Career Profile: Marketing Research Analyst

What is a Marketing Research Analyst?

Market research analysts frequently work in consumer psychology. This is because you would need to understand why consumers make the choices they make, and what your clients can do to influence those decisions in their favor. You might analyze how different types of packaging, slogans, or messages impact the behavior of your client’s targets. You might be employed by corporations, businesses, non-profit organizations, political parties, or any entity that would benefit from a solid understanding of their target market.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities as a marketing research analyst are quite straightforward. You would have to develop or aid in the development of, marketing plans. You would then have to track their efficacy, as well as keep track of market trends, sales trends, and forecasts. You would need to prepare reports that would make this information palatable to your employers, who may not have the same depth of experience and understanding of the data that you do. You would also be responsible for conducting varying types of research. One thing you’d have to research is market conditions within a particular location, demographic, or socioeconomic category. You would need to analyze that data to understand consumer preferences and use that insight to drive your marketing plans with the goal of reaching those customers and growing your profits. You would also have to determine if your specific product or service would fair well in that market. For instance, in an area like Celebration, Florida where most people walk or bike to get everywhere, if your product is steering wheel covers, they are not likely to do well in that area. You would need to make those types of designations. You would also need to study past sales and market trends to predict the way they will change in the future; you would be responsible for considering competitor performance and marketing tactics. Your primary responsibility is keeping customers, and acquiring new ones.

Salary Information

As a marketing research analyst, your potential salary ranges from $39,000 yearly on the low end, and $72,000 yearly on the high end. The average salary someone in this particular career earns is $50,857 yearly according to the resource Payscale. Pay shows a steady increase as experience increases; however, it is worth noting that the few people whose experience exceeded 20 years in their position at the time surveyed had significantly lower salaries. It’s reported that people don’t often spend more than ten years in this position. As a marketing research analyst, some companies would pay you additional money in the form of bonuses, and possibly profit sharing.

Qualifications

In order to do this particular job, you will need a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. It doesn’t matter if you have a B.S. or B.A., but a B.A. is likely to be a more traditional degree for this career path. A B.S. could still be a good fit as it is very data-driven. For the Bachelor of Arts degree, you would take fewer courses to fulfill the requirements of a psychology major, along with a selection of classes in fields outside of your own. For the Bachelor of Science degree, you would have a stronger focus in your area of study, the more scientific or medical aspects of it, and some courses in math and science, with little to no classes that were outside of your major.