Our first-ever survey of the qualified readers of Quirk's Marketing Research Review reveals some interesting information regarding their background and involvement in the marketing research process. (A qualified reader is defined as a person who has research purchasing responsibility within a company or organization that purchases, rather than provides, commercial research.)

The suggestion to undertake this study on the users of marketing research products/services and their buying habits came from Monica Smith, a member of the research department at the Xerox Company in Rochester, New York. She also provided assistance in developing the questionnaire. For this I wish to extend my thanks.

The two-page questionnaire, with cover letter and reply envelope, was mailed to 500 of our qualified readers in early January, 1990. The names were selected at random from the current mailing list. No financial incentive was included nor was any follow-up mailing made.

As of March 10, we had received 271 returns, of which 263 (52.6%) were usable. I appreciate the high level of cooperation.

The respondents represented the wide range of industries and organizations existing within the country; slightly more than two-fifths (41.8%) work at manufacturing companies, while the remainder work in the service sector.

A high percentage (64.7%) of the respondents have research-related job titles such as market analyst, research manager, or research director. Those without research-related titles are more likely to have marketing titles (26.2%) such as marketing director or product manager. Beyond these two categories there were a wide range of titles for other individuals who also have marketing research responsibility.

Although marketing research titles are the norm for those who have research buying responsibility, the location of these individuals within a separate marketing research department is not as common. Among the survey respondents, less than two-fifths (39.2%) are located within a marketing research department; slightly more than that are located either within a marketing department (27.4%) or a combined marketing/sales (13.7%) department.
Providers of marketing research products/services bemoan the relatively high turnover of their client base, and the results of the job tenure section of this study confirm their feelings. Almost one-fourth (24.0%) have had two years or less of involvement with marketing research within their present organization, while more than half (57.0%) have had the marketing research function for five years or less. We hope, at some later date, to determine what might cause this situation.

As might be expected from the earlier information relating to job titles, when asked to break down the percent of their work time that involves marketing research, the majority of the respondents said they spend most of their time with marketing research projects. Almost half (47.5%) stated they spend 75% or more of their time in this area, with another 13.7% spending between 50% and 74% of their time in this function.

Those involved in the marketing research function are well-educated. Over half (55.9%) have a graduate degree, and an additional 38.0% have a bachelor's degree. The most common major, as might be expected, was business.

The respondents tended to have personally worked on a wide range of research projects during the past year. The questionnaire provided a list of project types, and more than half of the respondents said they had conducted advertising studies (66.5%), customer satisfaction studies (63.1%), new product concept studies (62.7%), tracking studies (62.0%), or market segmentation studies (58.9%). And between one-third and one-half had involvement with pricing (39.9%), promotion/merchandising (39.9%), sales forecasting (35.4%), or service issues (33.8%).


There are many different research products/services available to researchers and our respondents reported using a wide variety of them within the past year in the areas of quantitative, qualitative, data processing/software, and field services. I believe this is an indication of the research buyer's increasing degree of sophistication in customizing the methodology for each project.

 

More than half (52.9%) of the respondents used full service research during the past year, while more than one-third used syndicated studies (39.2%), secondary studies - excluding demographic (34.6%), or demographic information (34.6%). Other quantitative information sources listed include multi-client studies (24.7%), panels (17.9%), omnibus studies (12.2%) and single source scanning services (10.3%).

Qualitative research continues to play a major role with researchers. The importance and use of focus groups in the research process is shown by the fact that almost two-thirds (63.9%) used this method during the past year. One-on-ones also are important - more than two-fifths (40.7%) of the respondents said they had used that method during the year.



Collection of raw data is still an important part of the research function. Telephone interviewing (65.8%) was the field service used most frequently in the past year, followed by mail surveys/lists (49.8%), personal interviewing (38.4%) and mall intercepts (22.1%).

More than two-fifths (40.7%) of the respondents used outside statistical analysis services during the past year. The use of in-house processing and data analysis is also evident in the fact that more than one-third (36.5%) purchased or leased software packages during the year. And almost the same percentage (35.7%) used outside data processing services over the last twelve months.

Price and quality of research products/ services are apparently important consid-erations when selecting suppliers, according to our respondents. Competitive bids are the rule rather than the exception for the most widely used types of research. It may reflect both the need to control costs as well as the ability to select the best product/service for the specific research project.


Among those respondents who indicated use of specific types of research during the last year, 83.5% normally obtain competitive bids on full service studies, focus groups (74.7%), telephone interviewing field service (68.2%), personal interviewing field service (55.4%), mail surveys/lists (54.2%), and mall intercepts (53.4%). The services for which between one-quarter and one-half of the respondents normally obtain bids are omnibus studies (46.9%), one-on-ones (46.5%), demographic information (33.0%), data processing (30.9%), statistical analysis (29.9%), software packages (28.1%) and secondary information - excluding demographic (25.3%). When asked about their influence in determining the research methodology used and the research provider chosen for each project, the respondents indicated that they play a very important role. Over half say they usually have final authority on the methodology used (52.1%) and the company chosen (50.9%). About two-fifths of the respondents say they share the responsibility for determining the methodology (39.2%) and the research company (41.8%) with others. This finding points out the central role our readers play in this part of the information gathering process.

This study is the first of several we plan to conduct to better understand how the marketing research process functions within organizations and to learn more about the people who have responsibility for it. If you have any suggestions for future survey topics, please let us know.