This post explores the differences between market research solutions and how to make the right choice for your unique research objectives.
Brands have a choice between market research agencies, market research platforms, and point solutions when it comes to their insights needs. Below, we'll walk you through key considerations to keep in mind when selecting a research provider, and how to go about switching from an agency to a platform for a more modernized approach.
Table of Contents:
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Should you choose a platform or an agency for market research?
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How to choose the right market research platform for your needs
Market research studies: platforms vs. agencies
There are several key differences between market research platforms and traditional market research agencies—both with unique pros and cons. Below are a few key areas where their differences stand out:
Timing
Timing is one of the major differences between market research platform projects and projects conducted through a market research. Most platforms use automation to speed up manual processes like survey programming, data cleaning, charting analysis, and reporting. This means researchers don’t need to manually update documents, sift through open-ended responses, build charts, or put together a report from a scratch. Platform users save substantial time at each stage of the research process, speeding up the overall timeframe of an insights project. Today's brands need to make decisions at the same pace the market is moving, leading many to opt for platforms for real-time insights.
Users interested in using market research agencies should confirm automation capacities and timing expectations upfront. Oftentimes, traditional agencies will have dedicated teams for each part of the research process—each with its own dedicated timing expectations.
Budget
Not only do traditional agencies have dedicated team timelines, those teams also come with separate costs. Each team (data programming, data processing, data collection, charting, etc.) charges their own fee which get bundled up into a total price for an agency client.
Most research platforms charge a transparent fee for access to the software (full-service or DIY). This helps keep budgeting simple and concise; clients don’t have to wonder where their money is going when they pay for access to a research platform. Because there are fewer individual teams and resources involved with market research platforms, the overall budget tends to be much lower than agency fees.
Customization
If standardized questionnaire templates, data crosstabs, and slide presentations aren’t your style, market research platforms might be a better solution for you. Research platforms allow users to customize their survey in seconds, add or delete questions, incorporate their own brand colors and logos, visualize data in a variety of charting options, and display their findings through interactive dashboards. Any changes a client wants to make can be made in a matter of seconds, rather than having to communicate with an agency team every time they wish to make a desired edit.
Research platforms also make it simple to create a variety of charts/dashboards that cater to specific teams. For example, if the marketing team wants to see brand awareness data and the sales team is only interested in the sales numbers for that quarter, it’s quick to generate different, customized versions of a final report. quantilope even allows teams to apply filters to entire dashboards for quick, niche glances at the data.
Expertise
To run an advanced study, such as one with an advanced methodology or complex logic, brands often have to lean on agency experts to lead the efforts. These are experts with degrees in statistics and behavioral science who know how the methods work from back to front.
With research platforms, most of the complex method programming is automated, allowing users of any level expertise to run advanced studies in-house. With platform software, you don’t need to have a statistics degree or know how advanced methods work to be able to capture advanced insights. Access to platform tools allows teams to make better business decisions grounded on scientific data findings— even if you’re not a scientist.
Collaboration
Traditional market research agencies can be exactly that—traditional. This often means documents passed back and forth between teams, leading to version control issues and miscommunication.
Platforms remove those mixed signals—allowing research teams to collaborate directly through tagged comments, real-time questionnaire changes on a single version, and shared report links. Multiple team members can be working in the platform at once, answering each other’s comments/questions and building charts that all feed into one central report. This speeds up the timing to final insights, and thus, faster business decisions.
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Should you choose a platform or an agency for market research?
It all depends!
Choose a research platform if...
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You need quantitative research insights fast and want to review data in real-time
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You want customization for your survey programming, charting, and reporting
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You want to leverage advanced methodologies but don’t have the background/expertise
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You want to own your own research process using a DIY/self-service approach
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You want to work with a team of researchers yet remain hands-on in the research process
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You're working on a budget but can’t sacrifice consumer intelligence metrics
Choose a research agency if...
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You aren’t under any time constraint for insights
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You have a large budget to dedicate to research
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You don’t need access to the data until field is complete
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You prefer to stick to traditional ways of research—even if it means extended timelines and standardized outputs
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You prefer to hand off the entire research process to another team (though many platforms do come with fully-managed services as well)
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You’re looking to run extensive focus groups or in-depth interviews
How to choose the right market research platform for your needs
While most researchers are aware of the traditional agencies that have been around for many years, there are now a wide array of market research platform providers which can make it an overwhelming choice for insights teams and researchers.
So how do you transition from a research agency to an in-house platform?
Here are a few features to keep in mind when narrowing down your choice of a market research platform, should you choose to go that route:
Ease of survey setup
Setting up a survey requires a lot of thought and attention to detail. You’ll want to look for a research platform that makes this setup process simple—whether that’s a pre-programmed library of questions and advanced research methods, survey templates to use as a foundation, drag + drop functionality of modules, easy customizations, and a simple way to connect respondent panels.
Advanced methodologies/solutions
Aside from basic descriptive metrics like usage and attitude or behavioral questions, vet survey platforms for advanced method and solution capabilities. Will you be able to include a MaxDiff or TURF analysis with ease? Does the platform support tracking research? Will a Segmentation study take weeks and require a lot of pre-existing knowledge? These are all important elements to consider to ensure you’re investing in a research platform well worth your budget and one that fits your specific needs.
