About single client research

Research on economic activities is classified into credit, technical, patent research, etc. in addition to market research. Market research is classified into industry and consumers research. The Fuji Keizai Group specializes in market research, and industry research in particular.

Single client research is fully customizable to your needs. We create research designs that suit the individual needs of your organization, so the following need to be specified or clarified through discussions.

1. Target areas, industries, products, services, technologies, etc.
2. Target market areas (Japan, specific overseas regions and countries, etc.)
3. What to discover through research

Most requests come from manufacturers. These days, we also receive an increasing number of requests from service businesses, governmental and municipal offices, other public agencies, and affiliated organizations.

We receive requests from various departments, such as planning, business management, sales, service, engineering, and development. Planning and business management departments tend to request market data that serves as a basis for business planning, whereas sales and service departments tend to ask for application market trends and user needs analysis. Engineering and development departments, on the other hand, generally request market data that supports the promotion and commercialization of new products.

Consulting firms focus on analyzing the management of client companies and providing advice on it. But the Fuji Keizai Group’s main market research activity is to first identify promising domains, then analyze their business environments in those domains and propose business strategies based on the analysis.

Since opening for business, the Fuji Keizai Group has demonstrated excellence in the areas of food, producer goods to which consumer research methods are difficult to apply (electronics, automobiles, electronic components, chemicals, etc.), medical and veterinary drugs, etc., energy, and the environment. In addition, we research various other industries including the service and primary sectors, such as agriculture.

As a general market research group, we hold an enormous volume of information and a wealth of relationships across all industries. Our staff of over 250, specializing in various areas, harness these assets to accumulate new information and acquire new relationships each and every day.

They can build extensive relationships and acquire knowledge across industries and markets to research, and possess research-specific skills such as optimizing research designs to specific objectives, utilizing research methods to locate and retrieve key information, and applying analysis methods to draw results suitable for the research objectives from collected information. The Fuji Keizai Group’s research staff continually exercise and hone these skills in their daily work.

We fulfill over 1,000 requests annually.

We carry out almost all kinds of surveys across markets, such as basic market research to identify the sizes and growth potentials of specific markets, sales channels, supply and value chains including procurement, trending products, price trends, servicing and maintenance, and user rating. Our research areas also include external market circumstances and business activities, such as laws, regulations, budgets, subsidies, M&As, partnerships, and research and development activities.

We conduct overseas surveys that are identical or comparable to those we do in Japan by dispatching research staff throughout the world to undertake surveys locally. In China, our local subsidiaries specializing in Chinese markets conduct field research.

We also conduct surveys in the Middle East, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. However, we cannot afford to conduct research in countries and regions for which travel restrictions are suggested because, in principle, we dispatch professional staff from Japan.

Yes.

1. We do not accept survey requests if their details or methods violate compliance.
2. We decline requests for research on companies in specific industries that cannot be interviewed, and provide an explanation why.
3. We do not conduct surveys for legal cases.
4. We do not conduct surveys for advertising (newspaper ads, TV spot commercials, etc.) purposes, such as proving that your product is the best in the industry.

Some information that sales representatives collect can be more detailed or sometimes up to date. However, as it may also be fragmented or biased, many organizations want information compiled from an outsider's perspective. The Fuji Keizai Group’s research service collects data exhaustively and objectively, and presents analyzed information as written reports. To make usage of that data more effective, it can also be linked with information that your organization collects itself.

Research requests that the Fuji Keizai Group accepts individually originate from diverse client needs. Each research project is initiated by defining research objectives, discussing research targets, details, and items, and agreeing on an output image. As such, outputs are completely customized. We will present an output image that best matches your research objective based on our long-cultivated expertise. However, it is still advisable that you create an image of what you want.

We cannot disclose how survey findings are actually used because doing so breaches the confidentiality of clients that commissioned us to conduct research. That said, many seem to use survey findings to formulate business strategies and to plan operations and sales.

We accept requests for objective research, such as how your company is positioned in the market and evaluated by competitors and in the industry. However, we do not conduct research that directly investigates clients.

Consulting involves analyzing a client’s external and internal factors. In principle, though, the Fuji Keizai Group does not do external factor analyses. Even so, we have a large research team well versed in various industries who can provide consulting and advice directly linked to the project or product for which research is conducted. Please feel free to consult us about this.

