I think I’ve finally found a recession-proof part of the research industry: continuing education and professional development. In chatting last month with Don Marek, executive director of the Marketing Research Institute International (MRII) - the body that administers the Web-based Principles of Marketing Research courses along with the University of Georgia (UGA) - I learned that the courses narrowly missed having their best year ever last year. In spite of - or, more likely, because of - the gloomy economy, it seems that a lot of companies and researchers across the world decided a little skills-enhancement was a good idea.
With this issue’s focus on pharmaceutical marketing research, I had contacted Marek to find out more about the MRII’s newly-updated Principles of Pharmaceutical Marketing Research online certificate course. The new version of the course debuted last summer, after a year-long effort to revise the existing pharma course and move it to the same new platform enjoyed by the Principles of Marketing Research course.
Marek says changes in technology were the main reasons for the update. “Obviously, as with all of marketing research, online-based research is becoming more and more prevalent in the pharmaceutical industry. Because much of the research deals with hard-to-reach doctors and respondents, there has been a move to online video-based, remote-type focus groups and qualitative research. Plus there is the rise of social media. And the online specialist panels are very important. So we wanted to be able to keep pace with all of that,” he says.
Both the main Principles course and its pharma cousin are self-paced, self-study endeavors. Like the main course, the pharmaceutical course has 11 modules: marketing and its interface with marketing research; introduction to marketing research and planning the research process; research design; sampling; data collection methods; measurement approaches; understanding data analysis; advanced data analysis; communicating research; global marketing research; and trends in marketing research.
Woven into the pharma course are case studies written by pharmaceutical marketing research professionals. Each case covers the background of the business issue, the study objectives, the research methods employed and interpretation of the results. Some of the topics include: new drug classes - attitude/trial/usage; inferring bipolar and schizophrenic cases by hospital; research management and ethical and legal constraints in the pharmaceutical industry; and global research - understanding attitudes toward cervical cancer vaccination.
Patient and diplomatic
While the course doesn’t focus on teaching specialized skills for pharma marketing researchers, Marek says that anyone looking to enter the pharma research world needs to be patient and diplomatic. “There aren’t any unique skills needed for the majority of pharmaceutical research. You have to be analytical and have good interpersonal skills. You have to be very patient because things are highly regulated and may not move as fast as you would like. You have to be extremely diplomatic because you are dealing with doctors. And you have to be very good at digging out secondary research sources because there is such a big body of secondary research. Those qualities - patience, diplomacy and investigative skill - are valuable in all kinds of marketing research but they are especially helpful in pharmaceutical research.”
Another skill - discipline - also comes in handy when your aim is to complete a self-paced course like those offered by the MRII and UGA. With the course’s 11 modules, Marek says many students set a goal of completing about one per month. While individuals need to look within for motivation, many of the companies that enroll large groups of employees in the courses form study groups, led by a senior internal researcher, to keep students on track.
“The study groups can meet about once a month. At the end of every module is a practice exam and the group can go through the exam and discuss it. The person leading the study group can look at the exam questions and say, ‘That’s the book answer, but in our company we do it slightly differently, for these reasons.’ And that has been very helpful for them in terms of letting them use the courses as in-house training and professional development exercises,” Marek says.
Continue growing
Interest in the courses will likely continue growing, no matter what the world economy does. Marek says that more and more students from outside the U.S. are enrolling, especially from Southeast Asia, China and Korea. As businesses go global and seek local research partners in foreign lands, being able to show that employees have completed courses like those offered by the MRII will help the in-country research operations establish their credibility, Marek says. “When foreign research firms deal with big multinational firms, the big problem they have is convincing them that they know what Western firms are looking for. And these local companies are able to point to employees having completed the MRII course as proof that they have received training and are aware of what the firms are looking for as far as standards and practices.”