by Amanda Daflos
Career Training Review Columnist
Any well developed marketing project begins with market research. Market research forms the basis for major decisions about marketing campaigns and determines the demographics towards which a marketing campaign is geared as well as the marketing techniques used.
What is Market Research?
Market research is the field of study that enables a marketing firm, advertising agency, and other organizations interested in appealing to a specific group of people to understand the opinions and trends that occur in those demographics. When you watch a commercial on television or see an ad in a magazine, the product's design and the ad's look and feel are all meant to appeal to a certain group of people.
Market research firms survey individuals and provide firms with the applicable quantitative and qualitative data; this data enables them to understand their target audience. The information also provides marketing firms and advertising agencies with insight into the way that their target audience thinks and responds to products, services, and ideas.
Education Essentials
Many people that specialize in market research have graduate degrees in sociology, marketing, and business. Most individuals have spent a great deal of their academic and professional careers studying a specific trend or population in society. They then move into a research firm where they further develop their communication marketing training skills and apply their knowledge of market research to the workplace.
Defining Your Career in Market Research
Market and sociological research is important for policy think tanks, government institutions, and nearly any company or organization that needs to communicate with a certain population. For this reason, individuals from backgrounds beyond sociology, marketing and business are often very useful. For example, an individual with a strong background in education would be very useful to a firm identifying the target market and ways to sell a high school computer literacy program.
If you are interested in a career in market research, have strong communication and marketing skills and a desire to study societal trends and opinions, you can combine your academic background with the appropriate analytical skills to take your career to the level you want it in the world of market research.
About the Author:
Amanda Daflos is the Founder and President of Aleigh Productions, a public relations and event consulting firm based in Colorado which specializes in work with non-profit organizations and initiatives as well as small businesses and corporations. Academically trained at Kaplan University in Clinton, New York and currently completing a master's degree in public administration at the University of Colorado, Amanda works to promote individuals and corporations and brings their special events to life.
Thursday, April 7, 2005
News and Updates Archives
|
