To compete for the best young talent, the Market Research industry has to increase its attractiveness as an industry. To understand the perception young graduates have of our industry, Fringe Factory has set up a quantitative study with the support of InSites Consulting, SSI and ESOMAR Next. Together, we surveyed over 1,800 graduates across 9 countries to understand and assess how attractive Market Research is as a profession. This report highlights 5 eye-catching insights and recommendations to make a change as an industry. The time is now!

1. IS MARKET
RESEARCH
REALLY A
CAREER?
What are young graduates looking for in an industry and what is
their perception of Market Research?

2. ON A QUEST
FOR TALENT
What is the image of the Market Research (MR) industry
amongst young graduates (grads)? What makes them tick? Is
our industry considered a successful career path?
To compete for the best young talent, the Market
Research industry has to increase its attractiveness
as an industry.
To understand the perception young graduates have
of our industry, Fringe Factory has set up a quantitative
study with the support of InSites Consulting, SSI and
ESOMAR Next. Together, we surveyed over 1,800
graduates across 9 countries to understand and assess
how attractive Market Research is as a profession.
Screenshot of the visual survey: the industry awards
This report highlights 5 eye-catching insights and
recommendations to make a change as an industry.
The time is now!
Thomas Troch & Lizet van de Kamp,
Board members of Fringe Factory
Countries: US, Brazil, UK, Belgium, the Netherlands,
Germany, Russia, India, China

3. FRINGE WHO?
Fringe Factory was set up in 2011 by a small group of
young researchers who work passionately within the
Market Research industry across the world. And no, we
are not a subsidiary, research agency, political party or
recruitment agency, but we are working closely together
with ESOMAR.
Sarah Cunliffe
MESH, UK
SKIM, UK
Will Goodhand
David Gailey
TNS, UK
BrainJuicer, US
Lizet van de Kamp
Thomas Troch
KAO, Germany
We work in partnerships with universities where we
regularly speak at career events, we arrange
competitions to attend ESOMAR for graduates, and
casual and fun events where graduates can meet
industry experts (yearly during ESOMAR Congress).
Chris Wallbridge
InSites Consulting, Belgium
Kyle Nel
Tanmay Dhall
Lowe’s Home Improvement, US
TNS, South-Africa
Get in touch with Fringe Factory! We appreciate your interest and would like to
get in touch with you!
http://www.wearefringefactory.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Are-Fringe-Factory/172254402827939
http://twitter.com/fringe_factory

4. 1
Young graduates are inseparable
from their smartphones and cannot
imagine a life without social media.
They are digital natives. But how
are these skills relevant to Market
Research?

5. TECHNOLOGY
THUNDER
Pew Research Center researched the reasons
spontaneously given for what makes individuals from
different generations feel distinctive. Notice the evolution
from stating work ethic as a prominent identity claim to the
technology use, confirmed by the social media thunder
on the right.
Generation Y
Generation X
Boomer
Silent
1
Technology use
(24%)
Technology use
(12%)
Work ethic
(17%)
WWII/Depression
(14%)
2
Music culture
(11%)
Work ethic
(11%)
Respectful
(14%)
Smarter
(13%)
3
Liberal/tolerant
(7%)
Conservative
(7%)
Values/moral
(8%)
Honest
(12%)
4
Smarter
(6%)
Smarter
(6%)
‘Baby boom’
(6%)
Work ethic
(10%)
Clothes
(5%)
Respectful
(5%)
Smarter
(5%)
Values/Morals
(10%)
5
Pew Research Center, Jan 2010.
189
million
Facebook users are ‘mobile only’
1 in 5
couples meet online
every second
Young graduates, aged between 20 and 30 years old are
part of Generation Y, a generation with a distinct identity.
But what makes them different from previous
generations?
2
new members
join LinkedIn
every minute
72
hours of video is uploaded to YouTube
Social Media has overtaken porn
as the #1 activity on the Web
Sources: Jeffbullas.com & SocialMediavieo 2013

6. FROM THUNDER
TO BLUNDER
Market Research isn’t even featured in the
top ten of industries to be considered! Marketing,
Management Consultancy and Advertising are
leaving market research behind: only 13% of
graduates with higher education would consider it.
Q: Imagine the sky being the limit and anything being
possible. Which industries would you consider working in?
n = 1877 | f= None
Speaking to personal interests, Travel and
Entertainment & Media, Publishing and
Broadcasting are popular industries. As digital
natives, it’s no surprise graduates are attracted
to Computer & ICT. But they are however also
very interested in the security provided by
governmental jobs. The attractiveness of the
Government does vary from country to country.
travel & entertainment
27%
the government
26%
media, publishing & broadcasting
26%
computer & ICT (soft-hardware)
21%
fashion
20%
marketing
19%
financial services, banks & insurances
17%
food & beverages
17%
management consultancy
16%
The industries that speak most to the imagination
of grads are very different. But what is driving
their ambitions? What is guiding their choice?
30%
advertising

