IS A FIELD MANAGEMENT SERVICE RIGHT FOR YOU?
by Janet Hunt, Project Support, Fieldwork Network

Times used to be much simpler.  Used to be when you called someone and they weren’t home, the phone just kept ringing.  If they were on the other line, you got a busy signal.  Then came voicemail, followed by call waiting.  Soon, we saw mobile phones, call forwarding, e-mail, the Internet, text messaging, videoconferencing, web casting, Blackberries…the list goes on, and almost incredibly, still continues to grow. 

Communications have changed.  Times have changed.  As a society, we have become far busier people. The very wave of technology that was supposed to make our professional lives “easier” has instead just raised the bar and increased expectations across virtually every sector of the working world.

As you well know, marketing research is not immune from these raised expectations.  The landscape of our industry has changed a lot.  End users have increased their demands, with less time and fewer dollars than ever before.  Long gone are the days of the simple focus group project.  Expectations of a moderator’s areas expertise have broadened to include ethnographies, homework assignments, shop-alongs, ideation sessions, video diaries, and much more.  It is difficult and time-consuming to keep everything straight, especially when handling several projects simultaneously across multiple locations.

What Can a Field Management Service Do For You?

Firms like mine, the Fieldwork Network, seek to give the busy researcher the dual gifts of time and peace of mind.  Field management services act as a “communications funnel” for complex multiple market studies.  Rather than your having to spend time managing five or six different facilities simultaneously, it may at times become beneficial for you to partner with one person who will be your key point of communication – and have this person prepare one multi-market bid, provide combined daily recruiting updates, and send you one invoice at the conclusion of the project.  In a complicated world where time is at a premium, partnering with a company like this can be a welcome breath of fresh air.

What About International Studies?

Technology has made global communication and global marketing – and hence global marketing research – not only possible, but expected by end users.  These people are discovering that it’s a small world after all, and they want to include the entire world of opinions in their studies. 

Here at the Fieldwork Network the demand for project management at the international level has tripled in just the past two years.  As a result, we have had to greatly expand our resources in Europe, plus we have opened up a fully operational branch in Sydney, Australia.  And we know this is just the beginning.

Research is being conducted at such an enormous and increasing pace all across the globe that it’s a challenge for any of us to keep up. For example, while most requests here at the Network naturally involve our project managers being called upon to manage multi-market projects, today the individual markets might be Tokyo, Milan, New Delhi, New York and Paris!  The mindset – in society and in the microcosm of market research – has been, “If you’re not thinking globally, you’re outdated.”

This crash course in International Business is happening here at our company as we become flooded with global project management requests.  No doubt you are also experiencing the world shrinking right before your eyes as communication and technology bring our ideas and our research closer together.  If not, don’t worry; you will be soon.

The Payoff

Field management services like the Fieldwork Network offer busy researchers the gifts of time and peace of mind by effectively managing multiple-market – and international – research projects.  These project managers deal with the logistics, coordination and troubleshooting at the facility level which frees up valuable time for the researcher to concentrate on the essence of their project. 

In turn, researchers typically pay a per-market project management fee, generally around $400 to $500 per market.  Here at the Fieldwork Network, this fee is waived for any Fieldwork market in which a study may run.  Per-market costs may be slightly higher for international work, but many believe the additional cost is worth it in light of the time saved and the peace of mind received.

You should consider taking advantage of the opportunities offered by field management services that can oversee your multi-market – and global – studies. How you deal with these new challenges will in large part determine your level of success in the future.

Janet Hunt is Project Support handling a variety of overall business dealings for the Fieldwork Network. Janet came to Fieldwork in July 2006, after four years at ingather research in Denver, as Vice President/General Manager.  Prior to ingather, Janet worked as a Research Associate at BBC Research and Consulting, and as Accounting and Research Coordinator for the Cleveland Browns and the National Football League’s Cleveland Browns Trust, the organization responsible for returning NFL football to the Cleveland market.

Janet is a graduate of Baldwin-Wallace College, with degrees in Sport Management and Business Administration with a focus on Marketing. She also holds a masters degree in Finance from the University of Colorado at Denver.

In addition, Janet previously served on the Board of Directors for the American Marketing Association’s Colorado Chapter (2001-2004), and will be serving once again as Treasurer for the upcoming 2007-2008 board year. She also has Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) at the Expert Skill Level from the Marketing Research Association.

Janet can be reached at janeth@network.fieldwork.com