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The majority of market researching companies tend to work for the industry leaders – big corporations.

Strategy consulting market
In 2011, the market for strategic consulting services was estimated to be worth $26.5 billion. In the aftermath of the crisis years global growth was sluggish, slowed by the recovering US and European markets, which jointly represent the overlarge majority of the global consulting industry. From 2014 onwards, the strategy consulting industry picked up, with growth rates of 4.7% in 2015 and 5.8% in 2016, taking the market to just over $30 billion in 2016. Strategy consulting takes around a 12% cut of the overall industry, making it similar in size to HR consulting. Similar to corporate strategy, Business Model Transformation (BMI) also focuses on the design and development of future-proof strategies, with the key difference that it spans fundamental changes in how business is conducted, often triggered by major changes in the external environment. Business Model Transformation in addition has a wider span than strategy, looking at a range of organizational and operational elements and how they interact to achieve a common goal; such as value propositions, customer segments, cost structures and organizational structures. Due to the disruptive nature of technology in recent years, consultants that support BMI engagements in many cases work at the intersection of digital design and IT strategy.
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Over the past decades, the global consulting market has grown to become a multi-billion industry. The industry has not only grown in size, stature and international reach, it has also navigated its way through several cycles of professionalization, today making it one of the more developed segments within the professional services industry.
Despite the relatively mature state of the market, the large variety of services (industries, functional areas, market/region focus) that span the consulting industry imply that there is no clear-cut consensus on how the market should be defined. Representative bodies (e.g. the MCA in the UK) and analyst firms (e.g. ALM Intelligence, Gartner, etc) all use different market definitions, and as a result the estimates for the size of the consulting market differ substantially, ranging from just over $100 billion up to $280 billion.
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The consulting markets of the UK and Ireland are combined estimated to be worth around $23 billion, which amounts to nearly a quarter of the European consulting industry. Over the past seven years the UK & Ireland consulting industry has grown by over 20%.
In 2010 the UK & Ireland consulting industries realized a total fee turnover of $18.8 billion, according to data from ALM Intelligence, a US-based analyst firm that tracks consulting markets globally. The past six years have seen the consultancy landscape grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.4%, taking the total industry size to the current $23.1 billion. The growth rate of the consulting markets was consistently between 3% and 4%.
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The majority of market researching companies tend to work for the industry leaders – big corporations. We, on the other hand, work mostly with the SMB companies. Our team uncovers market opportunities, and sometimes, marketing challenges, that remain unseen by competitors. Our market research gathers solid, factual, defensible information that is relevant to your company’s niche. Not to the needs of an “average” company in your industry. We combine quantitative market research (statistical analysis, graphs, charts) and qualitative market research (interviews, articles, opinions). Altogether it gives a balanced and accurate picture. Here are a few examples of projects we have completed:

• Survey design and execution (invite respondents, collect results, analyze, report)
• Phone or in-person interviews of customers, employees, executives, business owners, industry experts, etc.
• Focus groups, roundtables, and executive forums
• Market opportunity assessments (evaluate the potential for your ideas, products, services, or processes)
• Competitor analysis / competitive intelligence studies
• “Blue sky” sessions on product / application / market possibilities, particularly in the area of technology commercialization

Why Market Research is Important

Accurate market research is the foundation for every business or marketing plan. CorpoRational can help you gain a much deeper understanding of:

• Market opportunities
• Existing customers
• Prospects
• Competitors
• Employees
• Industry trends
• Environmental or regulatory risks

We Help You Focus

Large market research firms research specific industries and generate standardized industry reports. The problem for most small businesses is that very few of them fit neatly into these industry categories. That’s where we come in. Instead of generating canned industry reports, everything we do is customized for each client. Effective marketing is all about targeting and focus. Better targeting means less waste, lower expenses, and higher profits.

• Conduct a comprehensive market opportunity assessment – Assess your markets and current market positions (market size and share of market, channels, growth trends, threats, and opportunities)
• Identify customer needs and determine which market segments hold the most, and least, attractive profit potential.
• Find out what customers and prospects think about your new customer service procedures, your sign-up process, your newest product, your new tag-line, your invoicing process, etc.
• Identify regulatory, political, and demographic trends that could create problems and opportunities for your business.
• Develop a thorough understanding of competitors – Who leads and who follows in this space? How much market share does each player have? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they differentiate themselves? How does their pricing strategy compare with yours? How do they market their products and services? How does their brand equity compare to yours?
• Identify opportunities to use your strengths and exploit competitor weaknesses.

Sicol-Global