7. IS TECHNOLOGY
THE DRIVER?
Ask young graduates what’s important for them in
an industry and ‘income’ is mentioned the most
when asked unprompted. But is it really that
important? What if they had to select the most
defining criteria? It is striking to see how
demanding they are! As a Market Research
industry we know consumers are more demanding
than ever, we notice the same evolution in the job
expectations of graduates.
Important to very important criteria influencing the
preference of an industry to work in.
n = min 1798 | f = Excluded ‘Not applicable’
match with your personal interests
79%
career opportunities
79%
work-life balance
77%
salary
76%
job security
73%
lifelong learning
71%
More intrinsic motivators like personal interests,
career path and work–life balance outperform
the importance of money. Although salary remains
an important decision factor, the real needs of
grads go beyond the transactional. It is crucial to
anticipate the changing needs of graduates.
Understanding the ‘pull’ factors will help us to
understand what they are looking for.
80%
match with your field of study
69%
fun culture
68%
social responsibility
67%
innovation level
57%
external visibility & client contact
57%
opportunity to work and live abroad
56%
travel opportunities
50%
contemporary image

8. GENERATION
PC
Overall the Government and ICT sectors are
considered to be the best places to work, both
awarded 12% of the votes. This can be interpreted
from a generational perspective, we can actually
talk about Generation PC. Short for Personal
Computer and Perpetual Crisis.
Personal Computer because they grew up with
technology and recognize the technological
advancements and opportunities in this field. The
computer & ICT (soft-hardware) scores
consistently highly (top 3) on important criteria
like ‘match your personal interests’, ‘career
opportunities’ and ‘work-life balance’.
Perpetual Crisis because young graduates are
concerned about finding a job in a period of ongoing recession. This atmosphere can lead to
rather conservative choices, like the ambition to
work for the government.
“Computers and technology is something that's
constantly changing and evolving. If you start
in that field and are computer savvy, there's no
limit to what you can do in the field of
technology.”
“Two words. Job security. In a struggling
economy, government jobs can offer their
employees a bit more stability. Oh sure, you'll
never get rich, you'll be comfortable.”
“In China, working in the government is
fantastic as it provides you job security,
facilities, authority, social respect, work
satisfaction as you can be able to serve many
people.”

9. 2
How to convince graduates who are
considering a career in Market
Research? It’s in the mix! They
expect a healthy work-life balance,
competitive salary and bright career
opportunities.

10. TO MIX OR
NOT TO MIX?
Let’s now focus on potential MR talent. We know
what drives the general population of young
graduates, but how are grads who consider a
career in Market Research different? They are
ambitious, but don’t live to work.
Important to very important criteria influencing the
preference of an industry to work in.
n = 123 | f = Considers working in, or likes to work in
Market Research; excluded ‘Not applicable’
85%
work-life balance
85%
salary
83%
career opportunities
81%
match with your personal interests
75%
match with your field of study
74%
job security
73%
lifelong learning
72%
innovation level
71%
fun culture
64%
opportunity to work and live abroad
4. Take responsibility for your own life
64%
social responsibility
5. Live life to the full and be passionate
60%
travel opportunities
6. Keep your promises
58%
contemporary image
54%
external visibility & client contact
This is an important characteristic of Generation Y,
and is confirmed by the ‘Ten Commandments of
Youth’, featured in How Cool Brands Stay Hot
(Van den Bergh & Behrer, 2011);
1. Have faith in yourself
2. Respect your parents
3. Be honest
7. Work hard to succeed but not to the detriment of others
8. Be tolerant of others’ differences
9. Be happy and optimistic, even in adversity
10. Create, don’t destroy (yourself, others, the earth, values)

11. WORKING
NINE TO FIVE
A healthy work-life balance is a key job
selection criterion to decide which industry to work
in. The Government is seen as the best industry to
provide this and even industries matching personal
interest like Travel & Entertainment and
Computer & ICT score highly.
Q: The Industry Award for ‘Best Work-life balance’ goes to…
n = 213 | f = Evaluated at least one criterion as (very)
important, and judged ‘Best Work-life balance’ as third most
important criterion
travel & entertainment
11%
computer & ICT (software-hardware)
6%
fashion
6%
retail
telecommunications
6%
management consultancy
5%
financial services, banks and insurances
4%
marketing
4%
media, publishing & broadcasting
cosmetics
3%
food & beverages
3%
pharmaceutical / healthcare
2%
“A good analysis can help us make the right decision and often promises
a brighter future of a company while a bad one can even lead to
bankruptcy, such work also means a lot of stress and too much stress
will make people feel tired out.”
13%
3%
“I wouldn't say it was the most stable industry to work in - lots of
research companies fighting over the market.”
the government
6%
Market Research has a bad image in terms of a
healthy balance. Graduates seem mostly to
articulate the daily challenges of researchers
instead of the benefits.
20%
catering
2%
market research
2%
automotive
1%
advertising
0%
chemical

