GRIT

Greenbook Research
Industry Trends Report

About GRIT Reports

For two decades, Greenbook Research Industry Trends (GRIT) Reports have provided a comprehensive fact base of important trends in the insights, analytics, and research industry. The information and analyses in these reports help brands to grow their insights practices, suppliers to grow their revenue, and insights professionals to grow their careers.

 

Each year, Greenbook publishes at least two GRIT Reports. The Business and Innovation Report explores the evolving industry structure and trends that shape and are shaped by insights strategy, such as innovation. The Insights Practice Report focuses on trends in approaches, methodologies, and skills that affect the success or failure of insights work.

 

As the most comprehensive source of information and guidance on insights trends, GRIT Reports provide businesses and individuals, buyers and suppliers, and every kind of insights professional with necessary tools to plan strategies for growth.

Who should read GRIT?

Anyone who works with, manages, or uses deliverables from research, analytics, or insights will benefit from reading GRIT Reports. However, the reports are as comprehensive and detailed as the audience is broad, and not every topic will be equally engaging to every individual. Even if you find every topic to be compelling, it is not necessary to read the reports from cover-to-cover or in section order. To start your exploration of the world of GRIT, click on one of the following roles to find the entry points that may be most engaging for you: [button functionality coming soon]

GRIT Editions

GRIT Insights Practice Reports

GRIT Insights Practice Reports

This report focuses on trends in approaches, methodologies, and skills that affect the success or failure of insights work. The latest edition covers emerging methodologies, the evolving insights professional, industry buzz topics, and more – plus expert commentaries for each topic.

See latest report
GRIT Business & Innovation Reports

GRIT Business & Innovation Reports

This report explores the evolving industry structure and trends that shape insights strategy. The latest edition covers opinions about and adoption of AI, unmet needs, the evolving insights audience, and more – plus the GRIT Top 50 Most Innovative suppliers and expert commentaries for each topic.

See latest report
GRIT LATAM Reports

GRIT LATAM Reports

This first-of-its kind GRIT Report discusses the topics of the Insights Practice edition from the perspective of insights buyers and suppliers in Latin America. It compares LATAM to other global regions and discusses similarities and differences across South & Central America.

See latest report

Review GRIT topics that may be most relevant to your role:

Brand-side Practitioners

Brand-side Business Leaders

Supplier-side Practitioners

Supplier-side Business Leaders

Brand-side insights professionals who are in the early stages of their careers or who are more likely to be focused on project work will find a trove of essential information to help plan their next career stages and get the most out of their current experience within GRIT’s Business & Innovation (B&I) and Insights Practice (IP) Reports. GRIT breaks down and explains the key trends in insights, research, and analytics so you can benchmark your career progress and take stock of the opportunities around and in front of you.

Unmet Needs

The pandemic created situations that may have created more separation between insights professionals and the business issues they need to address. What can you do help ensure that the work you perform aligns with the ultimate business needs and perhaps delivers beyond those needs? (B&I)

Evolving Insights Professional

Increasingly, insights professionals are focused on developing skills in areas as diverse as data science and storytelling, but does any individual have the resources and capacity to learn all the skills they might need? How do they prioritize them and how do they make them work together? (IP)

Caution: AI at Work

AI-enabled solutions can help you meet the ever-increasing demand for speed and cost reduction, but some forms have weaknesses that can lead to incorrect answers or put your company’s IP at risk. What do you need to consider before you start applying solutions to specific questions and problems? (B&I)

Emerging Methods

If a new methodology or approach can increase the quality, speed, or cost-effectiveness of your insights work, delaying adoption can cost you opportunities to increase your throughput or, perhaps worse, put the business at a competitive disadvantage. Which are worth your time and effort to explore? (IP)

Brand-side insights professionals in management will find a wealth of essentials for strategic planning, organizing the insights function, evaluating and selecting suppliers and methodologies, and more within GRIT’s Business & Innovation (B&I) and Insights Practice (IP) Reports. GRIT’s detailed analyses across a broad range of topics provide you with the information you need to manage today’s professional challenges while planning your future in insights.

Evolving insights Audience

From the buyer perspective, the insights group increased its power as the gatekeeper for insights methodologies and suppliers. From the supplier perspective, however, there’s more than one gate and a variety of gatekeepers. How centralized is insights work and what does that mean for insights managers and for how well the business understands its markets? (B&I)

Investment Trends

In addition to research projects, insights professionals invest in technology and staff and make choices between taking work in-house and outsourcing it. With the ever-increasing demand for faster projects that cost less, what mix of staff, automation, and outsourcing provides the right balance across speed, cost, and quality for you? (IP)

AI at Work

Buyer-side insights professionals are cautiously optimistic about the potential for AI-enabled solutions. Some are trying it out personally, others are using it professionally, and most expect the latest technology to find its way into their products. How receptive are businesses to using AI for insights work and where do they expect it to have the most impact? (B&I)

Business Outlook

Recently, the insights industry had shown signs of shaking off the effects of the pandemic, but current trends indicate fresh suffering. Insights professionals on both the buyer and supplier sides are having more trouble meeting their goals. Are your business and career vulnerable to these trends or is there a silver lining? (B&I, IP)

Within GRIT’s Business & Innovation (B&I) and Insights Practice (IP) Reports, supplier-side insights professionals who are in the early stages of their careers or who are more likely to be focused on project work will find a trove of essential information to help plan their next career stages, understand what their clients and potential clients want and need, and get the most out of their current experience. GRIT breaks down and explains the key trends in insights, research, and analytics so you can benchmark your career progress and take stock of the opportunities around and in front of you.

