What’s market Research?
Market research refers to a field that deals with collection and analysis of data relating to customer opinions. The information collected helps marketers to make informed political, sales and economic decisions. As a researcher, you expect to be retained by a company or marketing agencies that vary in size. You will be able to specialize your career as a quantitative or qualitative researcher. While quantitative research deals with working with actual statistics such as figures and percentages, qualitative research on the other hand focuses on analyzing opinions and provide a deeper insight into the kind of quantitative data that we obtain.
Education and Training Requirements
The minimum requirement for becoming a marketing researcher is through taking market research classes to obtain a college diploma or a university degree. To qualify for a bachelor’s degree, you need to have a strong background in English, statistics, sociology, psychology and economics. In addition, you will need to have good communication skills in order to make it in the industry. In most cases, graduates will begin start off as a trainee dealing with tabulators before growing into an interviewer, then research assistants before getting into a higher job level.
Advanced Degrees on market research classes are becoming increasingly popular and desirable by many employers. One of the specialized market requiring an advanced degree is industrial marketing. Candidates with a degree in statistics are becoming marketable today.
Job Openings
If you are interested in becoming a market researcher, you need to have qualified with a diploma or a bachelor’s degree with a bias in statistical or data analysis. You will start as a part-time data tabulator or an interviewer. Remember this kind of experience is critical in preparing you for even more demanding job of a senior market researcher. Whether it is an institution of learning, a medical organization or a business organization, market research is still important and needed. Internet job sites and newspapers as well as professional journals feature job leads for people looking to plunge into this high-paying job.
Advancing in the field and Job Outlook
Your working experience, education and proven track will determine your ability to advance and climb the ladder in this career as a senior market research analyst or marketing research director. However, the latter are however scare openings requiring years of experience and remarkable record in a managerial position. You can also go into this field as a freelance market researcher and establish your own brand. While it has been argued that the field of marketing research is extremely sensitive to the state of economy, analysts have predicted a sharp rise in the number of marketing research positions globally. Perhaps this is because of the increased need for marketers to understand an ever dynamic and turbulent market environment.
