Play nice and be flexible

The top 10 things every entry-level marketing researcher should know

by Robert E. Brown

Editor's note: Robert E. Brown is president of Inquest Survey Research, St. Louis. He can be reached at 314-892-4834 or at rob3253@earthlink.net.

Marketing research is a highly complex and specialized field. Individuals considering careers in this industry will do well to prepare themselves thoroughly. However, in this author's experience, even fairly rigorous formal training has lacked elements of practical significance critical to success in the workplace.

This article reviews the insights gained by one practitioner during his first seven years of experience in the marketing research industry by listing 10 items of which every new entrant to the industry should be aware.

o Play nice. The "rules" governing interpersonal interaction apply in marketing research, just as they do in every other field. The research industry tends to attract well-educated individuals, who often hold strong opinions regarding research techniques, methodologies, etc. While such knowledge is of indisputable worth, researchers must take care to exercise restraint in their interactions with each other and with clients. A measure of humility is required - there will always be someone else who knows more than you. The need to show deference and respect to co-workers and clients is certainly as critical in marketing research as in any other field - often more so.

o You will never have completely arrived. As noted above, marketing research is an extremely complex field containing elements of several other disciplines: psychotherapy, sociology, statistics, mathematics, consumer behavior, organizational behavior, marketing, etc. Although individuals may be inclined toward a particular area of research (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative), truly superb practitioners have their fingers in several pies. Knowing when to use which method, rather than fitting all research problems to a preferred methodology, is critical to providing high-quality, actionable information.

o Think, don't just calculate. Marketing researchers are marketers. Ultimately, the goal of every project is to provide clients with information that furthers some basic marketing objective. Researchers must be ever cognizant of the real-world meaning and application of their data.

o Be flexible. Too often, marketing researchers dictate to clients (especially internal customers in the case of client-side research units) the appropriate methodology, sample size, etc. without always being fully aware of the background or history of the brand, product, package, company, politics, etc. In almost every case, clients know more about their business than do research suppliers. Thus, researchers must take care to consult with clients, being flexible to accommodate their unique needs, budget, timeline, etc.

o Got education? Given the variety of disciplines from which marketing researchers must draw, ongoing education is critical. You really can never know enough. However, a few specifics are key to the beginning researcher:
Technical writing skills - The English courses you took in college may or may not be sufficient. Academic writing tends to be much more verbose than business communications. Take a good technical writing course.
Statistical training - The statistics courses you took as an undergraduate were definitely not sufficient. Continued statistical coursework will be critical to your ability to extract usable information from survey data.
Table-building/analysis - Although multivariate data techniques are very powerful tools for researchers, clients' budget and/or time constraints will often preclude data analysis at that level. Thus, researchers must become experts at extracting key data points from and recognizing important patterns within simple crosstabulated data. Unfortunately, most academic curriculums with which this author is familiar are deficient in this area. Students of marketing research more often than not must supplement their formal studies with hands-on work experience to master this type of analysis.
Post-graduate degrees - Most beginning researchers will find themselves hitting a ceiling fairly early in their careers unless they obtain a graduate degree. Many long-time researchers recommend either an MBA supplemented with quantitative analysis courses or one of the MMR (master of marketing research) courses offered in the country. Advanced degrees in communications, sociology, consumer psychology, or related fields may also be options.

o Experience, experience, experience. Because marketing research is so specialized a field, most academic programs will not fully prepare beginning practitioners to design and direct marketing research projects. In particular, many novices do not have adequate experience with the process of collecting data - a critical shortcoming that can adversely affect project timelines, budgets and quality of information. This is an area properly addressed by both beginning researchers and marketing research employers through orientation, apprenticeships, seminars, and the like.

o It's not what you know, it's who you know. Networking is an important function for furthering careers. This is particularly true in the marketing research industry, where only two or three degrees of separation exist between you and everyone else involved in marketing research in your region (or even in the country).

o Learn to sell. As this author has observed, many researchers choose this field as a non-sales alternative within marketing and/or business. Surprise! It's not. A researcher will enhance his or her worth many times over by developing selling skills and actively seeking opportunities to sell research and to sell his or her own skill set.

o Feast or famine. Beginning researchers must be prepared to accept that their work volume will vary considerably from month to month - sometimes even from week to week. Proactive individuals will take advantage of work ebbs to hone their skills, maintain existing network contacts or make new ones, develop selling skills and otherwise prepare for periods of more intense activity. Also, beginning research should be prepared to accept that the "happiest time of the year" is also the busiest - research suppliers will often experience significant up-turns in business activity during the holiday season (i.e., mid-September through mid-January) as clients spend the last of their research budgets. Brace yourself!

o Be patient. Just a little bit of perseverance can go a long way in the marketing research industry. Entry-level employees' first year or two in marketing research are by and large training periods characterized by sink-or-swim experiences. Many novices work on projects during that time that test their skills to the limit and cause them to question their fitness to practice research. However, the value of employees thus trained and conditioned becomes quite high within a short period of time. Hang in there!

Copyright 2003 Quirk's Marketing Research Review. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. www.quirks.com.

www.gs-research.com