Feature -- by Berenice Gargus

If you're good at statistics or math and are curious about how certain marketing strategies work on people, you could have a future in market research.

Dave de Lange is a Senior Associate with Praxis Group, a market research firm with offices in Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa. The firm specializes in two types of research: social science and market research.

Dave de Lange, Senior Associate with Praxis Group

"Social science research studies human subjects, their attitudes, beliefs and interactions," de Lange explains. Clients for these services might be social institutions or government agencies.

Market research focuses specifically on businesses such as Calgary Co-op who hire Praxis to find out how happy their customers are. To do this, Praxis conducts both qualitative research, such as focus group studies, and quantitative research, which is designing and conducting surveys.

A typical survey might research shopping trends or customer service. It's conducted over the internet, through mail, over the phone, or face-to-face.

Using public opinion polling and telephone surveys, Praxis helps businesses do smarter marketing. de Lange stresses that telemarketing is entirely different from telephone surveys. Both are sales tools, but one tries to part you from your money while the other researches the effectiveness of a company's marketing strategies.

"A typical sample would be around 400 people; however, sample sizes may be in excess of 1000 respondents, depending on the needs of the client," says de Lange. "We'll put four or five people on [the phones] and it will take them about five days to [complete the survey], depending on the sample."

To get good data, "it is critical you have very good quality telephone interviewers," he says. The people doing the telephone research are often students, typically working part-time in a staff of 50-70.

Though Praxis handles market research for small and large companies, they don't do all the work in-house. Call centre services are contracted from proCall Marketing.

ProCall covers all types of call centre work, including market research and telemarketing. The staff work day shifs or evenings when needed. They earn $8.25-$10/hr as a base wage with a bonus and commission "for the top 25% of our callers," says Office Manager Angela Davidson. The bonus is 25% of the wage, calculated daily and based on the amount of calls completed successfully. Davidson notes applicants must have customer service experience and excellent communication skills. Because proCall's workload fluctuates, she's always taking resumés and hires as many as 100 callers a year.

Another Calgary market research group, Cameron Strategy, worked for the 2003 Calgary International Film Festival. The surveyors asked people how well they liked various aspects of the festival. This type of front-line market research is ideal for candidates with good people skills and precise attention to detail.

Praxis also hires students part-time for data entry and "some of the more manual tasks," says de Lange. "But if you get a taste for the work and grow with the company, then you get into the analysis side, where it really starts to get fun." A junior market analyst starts at around $40,000/yr. Why such a healthy beginning wage? de Lange explains this is because most of their new hires have three to five years experience in research and a masters degree or PhD in an applicable field such as business, sociology, or psychology.

de Lange himself holds a Masters in natural resources management, which he used for 13 years as Chief of Social Science Research for Parks Canada. After another four years in the private sector with Calgary Co-op, he joined Praxis and has been in charge of the quantitative research side of the business for the past four years. "It was a pretty easy cross-over" from social sciences to market research, he explains. "The techniques you use are identical."

The Osmosis Research Method

Work for a huge firm with major international clients such as Ipsos Reid would probably include business travel and a radically different lifestyle than say, polling Calgary Co-op customers.

Large companies such as Telus or ENMAX have in-house market research staff to conduct research specific to their business. A consulting firm like Praxis deals with client needs which are always changing. de Lange says this keeps the work challenging and enjoyable.

Praxis's 12-person team also work on projects at different levels of complexity, such as surveying opinions on the Kananaskis Recreation Policy or conducting research in support of a mammography ad campaign. “In all cases research should be focused on aiding decision-making," says de Lange.

Two Praxis staff members recently completed a qualitative research study for AADAC that polled 4,000 Alberta students on the use of tobacco and alcohol as well as gambling. "That was an extremely complex design," says de Lange, explaining why such advaned work requires people with PhDs. "These results will be published." To work on a project of this scope, researchers need 15-20 years of experience. That's why people in this category could expect to make closer to $100,000/yr.

Click here for a description of the research services provided by the Praxis Group and view projects they have worked on.

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Canada-wide Marketing Association

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SAIT Marketing Program

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Alberta Occupational Information:

Market Research Analyst