CEO Monthly Reflection- October 2025: Is CPI Compression the Great Root Cause?
CEO Monthly Reflection | October 30, 2025
By: Terence McCarron, CEO & Founder
Recently on a LinkedIn post, a long-time industry colleague commented that I was overcomplicating the quality issue, arguing it all comes down to one root cause: “CPI Compression.”
This is a common argument I’ve heard from many industry leaders over the years, mostly on the sample side of the CPI transaction.
The argument is essentially that Market Research agencies drove prices so low that it compromised the ability of reputable sample companies to build and maintain quality supply.
Yet I can’t think of a single MRA executive who sees it that way. They would argue that quality eroded long before CPIs tanked, with corners cut during growth phases and multiple company flips.
We can all agree that CPIs have dropped dramatically. But what caused that?
- Did Sample firms cut corners to pad their wallets and valuations, while being dodgy over what was lost in the CPI drop?
- Or did MRAs willingly drive down pricing so low (to pad profits) at the expense of quality?
I’ll admit I’ve participated in many gripe sessions about clients who clearly bought based on their three favorite factors: Price, Price, and Price! But that group of clients is relatively small.
Whenever this same old conflict comes up, I return to the same questions:
- Who set those prices? And…
- Who said sample vendors had to say yes to every client request? (This is usually when I get called naïve.)
Unlimited Supply?
My start in MRX was in the phone world. I had the privilege of working for the late John Stepleton at Research Data Design. We were a small call center business with about 200 CATI stations. We did great work and took great care of our interviewers in college towns in OR, NM, and MT. As a result, we occasionally “sold out” and had to turn down projects. That meant we literally ran out of stations to run another study.
When the online sample market took off, all panel companies (including where I was) created a perception of unlimited supply in our sales & marketing. We projected an “any study can be done” mindset —no limits.
- 1% IR? Sure!
- Tiny zip lists? How many do you need?
- Panel sizes XXXL! 5 million, no 10 million, no 40 million panelists!
- $20 CPI needs to go to $5? No problem! (Meanwhile, we’ll just skimp on incentives and go to “river”.)
Saying no to a bid was a sign of competitive weakness. After all, everyone else would say yes. It was a rare event where a sample vendor would say, “I’m sorry, I can’t do that CPI and maintain our quality standards.”
Commodity vs. Quality Buyers
Long term, that sales approach produced bad outcomes. CPI Compression certainly occurred, but it was driven by intense competition. Many in the industry look back and assume MRAs quietly encouraged cutting quality to hit price targets.
Did some companies do that? Sure—but not as the norm. MRAs were constantly approached by competitors claiming they could “do it better” and at a lower cost. In my experience, only about 5% of MRAs treat price as the sole factor. The rest saw sample solutions increasingly treated as a commodity—no extra dollar mattered when competitors stopped differentiating.
In 2013, OpinionRoute marked a clear distinction in this dynamic. Enough was enough. It was time to do better work.
For clients of ours, a CPI is more than just what the “bottom of the barrel” can get you. We bring back options to the buyer. You truly get a chance to apply your quality standards your way. And through us, you can segment the sample market based on who truly invests in quality, and who just sells that message well.
Take control of your sample quality. Contact OpinionRoute today to see how our approach helps you set and maintain the standards your studies deserve.