The changing role of the marketing researcher in the age of digital technology: Practitioner perspectives on the digitization of marketing research

After years of hype, marketing researchers are now facing the challenge of integrating new digital technologies into their work. Based on an analysis of 44 key informant interviews with marketing research practitioners, the study develops a framework to describe the main benefits and challenges of digital technologies in marketing research, as perceived by marketing researchers themselves. It highlights successful strategies that have been employed to exploit digital technologies and suggests that the role of the market researcher is changing in the age of digital data. The marketing researcher of the future must fulfill the roles of being a social scientist and a storyteller. In both cases, although researchers may need to develop technical skills, it is also essential that they develop the ability to engage their clients, add value, and interpret data. Implications for industry and academia are discussed.

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Reply Reply This contribution is a reply on the article ‘Methoden en technieken in kwalitatief onderzoek’, written by Judith van Male. Andriessen recognises the practise driven reality of the qualitative market researcher in which applicability of results is leading. In addition he suggests a way to incorporate science based knowledge into practice driven qualitative research.

The Faddish Breakouts of Ethnography

Ethnographic research has been described as a fad that promised to look beneath the rationalisations of consumers, but did not in fact deliver the cut-through promised by agencies. This perhaps provides a clue to the emergence and relative disappearance of ethnography over the past 20 years, and to its recent re-emergence. To the generalist market researcher, ethnography appears to come and go in terms of its popularity and appeal. To avoid being disappointed about what an ethnographic approach can bring to an understanding of consumers, clients should reportedly involve a qualified anthropologist at the commissioning stage of a project to make sure that such an expensive and time-consuming exercise is really warranted. Similarly, clients should engage research companies with a long history of undertaking ethnographic studies and with expertise in the area.

The Faddish Breakouts of Ethnography

Ethnographic research has been described as a fad that promised to look beneath the rationalisations of consumers, but did not in fact deliver the cut-through promised by agencies. This perhaps provides a clue to the emergence and relative disappearance of ethnography over the past 20 years, and to its recent re-emergence. To the generalist market researcher, ethnography appears to come and go in terms of its popularity and appeal. To avoid being disappointed about what an ethnographic approach can bring to an understanding of consumers, clients should reportedly involve a qualified anthropologist at the commissioning stage of a project to make sure that such an expensive and time-consuming exercise is really warranted. Similarly, clients should engage research companies with a long history of undertaking ethnographic studies and with expertise in the area.