Although we accept requests for research to develop sales channels, we do not do research that includes advertisements for specific companies, brands, or products that may lead directly to sales channel development.

Without the ability to guard clients’ secrets (confidentiality), the Fuji Keizai Group cannot continue to exist. Trust from clients is the basis of our history, which exceeds six decades in market research. Normally, when we conduct research, a client signs a service agreement that includes a non-disclosure clause. If requested, we have no problem concluding a separate non-disclosure agreement or concluding a non-disclosure agreement during the research consideration phase before research actually begins.

We have earned the PrivacyMark (P mark), and our personal information protection and handling conform strictly to the Personal Information Protection Act and JIS Q 15001.

If you prepare a specification, the Fuji Keizai Group will create and propose research plans based on it. Even without a specification, we will still formulate and propose specific research plans based on our long years of experience as long as you explain your research needs, or the kind of research that you want, briefly in written form or verbally. Normally, we present proposals and quotes for free.

In principle, it depends on the number of days required for our research staff to complete the research. As such, the cost rises as the number of research targets increases. We will hold a discussion with your company as to how to reduce costs by ways such as clarifying research objectives and narrowing down the focus as much as possible.

We select professional researchers best suited to the research to conduct, formulate a research plan that aligns with a research proposal based on databases held by the Fuji Keizai Group and other organizations, and conduct research. Although the Fuji Keizai Group conducts online and bibliographic surveys, its mission is to provide unbiased information through interviews, questionnaire surveys, and field research.

It depends on the details and the project deadline.

That will be possible if meetings are included in the research plan. If meetings do not affect the schedule, there is no need to modify the research targets, details, and items.

Progress and interim reports can be provided on request. We are flexible about fulfilling requests, ranging from holding meetings to mutually check the direction of ongoing research and make changes if necessary, to providing survey findings whenever they are available for review or use. In many cases, however, it takes additional time to change direction and prepare reports during research. Please make as few such requests as possible.

The Fuji Keizai Group’s motto is “objective research.” As long as this principle is upheld, clients can accompany us, but such cases are rare. We will decline to bring you along if you plan to conceal or misrepresent your identity to interviewees.

We plan projects in a way that meet clients’ requested delivery dates whenever possible. If requests cannot be met during busy seasons or due to the schedules of research staff, we discuss priorities and make interim reports in phases. Depending on the research details, however, leaving a single researcher to carry out the project may produce better results than having multiple researchers complete the project before the deadline. For details, please consult your representative at a meeting.

Final reports are delivered in print form, but they can also be provided as electronic data if you wish. If you specify requirements, such as applications, please consult your representative at a preliminary meeting.

It varies depending on the research details. Survey costs do not dictate the amount of content in a report. If you consult us in advance, we can make a report with your desired amount of content through selecting research items. For example, including publicly known data, such as lists of products and bases, in survey items generally results in more content. By contrast, narrowing down survey findings results in less content.

It is an event for our staff to present survey findings and discuss them with a client’s stakeholders. Normally, a one-hour briefing session is scheduled at a client’s office or other location. For more details, please consult your representative.

Staff members who actually conducted surveys participate in briefing sessions whenever they can, depending on the survey's scale. In addition, these staff are often the people who deliver presentations on survey findings or at least participate in discussions about the results.

Please consult us in advance. We request additional fees for translating complete reports from Japanese to English and creating reports in multiple languages, such as Japanese and English. Verbal reporting in English is available only when a report in English is delivered.

In the case of single client research, survey findings are delivered in survey reports. In principle, clients hold copyrights on survey reports and therefore may use the data at their discretion. For details, please consult your representative.

Normally, we conclude a mutual non-disclosure agreement with each client before conducting single-client research for the sake of confidentiality. In the case of this question, please ask your allied partners to be involved as contracting parties or provide survey findings alone.

Please proceed to the contact form, and provide your company’s survey needs in the comment field. One of our representatives will contact you.

Please state which industrial field you are interested in or what kind of expert you want, such as a specialist in survey methods, in the comment field on the contact form. We will select an appropriate lead investigator and contact you.