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Fake Market Research

By 38 Comments

Boiler room scam of epic proportions

I’m working in one of Big Four accounting/consulting firms. We do a lot of in-house market research and regularly buy/subscribe outside market reports. Lately, I see a number of old and established boutique market research firms to close their offices in the face of increased competition from fake market research cottage industry sprouted mostly for the Indian city of Pune. 

Freshly baked Indian MBA’s are churning out thousands of new market reports weekly, playing SEO game on any meaningful word combination. The “analysts” in the Indian (don’t blame me, racist I’m not) sweatshops have never left their city or village in their life, less so worked in the industry they write about. In SEO game quality does not matter, only quantity.

The small US or European market research boutiques that rely on analysts with extensive industry experience, do time-consuming surveys and interviews, dig in corporate reports and publish or maintain a few dozen report topics on annual basis are loosing in this brutal spam onslaught. It’s like going old Western style with 6-loaded Colt against hydraulically driven seven-barrel Gatling-type aircraft gun spitting 3,000 round per minute. 

Market research spammers clogged not only production, they clogged also all arteries of market research PR and distribution. Take a look at this press release distribution site — OpenPR.com, it’s a dump of market report announcements written under the same template, you will not find there in-depth analysis, original insight, or unconventional wisdom because they are not there. 

They have different names — Transparency Market Research, MarkertsandMarkets, and countless others. Try to search in Google “market research Pune” — you’ll get the picture. They turned useless largest distributors of market reports MarketResearch.com and ResearchandMarkets.com, into a huge unmanageable pile of garbage.

The bottomline question is how to recognize spam. It’s easy and it’s not by country of origin which is hidden behind London’s or Boston’s bought address. No market research publisher, with the exception of the respectable industry giants like Gartner and Forrester, can research in depth, publish and maintain thousands of reports, not in a week, not in a year, not in the lifetime. Look for market research companies that cover specific niches and have in the portfolio a few dozens of reports.

Mass production of low quality market reports
MarkertsandMarkets
Transparency Market Research
Persistence Market Research
Technavio
FMI Future Market Insights
QYResearch
ResearchandMarkets.com
Marketresearchfuture.com

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • These companies have taken a leaf out the game that was started by the likes of Datamonitor, Wright’s Research, to name a few.

      These companies continue to produce very generic, expensive reports.

      Reply

  2. I have been following the Pune explosion for a year or so. I have even had some communications with the ownership of one of these firms. While they are a current problem I do not believe they will last long. They have no understanding of the market research market – who are the buyers and more important, why they buy. If you look at their current offerings they are not targeting the supply side, or even the demand side for all of the products and services they claim to cover. They are targeting the unsophisticated private investor. The personal stock picker. I have been in the market research business for 35 year and this had never been a very high priority market. From my contact with the ownership with one of these firms I know that they are finding the market research business not as profitable as they expected, if all all for them.

    While I have had some cases where proposal approval was delayed while the prospect went through the process of buying one of these reports and then find that they had no value for them, it the end it raised their appreciation of the breath and depth of the core competencies of established firms.

    Reply

  3. These companies should top the list of fake market research publishers:
    ResearchAndMarkets
    ReportLinker
    ReportBuyer
    ResearchNReports

    Reply

    • The first three you mention, ResearchAndMarkets, ReportLinker, and ReportBuyer are resellers and not publishers of research (note the last two are owned by the same parent company). Therefore, they sell both legitimate publisher’s offering as well as bogus ones in some cases.

      Reply

  4. The research papers they come out with are comical they are so bad. We just recently bought one, only to find random facts with no insights. You can also find identical copy & paste jobs they have included in the same report to make it seem longer. Along with false statements.

    Reply

  5. Technavio is definitely a fake research company. We recently bought a report and it was piece of crap. The report lacks substance and the entire report was junk. Word of caution never buy any report from then. The analyst was clueless and when we spoke on phone, I got to know that all analysts are based in India and they do a report in a week. How can anyone write a report in just a week and for that they charged $3000.

