Editor's note: This article appeared in the July 26, 2010, edition of Quirk's e-newsletter. It was updated on July 27, 2010.
The July 2010 issue of Quirk's featured a report on our second-annual salary survey of client-side researchers. While that group makes up the bulk of our readership, we also have a substantial base of subscribers on the vendor side. As the two groups are so inextricably linked, we felt the time was right to get the providers of research products and services in on the fun. So we mounted a 22-question vendor salary survey similar to the one we fielded with the client-side subscribers.
For the most part, the vendor side of the industry wasn't dealt as serious a blow from the tanking economy as some might have thought. Compared to 2009, only 13 percent of researchers experienced a decrease in salary while 45 percent of said their annual salary stayed the same. Additionally, 12 percent of researchers' annual salaries increased by more than 10 percent, with 31 percent reporting an increase between 1 and 10 percent.
But while salaries generally held steady or increased, the yearly bonus took a bigger hit. Fifty-three percent reported the same bonus for 2009 as in 2008, but for 19 percent of researchers, bonuses decreased by more than 10 percent. On the whole, 28 percent reported receiving smaller bonuses in 2009 and only 20 percent received larger bonuses. Raises and bonuses may not have been as plentiful as they would in a booming economy, but the survey also showed that researchers are earning their keep. Only 12 percent of provider-side respondents reported working fewer hours than in the past, and 34 percent are working even more. Fifty-three percent are putting in about the same amount of time as in the past.
High-pay, high-satisfaction?
Perhaps some of the more telling findings regarding the state of the vendor side of the research industry came from a question regarding job satisfaction and researchers' likelihood to seek new employment. When asked how satisfied they are with their current employment, 75 percent of researchers reported being somewhat satisfied, satisfied or very satisfied. Only 2 percent reported being very dissatisfied with their current employment.
Not surprisingly the highest-paid researchers are the most satisfied, with researchers claiming to be very satisfied earning the most money annually ($147,295, including bonuses). The high-pay, high-satisfaction trend continues with researchers who are satisfied ($110,877) and somewhat satisfied ($129,421). The earnings gap between the somewhat satisfied and somewhat dissatisfied is just over $40,000. The real outlier of the group, however, is the very dissatisfied camp, which earns on average a shocking $27,871 more than those in the somewhat dissatisfied group and only a few thousand less than those who are somewhat satisfied. While there seems to be a correlation with pay and job satisfaction, one might speculate that earning a high salary in this only-now-rebounding job market is enough to keep researchers at jobs they dislike.
Likely to stay put
Similar to the client-side study, the survey asked respondents how likely they would be to seek new employment once the economy improves. Research vendors are significantly more likely than client-side researchers to stay put. Thirty-seven percent of provider-side researchers said they are very unlikely to seek new employment at a different company whereas 17 percent of client-side researchers said the same. In sum, 61 percent of vendor-side researchers said they are either somewhat unlikely, unlikely or very unlikely to seek new employment.
This question yielded a salary-based trend similar to that of job satisfaction - again with one outlier. Researchers earning approximately $147,000 annually (including bonuses) reported the highest job satisfaction and are also the least likely to seek new employment. Provider-side researchers earning $110,047 and $109,365 are unlikely and somewhat unlikely to put themselves back on the job market, respectively. However, researchers who said that they are somewhat likely to seek new employment earned an average $130,952 annually, with those undecided about shopping around for a new job earning on average the lowest ($94,655).
Greener pastures
And for those researchers who do journey forth to greener pastures? They're better off staying on the vendor side, as 64 percent of researchers reported that it is somewhat likely (17 percent), likely (14 percent) or very likely (33 percent) that their company will hire additional employees in 2010. On the client side, the figures were almost exactly with opposite, with 60 percent reporting it is very unlikely (33 percent), unlikely (17 percent) or somewhat unlikely (10 percent) that their company would hire additional employees this calendar year.
An educated bunch
Like their client-side counterparts, the provider-side researchers are an educated bunch. Eighty-eight percent of them have either a bachelor's or master's degree, and 8 percent have earned a doctorate. It seems all of the schooling has paid off - literally. Looking at compensation by degree achieved, the research vendor earnings are just slightly higher than those of researchers on the client side, and a researcher with only a high-school diploma is still looking at an $85,000+ average annual salary with the potential to increase earnings by almost $20,000 with a college degree. If you have your master's and are looking for your next pay bump, a Ph.D. could yield you nearly $43,000 more each year, as Ph.D.-holders on the provider side earn an average of $169,610 (including bonuses).
