My Experience in Market Research

My Experience in Market Research

              Because I work in the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), I thought I would give my insight to my experiences in market research. The Wisconsin Innovation Service Center (WISC) is a business outreach center, which is an arm of SBDC. At WISC, we have clients from all over the country looking for different market research reports based on what their goal is for the research. These goals could be to launch a new product, discover opportunities for advancement, or diversify themselves in their industry. My job as a student researcher is to gather the qualitative and quantitative data needed to create these, and then interpret them in a written report. I have had clients in many different industries with many different goals they want to achieve from the research. The first task needed to complete before writing any report is to create a call list of potential prospects to call to get information for the report. At WISC, we create surveys for these prospects based on questions approved by the client. After this data is gathered, the other half to these reports are looking for trends in the specific market as well as primary data on statistics. This could be revenue growth, biggest competitors, as well as market share information. Trends could be in the form of a recent article related to the topic or something that a survey respondent indicated that we look more into. Primary data combined with survey data from the prospective businesses complete a full market research report.

              There are many things I like about my job in market research. The first thing I like the most is the fact that every client wants something different and no report is ever the same. It gives me the opportunity to always be researching and getting to know different markets within the United States. Another thing I like is being able to help businesses grow and find potential to succeed. Although our clients range from small businesses to larger ones, I find it rewarding to give them the opportunity to find something for them that they may not know about and find their own competitive advantage. In addition, throughout the research process, researchers can find things that could change the direction of the report. Lastly, before I got this position, I did not know how much I would be interested in marketing research and doing analysis. I am a marketing major, with more of an interest in sales and interacting with people rather than creating reports using analytical skills. However, this job helped me expand my skills and give me more insight into the field of marketing. It helped me understand what it takes to solve problems with a company through research. Also, using analytical skills in marketing is very helpful. In addition, I have a much larger scope now in how positioning yourself in the marketplace is just as important as having quality products with fair prices. Just because a business thinks they know what they are doing because of their own knowledge in the field, doesn’t mean there is something that they have not looked into. I have realized research plays a crucial role in your company’s success, because there is always an opportunity to optimize your business objectives.