    Reply

  6. Not only are they all in India, they are all on one city, Pune. By my last count there are about 2 dozen market research firms in Pune and another 6 or so re-sellers. My guess is that there is only one source for these reports and they just keep creating new front firms as a marketing strategy. What is surprising to me is why anyone would buy one of their reports after reading their marketing content. It’s just a string of b-school phrases and poorly written at that.

    Steve

    Reply

    • and they have equivalent companies in China make no mistake. I think they both subscribe to the same web engine tools, that manage the marketing of this crap. I noted the Indian one had the same index of content as the Chinese one we purchased (not me but, erm a senior manager). I rang the Indian one and told him their report was BS and he denied it and tried to negotiate me buy it at special price to see for myself how good … but since the content IS the same from the index in the public domain of course there is no need. I explained I would pay 1$ and review it for him for free … of course he finally declined my offer and send me nothing. The Chinese one all 186 pages = pure bollocks

      Reply

  7. I have worked in ine such company for almost 8 months. This company hired 5of us by campus placement and told us that its a consulting firm based in US and we do in depth research on the topics. But when we joined this company, it was just a piece of crap and we were forced to write articles on various topics without any solid research. There was a time when I had to write more than 10 articles in a day. These companies does not take more than 2 weeks in writing a report and there is no solid back end research. Most of these reports are based on assumptions and data availble on Google that also most of the times is from other market research company. Within 2 months of joining I decided to quit my job but I was unable to find a new job as it is very difficult to get a new job if you are leaving your current organization within 2 months. But finally after 8 months out of frustation I quit without having any other job in my hand. But I will say these companies not only cheat clients but they are also cheating on new college graduates.

    Reply

    • I absolutely agree. I was in the same situation, though i’m grateful they gave me my first job ever which later landed me a job in Deloitte but then it’ll always be a blot on my resume.

      Reply

  8. I own Core Consultants (www.coreconsultantsgroup.com), a niche commodity market research firm which I founded in 2009. We are one year older than Transparency Market Research was founded. I can tell you, it’s so hard to have so many titles and keep up the marketing and distribution. We’ve kept our reports at 3 subscription report titles and have spent the last five years trying to get this figure to scale to 6. And only now in the next year or two we’ll be able to get there. Quality research is time consuming, you have to also build the trust and credibility with industry market participants else no one will tell you anything and your research will be garbage. I’ve personally had to give more than 50 key note addresses around the world to build up credibility in my field of research before anyone would disclose anything to Core Consultants. No way can TMR do all of those titles properly in 8 years unless they have a team of over 100 qualified analysts. Not sure if they do?

    Reply

    • Lara, the likes of QYResearch has churned out more than 120,000 ”reports” with a team of 20 or so idiots (rich idiots I assume) from the scam centre in Shanghai. I sent all my evidence to the FBI via the website, as QYR has address/phone in the USA. Its cyber-robbery so maybe its hard to deal with. But it sucks. It doesn’t help that the likes of LINKEDIN does not police their own site, nor youtube, twitter where these people feed.

      Reply

  9. QYResearch is one of the classics here, and sadly the company I work for was daft enough to pay 4500 Euro for a report that I then got my hands and on and reviewed as an expert in that particular field. I have been shredding QYR on all social media places I can find them. I even got them to refund me a portion, just 40% which is not enough for me, as I explained to them. Anyway on closer examination I conclude these companies are template filling no more. But behind them is sophisticated website management and tools. Anyway be sure every one of QYR’s 120,000 plus reports are 100% fake and worthless and of course make me 100% cynical about all marketeer sites as consequence although I am sure their maybe some legit ones. This one is clearly Chinese but they have fake addresses and offices in the main economy countries so e.g. in the USA it ought to be possible surely to get them out. They need dealing with, this is a global scam but also break the engine which provides such tools which I believe is American. 100%, do not buy one.

    Reply

  10. As an aggregator of market research we are often tasked with helping clients determine what is “good” research and what is “fake.” I have written extensively on this topic (crisis) and would be grateful for any insight, as opposed to the report by report basis on which we help clients make these expensive business decisions. Too often we have heard, “well there is nothing else” or “good enough, is good enough”

    In this marketplace what is “good enough?” Is it history, knowledge of the market, methodology?