Salary by region
The average total salary by region (including bonuses) was a hefty $25,000 more than client-side researchers, with the greatest salary discrepancy between client- and provider-side being in Asia, where the average vendor earns over $95,000 more than client-side researchers in the same area. Conversely, client-side researchers in Mexico/Central and South America earn over $57,000 more on average than provider-side researchers in the same areas. Aside from these two earning disparities, earnings in the other regions around the world were comparable, with vendors being paid slightly more on the whole.
Compensation by job title
When it comes to compensation by job title, senior vice presidents and vice presidents earn slightly more than an owner/president/CEO, which is perhaps surprising as C-level executive are typically viewed as those with the biggest bank accounts. Additionally, marketing/communications managers received the highest bonuses at an average of $35,211.
A more complete profile
Finally, as we did with the client-side researchers, to capture a more complete profile of provider-side researchers we asked two open-end questions: What do you like most/least about working in marketing research?
For this group, as with the client-side researchers, the chaotic, ever-changing, fast-paced nature of research is a double-edged sword. At times, the go-go atmosphere is thrilling and exhilarating, making each day different:
"I have always loved the variety and the fact that I get to attack a large data set and find the story buried in there somewhere. It feels very creative. Often times the things that companies are willing to pay to research are the kinds of things that are on the front pages of the newspapers. It's an exciting line of work."
At others, the rapid pace is overwhelming and exhausting:
"It is rather all-consuming for me. Sometimes I would like to work in a factory and go home at a certain time and just forget about all the deadlines."
As for the other dislikes (see verbatims below graphs), some of the most often cited problems included: long hours and having to work nights and weekends; scope creep; clients with unrealistic and/or unreasonable expectations about how quickly and cheaply research can be conducted; the feast-or-famine nature of the business - sometimes research-company owners and employees are insanely busy, other times not at all; air travel; the trend toward viewing research as a commodity, especially by procurement departments; working with inexperienced/unqualified clients; and not being able to see their work implemented by the client.
The likes were plentiful. Many of them centered around the constant variety - of industries, of clients worked with, of the research methods employed. The research vendors also shared the client-side respondents' love of learning, of being paid to snoop, of making a difference for their clients and seeing products and services they worked on finally hit the market. Many also remarked on collegial nature of the industry and the joys of working with other smart, curious people. At the same time, others bemoaned the loss of collegiality, citing the rise of the Internet as a depersonalizing force along with the influx of MBA-bearing marketers, many of whom lack a respect for and familiarity with the guidelines that add rigor to the practice of marketing research.
What type of company do you work for?
Which best describes your current employment status?
What are the annual revenues/sales of your organization?
How many employees (full-time equivalent) are there at your organization?
How likely is it that your company will hire additional employees in 2010?
In what region are you (personally) located?
How many years of experience do you have in marketing research?
Which title best describes your job/role?
How many employees do you supervise?
What is the highest level of education you have completed?
Do you hold a professional or industry certification related to marketing research? (Riva, Burke Institute, PRC, Principles in Marketing Research, etc.)
What is your 2010 annual BASE salary?
By what percent did your BASE salary increase or decrease for 2010 compared to 2009?
What was your 2009 annual bonus? (Please don't include stock or profit sharing)
By what percent did your BONUS increase or decrease in 2009 compared to 2008?
Are you working more or fewer hours now compared to in the past?
How satisfied are you with your current employment?
As the economy improves, how likely are you to seek employment at a different company?
What is your gender?
What is your age?
What do you like most about working in marketing research?
"I've found an industry which allows me to use both sides of my brain. The analytical side is happy problem-solving, while the creative side of my brain is happy to be researching an industry that interests me (entertainment)."
"I appreciate seeing what we work on actually end up in-market. It is very interesting to take what consumers think about ideas and turn them into strategic insights to share with our clients, and later see the impact they are having in-market. Additionally, I enjoy psychology, so understanding why consumers feel the way they do, or why they react in a certain way to communication pieces, is extremely interesting to me."
"We work with non-profit organizations, so for me, it's the clients and helping them achieve their very worthwhile goals."
“Compiling data that gets new products and services to the marketplace.
"Takes a special person to deal with clients, staff and the changes in market research. I guess I was lucky to be such a person."
"Turning otherwise useless data into insightful ideas for guiding business decisions.”
"Allows me to exercise my curiosity, my brain, my strategic sense and get paid."
“The role I play in this innovative online qualitative company is as much fun as I have ever had in marketing research. Bringing this kind of value and insights into my clients world has been exciting.”
“Taking on the same role as a consultant with the foundation of specific data supporting my recommendations.”
“Provides fodder for my insatiable curiosity.”
“The excitement of dealing with clients' problems.”