Reporting/Visualization
To bring your study altogether, you’ll want a platform with strong data visualization options. Look for platforms that automate the reporting/charting process, include automated statistical testing, and generate shareable dashboard links.
Real-time data access
When selecting a research platform, make sure you’ll have access to the data in real-time as respondents complete your survey. This is one of the major benefits of a platform over a market research agency—the latter of which often doesn't allow you to get a first look at the data until all respondents have completed your questionnaire. Real-time data access lets you get a head start on your analysis, resulting in faster decision-making.
Research support
Insights teams will vary in terms of the support they’re looking for in a research vendor. Some teams might be looking to completely hand off their research objectives and let a research team handle it, while others are hoping to stay more hands-on with the research process. Look for a platform that suits your specific needs—one that has a dedicated team of researchers for fully managed services, one that is DIY and lets you take complete control in-house, or one that combines a little of each approach.
Cross-team collaboration
When setting up and analyzing a research study, efficiency is key. Look for a platform that allows your team to cross-collaborate on the survey and analytics process at the same time, without version control issues or user limitations. Features like comment tagging, multi-user access for simultaneous editing, and collaborative report links for storing charts can save a huge amount of time and avoid miscommunications or back-and-forth delays.
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Related: 12 Innovative Market Research Companies & Agencies to Consider in 202
Advantages of using quantilope for market research
Below are a few of quantilope's key differentiators compared to other research platforms and traditional agency vendors:
Speed
quantilope’s platform prioritizes speed at every step of the end-to-end research process. With a variety of automated features and an Integrated AI Research Partner, quinn, research teams can go from business question to business decision in a matter of days.
quinn supports everything from survey setup to final reporting, all with a simple chat-based prompt. Ask quinn for guidance on the best advanced methods to use, which questions to ask, and how to visualize results. quinn will even build final charts and entire dashboards on your behalf, leaving you more time to focus on strategic initiatives.
Accessible methodologies and solutions
Even those with no market research background can leverage any of quantilope’s 15 advanced methodologies like Conjoint analysis, Key Driver analysis, and Segmentation. Drop any of these methods into your survey and start collecting advanced insights from your target market. With quantilope, you don’t need a degree in behavioral science or statistics to benefit from these advanced method data insights.
quantilope also offers a large number of dedicated research solutions, including a brand health tracking approach built on a proven framework from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute.
Customization
When running a study on quantilope's platform, start with a templated solution or build it entirely from scratch (if that's your style). All studies are completely customizable, even if you start with a pre-built template. Adapt your study to fit your own brand language, colors, logos, and more.
Innovation
quantilope's platform is constantly evolving as a result of its digital innovation hub, quantilabs. quantilabs allows clients to access and test product developments before they're released to the market (such as quantilope's Ad Optimizer!)
As the market evolves and researchers needs change, quantilope's platform changes right along with them.
Customer support
When you need support on quantilope's platform, you're directed to real human researchers—not salespeople. Many of quantilope's research consultants come from agencies like Ipsos and Kantar, using their agency expertise to provide modernized support. quantilope's team, alongside the platform's AI Research Partner quinn, ensure researchers have always-on support throughout the entire research lifecycle.
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To learn more about quantilope’s automated Consumer Intelligence Platform, get in touch below!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do you transition from a research agency to an in-house platform?
Transitioning to a research platform typically includes an audit of your current research objectives, onboarding your team with basic platform training, and migrating tracking studies or ad-hoc projects.
Learn more about moving a tracker to quantilope's automated platform.
What are the top reasons customers switch from a research agency to a platform?
The primary reasons researchers switch to a market research platform are dramatically faster turnaround times, lower overall costs, and complete, hands-on control over research design and data. Platforms also eliminate multi-week agency wait times by automating data collection and generating real-time analytics.
Can a technology platform fully replace a market research agency?
Yes, if you choose an end-to-end Consumer Intelligence Platform like quantilope that automates every step of the research lifecycle from questionnaire design to visualization.
With hands-on survey creation, direct access to fieldwork, automated reporting, and an integrated AI Research Partner to support you at every stage, quantilope provides agency-level rigor in one centralized, manageable location.
How long does it take to go from agency-led research to running it yourself on a platform?
Thanks to quantilope’s intuitive, DIY nature, teams can onboard and begin building their own studies almost immediately. Instead of waiting months for traditional agency deliverables, quantilope enables you to field projects and gather results in as little as 1 to 5 business days.
Do you need specialized research experts on staff to adopt an in-house platform?
No, modern self-serve platforms like quantilope feature intuitive drag-and-drop builders, pre-configured methodology templates, and AI guidance that empower marketers and brand managers to run advanced research without a data science background.
How do in-house platforms ensure data quality compared to traditional agencies?
Leading platforms like quantilope integrate directly with vetted global panel providers and enforce automated, real-time quality checks to scrub fraudulent responses, speeders, and bots out of the final dataset.
quantilope's Pre-Survey Defense even detects suspicious/fraudulent respondents before they enter a survey.
