Market Research Jobs shown in a spider diagram

In some cases the job involves devising methods and procedures for obtaining the data that is needed by designing surveys to assess consumer preferences. While a majority of surveys are conducted through the Internet and telephone, other methods may include focus group discussions, mail responses, or setting up booths in public places, such as shopping malls, for example.

Often names can be quite confusing with the market research world. In one company a Research Analyst can be bottom of the career path whilst in others this is seen as a quite advanced role. The below list is therefore a generalisation of most common roles within market research (excluding data processing and field roles). Based on firsthand experience, a rule of thumb can be is that progressing from one role to the next takes between 1.5 to 3 years, depending on the company, training & education and drive of a person.

Junior Research Executive / Trainee / Analyst

Most common for graduates & student placements. The role is mainly focussed on reporting, data control and administration. Most likely in this role you will have support from a manager and depending on the team a director and / or more experienced executives. If you work for an agency it is most likely that you will start visiting clients after several months in the job, under guidance of the manager or director.

Some examples of tasks:

• Design/Methodology – Operationalising research questions, design and administration of questionnaires
• Data Management – Quality assurance and management, associated with survey data collection
• Data Analysis – Data cleaning, weighting, assessments & primary analysis
• Report Writing – Evaluate economic trends, spending habits, and demographics to determine market trends.

(Senior) Research Executive

Many day to day tasks are similar to the junior or trainee role. The difference is that you will have ownership of reporting / project and become more self reliant. You will be giving the responsibility of projects from start to finish including taking briefs, questionnaire design, reporting and delivering of insight.

When working for an agency it is possible that you will be starting giving parts of presentations or get the responsibility of training / workshops for the client. Other areas that will develop during this time is supporting the manager in sales targets and writing proposals. In some cases you might get the responsibility for generating revenue or extending client contracts.

As you now have experience working in market research, you will be expected to “think outside the box” and use your established experience to break through the boundaries.

Project / Account Manager

By this stage you will be able to give presentations to clients, work autonomously and become the main point of contact for clients as well as internal teams that you work with. You might have some executives in your team that you have the responsibility for to train and guide.

A most likely requirement for the role is you will be adept at winning business from initial meetings set up by yourself or the business development manager. You should also be able to discuss multiple aspects and impacts of issues and project them into the future.

As account manager working for an agency the job role also involves negotiating client contracts, budget responsibilities and generate new businesses.

Research / Insight Manager

Although this is quite similar to account manager role, the focus of an insight / research manager is on the actual analysis and management of data / projects.

Vital job requirements include direct experience in the area of work (quantitative / qualitative / continuous data etc), an ability to generate insights and the management of multiple, multi-disciplinary projects at once with a strong sense of time management.

Associate Director / Consultant

This role involves providing direction and assist with the development of the team, designing and managing projects with a high level of autonomy and responsibility.
Key aspects of the role are taking projects from kick off to completion, managing a small team to coach them to help them achieve their potential, account management of several clients, and contributing to business development.

Director / Head of Research

By this stage you should be a proven leader with a real in-depth knowledge of global consumer brands and how they work, delivering world class research and a dedicated level of service. Some other tasks are:

• developing revenue
• ensuring the development and growth of other members in your team
• evolving the research strategy for the business

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Market Research Companies

ACNielsen

is a global marketing research firm and part of The Nielsen Company. One of ACNielsen’s best known creations is the Nielsen ratings, which measure television, radio and newspaper audiences in their respective media markets. Another market research tool is Homescan where sample members track and report all grocery and retail purchases, allowing purchasing patterns to be related to household demographics.
One of the most common used products is Retail Measurement, a tool that provides continuous tracking of product sales to consumers, based on information gathered at the retail point-of-sale (EPOS data)
Other well known ACN Businesses are BASES, Nielsen Consumer, Nielsen Business Media and Nielsen Online.

Bazis Intelligence Group

is a Russian research agency, the first company which conducted on-line focus-group in Russia in 2005. Bazis IG covers industries like Construction, Automotive, Healthcare and Employee loyalty. It uses a range of methodologies, Qualitative and Quantitative, Competitive (SWOT analysis) and Market entry.
The main capability lies in CATI, Focus rooms and ActiveGroup

Forrester Research

is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology’s impact on business and consumers.  It offers a variety of services including syndicated research on technology, quantitative market research on consumer technology adoption and business IT spending, research-based consulting and advisory services. On its website you can find a wide range of free research, options to be alerted on new conducted research as well as of the shelf surveys.

