While traveling last week, I saw this sign. I laughed, because it perfectly illustrates the tension between intention and execution: claiming quality isn’t enough if the work itself isn’t done well.
Recently, all of our managers were in town, and we spent hours talking about pricing, how we price our studies, how we structure estimates, and how to deliver value to our clients. And I couldn’t help but notice a little irony:
So much of the work we do for clients involves pricing optimization. Yet when it comes to pricing our own services, we face the same challenges as everyone else.
Here’s the industry reality right now: sample sales are up, project complexity is up, but pricing is down. Everyone wants their research to be cheaper because AI can “do it faster” or “automate programming.” But cheaper isn’t always better.
Here’s the thing: cost ≠ value.
- Underpaying panelists leads to poor engagement.
- Relying solely on AI can lead to errors that human oversight would catch.
Estimates are just guides, not contracts – Like when you take your car in for an estimate, the final price depends on the work required. The same is true for complex research projects.
There’s a reason Whole Foods exists, not just Walmart—you pay for quality, and quality delivers results.
The bigger conversation here is about trusting expertise and understanding true value, even when the market seems obsessed with the lowest cost.
It’s ironic, of course, that I was thinking about this while sitting in a pricing meeting. But maybe that’s exactly the point: in our rush to chase cost savings, we sometimes forget that value is what truly drives outcomes, for our clients and for our own business.