There are very particular careers in quantitative marketing for students who are enthusiastic about market research and statistical analysis. While the field of quantitative marketing applies to many industries, the actual job descriptions tend to be similar. Continue reading to learn what careers are available in quantitative marketing.
What is Quantitative Marketing?
Quantitative marketing is a logical and data-driven approach to understand what people think. That is, numbers and statistics will quantify consumer preferences and behaviors. Quantitative marketing uses standard techniques, such as mass surveys with standard questions. The goal of quantitative marketing is to provide research data, test marketing hypothesis and measure specific consumer preferences. Quantitative marketing uses powerful analytics to offer statistical realities so that executives can make well-informed business decisions.
What Education is Needed?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) states that anyone working as a market research analyst will need at least a bachelor’s degree in marketing or related fields. For example, math, statistics and computer science are all related. Therefore, many marketing research students obtain dual degrees. Many jobs that perform advanced quantitative marketing research require a graduate degree, such as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with specialization in marketing or statistics.
What Certification is Recommended?
The Marketing Research Association (MRA) offers industry standard certification for marketing research professionals. For example, they offer their basic Professional Researcher Certification (PRC) that examines market research analysts’ competency and knowledge. They also offer their advanced MRA certificates that demonstrate the highest levels of proficiency and professionalism. For example, their Qualitative Research Principles certification focuses on interviews, report writing and social media research.
Market Research Analysts
Market research analysts use the principles of quantitative marketing every day as they attempt to examine the different aspects of product and market sales. This could include researching why consumers prefer certain products, how much consumers are willing to pay and the demographics of market segmentations. They monitor sales trends, create marketing strategies and use statistical software to analyze complex data. Market research analysts must have excellent communication skills because they will interact with a variety of individuals every day. They must use their analytical and critical-thinking skills in order to understand data and draw objective conclusions. In fact, they must also have creative-thinking skills in order to think outside the marketing box and challenge existing consumer and marketing stereotypes.
Consumer Insights Analysts
These marketing professionals work with sales, customer service and management in order to understand and predict consumer behaviors. They perform in-depth consumer research, examine the data and provide actionable recommendations to management. For example, they are generally responsible for exploring new consumer trends, preferred distribution methods and the effectiveness of promotional campaigns. They use internal customer databases, syndicated marketing data and third-party sources. They also keep an eye on other companies and the industry as a whole in order to deliver helpful competitive analysis reports.
Business Analysts
Careers in quantitative marketing include business analysts who have broader responsibilities and work in diverse departments. For example, they may analyze client communications or process methodologies in order to improve operational efficiency. They are often assigned a particular client business problem and asked to support the client so they can make better decisions. They use software and statistical models to analyze sales and financial data. Finally, they conduct qualitative research with customers in under to expand their client’s competitiveness and market share.
Related Resource: Management Jobs in Marketing
To be brief, quantitative marketing uses math, statistics and research to produce objective results and reports. There are more careers in quantitative marketing becoming available as companies realize how important big data and data analytics are to a business’ success.