GfK SE

is a worldwide market research organisation providing services in five business divisions: Custom Research, Retail and Technology, Consumer Tracking, Media and Healthcare. The Custom Research sector supplies information and consulting services for operational and strategic marketing decisions. Retailer POS data is the source for the Retail and Technology sector. The sector supplies clients with information and consulting services based on retail data from continuous surveys and analyses of sales of technical consumer goods and services in the retail sector. The Media Sector delivers information services on range, intensity and nature of media usage and acceptance. The data source for the Media sector stems from the media (point of media).

Ipsos MORI

is the second largest survey research organisation in the UK. The organisation has a freely available archive of opinion polls and public attitude research from 1970 onwards, including trends on its UK website. Ipsos MORI’s Social Research Institute works extensively for UK government and public services, looking at public attitudes to key public services which formed a key part of the UK Government’s domestic agenda in 1997-2005. Social policy, and issues such as identity, social cohesion, physical capital and the impact of place on attitudes are all key themes of the Institute’s work. The company also specialises in Media, Loyalty and Marketing and Advertising Research.

Mintel International Group Ltd

is a privately owned, London-based market research firm.  Mintel databases, analysis, and forecasts are accessible only to subscribing clients and to students in participating university libraries. Some of its products are: Mintel Beauty Innovation (monitors mass media beauty introductions), Mintel Comperemedia (tracks direct mail and print advertising), Mintel Food & Drink (combines 5 products to deliver actionable market intelligence) and Mintel Menu Insights (tracks items on US restaurant menus). Mintel is mostly known for its reports, which are published online and contain consumer research and analysis.

The NPD Group, Inc.

(formerly National Purchase Diary) is a leading North American market research company founded in 1967 and provides consumer and retail information to manufacturers and retailers. Using actual sales data from retailers and distributors as well as consumer-reported purchasing behaviour, NPD offers consumer panel and retail sales tracking services, special reports, modelling and analytics, and custom research. Covered industries include apparel, appliances, automotive, beauty, consumer electronics, food and beverage, food-service, footwear, home improvement, house wares, imaging, information technology, movies, music, software, toys, video games and wireless.

SymphonyIRI Group

(formerly Information Resources, Inc.) is a market research company which provides clients with consumer, shopper, and retail market intelligence and analysis focused on the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry. They offer services in the following areas: Market Content (Retail tracking data, convenience store tracking data and consumer panel-based data), Predictive Analytics (Decomposition of the drivers of current business trends and simulation of the effects of changes on future brand plans), Enterprise Performance Management Software (Tools to support faster analysis of market content) and Professional Services / Consulting.

Synovate

is a market research firm owned by the Aegis Group. Aegis Group plc is the parent company of Aegis Media and Synovate. Aegis media has 4 media companies under the group – Carat, Isobar, Vizeum, Posterscope and SPI Advertising. It has a number of different divisions, such as Synovate Healthcare, Synovate loyalty , Synovate Censydiam and Motoresearch. They claimed themselves as the most “curious” people in the world

WPP

is is the world’s largest communications services group in terms of revenue. Kantar, based in London, was founded in 1993 as the Market Research, Information and Consultancy Division of WPP. It is a network of 13 specialist companies, including:

• Research International specialises in qualitative and quantitative custom market research. It has experience in most major sectors, particularly consumer packaged goods, retail, new media, financial services, energy and utilities, technology, the postal sector and telecommunications.
• Millward Brown provides qualitative, quantitative and consulting services with respect to brands, marketing communications, media and marketing effectiveness. Millward Brown works across a range of industries and categories, including brand strategy and experience, creative development and campaign evaluation, consumer needs and values, media planning and strategy, return on investment (ROI) and forecasting, and investment management, brand valuation and analytics through its MB Optimor unit. In the UK, Millward Brown currently compiles the Music and Video Charts on behalf of The Official Charts Company.
• IMRB International‘s specialised areas are consumer markets, industrial marketing, business to business marketing, social marketing and rural marketing
• Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) is a leading market research and market information group with focus on the areas Automotive, Consumer, Finance, Political and Social, and Technology

