engaged with the research work and its effect on the regular operations in the organization. Utilizing a fleet of knowledgeable researchers is not always feasible for some companies.

Objectivity: Paid resource brings freshness in terms of perspective and gives objectivity to the entire market research report. Especially, during gathering data about employee satisfaction and studying internal factors of the organization. Hence, one needs to check whether the chosen in-house team is able to maintain objectivity and essential ethics.