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What does a Market Researcher do?
Marketing research is often used by physical and virtual businesses to establish trends in sales, products, and services. The daily duties may include pulling information from surveys, creating market research reports from the data pulled, and writing surveys. Data from market research is collected and analyzed as part of developing future marketing plans.
Surveys can be a huge part of the daily functions of a market researcher. The survey results can be used to provide trend-based data for the current consumer. The consumers used for marketing research surveys are commonly screened to fit into the profile of the common shopper for a specific business or service provider.
Once the information is gathered from the consumer surveys, the market researcher may compile that data into reports used to guide future changes in products, services, and business plans. The focus of the surveys will often cover a variety of business elements. These may include products, store or website design, pricing, and employee/consumer interaction.
The market researcher may also play a part in the design process of the surveys used to gather consumer opinion. These surveys can be presented as online surveys, in-store surveys, mail surveys, and phone surveys to name a few. Depending on the delivery method of the survey, different tactics are commonly employed in the survey writing process.
The wording of the questions used in the marketing survey may be the most important aspect of the market researcher daily duties. If the wording is incorrect, the results of the marketing survey could take a different angle than intended. This could mean the entire survey may need to be repeated with a more focused questionnaire.
Many projects completed by the market researcher will include three stages. The first stage includes presenting the survey to a small group of focused consumers. These consumers should fit the profile of the business clientele for the establishment gathering the marketing data. This is the test phase of the marketing survey.
Once the test phase is complete, the survey may be presented to a larger group of the focused population. The results of the larger survey are often used as the data collection for future reports written for business management and product buyers. Then the marketing researcher usually gathers the data collected, assembles it, and reports on it to the business manager. The survey results can be used to reevaluate daily business activities and future product trends, or determine successful and unsuccessful product choices, among other results.
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![A market researcher may be responsible for compiling data into reports for use in future business plans.]()
By: Kirill KedrinskiA market researcher may be responsible for compiling data into reports for use in future business plans. -
![A market researcher may design phone surveys to gather consumer opinion.]()
By: auremarA market researcher may design phone surveys to gather consumer opinion.
Discussion Comments
Subway11- I just wanted to say that
market research jobs really require degree in marketing and an MBA with a concentration in statistics. This is really what the top market research firms look for regarding market research candidates.
Sunshine31-I know that market research firms also offer surveys and then if you complete the survey the market research company may send you a sample of a new product that has yet to reach the market in order to obtain additional feedback from you.
Usually these subjects are the ones from the study that are most likely to buy the product which is why their input is so valuable. They will usually ask how the product compares to what is already on the market and if this were available how many packages would they buy.
They would also ask questions regarding where you would find the item in a particular store and some studies might ask you to explain the concept of the product to see if it is cohesive and memorable enough for the general public to understand.
The studies are strictly confidential and you are not allowed to disclose any information in any of the studies.
Oasis11-Market research services also include focus groups. Focus groups also start with a preliminary screener questions and then if the subject answered the questions correctly they will get invited to participate in a focus group.
Focus groups are a lot of fun. You usually get paid anywhere from $75 to $250 for about two hours of your time and there are usually snacks, drinks and sometimes sandwiches for the participants.
The participants are asked a series of questions in a panel or roundtable format and everyone gets to give their attitudes and opinions regarding the questions asked.
Sometimes if the focus group involves a change that their client is contemplating to make in their stores, the subjects might be asked about their attitude toward the client as well as the competitors to see how to improve the store’s customer service.
Informa Research, Maritz Research, and Ask Miami are among the top market research companies out there. For online market research, Pinecone Research is also well known and regarded.
The market research services companies are there for their clients in order to help their clients identify their target market. Often a company may seek out market research firms in order to conduct a survey or a focus group so they can order gage the attitudes of potential consumers.
The market research questionnaire is sent out to a potential pool of candidates that mostly closely align with the companies target market.
There are a set of screener questions in order to determine how likely a consumer is to buy the product or service in a particular industry.
This is important because if the consumer does have the demographic background, but never buys the products or services in the survey their input is of no value to the company so they are subsequently disqualified from the study.
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