Market Research RFP Trends - August 2003 Update

[ This updates the previous semi-annual reports published in August 2002 and January 2003. See the previous report on The Rise Of China market research, and the January 2003 Report for notes on methodology. ]

Following the publication of our two short reports on Requests for Market Research Proposals (RFPs) to Orient Pacific Century in June 2002 and January 2003, this chart updates the data to include the last two quarters in 2002.

The report adds data for the first two quarters of 2003, representing a softening of the trend towards China and East Asia evident in 2000 to 2003.

Some notes:

1. Requests for Proposals for market research in China declined over the past 2 quarters (January to June 2003), and East Asian countries Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also experienced slightly less interest
2. Some of this reduction was due to cancellations or postponements of research in China during the SARS scare in the first two quarters, according to informal reasons given by clients and others requesting research proposals. Others, but less common reasons for cancellation or postponements related to escalating tensions in North Korea (particularly in reference to South Korean market research), instability due to the Iraq war and the downward trends on tourism and air travel.
3. Much of the increase in proportions of Requests for market research in South East Asia can be attributed to that for Thailand, perhaps one of the strongest and most stable South East Asian economies, with relatively high consumer spending growth compared to the rest of South East Asia. The increase for Thailand was quite significant as research requests for Singapore (quite markedly), Malaysia and Indonesia decreased during the same period.
4. Full interpretive and methodological notes are available in the first report on The Rise of China. In particular please note this data is for RFPs to Orient Pacific Century Market Research only.