Questions and answers
What size is the UK market research industry?
The Market Research Society (MRS) 2007 annual survey of the UK market research industry showed that total industry revenue increased by 2.4 per cent during 2006 reaching a value of £1,353bn.
How big is the market research industry worldwide?
According to ESOMAR’s latest Global Market Research 2007, the total market for market research worldwide is US$24.6 billion, representing a growth of 6.8 per cent on the previous year. Europe accounted for 43 per cent of the total world market, and North America 36 per cent.
What role does MRS play in the market research industry?
With members in more than 70 countries, MRS is the world’s largest association serving all those with a professional interest in the provision or use of market, social and opinion research, and in business intelligence, market analysis, customer insight and consultancy.
MRS has a diverse membership of individuals at all levels of experience and seniority within agencies, consultancies, client-side organisations, the public sector and the academic community.
It also serves MRS Company Partner organisations – agencies, suppliers of support services, buyers, end-users – of all types and scale - which are committed throughout their organisations to supporting the core MRS values of professionalism, research excellence and business effectiveness.
In consultation with its individual members and Company Partners, MRS supports best practice by setting and enforcing industry standards. The commitment to uphold the MRS Code of Conduct is supported by the Codeline service and a wide range of specialist guidelines.
As ‘the voice of market research’, MRS defends and promotes research in its advocacy and representational efforts. MRS contributes significantly to the enhancement of skills and knowledge by offering various qualifications and membership grades, as well as training and professional development resources.
MRS enables its members and Company Partners to be very well-informed through the provision of a wide range of publications, information services and conferences. It offers many opportunities for meeting, communicating and networking across sectors and disciplines, as well as within specialisms.
Through its media relations and public affairs activities, MRS aims to create the widest possible understanding of the process and value of market, social and opinion research, and to achieve the most favourable climate of opinion and legislative environment for research.
What is the MRS Company Partner Service (CPS)?
The Company Partner Service was introduced in April 2005 and was developed by MRS in response to requests from research businesses.
The MRS Company Partner Service delivers cost effective support enabling organisations to develop their people and processes, and meet their commitment to research standards.
All MRS Company Partners endorse and support the core MRS brand values of professionalism, research excellence and business effectiveness by signing up to the MRS Quality Commitment. This symbolises to clients, employees and others the commitment to processes, skills and ethics that ensure compliance with the MRS Code of Conduct throughout the organisation as a whole as well as by individual researchers.
It is aimed at all businesses which have members of the MRS and use MRS services. Research suppliers of all sizes, client organisations which commission and use research, and those involved in providing support services to the industry (eg in the collection, processing and analysis of research data) are all eligible for the Service.
Information on the Company Partner Service is available from the MRS via its website (www.mrs.org.uk/companypartner) or by calling 020 7490 4911.
How does the profession police itself?
The MRS Code of Conduct is binding on all MRS members and Company Partners. Any MRS member or MRS Company Partner which breaches the MRS Code of Conduct and its associated Regulations are liable to face disciplinary action.
What is market and social research?
Research is one of the most useful tools in business, any business. It is the way in which organisations find out what their customers and potential customers need, want and care about. This involves the collection and interpretation of confidential data concerning people, products, services and organisations. The key elements in obtaining good research material are that researchers talk to a few people to get the views of many, and that it only works if they talk to the right number of people, ask the right questions and interpret the results correctly.
Research has a variety of uses, from the testing of new products, to employment and customer satisfaction surveys, to social and opinion research. It can help organisations and individuals identify new market areas and assess the scope and potential success of a particular advertising/marketing campaign and develop new policies and future activities.
One of the biggest growth areas for research over the past few years has been in the field of opinion research - understanding more about the public's view on social topics such as politics, the environment, religion, and moral issues.
Who uses market and social research?
All sorts of individuals, companies and organisations use and benefit from research, including public and private sector organisations, supermarkets, manufacturers, financial service companies, charities, and local and national government.
What are the differences between quantitative and qualitative research?
Quantitative research is the term used for any research that seeks to make numerical measurements. In most cases, this involves the statistical analysis of the answers given to a structured set of questions (as in a survey questionnaire). The main strength of quantitative research is that it enables measurable comparisons between sets of data (between groups of people and between points in time).
Qualitative research is used to describe the approach taken when opinions are sought from a relatively small number of respondents by means of individual interviews or group discussions. This form of investigation makes use of relatively flexible 'discussion guides' rather than pre-structured questionnaires.
How is an opinion poll conducted?
Reputable political polling is conducted by several major polling organisations that use a number of different techniques for sampling and fieldwork. No single technique is equally appropriate in every situation, hence the variation. The most commonly-used techniques are face-to-face interviewing in respondents' houses and telephone interviewing.
Face-to-face polling is conducted within a number of 'primary sampling points' (usually parliamentary constituencies). These are often selected proportional to the number of electors after all possible sampling points have been arranged in a particular way (i.e. by social class, political preference).
Telephone polling offers the possibility of a more efficient sample and hence potentially lower error estimates for a given size of sample. The reason for this is that telephone samples need not be clustered in smaller areas in the way that face-to-face samples are.
Internet-based polling is becoming more widely used as – like many forms of online research – it enables faster, more efficient data collection and analysis. However, there are limitations with the technique: for example, 40% of the UK population do not have internet access and those that do are skewed demographically, which requires weighting and other techniques to be applied to ensure representative results.
What is the background of researchers?
Market and social researchers are often graduates from a variety of disciplines. The majority of research graduates are drawn from degree disciplines that require strong communication or analytical skills, such as languages, English literature, maths, psychology, geography, history, politics, science and IT. Many researchers also have additional qualifications from MRS and The Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Is training provided for graduates?
MRS provides the MRS Professional Development Scheme - a professional development programme which has been developed by MRS in conjunction with some of the industry's leading research agencies to provide graduates with a comprehensive introduction to the various skills they will need throughout their working life.
The three-year scheme incorporates the MRS Advanced Certificate in Market & Social Research Practice and the MRS Diploma in Market & Social Research Practice, on-the-job training, a project and self-managed learning. The scheme is offered by research employers that have been accredited by MRS.
MRS is the only Government-approved Awarding Body for vocational qualifications in market and social research which means that its qualifications are recognised industry- and world-wide.
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