Technorati Tags: ACNielsen, Aegis, Aegis Group, Bazis, Bazis IG, Forrester Research, GfK, IMRB, Ipsos, Ipsos Mori, IRI, Kantar, market research, Market Research Companies, Market Research Company, Millward Brown, Mintel, Mori, Nielsen Company, NPD, NPD Group, Research International, Symphony, SymphonyIRI, Synovate, Taylor Nelson Sofres, TNS, WPP

The below chart shows an overview of the different subjects and will be used as a guideline for each feature.

Common areas of interest around Market Research

The subjects I will cover are:

• Market Research Companies: although I have given a list of top companies before, this blog will go into a bit more detail about the different companies, what they key focus points are and how they can be of use to businesses or individuals
• Market Research Jobs: there are many job titles out there related to market research. In this blog I will try to give a list of the most common ones, what the job entails and a career path / hierarchy
• Market Research Advantages: why should a company do market research?
• Market Research Methods: what are the most common types of market research? Ad-hoc vs Continuous, Quantitative vs Qualitative
• Primary Research: what is meant by this, common methods used
• Secondary Research: what is meant by this, common methods used

Before I go into these different subjects, I will end this first blog with a definition of market research.

Market research is an organised effort to collect information about markets or customers, which includes the interpretation of information, using statistical and analytical methods to gain insight or to support decision making.
The purpose of market research is to discover what individuals want or need and how this translates into how a company can fulfil this want or need.

Often the term is interchanged with marketing research. However marketing research is specifically focusing on processes (consumer marketing, business to business marketing), whilst market research is concerned with markets (product category, region)

Technorati Tags: Definition, market research, Market Research Companies, Market Research Jobs, Marketing, Marketing Research

Due to the strong dynamics, competition and take overs between market research agencies, this list probably is outdated within the next year.

But I have found the following top 9 research companies based upon their international turnover in USD for 2009

Rank Company  (sales in 2009 million USD) Growth in %
1 Nielsen Company (5,000.0) 2.6
2 WPP : Kantar, TNS, Millward Brown, BMRB, IMRB International and Ziment Group (2,000) 2.5
3 IMS Health Inc. (1,958.6) 8.9
4 GfK AG (1,397.3) 5.4
5 Ipsos Mori (1,077.0) 6.5
6 Synovate (739.6) 9.5
7 IRI (665.0) 6.6
8 Westat (425.8) 0.8
9 Arbitron (400.0) 5.9

(source: Wikipedia)

Technorati Tags: Arbitron, BMRB, GfK, IMS, Ipsos, IRI, Kantar, Millward Brown, Nielsen, Synovate, TNS, Westat, WPP

Within market research you do not necessarily become an expert in a small area, that really depends on the company you work for and the oppertunities that you have.

If you plan your career well, you can become an expert in a certain field, which means you become much sought after. Even though you might consider the beer market small, as a highly experience market researcher you would know all the ins and outs in the market. You would be able to predict what is going to happen in the market. You would know how external dynamics, say a recession, will impact the market and how you can help clients get through this. To be highly accomplished you would understand international markets and its dynamics. This means that you can be a well paid employee for any of the big manufacturers as well as market research agencies.

As for being funner and well paid, that depends on what you do within advertising. I have worked for advertising in the past, and this meant placing adverts in different forms of media. I have ot say that was far more boring than the market research I am doing currently.

I think it depends what you are interested in doing. If you are highly creative and like to develop / design adverts, then a career in advertising is the right place to be. If you like to do research, dig through data to find the answer to your questions, then a career in market research is something to go for.

If you have the opportunity, I would take on the internship, get the experience and transferable skills and then you can always decide in the future to change careers if you think market research is not for you.

