The Island Analysis team, left to right, Chris Brock, Michaela de Vial and Carly Tucknott. (0607352)
DEMAND for market research is increasing despite the credit crunch taking its toll on business, according to one expert. With rising costs and widespread belt tightening, the need for business risk management was more important than ever, said Island Analysis director Chris Brock.
His company has just purchased online research tool Island Opinion and has been inundated with enquiries from the local business community.
‘Market research is something that does not stand still with the economic downturn,’ said Mr Brock. ‘We’re working with public and private organisations in the Channel Islands by building a picture of information on which they can base business decisions, which is critical at this time because they want to minimise risk and be as cost-effective as possible.
‘Everything is getting tougher in the current economic climate and now market research has climbed to the top of businesses’ priority lists. In the past they probably didn’t pay enough attention to it, but now that’s changing.’
Island Opinion was set up by Mr Brock and web-development company Submarine in 2003. It was created for use by another firm, but taken over by him last month.
In addition to the Island Analysis work that is ongoing, there are 11 major companies from the public and private sectors which are clients, as well as many smaller ones that pay for one-off surveys.
‘This is something that I created myself and invested in heavily. At the moment it’s just for Guernsey and Jersey, but we’re looking at franchising it to other islands.
‘We’re busy reinforcing the brand and website and believe that it has the potential to become a valuable market-research facility worldwide.
‘Each island would have to have a high broadband take-up because it’s all online and the percentage of the population with broadband would also have to be high enough to be a representative pool. Therefore we’re talking about places that are like Guernsey and Jersey in this respect, such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man.’
Island Analysis’s first major report – How islands are coping with the current economic climate and globalisation and other issues – is due in the autumn.
Data has been collected from 50 islands around the world covering areas such as waste management, crime and alternative energy.
Mr Brock said the findings had some interesting implications for the Channel Islands.
‘If there is something happening that we can categorise as best practice, we can log it and share it with Guernsey and Jersey businesses.
‘We’re looking at how islands have been diversifying their economies. A lot of them are dependent on one sector, usually tourism, whereas here it’s finance. There’s a lot that we can learn from,’ said Mr Brock.
The day-to-day administration is carried out by Carly Tucknott.
Data analyst Michaela de Vial undertakes research and business development in addition to promoting the newly-launched Island Benchmark service, which identifies best practice around the world.
Article posted on 1st August, 2008 - 2.30pm
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