Hi, I've started my consulting career and will be specializing in the retail practice (i.e. consumer goods & retail).
As consumer survey seems to be the bread and butter of every consumer / retail related projects, I'm wondering are their any recommended books / resources to learn the key skills of running a consumer survey (covering core statistical knowledge, nuances of designing a survey and analysing the survey result, etc)?
Thanks in advance!
Hello,
Congratulations on the job! The best way to learn how to run consumer surveys is honestly just taking part in a project that runs them, as each consumer survey is different and the data will be used differently depending on your goals. In this way, you'll be able to learn by doing, and have more experienced team members on hand who you can ask clarifying questions and learn from.
Short of that, I highly recommend seeing whether your firm has any internal trainings covering these aspects - there is likely to be something covering the statistics and set-up basics at the very least. For reading material, I would recommend reading reports your firm has published that relied on consumer surveys, seeing how they used the data, what analyses they ran, etc.
Hi there,
Great that you're looking to do some learning/research beforehand!
1) Ask your firm if they have any learning materials
2) Check out BCG Insights and MCK Insights
3) Check out Qualtrics
4) Google and Youtube are your friend!
The best materials will be the training materials (courses, e-learnings, training sessions) provided by your employer + your first project doing that with the help of someone who already has experience.
I promise you, trying to learn on your own will be a waste of your precious time.
