April 2, 2014
Staying informed of trends and opportunities in your industry is an ongoing and time consuming process, but it is essential to measure the effectiveness of your organization’s brand, build competitive intelligence, and create sustainable and revenue-generating business strategies.
Market research is the systemic gathering of information about and analysis of the factors that influence an industry: emerging trends, customer behavior, brand positioning, product usage, etc. The data generated through market research is an invaluable tool for professionals working in brand marketing, competitive intelligence, or business strategy. Armed with information produced by sound research practices, companies can make data-driven decisions to ensure maximum return on investment (ROI) from their marketing spend, focus their efforts on the right market segments, and prepare for future developments and changes in the market.
What is Syndicated Research?
Syndicated research is research that is independently conducted, published and sold by a market research firm. The market research firm leverages its industry expertise and experience to determine the subject and scope of the study, including the questions asked and the populations targeted, and offers its results and analysis to multiple clients.
What is the Difference Between Custom and Syndicated Research?
Generally, market research firms offer their services in two forms: custom research and syndicated research. The basic difference between the two is who funds it and who has ownership of the data. Custom research is specifically conducted for and funded by a single client company, and the results are proprietary to the client; whereas the data from syndicated studies is owned by the research firm.
One of the key benefits of syndicated research is cost efficiency. Because the same research results are purchased by several companies, the cost of performing the research is spread out among those companies. Investing in syndicated research is an often a cost-effective solution for firms seeking to gain valuable market insight.
The Benefits of Syndicated Research
- Providing a Representative Overview of the Market: While custom research often focuses on a smaller subject/issue or population, good syndicated research ensures a representative sample of the overall market. It provides a clear representation of the players in the market, whether they are customers, clients, or businesses. The sample should be large enough and weighted appropriately to accurately provide relevant and actionable intelligence.
- Identifying Industry Trends: Because syndicated research is undertaken on a large scale, it often provides a macro-level overview of the issues facing a particular industry. Syndicated research is useful for organizations looking to understand the market landscape and their position in it, as well as those looking to gain a jump-start on issues likely to affect the industry in the future.
- Measuring Brand Awareness, Strength, and Perceptions: Similarly, this market overview perspective allows multiple companies who invest in syndicated research to see how their brands and product offerings are viewed among customers and potential customers compared to those of their competitors.
- Offering Competitive Intelligence. By offering insights on macro-level industry trends as well as a detailed understanding of specific issues within an industry or market, syndicated research can be a valuable source for competitive intelligence professionals seeking to gain information on how best to position their companies in a competitive market.
Syndicated Research Can Help Companies Develop Business-Building Strategies
The best syndicated research produces actionable insights. With representative information and analysis about a market, customer and behavior, product usage, emerging trends, and other industry topics, an organization can strengthen its position to plan specific strategies and take actions that will lead to growth and increased revenue. Organizations have the opportunity to gain that critical knowledge for maximum ROI by investing in syndicated research.
To learn more about our syndicated research, send us a note.
Linda York
Senior Vice President, Cogent Syndicated
Linda York is a senior vice president in the Cogent Syndicated division where she leads the Wealth Management Syndicated Research & Consulting practice. She has over 20 years of experience in financial services spanning responsibilities in finance, marketing and business strategy. Before joining Escalent, Linda was the practice director of Syndicated Research at Cogent Research, where she managed the product development and execution process for syndicated research projects and consulted with dozens of clients in the retail and institutional wealth management space. She earned an MBA in marketing from the University of Connecticut and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Mount Holyoke College. Linda is an avid equestrian and a two-time finisher of the Boston Marathon.
