When to Outsource Market Research vs. Keeping It In-House: A Decision-Making Framework
Market research has proven time and time again to be the backbone for many agencies—it helps clients shape strategies, helps inform big decisions, and helps clients stay ahead of the competition. Before you begin your market research deep dive, there is a question to answer first. Can it be done in-house or is it something that should be outsourced to an external firm.
In this article we will look at both in-house and outsourced market research and outline some key players: cost, timing, efficiency, and overall reliability of the results.
What to Consider
Questionnaire Expertise - Not only is being an expert in the project category important, but expertise when it comes to creating a questionnaire is also of high importance. Are you running a short, straightforward study that can easily be run in house? Or is this a more complicated study with various question types and multiple objectives that need to be addressed? If you selected the ladder, consider working with professionals who are specialized in the category.
If the study only consists of short urgent questions that will work as a gut check, then running an in-house survey can be a safe and affordable option.
If important strategic positions are going to be based on the data, then the importance of working with a market research professional is crucial to providing accurate and actionable results.
Respondent Bias - Perhaps one of the most important things to consider is respondent bias. Making sure the questionnaire is not written intentionally in a tone that allows you to acquire the results you want. This can lead to serious data quality issues and questions arising about your results. If your questionnaire is short containing straight forward questions it may be safe to run the study in-house. However, make sure to be aware of leading questions, as opposed to leaving room for them to o objectively answer. (How much did you love your experience when working with Brand A? VS. How would you describe your experience when working with Brand A?)
If you plan on creating an in-depth questionnaire that asks a series of detailed questions, and you find that your team does not have experience in creating questionnaires that deliver accurate and unbiased results, consider outsourcing to a market research firm.
Time – Consider whether you/your team have the bandwidth to take on additional work. Conducting in-house research includes spending time writing a questionnaire, programming, checking the program and confirming the east of the respondent experience, cleaning the data by reviewing respondent level data during the fielding process to avoid inaccurate data that leads to re-fielding, and not to mention the additional analyzes that come once the study is out of field.
Cost/Resources – Cost always seems to be of upmost importance. If you believe in-house to be the most cost effective, consider the hidden costs such as training, technology advancements, and fielding suppliers as well as the value of your time.
Speed – The benefit of working with an external firm, particularly smaller firms, is that your survey is always their top priority allowing your team to focus on other important deliverables of the project. If you don’t have the resources to delegate a team to focus solely on the survey design and implementation process, consider outsourcing to an external firm.
Quality Respondents – The quality of respondents is something that can be tricky to find. Unfortunately, some respondents will intentionally select answers based on what they think you’d like to hear in order to qualify for the study and receive the incentive. An additional issue is AI generated responses or bots that give falsified answers in order to cash in on any incentives given.
To avoid these errors, it is important to delegate a few hours of each day to review responses as they come in, rather than at the end of the study once it is out of field. If you do not have the flexibility to perform this task daily, consider outsourcing. Additionally, outsourcing to a research firm who has experience reviewing and removing poor data quality responses will save you time and money as they most likely already have red herrings and other automated data quality checks in place on top of their daily manual review of the respondent level data.
Wrap-up
After reviewing the key considerations above, decide which market research option is best for you. If this specific study calls important strategic decision making, complex analysis, or high-stake results, consider outsourcing to a Market Research firm in order to gain a more experienced consultation that results in extensive insights.
If your project contains low stakes or is amongst a client base that you have the contact information for and can accurately analyze the data on your own, you could consider doing it in-house. That being said, make sure that you have properly educated employees to take charge of the study in order for it to be done efficiently and effectively.
