US Domestic Insights and Data Analytics revenue totaled approximately USD$48 billion in 2020, growing 3.8%. This compares to the more robust growth rates of 8% and nearly 7% experienced in prior years, but it still represents an impressive outcome considering the overall U.S. market GDP contracted 3.5% during 2020. This impressive performance was thanks to double-digit increases posted by companies operating in three sectors: Self Service Platforms (35.4% growth), Enterprise Feedback Management (21.8%) and Consulting (21.2%). Companies operating in Data Analytics (6% growth) and Social Listening & Communities (6.5% growth) also helped buoy the market. The more traditional players in the space, defined as “Established Marketing Research” agencies and providers of “Industry Reports & Research” posted revenue losses of 1.2% and 4.3% respectively in 2020. Combined, these two segments make up just over half of the total Insights & Analytics marketplace tracked in this study. Although the Established Marketing Research segment is contracting amid growth in other industry disciplines, at 37% share it continues to represent the largest portion of the Insights & Analytics market.
A closer look at the segments within the U.S. Insights & Analytics market reveals that 2020 growth was not distributed evenly across the various disciplines. Trends in relative share and YOY growth indicate the Established Marketing Research segment (aka Traditional Full Service), along with its similar ‘traditional’ segment Industry Reports & Research, are not benefiting from the broad Insights & Analytics expansion of activity experienced by other segments.
These trends reinforce the argument building in recent years that U.S. businesses are demonstrating an ever-increasing demand for customer-focused, fact-based decision-making capabilities that enable continuous and rapid learning at the speed of business decision-making. But a decreasing share of this activity is being delivered by the traditional market research segment. With consistent substantial YOY growth in, Self-Service Platforms, Enterprise Feedback Management, Digital Data Analytics, and Social Listening & Communities, growth in these segments supports the much-observed trends of …
- Insights tasks increasingly being completed by brand’s internal resources rather than ‘farmed out’ to external agencies,
- Insights tasks increasingly being completed internally by non-researchers with user-intuitive tools, and
- ‘Roughly right’ and speed of insights being prioritized over precision and depth.
It also indicates the industry’s overall expansion is increasingly reliant upon the …
- application of technology-enabled subscription ‘platforms’
- listening to existing (social media) customer voice rather than gathering bespoke ‘asking’ customer voice
- quick, agile, cost-effective techniques
In summary, the Insights & Analytics industry was resilient in 2020, evolving products and services to meet the needs of a market that faced considerable barriers to growth. Business owners and professionals adapted plans and methods quickly, as not only did their tools and techniques have to evolve, but the questions being asked and the populations being studied were changing at a pace not seen before. Indications are that 2021 may represent a recovery for lagging sectors, and continued growth for others, as leaders report strong pipelines, though with a challenged labor market. The world and its people continue to experience society-altering changes, and these changes are being tracked and communicated by professionals using both traditional and revolutionary approaches.
Author: Melanie Courtright, with contributions from Michael Brereton, MSU as well as ESOMAR, Outsell and Diane Bowers
