Market research career paths are changing. Are you ready? New market research skills can help you prepare for evolving career paths. First step: choosing which of several emerging career paths you want to pursue. Do you want to be a market research generalist? A specialist? or do you want to pursue adjacent opportunities?

What do you hear more often: "market" or "audience"? And what's the difference?

How to mitigate the risks associated with rating scales in market research questionnaires? Know all your scale options. Likert scales are great for many cases, but so are semantic differential scales. Not familiar with semantic differential scales? Tune in for some quick tips that will help your professional market research instruments shine.

What happens to market research demand if major consumer brands move to Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) business models? D2C is perhaps the single most disruptive trend in consumer marketing today. In this conversation, I share some fascinating proof points about the D2C trend, and also identify potential implications for the market research and insights profession. This conversation is important for anyone who works on consumer brands—either as part of an in-house insights team or at a research agency.

Wants some tips on how to trial or pilot new market research tools? Trying new tools is a great way to amp up your market research work. Consider conducting trials of new software tools to find ones that will help you deploy new methods or streamline existing ones.

Technology advancement in market research has been rapid. If it has been a few years since you have looked at software, you will be impressed by the new features and user interfaces now available. Plus, there are lots of companies to choose from these days, whether you are looking at survey platforms, text analytics, social listening, qualitative tools or more.

Get the PDF listing 13 companies that offer FREE trials of their market research software HERE  

Link to an example of a pilot test case study HERE   

Link to a short article with free links on strategic skills for market research career advancement HERE

Scale length is always a hot debate in the world of professional market research. Even versus odd? 5, 7, 10, 11 points? The best advice: do an experiment to see what provides the best data for your topics, and from your populations, of interest.

Link to the PDF mentioned on scales research HERE

These days, market segmentation means different things to different people. For those of us in market research, we need to be aware! And vigilant about the correct use of the language, to avoid confusing our clients and colleagues. Here is what you need to know.

If you like these conversations, we encourage you to visit our web page and have a look at our courses:

https://training.researchrockstar.com/

How do you define "Market Research"? What about "Marketing Research"? Are they the same...or meaningfully different? Using 4 definitions from published sources, let's take a look and decide for ourselves. In this episode, Kathryn uses examples related to product positioning and customer loyalty to see which phrase is most accurate. Disagree with her take? Great! 

Ready to add a new market research methodology to your toolchest? Mobile ethnography is an option for scalable qualitative research. Using a recent case study, Kathryn reviews the key benefits. Also, Happy Anniversary! We celebrate the 1 year anniversary of the Conversations series with a gift for our fans.

4 clues that your clients are bored with the market research they are receiving, and how to proactively manage them to mitigate this risk. Bored clients won't use your research. And are unlikely to become raving fans of research in general, or the researcher with whom they have worked. Don't let this happen to you!!