12. 3
The Market Research industry
consistently underperforms on key
decision criteria. If we make the
comparison with Advertising,
Management Consultancy and
Accountancy, the true positives and
negatives surface.

13. THE HEAT IS
ON
When comparing the perception of Market
Research to Advertising, Management
Consultancy and Accountancy by asking
graduates to connect a set of statements to these
industries, the negative perception of Market
Research is nuanced, as you can see on the
next page. But profound issues also surface…
As an industry we are not visible enough, unlike
Advertising, the outcome of a research project is
not always tangible and the impact on a new
product, service or campaign is not necessarily
clear. In addition, there is a barrier between the
industry and education. New techniques like
social media analysis are rarely part of market
research courses and little attention is paid to the
rise of (online) qualitative research. Graduates
simply don’t think of MR as a career.

14. THE HEAT IS
ON
Q: Please read the following statements and indicate which of these
industries they most apply to.
n = min 1439 | f = filtered out ‘Not applicable to any of these industries’
Market Research
Shaping the world of tomorrow
Working behind the scenes
Dimension 2 (17,6% variance explained)
Most people at university or college
wouldn‘t think about this Industry as a
career
Management Consultancy
Only validating and not collaborating
Too academic and not about All about numbers and not about
understanding real people
creativity
An Industry for nerds
This is boring Accountancy
Advertising
An Industry with plenty of young and
dynamic people
Only thinking about commercial needs
and not about the needs of users
Dimension 1 (78,5% variance explained)

15. KEEP YOUR
HEAD COOL
If we can overcome these issues, there is a bright
future ahead! Compared to competing industries,
Market Research is highly associated with
shaping the world of tomorrow.
Q: Imagine we’re introducing every industry in a short
presentation during the Award Ceremony. You have 5
minutes to talk about the Market Research sector. What
would you say? What do you see as the pros and the
cons of working in this industry?
n = 1877 | f = None
10%
Gaining insights
4%
Innovative / creative
3%
Access to new information and trends
2%
Product knowledge
2%
Observing
Communication
1%
First hand information on products
1%
Quick-changing sector
1%
“I feel that Market Researchers must have a lot of fun designing
surveys in new and interesting ways. They also get the chance to learn
a lot about our culture and what various sections of the population think.”
Huge impact / Crucial for a company
2%
“You would be constantly learning as you are researching new things
and thus you would not get bored as your mind would be constantly
active.”
Determine people’s need / Connect w people
12%
Graduates give surprisingly accurate and
positive descriptions of Market Research,
highlighting what the industry doesn’t emphasize
enough; it’s all about people! It’s about
understanding their needs, gaining insight into
their expectations and inspiring innovation.
17%
Young / modern
1%
Newest technologies
1%
Detail oriented

16. 4
Does validation and number
crunching sound like fun? Let’s
open the box and show graduates
what Market Research is really
about!

17. WHAT’S IN A
NAME?
quick-changing sector
communication
newest technologies
first hand information on products
crucial for product knowledge
companies young / modern
innovative / creative
detail oriented
understand
people’s needs
gaining insights
access to new information
and new trends
observing
Q: You have 5 minutes to introduce the Market Research sector. What would you say?
n = 1877 | f= None
Graduates have a clear vision of
what Market Research is all
about. Although this image looks
very positive, it is not making the
industry attractive enough for
them to consider it.
What’s wrong with it? The need
for research is recognised, but
the descriptions give limited
insight into what the job of a
market researcher is all about.

18. OPEN THE
BLACK BOX
While Market Research is all about opening up to
the voice of the customer, it is not transparent as
an industry. In comparison to other industries like
advertising, the output of Market Research is
unclear to young graduates and the process is
still a 'black box'.
The experience of young graduates with an
industry drives their perception. While they are
confronted daily with, for example, advertising
campaigns, Market Research is not visible in
their world. The first encounter is often from the
participant perspective, and not all surveys or
interviews are doing justice to the industry.
A job as a researcher equals being stuck behind
a computer for most graduates. There is little
knowledge on any of the techniques apart from
the traditional ones like street/telephone interviews
and surveys.
“Market research is pure sell of "wind" as
there is no product, nothing tangible, only the
price you pay the research and the cost of the
failure that double characteristics tend to make.”
“I think its very boring. No human contact etc.
Others might think bad about this because of a
lot of bad telephone research.”
“There are a lot of absurd or not working
surveys and dumb questions. Sometimes
there are wrong conclusions or the person,
who wants to answer, can/’t say her pure
meaning, because the answer options are not
logical or adequate.”

