Market Research Executive

Overview

Market research plays a crucial role for organisations by helping them understand their customers better, create new products, find growth opportunities, and address societal issues like smoking, addiction, poverty, and inequality. As part of a market research executive apprenticeship, you’ll be involved in projects that gather and analyse data to provide valuable insights. This includes collecting information from various sources, analysing it, and drawing conclusions. You’ll collaborate with internal teams such as research, sales, marketing, IT, finance, HR, and operations and externally engage with the public, clients, media, and research participants. In this role, you’ll report to a line manager within the team and won’t have responsibilities for managing staff or budgets. While most of your work will be office-based, you may also need to attend discussions, interviews, or meetings with research groups or agencies.

What You’ll Do

• Understanding Goals and Needs: Investigate and grasp the objectives of research projects and the requirements of customers and citizens. Recommend suitable research methods and analysis to meet business objectives.
• Supporting Research Teams: Assist research teams throughout the research process. This includes establishing and nurturing relationships with various research service providers, both internal and external.
• Organising Research Materials: Arrange and prepare all necessary materials and documents for data collection once research proposals are approved. This involves preparing questionnaires, discussion guides, and other relevant materials.
• Reviewing Previous Research: Summarise and assess previous research reports to identify commonalities and new areas of interest. Ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards, including industry codes of conduct.
• Collecting Primary Research Data: Capture, verify, and organise primary research data using various methods, including digital and non-digital techniques such as interviews and surveys.
• Conducting Desk Research: Gather information from secondary sources relevant to research objectives, such as publications and online archives.
• Managing Participant Databases: Oversee the processes for recruiting and maintaining databases of participants for future research projects.
• Analysing Participant Data: Structure and analyse participant data from research projects in suitable formats for client reporting, including tables and sentiment analysis.
• Validating Data Quality: Ensure the accuracy and representativeness of collected data through accepted research quality methods, including statistical and social science validation checks.
• Preparing Research Reports: Compile comprehensive research reports detailing findings and recommendations for clients, presented in formats like PowerPoint presentations or Word documents.

What You’ll Learn

• Understanding Research in Business: Research is vital in business for understanding who the customers are, what they like, what competitors are doing, and the overall industry trends.
• Answering Important Questions: Research helps answer various business, customer, and policy questions, like understanding product preferences, improving services, or creating effective advertising strategies.
• Quantitative Research Basics: This type of research involves numbers and statistics, focusing on how to choose a representative sample, collect data, and analyse it accurately.
• Qualitative Research Basics: Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research delves into the social aspects, exploring deeper insights through interviews or observations.
• Research Methods: Different data gathering methods include face-to-face interviews, phone surveys, online questionnaires, or postal surveys.
• Primary Research Approaches: Exploring firsthand data sources, like conducting surveys or experiments directly with customers.
• Secondary Research Approaches: Utilising existing studies or data sources to gather insights without starting from scratch.
• Project Management in Research: Managing research projects involves effectively juggling tasks like timeframes, resources, and budgets.
• Regulations and Ethics: It’s crucial to adhere to legal and ethical standards, including data protection laws, ensuring confidentiality, obtaining informed consent, and following ethical guidelines.
• Technology in Research: Leveraging digital tools and software to conduct, analyse, and evaluate market research efficiently.
• Data Representation and Analysis Tools: Using technology to present data in understandable formats, like tables or graphs, for easier interpretation and publication.