64 percent of respondents don’t think that market research companies deliver value for money.

44 percent of respondents say market forecasts “often prove to be completely wrong.”

46 percent of respondents think market share figures “need to be taken with a big pinch of salt.”

61 percent say market research firms “often employ heavy-handed sales tactics”

57 percent say market researchers are “not independent enough; the information they give may be influenced by their clients.”

A further 17 percent say they’re “a bunch of crooks: they write what they are told to by the people who pay them.”

Of course, market researchers themselves were free to take the poll, which might explain why a small proportion of respondents - 5 percent - said that market share figures were “usually spot on” and market forecasts were “near enough right”.

Only 2 percent of respondents went as far as claiming that market researchers were “completely independent and unbiased.”

If you would like to take the poll yourself, please go to: Market Research: What's it worth?

— Peter Heywood, Founding Editor, Light Reading
http://www.lightreading.com