Work as a market researcher is interesting and lucrative. The field is booming. With ever-improving data from places such as supermarket scanners and the Internet, there is no doubt that this field has a bright future. Sunil Karve, Country Manager, Research International elucidates us on the profile, "A market researcher has to design data collection methods (either a questionnaire or an interview guide, manage the collection of data or information and analyse the information and present to the client."
"A research is basically done either to find out how a product is faring or to find out if there is any scope for launching a new product and study the market trends," says Mihir Kittur, COO, Ugam Solutions, a leading market research agency. So the job of a market research executive is to meet with respondents, that easy considering that people today have less time. While some are forthcoming, some are quite rude. On the good side, we get to meet so many people and sometimes we build contacts too."
He says most people in the domestic research business are recruited on a part-time basis. "This is because they need people depending upon the project size. Generally, for every filled form there is a specific amount. So if they give you 100 forms and you complete the survey within the time frame, they may give you an incentive too," he adds.

THE REQUIREMENT

"Since the outsourcing research sector is growing at a fast rate, organisations like ours who specialise in outsourcing need people urgently. MBAs and Phds are preferred for top end jobs while for the executive level we need freshers who have completed their degrees either in maths, statistics, social sciences or economics. Currently we are looking for freshers who are good at maths and statistics," informs Kittur.
If you are looking at getting a field experience, organisations like ORG-MARG and IMRB also encourage graduates or under
graduates with average communication skills. "People who have done their MBA can apply for the post of client servicing in organisations like ours," says Puliyel.

You must also be: Good with data

Market-Research Analysts research market conditions by collecting, organising, and interpreting data from local, regional, national, or other areas to determine potential sales of a product, service, or retail facilities.

Team oriented

Market researchers usually work on a research team with statisticians, motivational research specialists who design survey questions, pollsters, interviewers, IT specialists and a variety of others.

THE GROWTH

"The growth largely depends on the individual but typically a person undergoes on the job training for the first couple of years After fivesix years the person is given a certain amount of business responsibility," explains Karve.
If you have started your career from the field, in a few years (four-five years) time you could be leading a team of market research executives. From thereon, commensurate to your experience you could also get involved in designing survey research projects, deciding the methodology, developing the questionnaire, supervising the fieldwork and analysing data and then finally making recommendations to the client based on insights drawn from the survey.
"If you get into the client servicing side, in about nine years time, you could be easily heading a business unit, a sector or a specific client," informs Puliyel.

THE MONEY

Money comes in accordance to your performance. People who start at the micro level can expect to earn anywhere around Rs 5000-7000. If you manage to get in more responses, you can earn more via incentives.
The starting remuneration of a Market Researcher (with a MBA background) is approximately Rs 3 - 3.5 lakhs and can go upto Rs 5 lakhs after a couple of years. "Since both the domestic and outsourcing research sector is growing exponentially, money is not an issue in this industry now," sums up Mihir.