Unmet Needs

Stakeholders are demanding research that is completed more quickly and for less money, but may be losing focus on the necessities that give research its credibility and value. What can you do to help your clients make their case for good research (which will also help your company maintain margins)? (B&I)

Established Methods

If a method is unfamiliar to you and it is important to clients and potential employers, it doesn’t matter how new it is to anyone else, you’ll still want to add it to your skill set. In this discussion, GRIT provides you with the context you need to make decisions about which methodologies to explore next. (IP)

AI in Everyday Life

Everyone’s talking about generative AI, but AI entered our lives well before ChatGPT. Some experiences with it have been generally positive while others have been negative, but most insights professionals seem to be aware of its risk factors. When you advocate for your insights teams to adopt AI (or against it), what arguments are you likely to need to make in order to establish your case? (B&I)

Industry Buzz Topics

You may already be tired of hearing about topics like storytelling, Big Data, or AI, but perhaps they’d be more relevant with more context. Understanding why certain topics are popular may help you connect your dots in a way that helps you define opportunities you merely suspected were there. Which are merely "buzzwords" and which are topics that deserve their "buzz"? (IP)

Supplier-side insights professionals in management will find a wealth of essentials for strategic planning, staying ahead of competition, keeping up with client needs and behaviors, and more within GRIT’s Business & Innovation (B&I) and Insights Practice (IP) Reports. GRIT offers a cornucopia of knowledge to help insights suppliers target likely prospects, benchmark and reassess their practices, and track how competition and clients are evolving around them.

Business Outlook

Recently, the insights industry had shown signs of shaking off the effects of the pandemic, but current trends indicate fresh suffering. Insights professionals on both the buyer and supplier sides are having more trouble meeting their goals. Are your business and career vulnerable to these trends or is there a silver lining? (B&I, IP)

AI at Work

Suppliers of all types expect to add new AI technology to their offerings, but very few anticipate a serious threat from competitors introducing similar. Signs on the supplier side generally point to an inevitability of AI adoption even though they are well aware of the risks. Can you explain some of these apparent contradictions or are insights professionals genuinely conflicted? (B&I)

Unmet Needs

Ever-increasing stakeholder demands for faster and cheaper research carries a double-whammy for suppliers: it makes it hard to deliver business value, and it puts them at the mercy of no-frills competitors who get away with not delivering value. What are the forces in play that make it difficult for suppliers to maintain margin and revenue, and what can you do to change this narrative? (B&I)

Supplier Profiles & Industry Structure

The sizes and composition of our six “big bucket” supplier segments continue to churn as suppliers create new service combinations and market trends favor some more than others. Although full-service research was strengthened as a revenue stream due to increased project management outsourcing during the pandemic, fewer suppliers want to position themselves so generically. How are suppliers adding and subtracting services and evolving their positioning, and what does it mean for you? (B&I, IP)

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TESTIMONIALS

What insights leaders say about GRIT Reports

The GRIT Report is a great source to stay on top of industry trends and innovation. I am using GRIT regularly to update our commercial insights category strategy and identify innovative solutions.

Anja Hauptmann

Global Category Lead Commercial Insights, Bayer

The GRIT Report is my go-to when we are evaluating strategic growth opportunities. It cuts through the noise and gives me real indications of market adoption. No other source for information about our industry can beat GRIT.

Bruce A. Haymes

Chairman of the Board, Toluna

I rely on Greenbook and GRIT to help inform me of the leaders in insights innovation, and find the companies that will get my teams at P&G the right insights, with the right people at the right price.

Charlie Rader

Digital Insights Designer, Procter & Gamble

The GRIT Report should be in the toolkit of any MR business leader; if you don’t read GRIT, you’re missing out on emerging trends, shifting dynamics, and thoughtful commentary on the state of our industry.

Isaac Rogers

President, SAGO

By tapping into the deep well of industry insights and trends provided by GRIT, we are able to make informed decisions to shape our business strategy and guide the moves we make in this evolving landscape.

Lisa Wilding-Brown

Chief Executive, InnovateMR

GRIT is our essential guide. It helps us understand what clients are looking for, what technologies are hot, what competitors are doing and where the industry is going. The start of many a fruitful discussion!

Stephen Phillips

Chief Executive Officer, Zappi

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Our annual GRIT reports are a culmination of invaluable feedback from thousands of professionals in the insights community, making your voice essential to the creation of these renowned resources each year!