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What is a marketing interviewer?

Marketing and Psychology or just Psychology?

  • If I want to do marketing research should I double major in Psychology and Marketing? Alternately, if I enjoy research psychology and conducting studies, what are other possible careers I might be interested in? I am aware of http://ask.metafilter.com/137496/How-to-get-a-career-in-marketing, I even posted in it! But I want personalized advice blah blah, and his question is different than mine. I am a sophomore in college with about 50 credits under my belt after this semester. Currently, I am majoring in Psychology. After taking a marketing class this semester I figured out what I could do as a career: marketing research!!! Yeah!!! I've always wanted to do something in experimental psychology, like researching and conducting studies. However, I've heard that most of these positions require one to become a professor, which I don't really want to do. Marketing research is sorta like that... right? I like the idea of conducting surveys, focus groups, etc., to try to understand how people make decisions about what to buy. I mean, I'm not exactly passionate about this, as I might say I am about other psychological topics I could research, but I have a vague interest in it and I don't hate it, maybe I even like it. So, should I double major? With 50 willy-nilly non-business credits, I would have to take about 20 more than 120 to graduate. And I wouldn't be able to take ANY classes outside of psychology or business, minus the gen ed classes I haven't taken yet. Does it even matter what I major in to future employers (in any field, what if I change my mind to something completely unrelated?) usually? I feel like I should just major in Psychology and minor in marketing, as I care more about Psychology and marketing would just be a career. If I go into marketing and decide I don't like it at all I wouldn't want all my effort to be for naught. On the flip side, I also don't want to be wasting my time and money in college getting a degree that will make me unemployable in anything I want to do. I would rather work hard now and stop messing around than have to come back in a few years. School is a good learning experience, but the end result (a job) is very important to me, simply because I don't want to have a dead-end job the rest of my life. I want a nice relaxing job that makes me enough money to get by. I'm probably just going to go with Psychology, but I want to know what you think. Someone in the other thread pointed out an article in Advertising Age about how marketing firms actually prefer people with degrees in something other than marketing, but is this actually true in practice? One article isn't convincing enough, I would like ancedota from people in marketing telling me how true this is. Also, please, if you can, tell me what it's like doing marketing research. Another question is, what else could I do for a career if I am interested in psychological research? Marketing research is the only practical thing I can think of, where I will actually have a job someday (maybe), but what else is there? Thank you for your help!

  • Answer:

    From my experience in the field you should take statistics classes or even minor / second major in statistics if you're serious about market research. Advanced statistic skills are a real door opener because many people who have studied psychology or economics will have basic knowledge in statistics, but there's only few who understand the advanced stuff, that is required to learn complex modeling, data fusion, etc. later. I've studied communications & media (along with political science and sociology), basic statistics / data analysis was a required class and many people struggle with it (because, zomg! it has evil math!), so they just try to get it done. They'll be able to do basic things with SPSS/PASW you could also do with Excel (for 2 weeks, before they forget which buttons to press), but never really understand what they are doing. Only a few take the advanced statistics / data analysis path and this is where you can score. Don't worry too much about the whole marketing business, a few classes are enough for the basics and you can pick up anything else you need through internships. I think I learned 90% of the actual marketing knowledge on the job and I was in market research for a few years before going into media strategy, so I know both sides of the aisle quite well. Even if you don't do real market research later but end up in marketing / advertising / product management, the skills will help you enormously, as you'll be able to understand how to interpret and work with data. This can be survey results, market studies, sales analysis, you name it. Take internships, preferably in different fields (market research companies, media agencies, marketing department of corporations) and find out what you like best.

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Marketing research is sorta like that... right? ... I have a vague interest in it and I don't hate it, maybe I even like it. Paco Underhill is the man here. If you can read his books on psychology in the retail environment (Why We Buy and The Call of the Mall) without wanting to drop everything and do marketing research for a living, it might not be the thing to do.

whatzit

From what I understand, focusing on quantitative skills will be essential. And internships are key. If you can swing it, double major. Why not? Minors don't mean too much.

k8t

k8t is wise. Take some stats. From the stats department. And learn SAS, and perhaps SPSS - preferably through an internship, or working with a professor (psych or marketing) on some research.

McBearclaw

Stats are pretty useful for just about anything.

delmoi

A lot of social psychologists actually have appointments at business schools, and conduct research on marketing as it relates to social psych. In general, they get paid a lot more than do academic psychologists. I don't see why you couldn't do both, but if that's too much to put on your plate, I'd vote psych over marketing. Then again, I'm a psychologist, so I'm pretty biased. No matter what, definitely bone up on stats.

solipsophistocracy

A friend of mine left her psychology grad program with a masters and is now an IRB [institutional review board] analyst for a university. She spends her time working with behavioral and medical researchers and reviewing the ethics and legalities of their research plans. She likes her job, believes in the rules she's enforcing, and enjoys working with scientists like she used to be. And it's a normal 9-5 job, unlike being a professor. On the other hand, she's a bureaucrat, which may not appeal to you. I have no idea how to train for a career as an IRB analyst. I'd think you'd need at least undergrad research experience, if not a research masters. (Maybe take a look at http://www.irbforum.org/forum/1.)

serathen

I also don't want to be wasting my time and money in college getting a degree that will make me unemployable in anything I want to do. Getting a double major in psych and marketing will hardly make you unemployable. I agree with those recommending to focus on statistics instead of marketing, but if you got a double major in psych and marketing with a minor in statistics, you'd have your choice of really interesting jobs, even outside of market research. Aside from the work of doing a double major, I don't see a downside.

peanut_mcgillicuty

I am a senior exec at a major market research firm and interact all the time with people who head research at major media, tech, and advertising companies. Whatzit is right--the Paco Underhill books are a great read, but his work is also what I'd call "boutique" in that it's pretty far afield from what most folks do, so don't think that it's the standard (but go and read them). As starzero and others have noted, stats training is important, as is understanding social research design and execution. Psychology and related social sciences help here. Note that "marketing research" is likely to encompass (1) understanding/vetting/buying/analyzing data provided by third parties and (2) possibly conducting primary research as well, but usually only at a larger company with the resources to sustain its own in-house group. But it's important that you not just look at where things are today, but also consider where the market is headed . . . and it's headed increasingly toward behavioral research and large-scale data mining. The traditional tools of the trade--surveys, focus groups--continue to be of use, but without exception the trend is for mechanically collected data, the building of massive data sets, and the mining of that data. What's this mean to you? Make sure to understand stats, yes, but also look to courses offered in CS or the business department that focus on these topics. This is far more important than a degree in marketing, I'd argue.

donovan

My sister is a market research analysist (doing quite well) with an undergraduate degree in Statistics. She got, after about 10 years in the profession, a Masters in Social Research to better position herself for advancement. Which she achieved.

Pineapplicious

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