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Can tech democratise B2B market research?
Technology is helping make B2B market research easier and cheaper for everyone from corporates to SMEs, but will communications improve as a result?
The term market research may naturally cause marketers to think of the improved consumer insights it can generate. But a lot of market research isn’t about communicating directly to end consumers at all. Instead it is destined to help make products or services more appealing to other companies, and the landscape for B2B market research is changing a lot.
“Historically, the biggest issue with B2B market research has been that it’s slow, expensive and inaccurate,” says LinkedIn B2B Institute lead, Peter Weinberg. “It’s easy to source a panel of 18-35 year-olds and hard to source a panel of risk managers. Technology is changing that.”
The latest generation of B2B marketers can access more information than ever before and that could shake up how they behave.
“I would expect demand for B2B market research to grow over the next few years as technology platforms democratise access to B2B data. Only very large B2B companies could afford market research in the past, but as technology brings down the costs, more small and medium sized businesses will be able to conduct their own research,” says Weinberg.