19. THE NEXT
GENERATION
Surveys and street/telephone interviews, is that all
Market Research is about? Of course not! The
GreenBook Research Industry Trends Report
(2013) sheds light on the adoption of new
research methods among research providers and
clients. What if graduates knew about online
communities, mobile surveys and social media
analytics?
Q: What use of these techniques and approaches do you see ahead in your future?

20. 5
Are you up for team work? Would
you like to collaborate with smart
people? Then why not consider
Market Research?!

21. MIND THE GAP
Only 13% of young graduates would consider
working in Market Research. What is the gap
between what they’re looking for and what they
associate with this industry? The most appealing
topic in the list on the right is ‘Innovation’ (69%
appealing to very appealing) and fortunately
innovation is also associated with MR.
Q: Hit the space bar as quickly as possible when you see
a word related to Market Research.
n = 1877 | f = None
Marketing
34%
Innovation
32%
Consulting
30%
Social media
27%
Numbers
26%
Big data
25%
So where does it go wrong? Next up in the most
appealing topics is ‘Team spirit’ (65% appealing
to very appealing) and ‘Smart people’ (64%
appealing to very appealing). Collaboration with
inspirational people is clearly something young
graduates are looking for and don't think they'll
find in Market Research.
46%
Big brands
24%
Team spirit
23%
Smart people
22%
Awards
18%
Co-creation
14%
Stories
14%
Cool people
13%
Parties
7%
ESOMAR

22. PUT THE MR IN
MARKETING
While 13% of young graduates would consider a
job in Market Research, only 3% list it as the best
overall sector. The market research industry is
mainly losing talent to the Marketing sector.
Those considering a job in MR mostly give the
award for the best industry to Marketing; 15% in
comparison to 6% of the total sample.
Q: And the Industry Award for Best Overall Sector goes to…
n = 1877 | f = None
Computer & ICT (soft-hardware)
12%
The government
7%
Financial services, banks and insurances
7%
Pharmaceutical / healtcare
6%
Marketing
6%
Media, publishing & broadcasting
6%
Travel & entertainment
6%
Fashion
4%
To convince both graduates who are already
considering Market Research and those who are
not, it will be important to emphasize the driving
force of Market Research in the world of
Marketing.
12%
Telecommunications
4%
Food & beverages
4%
Management consultancy
4%
Chemical
3%
Automotive
3%
Cosmetics
3%
Market research
3%
Retail
2%
Advertising
2%
Catering
5%
Other

23. !
And now what? What can you do to
help revamp the perception of the
Market Research industry and attract
young talent?

24. Open the ‘black box’ and prove the
impact of research on Marketing
To increase the visibility of the industry and the awareness of
careers in Market Research, we have to open up. Connect with
marketing and share successful research stories behind
successful products, services and campaigns. Emphasize
emotions of fun, dynamism, creativity and adventure to attract
grads. Move away from boring reports and make the outcome of
research something that’s shareable, creative and sexy, like an
infographic.

25. Demonstrate the use of digital and
social media tools
There’s a direct connection between the technological evolution
and hot topics like social media, the internet of things and the
quantified self. The Market Research industry can find the match
with the personal interests of young graduates by increasing the
awareness of areas like community research and big data.

26. Communicate about the variety of
jobs and career opportunities
There are not a lot study fields that directly lead to a career in
Market Research. This can be negative, as there is a lack of
awareness, but it can also be positive, as there is inflow from
different study fields. Increase internship and training
opportunities and share how teams are composed; highlighting
multidisciplinarity and career opportunities. Highlight different
functions - like qualitative research, quantitative research,
analytics, interviewing and data processing to attract grads with
unique backgrounds and distinct skills.

27. Cross the bridge between the industry
and education
There is a gap between a Market Research course and the
reality; new techniques and the rise of (online) qualitative are
rarely part of such courses. These can attract a new audience to
the industry, looking for a people centric approach, innovation
and creativity. Increase the presence of Market Research at
career events and bring MR professionals into the classroom
to paint a realistic picture of the industry.

28. Get in touch with us!
http://www.wearefringefactory.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Are-Fringe-Factory/172254402827939
http://twitter.com/fringe_factory