Marketing Research as a Career
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Fri, Mar 05, 2010
A confluence of events has led me to think about marketing research as a career. On Monday, Brian Koma and I were guest lecturers at the University of Virginia, presenting to a marketing-research class of third-year Commerce students (business majors with a concentration in Marketing). Last night, my wife and I attended a college-planning session for our twins, who are high school juniors. Most of the high school juniors have no idea what they want to be "when they grow up". (Contrast that with my four-year old: "When I grow up I am going to be a superhero!") Many of the college students think when they grow up that they want to have marketing careers. Not too many are thinking of marketing-research careers.
To better understand why, I called Stephanie Bartell, the Director of Enrollment Market Research at Spring Arbor University (Steph was a key part of the Interactivity Team at last year's AMA MRC conference). She said, "Many students don't know what market research entails. Market research is a required class but it is not really what the students want to do: they like the flash of marketing, but they don't like or don't understand the research. Research speaks to one group of people, the quote unquote nerds; marketing speaks to the sexy group. It is hard to find people who are comfortable with both."
Which is a shame. This is a rich, promising field, going through a period of tremendous growth.
At the CASRO Panel Conference last week, Kim Dedeker, chair of Kantar Americas, shared her personal story in her keynote address:
I started at P&G at the age of 20 in the Insights Group, with the intent to leave and become a lawyer or do some other graduate work. Instead, I found the learning curve of market research to be so steep and challenging that there was never any reason to leave. I was in a great company, one that invested in training, exposed me to different parts of the world and to the science of research.
Kim recently had the opportunity to re-evaluate her career and leave the market-research profession. She decided to stay.
Like Kim, when I started out I thought marketing research provided a great foundation and then I would move on to something else. Instead, the constant change has kept it fascinating; I still learn something new about the craft every single day, some twentymumble years later.
As for those students in Professor David Mick's class at UVA, Brian and I both hope we made the case that this is a promising, exciting career. With the changes in qualitative research, the rise of social media techniques, the hurried evolution of quant, the industry is in a rapid state of flux. And that state of flux levels the playing field: it makes having 20 years of experience less important than it was. New graduates with a rich understanding of the digital landscape can make a difference for their employers (especially, of course, when paired with experienced hands open to new experiences).
Brian said, "What many undergraduates now need to understand is that marketing is increasingly driven by metrics that, until recently, could not be measured. It is rapidly moving from a creative-driven profession to a numbers- and metrics-driven discipline that will increasingly rely on quantitative analysis to determine key drivers of customer behavior." Marketing research is more important to marketing than ever before.
Marketing is not just about advertising, with all the Mad Men appeal that has today. Marketing is also about driving product and service innovation through careful research. Bat Man or Iron Man appeal, as my 4-year old would say. MR is a great career, presenting wide and deep opportunities, and I hope the 2011 class of Professor David Mick will consider it. Marketing research is ready for some new superheros.