5 - Marketing Work

Summary

To begin the ethnographic account, let us take our first step into Super by exploring how the research team works together in a coordinated way. This not only illustrates how Super operates but, also, provides a general sense of the organization of marketing research. From talking to the research team, from ethnographic interviews and from subsequent conversations with marketing researchers about my experiences, it is clear that the action at Super is fairly representative of the ways that marketing research – indeed, marketing action – happens generally.

There is good reason for this level of standardized action. It means that marketing researchers can move between marketing organizations without having to learn new ways of working and, thus, supports seniority and a power structure in marketing organizations. It also reflects the account model discussed by Moeran (2005). Advertising agencies say that the conformity that Alvesson (1994) finds so curious is functional. It reduces the transactions costs for clients looking to move from one agency to another.

The same is true for marketing research organizations. In fact, it is common for key contacts in their clients to work towards bonuses tied to key brand performance indicators that are measured by their marketing research organization. These include standard measures such as brand awareness or brand recall. If a market research agency does not measure these indicators or measures them in a unique way, it creates a significant challenge when it is trying to win new business.

For now, though, we will consider what these standardized practices look like. I will describe the working day and the atmosphere in Super's head office. I will review the ways that the research team coordinates their work and highlight the importance of automation in their activity. I will also describe the human relations with the team.

Getting to work

As discussed in Chapter 4, Super's head office is located in an up- and- coming neighbourhood in a large European city. Like many similar areas, nearby accommodation is both in short supply and prohibitively expensive given the kinds of salaries paid to the research team. At the time of writing, new hires to the research team are offered a salary roughly equivalent to US$50– 60,000. This is around 30 per cent higher than the national median wage but in a similar range to the median wage for the city where Super's head office is located.