Recession-challenged consumers are buying less, looking for deals, or switching to different brands, product categories, or stores. Some are even changing long-held attitudes toward consumption. Lower sales means lower marketing budgets, which means that companies have less money for marketing research.

 
The Harvard Business School’s John Quelch recommended a few strategies last March in a blog entitled, “How to Use Market Research in a Recession” which resonated well within the marketing community:

 
Stay focused. Farsighted marketers focus their research on the products, brands, and markets that are key to their marketing strategy.

 
Stick with trusted partners. Marketers and research suppliers who trust each other and have established long-term relationships can jointly plan how to extract more insights and make better decisions based on lower expenditures.
Value experience and judgment. Marketing execs should tap the knowledge and intuition of managers and researchers who’ve lived through previous recessions.

 
Go online with a sprinkle of skepticism. Online research is cheap, fast, and the wave of the future. Tools like Zoomerang allow non-expert users to create custom surveys in minutes. As Quelch so aptly pointed out, “Taking the do-it-yourself approach rather than outsourcing to a market research firm is attractive in a cost-cutting era, but you risk getting no more than what you pay for.” Put another way, you may get what you pay for.

 
Keep an eye on the new consumer. No one has a perfect record of predicting the future, and the recession is making it harder for consumers to envision or articulate their needs. Even so, and despite budget pressures, savvy marketers devote a portion of their marketing research efforts to getting a handle on future changes in consumer behavior. Mark Penn’s tome, Microtrends, gives us 72 new marketing groups, such as ‘Wordy Women’ or ‘Late Breaking Dads’, not just ‘Soccer Moms’ or ‘Red-State Red-Necks.’

 
Research buyers and research providers have three basic options when responding to a recession, in terms of costs and deliverables:

 
More stuff for the same money:
This is the aggressive option for research agencies in the face of a recession. It means working better/smarter, or using better tools, to produce an improved product without increasing costs. Providing a ‘little’ extra—for example, a visual biplot map that was not included in the project specs—can go a long way.

 
Less stuff for less money:
This is a strong option for both clients and research providers in the face of a recession. Make suggestions. Jointly discuss ways the project could be revised without affecting the overall study objectives. Can the deliverables be cut back? Adjust sample size? Or perhaps make the interview shorter—time is money in the field.

 
The same stuff for less money:
Not a wise strategy. Lowering fees (or living with reduced margins) lowers the clients’ perception of the value of your expertise and good work. Not a good long-term strategy. Recessions end, eventually.

 
Michael Lieberman is founder and president of Multivariate Solutions, a statistical and marketing research consulting firm. He can be reached at +1 646.257.3794, or at michael@mvsolution.com.

Jon Montgomery is a partner at Hudson Group, a marketing research and consulting firm in New York City. He can be reached at +1 212 724 2566, or at jonmont@hudsongroup.net.