Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Award winner, Jon Puleston, vice president of innovation of the profiles division, Kantar

Editor's note: Jon Puleston is the winner of the 2022 Researcher of the Year (Supplier) Award which is a category in the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards. To find out more about the awards click here.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out in marketing research?  

In your job you will find there are things you are paid to do and things you are interested in and want to be doing that may not be what’s in your official job description. My advice is to work 9 to 5 on the job you are paid to do and outside of this time focus on developing the job you want to be doing. Achieve this by taking initiative and working on side projects, reading up about research and learning new skills by signing up for courses and finding a mentor to advise you. Slowly with enough effort the job you want to do will evolve into the job you are paid to do.     

How do you see the marketing research industry changing in the next five years?

I took part in the Good Judgment project and was a Superforecaster for a few years, so perhaps I should have a smart answer to this question, but I don’t. I am not sure. My hunch is the research industry will become more disaggregated as access to research solutions get democratized and with ever increasing supplies of data, there may be more researchers but less research companies. The roles of research will become more integrated into mainstream businesses. 

What has been your favorite part of being a researcher?

That moment when you finish a piece of research and have  the topline data. You open up the Excel spreadsheet and jump to the question in the survey you are most interested in and discover something insightful. That is what I love most about being a researcher. And all the people – market researchers are lovely!