Future Talent Meets The Industry

I think that nowadays clients need complex solutions and insights that will help them to overcome their actual challenges, and to have relevant and up to date information about the consumers.

Due to the recession the market research industry experienced a drop in the last years, therefore the pressure on them is increasing, that is why they have to be innovative and competitive.

I think that the future is going to be about insight delivery: this refers to the fact that the actual type of research will not be so important but the ability to identify the proper research methods that together will lead to a full understanding of the consumers.

The dominance of internet is going to increase. With higher penetration rates, market researchers will be able to conduct surveys online which are way more cost effective than personal or telephone surveying. Also new types of research methods will emerge (let’s consider online focus groups or the advent of blogs, social media, there are plenty of information that is ready to be analyzed). Of course internet is not a solution for every market research questions, market researchers have to deal with several issues: some groups have traditionally a low internet penetration rate; useful methods have to be developed that will enable the identification of the respondent; privacy issues when analyzing social media content etc.

With these information collected, market researchers can provide valuable information based on that client companies can develop product or service offerings that actually provide value for the consumers. I think this is going to matter eventually, how companies can offer value for consumers that they accept and therefore will buy the product/service.

As a university student attending a marketing master program, my main objective is to learn as much as I can so I will be able to use this knowledge. On the one hand, to use the theoretical knowledge in the business practice. On the other hand, to use this knowledge as a base, that will be expanded through my business experience in the future. The key issue is the ability of learning throughout the life, because I think this is what makes somebody an expert considering anything.

Market researchers should have the following skills:

1. Methodical skills: mostly statistical knowledge, that is the fundament for them considering the analysis of quantitative data. By this they can draw conclusions that are statistically proper. All in all it is a must.
2. Good communication a selection skills: client companies do not want thousands of tables and charts, that is why market researchers have to synthetize their findings in an understandable but methodically correct way.
3. Empathy: both for client companies and for consumers. The first thing refers to the fact, that market researchers should be able to feel and see the challenges facing the client company. Without this kind of understanding, they may suggest or conduct not relevant researches. The second thing is even more important. Because consumers are in the center, market researchers have to dig deep down to understand fully them, reveal their real motivations, needs, because this information is extremely valuable.
4. Teamworking skills: I think that an ideal research is based on a continuous interaction of the client company and the market research company. It starts with the briefing, then a series of interactions while they share their knowledge through the research progress that will enable to conduct a proper research. It is also very important for market researchers that they have to be able to work with other market research companies effectively, so their work would lead to synergies.
5. Business skills: I think that in the future the main added value of market researchers can be their involvement in the implications of the research findings. They have to be able to identify possible strategies based on their researches; therefore they would be more valuable for client companies.

I have decided to choose marketing for my career during the secondary school, where we started to study marketing. My choice hasn’t changed since that, moreover, it has been amplified during my university studies. What I really would like to do, is to deal with marketing challenges and develop marketing strategies based on solutions for that. That will require the interaction with consumers, because I believe that marketing professionals can be successful only when they have relevant and up-to-date knowledge of their consumers. Also overcoming marketing challenges require market research, and the ability of understanding and handling the results of market research.

Summing it up, my dream job is about developing marketing strategies that address specific marketing challenges and based on consumer insights.