Technorati Tags: advertising, analysis, analyst, basic skills, internship, market research, market research analyst

Without helping to completly write her research proposal I explained to her that a good research proposal has the following sections:

• Introduction: which explains why you are performing this research
• Questionnaire: outlining what kind of questions and subjects you want to ask during your survey. This is not the actual questionnaire, which will be a separate part
• Sampling: who is your target group, how many of those do you want to ask and where are they
• Methodology: what is the set up of the research, is this face to face interviews, postal / online questionnaires, focus groups, etc.
• Analysis: what are you going to measure, how do you measure it, what kind of statistical analysis are you performing to validate your data and use as foundation for your conclusions
• Ethical appendix: in this section you have to think about any problems that might occur when asking your questions, are there any possibilities that people might not want to participate.
• Literature review: what research has already been performed in your area, what does this mean to your proposal, are those studies useful or not and why
• Project Plan: outline of what you are going to do when
• Bibliography

Based on the above headers I supported her in writing her proposal. She got started with the course and received good grade for her proposal, and I received a nice bottle of wine for the help!

Technorati Tags: research course, research proposal

“Me and a friend are considering starting our own computer repair business, however we’d like to carry out some market research before deciding to invest any money. The only strategy we have thought of so far is to stand in a crowded shopping mall and ask people to complete a survey but we doubt this will be effective. I would appreciate any suggestions on other types of market research or confirmation that surveying is a good method and also how many people we should survey to make our data credible.”

You can do several different surveys:

• local business area; put questionnnaires out in the local catchment area of your business. You can put in a preposted envelop. Keep the questionnaire anonymous, as this will most likely increase the response rate.
• set up an internet questionnaire (easy to do with for example surveymonkey.com). Put an advert on Google to the questionnaire. The advert is linked to keywords of your area and computer repair business. You can even set up a website for your company and get interest through there.
• set up advertisement through social media like Facebook

How many people:
In most research, for minimum significance testing you need about 80 to 100 people in the end results. Depending on the survey, you can expect a return rate of anything between 5% and 30%.

What you have to take into account, is how many people do you need on a regular basis to keep your business profitable. Based on that figure, your catchment area and competitive businesses in your area, you can further determine how many people you need in your survey.

For your business you have to bear in mind who is coming to your shop. If you can put your company in an area where there is no competition closeby, I would suggest also expanding your business in areas like small computer equipment (mouse, mousemat, keyboard, cables, webcam) and training courses. Depending on the area you might have the option of offering internet for visitors.

Technorati Tags: local business, market research, questionnaire, research, survey, website

It seems we are geared up towards a heavy half year, looking at the amount of books and reading material in the box.

The new course is called Management and Business Research and will only run for half a year. There are 2 essays to write and one final End of Course Essay. All crammed into a very short period of time. No rest this Christmas. Like with the previous courses the first essay is due just before Christmas, followed by the next one early Feb. The final essay is in April.

I wonder, judging the amount of books, how we are going to fit this all in. But than again, it is a Masters Degree.

I will put up some updates as we go along, for now, it is back to the books and the planner.

Technorati Tags: B852, Management and Business Research, master in research, masters degree, open university

The last essay was all in light of SPSS, not an easy subject at all. It is not difficul to generate the results out of the system, but the explanation and understanding of the data is a complete different cup of tea.

I will try put up some separate posts specifically relating to how to read and interpret SPSS outputs sometime in the near future. However for now, the year has ended. The final part of the year consisted of an exam. The main focus on the exam was SPSS, followed by understanding of some key phrases passed throughout the year. At the end we had to write a short essay on a subject outlined in the exam paper.

After 3 hours of writing and thinking, I finally managed to hand in my examwork. Now it is waiting until December for the results. Hopefully the Open University will deliver an early Christmas present!

Technorati Tags: Christmas, essay, master in research, open university, SPSS

“I need to find 50 people to respond to my market research survey for my business class. The questions involve home health care/personal care and services such as homemaking, meal preparation, yard work, transportation assistance, and respite care. Any ideas where I might find people willing to take this survey? ”

You can visit local care homes and ask for permission to question the residents on these subjects. You will have to make sure your survey is anonymous, unbiased and that answers will be generalised to avoid identifying certain places or people.

You can also try to find out where the “older” residents of your local village / city go to during the day. For example what time / day do they go shopping, banking, do they visit library or local clubs / bars. You can then ask these people if they are willing to participate in your survey.

Find out which local businesses offer the service you are interested in for your research. Contact these businesses and ask if they are willing to participate in giving you contacts. In return you can offer them a free report of the results of your survey.

Technorati Tags: market research, questionnaire, research survey, survey