“Flexibility. You work hard and play hard. I'm okay with working long hours one day and then having more days off. It's a win-win.”
“Work with very smart people both at the company and the clients I meet. Always interesting subjects. At this time we are on the cusp of change in data collection. I am eager to see how market research changes in the next 10 years.”
“I like the collegial and academic feel to the sector. It feels like a quest for verifiable truth ... at least that's what I tell myself after working 65 hrs in a week.”
"I love numbers that mean something. I love problem-solving - thinking about how to ask a question the right way, how to cut the data that will give an answer."
“I love the people I work with and the analytical thinking.”
“Creating solid marketing initiatives with research being the key ingredient in the decision path.”
“Discovering things for the client that really surprise them and allow them to innovate.”
“I love what we do and I like our clients.”
"Constant learning, working in so many different categories and interviewing so many different kinds of people."
“Finding something that contradicts the conventional wisdom.”
“The camaraderie with other market research companies in the U.S.”
"Helping clients solve business issues. I enjoy the process of ensuring we do quality research by implementing standards, staying on top of innovation and trends in the industry."
"Contributing to clients' success, based on the results of market research studies."
"Powerfully exciting, innovative, insights-oriented and always changing in topic and degree of methodology as well as difficulty. Good people in the industry. Thinkers, all of them!"
"The work is interesting, diverse and challenging. It allows me to be creative, to utilize critical thinking skills, to utilize my technical skills, to mentor others, to engage with clients, to learn about business and to make a good living."
"I just have a passion for designing research programs, analyzing data, writing reports and conducting statistical and qualitative analysis. It's just my thing."
“I use a lot of means-end laddering and enjoy examining how people see our client's products and services and then figuring out what is the optimal positioning strategy. Great sense of satisfaction when sales strengthen as a result of the client making the needed adjustments to their communications.”
“I have always loved the variety and the fact that I get to attack a large data set and find the story buried in there somewhere. It feels very creative. Often times the things that companies are willing to pay to research are the kinds of things that are on the front pages of the newspapers. It's an exciting line of work.
“I get paid to be nosy.”
"Have own company, flexibility, control."
“That it pays me enough so I can get out.”
“Can't really think of anything other than the fact that it pays the bills.”
“The people! Wonderful group of peer professionals.”
“I get involved in different types of businesses with every new client and different types of marketing issues with each project. I am always learning something new.”
“Everything is exciting!!!”
“It's intellectually stimulating and can be very rewarding. It encompasses both ART and SCIENCE. It's creative.”
“Intllectual [sic] challenge.”
“Very resilient industry - lots of smart and quirky folks.”
“Getting to be curious all day.”
“I have worked in marketing research for most of my adult life - I have always loved the ever-changing nature and challenge of this industry.”
“It provides an opportunity to earn good money by thinking.”
"I love the intellectual challenges inherent in developing a study to answer a client's questions, executing the study and analyzing the data. It's been a great life."
“I like seeing a product I worked on in the grocery store and knowing I had a part (albeit a very small part) in getting it there.”
What do you like least about working in marketing research?
“Having to present soul-crushing survey results to a client.”
“Having to take untrained clients seriously.”
“The need to explain clients why some research suppliers are extremely cheap and others are more expensive (including us).”
"Filing - seriously. I love getting up in the morning and coming to work - except when I need to do some filing."
“Clients who don't even know what they need to know.”
"Having to use new techniques just because they are in vogue. Many ‘new’ techniques are no better than the old, proven ones. Yet, immature clients feel it necessary to use the latest tools without regard for their quality."
“Too many researchers cling to the numbers and are afraid to make recommendations based on what they see.”
“Larger marketing research firms tend to invest too much time and money toward areas that do not improve the relationship with their client base. I've found that smaller research operations are much more successful at this.”
“People asking for bids who have no intention of giving you the work.”
"I least like the pressure of meeting project deadlines when I'm working with the people who work directly with the clients. These people don't take the time to learn and understand the process of actually conducting research in the real world. Although I attempt to look at each problem or issue that comes up with them as a teaching opportunity, I often feel like there is no real desire on their part to learn."
“Our business is running so lean and mean right now that we don't seem to be able to make much progress with work/life balance and we are required to manage too many projects with competing needs.”
“It's not quite as nice as a scuba diving vacation in Hawaii.”
"When people do not respect their own signatures on the contracts they have signed. Tax avoidance. Non-professional (i.e., not of MR origin) top management in some large MR companies.”
"The poor level of research validity, coupled with extensive use of buzzword bingo terms to try to dress up and make a simple procedure sound exotic."
"Profession is not very commonly understood or known/requires explanation at a dinner party."
