Market Research RFP Trends - The rise of China

As our clients, partners and visitors know, Orient Pacific Century specialises in providing market research and brand research in Asia. The recent opening up of China is perhaps one of most significant factors to affect our work over the past decade, and we are in a good position to track trends and interest in market research in Asia though of course, we are only one of many international and local agencies offering market research services in any or all Asian markets.

The graph below displays the significant interest in the Chinese market as compared to other countries in the ten quarters, indexed by the number of formal Market Research Requests for Proposals (RFPs). The analysis runs up to July 31st this year, though it seems that the trends are softening for this quarter.

Some notes:

1. Figures represent RFPs from new inquiries only, not from existing clients, to reduce one source of bias
2. All RFPs for market research, brand research and/or feasibility research were included. RFPs for sub group activities such as Recruitment, Team building, publishing and consulting are not included
3. RFPs for both consumer research and industrial research were included. For interest the relevant aggregate percentages were 77% for consumer research and 23% for industrial markets
4. Figures are percentages of the total in each quarter, not absolute numbers
5. In the case of the 45% of inquiries that requested proposals for more than one country market, each market was counted once. For example, an enquiry looking for market research in Japan, China and Korea would count as "1" for each market, the same as a request for research in one country alone
6. Figures represent number of inquiries, not the value or cost of the proposal. Of course we are keeping latter data confidential!
7. Though inquiries for South East Asia have reduced as a percentage, the absolute number of inquiries for research in South East Asia has increased steadily. However, the growth in inquiries for research in China has grown substantially
8. While sources for error would include a change in our own marketing or focus, our marketing strategies and distribution of data collection partners has remained consistent over the period tracked.
9. Only formal RFPs were counted, including sub-contracting requests from other market research agencies
10. China is defined as mainland China only. Other East Asia was made up of Hong Kong, Taiwan (ROC), South Korea and Japan. South East Asia was defined as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam and Laos