How market research providers position themselves · 2026 edition
Positioning is the place you hold in a client's mind, against your competitors. It answers four questions:
Market research providers help brands position themselves. Our analysis shows they rarely follow their own advice.
Your result
This is what a prospect should be able to read on a provider's website in ten seconds.
The grid follows Geoffrey Moore's positioning statement, Crossing the Chasm (1991). The word “positioning” comes from Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning (1981).
“We test packaging1 for cosmetics brands2, before launch. Our tests take place in store, with the product on the shelf next to its competitors4: you know whether it will be seen, and chosen3.”
We analysed how each one positions itself on its website. One square = one company.
84% of websites clearly say what the company does. Consulting firms, far less often: 58%.
What it meansThe business is the easiest point to state. Every competitor states it too. So it sets no one apart.
All 299 websites: 84%. Provider types from the mazeo database.
37% do not say what type of client they serve. 34% address everyone: “companies”, “organisations”. 29% name a precise target.
What it meansExamples of precise targets: “cosmetics brands”, “the pharmaceutical industry”, “retailers”. A prospect knows at once whether the site speaks to them.
By type of provider, the target is named by 20% of consulting firms, and up to 42% of media agencies.
81% mention a benefit, but in vague terms. 13% do not mention one. 6% clearly say what problem they solve.
What it meansThe whole industry could sign “making better decisions” or “driving brand growth”. A problem solved is stated precisely, from the client's point of view. For example: “knowing before launch whether the product will be chosen”.
Tool vendors say it four times more often than websites overall (6%).
48% of French-language websites give the company's age: 25 years on median. Half the industry displays its seniority. So it sets no one apart. 23% of websites prove their difference with another fact.
What it meansA difference is proven by a fact a competitor cannot write. On the websites that prove it, that fact is a number eight times out of ten. For example: “120,000 surveys a year”.
25 years on median, i.e. founded in 2001.
Eight times out of ten with a number.
Seniority: French-language websites giving a founding date, an age or years of experience, out of 252 websites.
“Accompagner” (to support) appears on 35% of websites, “clients” too. “Expert” on 30%, “stratégie” and “data” on 23%.
What it meansPut together, these words make a sentence any provider could sign. It says neither what the provider does, nor why to choose them.
“48%For 25 years, our 30%experts have 35%supported our 35%clients in their 23%strategic 19%decisions, thanks to 23%data.”
Share of the 252 French-language websites where the word appears, counted in French. Each word counts its derivatives: “accompagner” also counts “accompagnement”, “data” counts “données”.
Average score out of 4: 1.9 for tool vendors and media agencies, 1.7 for fieldwork and panels, 1.4 for research agencies, 1.0 for consulting firms.
What it meansResearch agencies make up half of the websites read. 3% of them clearly say what problem they solve. Consulting firms are below average on all four questions.
Score out of 4: average number of questions the website answers clearly.
48% of websites clearly answer only one question: the business, nine times out of ten. 12% clearly answer none. 4 sites out of 299 answer all four.
What it meansThe business tells the prospect they are in the right place. The other three answers give them a reason to choose this provider over another.
Number of websites, out of 299.
In France, one in four. Among 110 providers headquartered outside France, 50% prove their difference, against 23% in France. 15% clearly say what problem they solve, against 6%.
What it meansLarge international groups pull this 50% up. They can cite their global rank, their volumes, their countries.
The target: 29% on both sides. The business: 77% outside France, 84% in France.
growth academy · lesson 1
The four questions, five examples from the industry, and your website's score. Three minutes to see what a prospect understands about you. The lesson is in French.
mazeo has mapped the whole market research industry in France: over 1,300 companies and over 13,000 professionals, and the database grows every day. mazeo is the only prospecting tool built for market research.
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