    I welcome an open discussion on this topic. Much Thanks

    Reply

    • Hi Rob,
      I’ve read your piece “MarketResearch.com’s Shifting Role: From Aggregator to Arbiter” (https://blog.marketresearch.com/marketresearch.coms-shifting-role-from-aggregator-to-arbiter). I think you are trying to present MarketResearch.com as a some kind of clearing house, a stamp certifying “good research”, a feeble attempt to whitewash tainted goods.

      I absolutely agree this part of your post:
      “But then something happened post-2012 when becoming a “publisher” became as easy as printing a PDF document. Confusion reigned as users and consumers across the planet who had relied on industry research as a trustworthy, top-of-the-information-food-chain partner now wondered where their data was coming from?”

      IMHO trustworthiness of entire market research industry has been has destroyed systematically since 2012. You are asking rhetoric questions: “In this marketplace what is “good enough?” Is it history, knowledge of the market, methodology?” The reality is much simpler – most of market research report are outright scam produced in Pune by ignorant college graduates or students. In the face of cutthroat competition and massive fake production even established publishers dropped the quality guidelines and stepped up production of worthless quickies. The market research industry is compromised, probably beyond repair.

      Reply

      • Sorry you feel that way, we are trying to determine some independent way to determine good research. I can’t tell you the number of clients who take a report from a publisher that’s inferior and they tell us it worked wonderfully and then another client will say the report was rubbish. We’d like to be part of the solution.

        Reply

          • Trying to decipher Mr. Grander’s comment ‘Too often we have heard, “well there is nothing else” or “good enough, is good enough”’

            Is he is implying that marketresearch.com sells QY reports because it’s “good enough” (what does that mean in the context of their “research” being fabricated?) or there is “nothing else” (QY have offerings nobody else does?)?

            What that is implying is an analogy like “we know they are pirates and they are fencing stolen goods, but they are the only ones that have those particular goods, and people want them, so we will sell their stolen goods for them!

  11. add Zion Market Research into the list of mass production of low quality reports. It is just a crap & nothing else. They don’t even know how to do the research. It seems like they are doing only copy pasting work.

    Reply

  12. I was just contacted by one of these researchers from Transperancy requesting information and something seemed odd about his line of questioning. Thank you for this article and subsequent posts. I learned something important before finishing my first cup of coffee and saved myself some valuable time.

    Reply

  13. Qyresearch and the variations of are template fillers, no more. There is no useful information in their reports because there is so much garbage mixed in with it therefore you know as soon as you look at a few pages of it you have been suckered. Companies who associate with them are therefore joining in with the criminality, because thats what it is. The Chinese Police services should take them out.

    Reply

  14. Hi,

    I recently had the displeasure of purchasing a market report from HTF Market Intelligence. They promised to charge USD 6,400 to satisfy my requirements to do in – depth analysis of a market. Once they received payment, they communicated that the report will cost an additional USD 900. When I had a very serious conversation with them on the phone over this issue, HTF realised they could not justify the price and said that USD 900 was communicated by mistake.

    Thinking back they were an indian firm in Pune with a US ‘address’ and phone number that would be re-routed to India,

    Fast forward a week and a half, and they provided me a sub-standard report that a student in high school would deliver. Over 90% of my requirements were not met. When I communicated with them, they would send an auto – response saying they will look into it. Its been 3 weeks and I have not had any response.

    I work for a global consulting firm, and during the proposal process, HTF mentioned my firm had a long standing relationship with them. In hindsight, this was all a lie. After receiving the quality of their report, I doubt anyone in my firm would even consider having a relationship with them.

    Is their any way I can lodge a complaint?

    Thanks.

    Reply

    • I would also like to mention two sales employees who were the main points in contact in HTF Market Intelligence are Praveen Kumar and Deepshikha Bhati. They were very active sales employees when they were pitching in for the report. After the receiving payment for the report, they refuse to answer calls. On the rare occasion that some one answers the phone, they cook up a story that saying that their sales team is not in office until 6 pm local time, and the only way to reach them is through office land line. When you call at their recommended time, there is no answer. This is highly unprofessional behavior of HTF Market Intelligence..