"Long and unpredictable hours. Sometimes difficult clients. And, let's face it, marketing research is sometimes only about how to make a rich company richer. Not always fulfilling or meaningful work."
“Many clients do not appreciate our work and are not willing to pay for quality.”
“How tough it is finding good staff.”
“It is rather all-consuming for me. Sometimes I would like to work in a factory and go home at a certain time and just forget about all the deadlines.”
“It is too crowded, with a lot of companies doing the same thing. I am also devastated by the lack of knowledge in sampling and other core statistics.”
"Everything seems to land all at once! I guess that's life, but it's amazing in this industry. I'd also say people mistaking market research for telemarketing."
"Cyclical work load. It seems that our work comes in waves, so sometimes we are neck deep in work for several clients at once and other times we are sitting around waiting for new projects to begin."
“Same old/same old mentality. Client side and research side that simply cannot understand the new social media or utilize technology to make their results better and more insightful is extremely frustrating to me. As much as our industry and our clients TALK about being innovative - it really boils down to decisions made to do things the way they always have - because that is their comfort zone - the clients that ARE embracing the future and technology - will be light-years ahead.”
“Procurement departments who can evaluate competing proposals only on number of interviews, number of minutes and not on ability to deliver to business objectives.”
“Not strictly related to market research - but more the industry I work in - the hours themselves can be brutal. And it's especially tough feeling like you're working 15 hour days in a business that doesn't exactly save lives or make the world a better place.”
"The profession seems to have been devalued over my years in it. There are fewer senior researchers at our companies. Clients seem increasingly junior and clueless (this unfortunately seems to be the best descriptor) about the importance of professional and well-designed marketing research."
"Dependency on other suppliers and having to make up the time when they are late, constant time crunch, clients who want to ‘place an order’ instead of telling you their business issue and working together."
"I'm in the business of business, not curing cancer or solving the world's problems."
"That a client wants inexpensive, fast, quality research and quality can't always be done inexpensively or quickly. That there is a ton of work to do and no one is hiring. We're all overworked and underpaid."
“Dominance by math people who miss the big picture and big conclusions available from good market research.”
“Users of market research lately have been more focused on speed of delivery than quality. It is difficult to offer better practices to those that don't know anything about the research practice.”
"Narcissism. Everyone who thinks they are experts and have a new, innovative way of doing things. Snake-oil salespeople who think they are smarter than a purchase intent scale."
"The ‘order-taker’ mentality that pervades much of the industry. Conjoined with that, the lack of strategic input into initiatives. Ideally, customer insight should shape corporate and brand strategy. Often, however, it becomes one more check-box on some manager's to-do list."
“Some schmucky clients but, hey, that's the way life works!"
“Clients are mostly dweebs.”
“The increasing focus on speed and low pricing at the expense of solid methodology. Involvement of procurement (aka purchasing) in final decisions for specific projects.”
“The constant changes in research studies by clients right up to being in the field!”
“The mid-level managers make supplier decisions and they can be very petty. The buyer power is often placed in wrong hands.”
"The lack of understanding shown by people who develop quant surveys. I answer some online surveys occasionally and wonder what the writer was hoping to learn, as the questions will generate no valuable information whatsoever. Why waste your client's money like this?"
"That marketing research is sometimes overlooked, misunderstood, viewed as a luxury, confused with telemarketing, misused, not even on the radar, etc. To this day it is still easy to find products and services that are missing key features and capabilities, Web sites that are not intuitive, IVR systems that don't make sense to customers, flawed customer communications - and all of this is easily prevented with marketing research."
"Used to be an closely-knit, informal collection of professionals; but it is changing as the Internet, corporations and business people conspire to replace the collegial scientists that used to populate this unique industry. There is now too much emphasis on speed and low cost with a total disregard for data quality and rampant abuse of respondents."
"The industry doesn't have very good PR - e.g., not a lot of outsiders know what we do or how cool and important it is. They only think of the people calling them on the phone during dinner."
“Lack of regulation or standards means that the market research industry suffers from a preponderance of rogue vendors that tarnish perception. It is used by some companies as a training department to elevate employees internally which results in a revolving and undereducated client base. Recruiting and data collection are undervalued and quality suppliers are few and far between.”
“Clients that don't champion their research or want to take the findings to the next level.”
"I wish I could impact the world in a more meaningful way beyond just helping companies provide better products and services to consumers/customers - so ‘community’ efforts occur primarily out work. It's hard to see what happens after you do research - where companies take it - typically you only see a part of the picture."
“I think too many decisions are based on incomplete information. Turning a qualitative report around in a few days, or basing major decisions on a verbal debrief or one-page topline defeats the purpose of doing the majority of qual projects."