Market Research Blog

We’re keen to get a flavor of opinion re. Gov 2.0 prior to the Government 2010 event and it would be great if readers might complete this short 2-3 minute survey.

http://tinyurl.com/gov2survey

A B2B Barometer survey has been completed by Circle Research and reflects the opinion of more than 100 client side direct marketers - primarily in the B2B sector.

The responding companies had a cumulative turnover in excess of £2.6 billion and collectively control B2B marketing budgets of around £34 million. The survey was conducted online during June 2009 by specialist B2B research agency Circle Research (www.circle-research.com).

Key findings include:

Organisational budgets are down (48% report a planned decrease for the coming 12 months) but market research spend appears resilient. Most plan to maintain (31%) or increase (46%) their spend on research over the coming 12 months with only 23% reporting a planned decrease Three quarters (73%) expect the economic downturn to last between 12 and 24 months. One half (50%) however expect their own organisation to grow over this period suggesting that whilst publicly pessimistic, many are privately optimistic.

As marketers weather the storm there has been a clear shift in focus from the strategic to the tactical. 71% report that they have shifted spend to activities which directly generate revenues rather than those which build the brand.

Research organisations need to develop tools to measure the impact of social media. Three quarters (71%) report social media to be highly relevant to a B2B organisation and a similar number (70%) are boosting investment in this area.

Marketers continue to face challenges in reliably measuring return on investment with 49% reporting that they have no systems in place to measure ROI

The executive summary of the B2B Barometer can be downloaded from Circle Research’s website

Web 2.0 in government is about increased user interaction and more rapid delivery of services to citizens via web based systems.  The advantages of interactive web technology to government and politicians are beginning to be better understood. 

The Government 2010 series of live streamed conferences will bring together thought leaders to debate how government will embrace this-generation web technologies to create next-generation government.  Politicians, civil servants, bloggers, academics, researchers and technologists will take part in these events.  Our research sponsor will be YouGov. 

You can participate too: via free live streamed conferences or by attending the live events in person. 

Our first conference is planned for October 22nd in London.  Here is where you can watch the debate unfold. 

Sorry for not keeping this site as up-to-date as I’d like.  I run a multitude of client blogs as well as quite a few others of my own.  However, if you have content you would like to submit please just email me on jeff@NOSPAMquadco.co.uk (removing NOSPAM before sending).  Please write the post in the style of a blog post and I’ll consider it for publication.  Ideally I’m looking for web focused information regarding marketing research or marketing intelligence.

We’re delighted to announce that we’re organising another in our occasional series of day-long seminars…

Web 2.0 Business: Getting Up and Getting Out

This seminar is designed for companies active in the Web 2.0 – content producers, web application developers, digital production studios – who want to find out more about funding and developing their businesses. It will be ideal for owner-managers, agencies, software firms and digital departments.

A more strategic seminar than previous ones the day-long event will fall logically into 2 sections: Getting Up and Getting Out.

Getting Up will focus on funding, support, and start-up issues. We’ll have external speakers from a VC, a vendor start-up programme, and a funding-savvy CFO. Don’t expect the same-old. We’ll tell you straight what you need to know. In this section we’ll also be discussing both data and application mash-up technologies (sure ways to quick revenue).

Getting Out will provide tips and techniques for getting messages to export markets with examples of how we can use Web 2.0 technologies to support growth. In particular, we’ll focus on eMarketing to support export.

As before, the seminar will be led by Jeffrey Peel, Managing Consultant. The external speaker line-up will be featured here, on this page, over the coming weeks. So please bookmark the permalink.

As before, the event will be supported by InvestNI. Venue is to be confirmed but will be a central Belfast hotel or conference facility. We’ll feed and refresh you…coffee and muffins on arrival and a buffet lunch.

And we’re fixing the price, as before, at a credit-crunch-busting £95 + VAT.

Registration is simple. Simply fill in the registration form. You can register up to three delegates on each form. Once you have completed the form you will be taken to a PayPal page where you can pay.