      I had the misfortune of working with them and fell for their scam. I am posting this message as I don’t want any one else to be in my shoes. Hopefully the next time some one googles HTF Market Intelligence, my review pops up and a potential client is aware of this scam.

      Their full address is:

      Head Office (IN)
      107,1st Floor,Town Square,Viman Nagar
      Pune India – 411014

      Branch Office (US):
      HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited
      Unit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJ
      New Jersey USA – 08837

      [email protected]

      Reply

  16. Hello Everyone,

    Below is a list of the questionable Research firms mentioned in the comments.

    Blacklist (mass production of low quality reports):
    – MarketsandMarkets
    – Transparency Market Research
    – Persistence Market Research
    – Technavio
    – FMI Future Market Insights
    – QYResearch
    – Marketresearchfuture.com
    – ResearchNReports
    – Zion Market Research
    – HTF Market Intelligence
    – ResearchandMarkets.com
    – ReportLinker
    – ReportBuyer

    Furthermore, I would be interested if there exists a list of credible and reliable market research firms. It would be very helpful if you guys could name companies you have made good experiences with in the past. I am especially interested in firms that provided quality reports concerning the medical device industry.

    Thank you!

    Reply

    • Moritz, as I wrote in my previous comment:

      “NO real marketing research firm EVER does a actual quality market research / report just to sell that report online. All companies claiming they do this are pure scammers. All professional quality market researches are either (A) on demand for each customer, or (B) regular annual reports from a nation-wide association for each particular industry. There is no (C). Whoever is looking for (C) will only find fake reports generated overnight with a very brief overview of the industry (available anywhere on internet) and a list of major player, which are used .to make the table of contents and “sample” look credible. ”

      Keep in mind that even the top consulting and market research firms don’t have any specialists in each industry who know everything inside out, and ALWAYS rely on a number of industry specialists, interviews, and other industry data when preparing their ports. McKinsey, Accenture, Deloitte, etc. – they DON’T KNOW your industry and will hire outside specialists and industry professionals to give them some insights and data, which will cost YOU a lot of money and will not guarantee good results.

      You are much safer in obtaining real, quality market research reports by checking associations of an industry you are interested in and seeing which annual market reports they have. Then schedule an appointment with them to review in-person the available report to see if that’s what you are looking for. But before that, you have to know your industry yourself first well – if not with your experience, then at least your own research.

      Reply

    • You’ll only get a real, decent quality report from some national associations for each particular industry. There is no such thing as “global” reports for any industry available online with credit card purchases.

      Reply

  19. Next time you would like to invest in any market report, whatever is the topic, ask first the CV of the author. This will give you a better insight to its value than the table of content or the number of pages.

    There are several well-known companies that provide reports on different industries, generally they specialized in one industry or a market segment, but no one is able to cover thousands of reports in a year like those guys in India, it just does not make sense.

    But all these so called market research companies based in India are all providing reports that have zero value, written by people who have absolutely no knowledge about the industry they cover. These reports provides limited and useless information, publishing hundreds to thousands of reports on all kind of subjects simply throwing numbers that they have automatically generated by Googling, always making optimistic and unsupported projections, then publishing daily press releases. You can check through Google and realize that they use hundreds of fake news websites to publish press releases that promote their reports and when you check the website you can realize that the authors are all fake

    Reply

  21. NO real marketing research firm EVER does a actual quality market research / report just to sell that report online. All companies claiming they do this are pure scammers. All professional quality market researches are either (A) on demand for each customer, or (B) regular annual reports from a nation-wide association for each particular industry. There is no (C). Whoever is looking for (C) will only find fake reports generated overnight with a very brief overview of the industry (available anywhere on internet) and a list of major player, which are used .to make the table of contents and “sample” look credible.

    Reply

  22. I heard even frost & sullivan is bleeding due to onslaught of Indian and Chinese firms…dont be surprised if they scale down significantly…..smaller ones (genuine niche research firms) are going out of business

    Reply

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