Everything You Need To Know About Becoming a Market Research Assistant
When a company is thinking of launching a new product or expanding into a new market, the tireless work of a market research assistant will often be the deciding factor for their roll out plans and budget.
If you’ve ever completed a survey or tried a new product and provided feedback, you’ve been dealing with a market research assistant.
But what exactly do they do? Where do they work? And what kind of skills do they need to get their job? We’re going to cover all of this and more in our complete guide to everything you need to know about becoming a market research assistant.
What is a market research assistant?
A market research assistant is a lower-level marketing employee who generally works under the supervision of a marketing manager. As the title suggests they are mainly employed to assist the marketing department with market research.
What do market research assistants do?
Depending on who they work for and what kind of product or industry they are working with, a market research assistant can do a multitude of tasks. They are often in charge of either commissioning or undertaking market research to identify opportunities in a client’s market for new products or services.
Market research assistants gather, collate and interpret data to provide valuable information to a business. This can be for competitor analysis, to find current or future trends, or to support the rollout of a new product or new location for a business.
Where do market research assistants work?
Market research assistants can work in all different kinds of industries. They could work for a marketing firm that provides their services to businesses or they can work in house depending on the size and industry of the company.
There are all kinds of market research jobs you can do. If you’ve got an interest in beauty, you could work for a makeup or skincare brand researching competitors and providing insights on the potential market for new products. If you love sports, you could work for a sporting brand helping them research new locations for physical stores or testing new products in the market.
It all depends on where you want to work, this role can provide a lot of flexibility.
How much do market research assistants make?
Market research assistants are lower-level marketing employees. According to SEEK, they can make anywhere from $65,000 to $80,000 per year. This salary range will depend on your experience, education and the industry you’re working in.
What skills do you need to become a market research assistant?
Market research assistants have a complex and varied role and the skills they’ll need will change depending on who they work for and which industry they work in. But there are some specific skills that will help you to excel as a market research assistant.
Communication
In marketing, it’s all about communication. Having excellent verbal and written communication skills will be essential to excelling in your role. You’ll need to collaborate with other marketing team members and different departments in a company and help to shape the tone of voice and communication styles used for the brand’s customers and audience. You’ll be involved in copywriting for website pages, ad campaigns and social media, as well as often completing face-to-face market research interviews for surveys or test groups.
Attention to detail
In this role you will need to have an eye for the little details. Market research is a tediously in-depth process, and you’ll have to be very detail-oriented to complete this role properly. As this requires excellent technical skills, when it comes to data collation and analysis, a keen and observant eye can help you to catch errors that could drastically change the outcomes of specific data analysis.
Data analysis
This role can be quite technical with a lot of research and data to be analysed. You’ll need to be good at boiling down the numbers and finding the answers a company needs to move forward with their plans. Being able to interpret the data gathered and understanding what calculations and statistics you need to do will be an essential component of your job.
Passion for learning
Market research assistants unsurprisingly have a lot of research to complete, so a passion for learning and a talent for research will come in handy in this role. You’ll need to gather different kinds of research to provide a detailed understanding of the market possibilities either for a new product or a new location, or even for competitor research and analysis. Researching the population, market capabilities and market results will all help to provide a valuable insight for the company’s marketing activities.
What do market research assistants study?
Market research assistants are lower-level marketing employees but they still require some qualifications to get started in the field. The best course to do for this job would be the Certificate IV in Marketing and Communications. This course is can be completed entirely online, so you can start anytime and study from anywhere. In the course you’ll learn how to:
- Make presentations
- Articulate, present and debate ideas
- Undertake marketing activities
- Analyse consumer behaviour
- Develop and apply knowledge of communications industry
- Write complex documents
- Assess marketing opportunities
- Apply business risk management processes
- Implement customer service strategies
- Develop personal work priorities
- Build and maintain business relationships
- Promote products and services
Where to from there?
This role has a lot of room for growth. A market research assistant can move to digital marketing, being a marketing coordinator, or even an account manager. To take that next step up you would be looking at doing a Diploma of Marketing and Communications, and gaining leadership experience.
Final thoughts
Being a market research assistant is an exciting role for anyone who’s focused on the data and research aspect of marketing. There’s a lot of room for growth and opportunity to work within industries you’re passionate about. If you’re interested in knowing more about getting into the marketing industry you can check out our courses here, or arrange to have a chat with one of our friendly course advisors.Tthey’ll be able to help you find the right course for you!