News
Challenges of Growth and Innovation
Budapest, 4 July, 2011 – Market research turnover was 17,1 billion HUF in Hungary according to the data collection carried out by the Society of Hungarian Professional Market Research Agencies (PPT) in cooperation with the Association of Hungarian Market Research Organizations (PMSZ). The performance of the Hungarian MR industry has been unchanged for three years and as to expectations, 2011 will not bring significant growth either due to the unfavourable economic environment.
Trends of MR industry in Hungary are in line with the global experiences. There is a decline in market research spend all over the world nevertheless, the first encouraging marks have already appeared in countries with mature research markets and growing economy. Today dynamic growth of MR industry is limited to the emerging markets (Asia Pacific, Latin America) only. Under such conditions, the Hungarian MR industry appreciates the 17 billion market size unchanged for three years even if it means to a certain extent a narrowing business field in real terms due to inflation.
Majority of research – 82 per cent – was commissioned by domestic clients in Hungary in 2010 which does not differ significantly from the global proportion. Hungarian MR agencies perform commissions first of all using their own capacity - the proportion of either domestic or international subcontracting is relatively low (5 and 9 per cent, respectively).
Nearly half of the commissions – 46 per cent – comes from the manufacturing industries. Amongst them, the FMCG market is the most extended with a 38 per cent proportion which is significantly higher in Hungary than the global 25 per cent average. Also the media and the telecom sector account for a large part of spends with a 14 and 10 per cent share, respectively.
Quantitative research methods account for the vast majority of spend with a 82 per cent proportion in 2010 with a slight decline as globally, while qualitative research accounts for 12 per cent of the pie and the remaining 6 per cent includes desk and secondary research.
As far as advances in technology are concerned, Hungarian market research follows international trends. Proportion of face to face interviewing declined from 62 to 42 per cent compared to 2004, due to several reasons such as the worsening conditions of home interviewing, the less cooperating respondents and also to the shift to cheaper techniques of data collection. At the same time the 42 per cent proportion of face to face research in Hungary still exceeds significantly the global average of 13 per cent in which the presence of online research and online traffic/audience measurement is much more pregnant. Anyway the high proportion of face to face research in the CEE countries is not uncommon, like in the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Poland.
The proportion of telephone interviewing decreased to 15 percent in Hungary in 2010 – five years ago it was 22 per cent; the decline of this research method is experienced globally. Telephone interviewing has the highest penetration among the European countries in the Switzerland and in Germany (with a proportion of 46 and 39 per cent). There is a sharp backlog in Hungary in the field of online research: the proportion in research spend was 6 per cent in 2010 – not more than the quarter of the global average. Nevertheless, the Hungarian market research agencies are prepared for online surveys even though clients still seem to be reluctant about this method because of its novelty.
Greater part of research turnover (51 per cent) comes from ad hoc research – the proportion of this segment is decreasing (it was 53 in 2006 and 58 per cent in 2003 in Hungary). It means that continuous research accounts for larger and larger part of the pie.
Clients’ expectations from the research sector are continuously increasing despite of the reduced budgets; they want cost-effective, fast and high quality results with innovative solutions. The Hungarian market research industry meets these challenges among others with the adoption and the promotion of international industry standards and guidelines, especially the ISO 20252 for market research and also with the qualifications based on these requirements. Market research professionals are prepared to provide adequate information and solutions for their clients to support their growth and to successfully manage the challenges of their markets and business models.