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To judge by newspaper comments, you’d think the country was being

run by a new and dangerous form of government called the focus

group.

Never mind that those newspapers are themselves major users of focus

groups, or that groups have been used to guide marketing decisions for

years.

Focus or discussion groups are among the stock in trade of the

qualitative (qual) research industry, along with in-depth interviews,

accompanied shopping trips and the like. Qual’s role is to provide

insights into why people think and act as they do.

In this year’s Marketing survey, qual accounts for pounds 95.8m, or 16%

of total turnover. The figure a year ago was 14%. This is not

necessarily a long-term shift in the balance between quant and qual,

however. Practitioners such as Bill Pegram of Pegram Walters insist that

the balance can shift unpredictably, year to year. His own company

conducted pounds 1.3m-worth more qualitative work in 1997 than in 1996,

but total turnover rose by only pounds 600,000.

Within the total qual figure of pounds 95.8m, it is likely that 75%-80%

is consumer, rather than business-to-business. We can’t be sure,

however, because some companies were unable to provide a breakdown.

Most of the big companies saw a significant increase in their income

from qual work. This is especially true of Research International (RI),

which added almost pounds 3m to pip The Research Business International

(TRBI) to the top slot.

RI director Daniel Dumoulin says part of its growth came from the

recognition that it needed to expand its staff, particularly at a senior

level, to exploit the opportunities available to it. RI was also

successful in selling international and global projects.

And, in truth, TRBI didn’t have the best year. Its turnover from qual,

the major part of its income, increased by pounds 1m, but that’s mainly

because its figures this time include those of sister company Maritz

Research.

’The turnover figure for TRBI itself has been pretty flat,’ admits

managing director Laurence Curtis, ’but we have put a lot more effort

into becoming more profitable. We have been much more critical about our

overheads, and about controlling our costs to make sure our budgets are

met.’

He blames the figures on staff changes over the last couple of

years.

Departures have included that of chairman Wendy Gordon, who has set up

her own consultancy, Good Thinking. ’People like Wendy were very high

profile,’ adds Curtis, ’but we have a number of senior management like

Richard Pike, Judy Jones and Janet Kiddle - ex-Saatchi & Saatchi, now

head of our international qual - who are very well known in their

turn.’

Curtis echoes the views expressed by others in the quantitative side of

the industry (page 52) - that the need today is to add value: ’Everyone

can do good interviews, everyone can do CATI (computer-assisted

telephone interviews). You have to have an intellectual advantage.’

Despite being one of the fastest growing of the bigger agencies, qual

specialist Hauck Research International failed to improve on its

position at seven in this table. An interesting development, however, is

the launch of a retail division, POP Shop. According to managing

director Liz Hauck, it will offer integrated research, qual and quant,

across all point-of-purchase environments.

In this year’s expanded table, there are a number of new high entry

names, including Isis and Flamingo, two companies highly focused on

international work, and RDS. The latter added what it claims is a unique

qual children’s monitor which reports quarterly on five- to 16-year-olds

as consumers.

This year it appointed Mike Hague-Moss to set up a quant division.

Crucible sees its way forward as developing specialised centres of

excellence, similar to those it operates in retailing, direct mail, and

the youth market. ’Our centres of excellence growth strategy is built

upon our philosophy that consumers are consultant experts. This means

treating them as active partners and not passive respondents.’

This revolutionary thought is echoed by Abacus Research, which is

involved in both quant and qual. Managing director Jill Carter says that

research is at last beginning to recognise respondents as real

people.

’This should give research a new lease of life,’ she adds. ’In

qualitative research, the old format of 1.5 hour focus groups is

over-worked and under-achieving. Much more can be accomplished by

workshops or consultations, involving participants in activities and

role-play, to take a fresh look at their behaviour and

decision-making.’

Top 40 qualitative research companies

Rk  Consultancy                 Consumer   Business-to-         Total

                                (pounds)       business   qualitative

                                               (pounds)      (pounds)

1   Research International     9,417,000      1,046,000    10,463,000

2   The Research Business

    International              8,223,000      1,869,000    10,092,000

3   Taylor Nelson Sofres*      1,746,000        873,000     6,985,000

4   NOP Research Group         3,371,000      2,023,000     5,394,000

5   The Added Value Company    4,361,000        100,000     4,461,000

6   Pegram Walters Group       2,851,000      1,247,000     4,099,000

7   Hauck Research

    International              3,753,000        134,000     3,887,000

8   MBL Group                  3,696,000        181,000     3,877,000

9   Isis Research              3,019,000              -     3,019,000

10  Davies Riley-Smith

    Maclay                     2,772,000              -     2,772,000

11  RDS Group                        N/a            N/a     2,500,000

12  Martin Hamblin                   N/a            N/a     2,344,000

13  Flamingo                   2,274,000              -     2,274,000

14  Millward Brown                   N/a            N/a     1,916,000

15  Leapfrog Research

    & Planning                 1,691,000        187,900     1,879,000

16  MORI                             N/a            N/a     1,637,000

17  Total Research               325,000      1,302,000     1,627,000

18  Business & Market

    Research                     854,000        723,000     1,577,000

19  Crucible Research          1,239,000        310,000     1,549,000

20  Navigator                  1,118,000        298,000     1,416,000

21  The Qualitative

    Consultancy                1,251,000        111,000     1,362,000

22  Infratest Burke Group        981,000        280,000     1,262,000

23  BMRB International           873,000        291,000     1,164,000

24  Business Devt.

    Research Consultants         597,000        537,000     1,134,000

25  Hall & Partners            1,060,000              -     1,060,000

26  IPSOS-RSL                        N/a            N/a     1,023,000

27  BPRI                         168,000        841,000     1,009,000

28  The Research Quorum          336,000        672,000     1,009,000

29  Quaestor Research &

    Mktg Strategists             715,000        146,000       861,000

30  DVL Smith                        N/a            N/a       839,600

31  Opinion Research

    Corporation                  258,000        517,000       775,000

32  Scantel International        191,000        382,000       572,000

33  Plus Four Market

    Research                     451,000         98,000       549,000

34  City Research Group          105,000        419,000       524,000

35  Parker Tanner Woodham        444,000         72,000       516,000

36  MVA                          383,000        128,000       510,000

37  FDS International            338,000        169,000       506,000

38  Marketing Sciences           407,000         90,000       497,000

39  Vox Pops International       391,000         98,000       489,000

40  MSS Marketing Research       276,000        184,000       459,000

*In addition to qualitative research in the consumer and

business-to-business sectors, Taylor Nelson Sofres claims almost pounds

4.4m in the healthcare sector. Isis allocates similar healthcare work

to consumer.