Yes. The end! Okay, okay. Our market research company will expand on why you should share your project budget when inquiring about a research study.
The more information you can initially provide with a potential research partner, the better. This includes your specific project objectives, audience, timeline, and yes – budget (even if it is just an estimated amount).
There are a number of different factors that impact the final cost of market research. By understanding what your budget looks like upfront, the better a market research firm can craft a realistic proposal for your team and eliminate sticker shock.
To share your project budget with a market research company, or not to share? That is the question...we answer in this blog post.
Eliminating Market Research Sticker Shock
You take the time to contact a number of different market research companies for a particular service. You explain what you need from the market research, what type of market research you would like to conduct (surveys, focus groups, etc.), and the target audience you want to recruit.
RFPs or quotes from market research firms start to come in. After opening the proposals, your jaw drops to the floor. The quotes provided by the market research companies are far beyond your budget. You are defeated. There is no way you afford to conduct market research with a third-party, and don’t have the time or resources to conduct a study in-house.
You start to think…”Should I just cancel this project altogether?”
Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation? Trust us, there is a better way…
Whether you have a set budget or not, there is likely some expectation as to what you are thinking a market research study should cost. By sharing your budget with market research companies they are able to create a project plan with the exact methodology, audience size, and reporting available within your scope.
Creating a Custom Market Research Plan Based on Budget
A quality research study doesn’t have to drain your marketing budget. Depending on your audience, there are certain methodologies that can deliver impactful and actionable results for much cheaper than you might have been led on to believe.
The problem is, a full-service market research company has many different methodologies in their wheelhouse. Each study has their own pros and cons, including its costs. For example, while in-person interviews may provide the most in-depth and quality data, they are also more costly than online surveys.
The cost of an in-depth interview or a phone survey will also rise with the more responses you want, where audience size rarely causes a large budget increase when conducting surveys online.
A market research company can only provide a proposal based on the information they are given.
With no knowledge of budget constraints, a market research firm may recommend a project plan that is largely out of your scope.
If your marketing budget includes an estimated dollar spend for research, do not hesitate to share that with a third-party firm. Whether your budget for market research is $10K, $5K, or $1K – a trusted research company will provide a project proposal to best work within your limits.
We’ll Give it to Your Straight
As a market research company, we have partnered with a wide array of clients with project scopes both big and small. Market research does not have to be expensive to be effective. However, with more money, there are fewer restrictions on what is possible.
Drive Research will recommend the best approach with what budget you have available. This includes the approach, the number of respondents or participants, the length of the study, the incentive, and more.
If you have a large budget for research, you may be thinking, “If I share my budget first, market research companies will raise their prices to gain more of a profit.” This should not be a real fear, because there is no real risk.
If you have $10K to conduct an online survey with 400 respondents, our market research company will not take your money and run. We will provide you with the real cost of an online survey with this many responses. Then, Drive Research will recommend what additional methodologies you can do with the remaining spend (such as follow-up phone surveys or in-depth interviews).
Our research firm believes in partnering with our clients to deliver the best data, insights, and feedback with what money they have available.
Drive Research is a national market research company located in New York. Our team has the knowledge and tools to design a robust qualitative or quantitative market research study.
Interested in learning more about our market research services? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040