I’ve always said, “If loving data and creative writing are wrong, I don’t want to be right.” Marketing research is a true passion of mine. I love creating effective research and providing my clients with actionable results. It is always astonishing to me to see what a well-constructed survey can do for all types of businesses.
Even if you do not share the same passion as me, working in market research can be an amazing experience. With hundreds of methodologies to conduct and several different industries to service, no two days are the same. It is more than just working in Excel spreadsheets and creating data charts, but rather using fact-based evidence to gain a 360-degree understanding of the perceptions, awareness, and satisfaction of an organization’s customers and stakeholders.
Allow me to dive a little deeper. Watch as I explain 4 reasons you should consider a career in marketing research!
Marketing research is more than just numbers.
Often times, when I say I work in market research, most people assume this just means I speak in data and statistics. While I can’t pretend I don’t LOVE data and using fact-based evidence to help drive the business and marketing strategies of our clients, marketing research is more than just numbers.
There is a whole side of marketing research that requires top notch communication skills such as moderating a focus group or conducting in-depth interviews. Through qualitative research, market researchers must be skilled in engaging participants and asking the right questions.
Marketing research is all about listening.
Many types of market research require a specific process. From a high level point of view, as market researchers we listen to the data and feedback we collect through online surveys, focus groups, intercept surveys, mystery shopping studies, etc. With this information we are able to help tell a story with our clients.
This could mean creating customer personas, recommend necessary policy changes, improving marketing strategies, and more. Drive Research doesn’t believe in sending our clients a report that is one big data dump. It is important to us for our clients to understand what the feedback of the study means and how they can use this information to improve their business for customers, potential customers, employees, and other stakeholders.
Marketing research is not just charts and graphs, but how to interpret the data.
It doesn’t take a rocket science to read a pie chart or a line graph and explain what it symbolizes. In fact, I often use these elements in infographics to help really show what kind of feedback we found. This could be to show, “65% of customers would recommend X store to a friend.” Or, “1 in 3 employees do not agree with the current vacation policy.”
My job however is more than stating the facts. It’s about analyzing and understanding how the results came to be. I must take a closer and detailed look into the reasoning behind what respondents are saying to truly use the data to recommend a change. One way to do this? Asking, “Why?”
Marketing research helps explain the “why?”
It is important for market researchers to ask “Why?” Why? (😉) It is necessary in identifying root causes. At the end of the day, our goal as a market research partner is to make an impact using high quality data.
Why did the bank or credit union receive a low customer satisfaction score? Why are tenured employees more pleased with the leadership team than newly hired employees? Why are customers willing to travel 30 miles to a specific car dealership? Why is fat and sugar still bad for you? Okay, the last question is more of a personal vendetta.
The answers to these questions cannot always be found at first glance of the feedback from the market research study. It requires some digging in order to understand the full story. This is where the real fun begins!
Contact Drive Research
Drive Research is a market research company located in Syracuse, NY. Our team has the knowledge and tools to design a robust market research study, should it be the right fit for your business.
Interested in learning more about our market research services? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
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Email us at [email protected]
Call us at 888-725-DATA
Text us at 315-303-2040