Home > Update > December 2006

The Growing Market for Marketing Researchers

by Bill Shepard

For years, marketing research wasn’t exactly what you’d call a “high-profile” profession in the business world—but that’s all changed. In fact, marketing research is turning into one of the hottest fields around.

The May 2006 issue of Money Magazine ranked marketing research sixth among the top-50 jobs in America, citing an average of 16,000 job openings per year and salaries averaging $82,500 annually. The magazine also gave the field relatively high marks as a career in terms of flexibility and ease of entry. Marketing research also was heralded as one of the top-25 jobs for 2005-2009 in the January 2005 issue of Fast Company magazine.

And then there’s the “coolness” factor. As Money Magazine put it: “If you want to know what the next big thing is, this is your field.”

Charged with gathering and analyzing information about consumers, the competition and the market as a whole, marketing researchers hold unique and increasingly influential positions at companies around the globe. Gauging consumer receptivity to new products, spotting consumer trends, measuring, analyzing and predicting consumer behavior – it’s all in a day’s work for a marketing researcher.

“Marketing research used to be a backroom function, but nowadays the distinctions are blurring between marketing researchers and brand managers,” says Marketing Professor Neeraj Arora, executive director of the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research at the UW-Madison School of Business. “Marketing researchers must have the business savvy of a brand manager, the analytical mind of a researcher. They need to be creative, take risks and spot market trends and pass this information onto CEOs.”

The role of marketing researchers is ascending in importance throughout the corporate world. Growing numbers of companies are embracing the value of marketing research in reducing risk through data-driven decision making, identifying new market opportunities and ultimately increasing profitability.

“There is an increasing expectation on the part of management for researchers to uncover breakthrough insights,” says Monika Wingate, the director of the Nielsen Center. “The marketing researcher’s role is becoming less about measurement and evaluation and more about providing strategic guidance for businesses.”

School of Business alumni working in marketing research agree: marketing researchers are more than just number crunchers and statisticians. Increasingly, they are strategic consultants, offering actionable business guidance based on quantifiable, reliable research.

Amy Van Zandbergen, MS ‘94, senior manager of market research at LifeScan, Inc., in Milpitas, Calif., sums up market researchers’ new role this way: “Marketing researchers’ goals are directly tied to our companies’ goals. We’re taking more ownership in the business and its future direction.”

An evolving field

Pioneered by the brilliant marketing visionary Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr. in the 1920s, marketing research has experienced an “extreme makeover” in recent times.

“The environment has changed dramatically,” says Arora, “The Internet, cell phones and emerging technologies have made it easier to reach large numbers of people quickly and relatively easily.”
The consumer landscape itself continues to change, presenting great opportunities for companies and the marketing researchers who serve them.

“Now, there is so much fragmentation and micro-targeting of different segments of the population,” says Paul Metz, MS ‘94, senior vice president of C&R Research Services, Inc., a Chicago-based custom marketing firm. “You can be very successful if you target your business toward specific segments of the population.”

“The end result is that consumers have more power than ever,” says Ed Dobbles, MS ‘94, who serves as director-customer knowledge for Best Buy in Bloomington, Minn. This, he says, has enhanced the value of marketing researchers throughout corporate America, as they are uniquely equipped with the expertise to measure and predict the wide-ranging behavior patterns of these disparate consumer groups. By helping companies micro-target these groups with almost pinpoint precision, marketing researchers can help boost companies’ customer retention rates by as much as 70 percent.

General Mills Vice President of Consumer Insights Gayle Fuguitt, MBA ‘80, says that marketing researchers can help chart the future course of companies by “quickly identifying game-changing trends on the landscape of consumer behavior, and by helping anticipate consumer needs as well as meaningful solutions.”

She adds: “Newly adapted techniques like Internet and mobile phone surveys help us gather these insights in ‘real time,’ so companies can quickly change course and adapt their strategic direction to consumer wants, needs and desires.”

Marketing researchers have become trailblazers, beating new paths to the doors of consumers in these growing, changing and emerging markets.

For Dobbles and others, this significantly enhances the prestige and job satisfaction associated with the profession. “Wouldn’t you rather be in a field that ties you directly to the customer, especially given the powerful role that customers have today?” Dobbles asks.

Marketing research challenges

Ironically, the trends that have led to marketing research’s growing influence also present significant challenges to its practitioners.

“Today’s business challenge is a world of increasing complexity… more shopping venues beyond traditional retail, from convenience stores, to online shopping, and more advertising touch points far beyond television and radio,” says Fuguitt.

The endless torrent of information in today’s marketplace is a blessing and a curse, says General Mills Consumer Insights Associate Rill Hodari, MBA ‘04. “The challenge clearly is not accessing the data, but sifting through it to find information that is truly representative of the target audience,” says Hodari.
The growth of marketing research as a field also has led to the consolidation of professional research firms and the commoditization of research itself.

“Increased price competition between these large research firms has led them to create faster, cheaper, off-the-shelf research solutions,” says Wingate. “However, client companies demand more insightful knowledge. And these ‘one-size-fits-all,’ standardized research solutions can’t provide that.”

Web-based survey tools have enabled the misuse of surveys by “amateurs” who have no knowledge of proper research methodologies. In response, marketing researchers have had to educate client companies about the limitations of commoditized research solutions and web surveys.

Simply keeping up with the pace of change imposes significant pressure on marketing researchers to provide fresh, relevant data. “For example, the high-tech industry is ever-changing and the shelf life of any research is typically short, which then requires constant monitoring and refreshing of data,” says Hodari.

Yet marketing researchers are creatively adapting to fast-changing market developments via new methodologies, from blog analysis to the latest data mining tools which can scour large volumes of data.

Other incentives

According to Metz, what marketing researchers have in common is a keen intellectual interest in people and their behavior. “Marketing research is known as one of the ‘accidental professions,’” comments Metz with a chuckle. “Many people initially have no idea they’re bound for this field. A lot of sociology, psychology and anthropology majors end up in marketing research.”

All the recent developments “help keep the field fresh and interesting,” says Wingate.

And there are other incentives that draw people to the field of marketing research. “Specializing in marketing research offers great opportunities for advancement, especially at established companies that recognize the value of marketing research,” says Bill Mackison, MS ‘99, senior manager of home care and aircare consumer market knowledge at Procter & Gamble.

Van Zandbergen asserts that marketing researchers have a passion for the consumer and an intense curiosity about what consumers want, and why they behave the way they do. “They want to help companies, as well as consumers, get problems solved,” says Van Zandbergen. “The people that do best in marketing research are those who enjoy solving puzzles.”

Bill Shepard is a Madison-area freelance writer.