How to Evaluate Market Research Reports

2. Who conducted the research?

Companies have two options for obtaining research – do it themselves or use a third party, such as a market research company.  As we have discussed, our concern in this tutorial is with information provided by someone else.  Additionally, we focus on research that is not specific to a client but is available to nearly anyone as either freely distributed reports (e.g., CPRR), snips of larger reports (e.g., results presented in trade magazines) or for-fee research studies (e.g., commercially available research).

When evaluating a report, the reader should take note of who is responsible for carrying out the research.  Often research is more credible if the company producing the report has experience conducting studies, such as market research companies.  Of course, anyone can call themselves a market research company, so to determine whether the organization conducting the research is reputable may require some investigation.  Generally this can be done through the organization’s website.  Even better, top notch research companies often identify who within their organization was principally responsible for the report (i.e., author).  Looking up this person’s background should show whether he/she possesses the experience needed to produce a credible report.

Research studies published by organizations whose main job is not market research should be held to a higher level of scrutiny.  This is especially the case for a CPRR or research undertaken by groups who are not thought of as having skills in market research, such as industry associations or business consultants.  This is not to say these groups are not capable of producing good research, many do.  But for organizations that do not do research on a day-to-day basis the bar for establishing their credibility is much higher.