Market research analyst

What does a market research analyst do?

A market research analyst collects and studies information about customers, competitors and prices.

The findings help a company decide what to sell, who to sell it to, and how to reach them.

In Singapore, you find this role in marketing, insights and strategy teams at consumer brands, banks, telcos and retailers. Specialist research firms and agencies also hire analysts to run studies for their clients.

You work with brand managers, product teams, sales and digital marketers. They use your findings to set marketing plans, test new products and judge how a campaign performed.

What the work involves

• Agree with a stakeholder on the business question a study must answer.
• Design surveys and interview guides, then field them through tools such as Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey.
• Clean survey and sales data, then run counts, cross-tabs and basic statistical tests.
• Track competitor prices, products and promotions, and note changes.
• Build charts and dashboards that show who the target customers are and how to reach them.
• Present findings and recommendations to marketing and product teams.

Pay in Singapore

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Skills a market research analyst needs

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Market research analyst job description

We are looking for a market research analyst to join our marketing and insights team in Singapore.

You will plan and run research studies, analyse customer and market data, and turn the results into clear recommendations. You will work with brand, product and sales teams on decisions about pricing, targeting and campaigns.

Responsibilities

• Turn business questions into a research plan with a clear method, timeline and sample.
• Design questionnaires and discussion guides with no leading or confusing questions.
• Run online surveys and manage respondent panels or research vendors.
• Conduct customer interviews and group discussions, and write up the main themes.
• Clean and analyse data using Excel, SQL or Python.
• Monitor competitors, pricing and market trends, and keep a regular summary for the team.
• Identify target customer groups and the channels that reach them.
• Build charts and dashboards in Tableau or similar tools.
• Present findings and recommendations to marketing, product and senior teams.
• Handle respondent data in line with company policy and the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).

Requirements

• Degree in marketing, business, statistics, economics, psychology or a social science. Some employers accept a diploma with relevant experience.
• Typically 0 to 3 years of experience in research, analytics or marketing for an analyst role.
• Working knowledge of statistics, including sampling, significance and confidence intervals.
• Skill in Excel and a survey tool. SQL, Python or Tableau is often a plus.
• Clear written and spoken English, with the ability to explain numbers to non-specialists.
• Fluency in Mandarin, Malay, Tamil or another regional language can help for some studies.

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Market research analyst career path

Most analysts start in a support or executive role, then take on whole studies and later lead teams.

Titles differ between agencies, research firms and in-house teams.

1. Research executive

   Entry

   You help run studies, clean data, build basic reports and gather competitor information under guidance.

2. Market research analyst

   Mid

   You design and run studies on your own, analyse the data and present findings to stakeholders.

3. Senior research analyst

   Senior

   You lead larger or more complex projects, choose methods, guide junior staff and advise on strategy.

4. Research manager

   Lead

   You manage a team and a research budget, work with vendors and decide which questions get studied first.

5. Head of insights

   Head

   You set the research agenda for the organisation and report insights to senior leaders.

The titles are ones commonly used in Singapore; employers may name the levels differently.

Related jobs and their pay

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Market research analyst interview questions

We wrote these questions from the skills this job needs. They are not an official question bank.

1. How do you choose between a survey, in-depth interviews and a focus group?

   What a good answer covers

   • Starts from the business question, not the method
   • Uses interviews or groups to explore why, and surveys to measure how many
   • Considers budget, timeline and how sensitive the topic is
   • Mentions combining methods, such as interviews first, then a survey
   • Gives a short example from a past project or study

2. How would you decide the sample size for a survey of Singapore adults?

   What a good answer covers

   • Names confidence level, margin of error and variability as the main inputs
   • Plans for the smallest subgroup to be reported on, as well as the total
   • Allows for non-response and removed low-quality answers
   • Explains quotas by age, gender and ethnic group
   • Admits when budget limits the sample and says what that does to precision

3. In a survey of 150 people, 60% prefer product A to product B. How confident are you that most customers prefer A?

   What a good answer covers

   • Calculates or describes a confidence interval around the 60%
   • Notes the interval is wide at this sample size
   • Asks how respondents were chosen and whether they represent the target market
   • Mentions a significance test against 50%
   • Words the result with appropriate caution in the report

4. How do you write survey questions that avoid bias?

   What a good answer covers

   • Avoids leading wording and double-barrelled questions
   • Uses balanced answer scales and includes a neutral or not-applicable option
   • Considers question order effects
   • Pilot tests the questionnaire with a few people
   • Describes setting up logic, randomisation or checks in a tool such as Qualtrics or SurveyMonkey

5. How do you clean survey data before you analyse it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Removes duplicates and incomplete responses by a stated rule
   • Flags speeders and straight-liners and uses attention-check questions
   • Checks for outliers and impossible values
   • Recodes open-ended or other answers consistently
   • Keeps a log of every change so the work can be repeated

6. You have a customers table and an orders table. How would you find the share of customers who bought more than once in the last 12 months?

   What a good answer covers

   • Joins the tables on customer ID and filters orders to the 12-month window
   • Groups by customer and counts orders
   • Counts customers with two or more orders and divides by all customers in scope
   • Decides how to treat customers with no orders and duplicate order rows
   • Checks the result against a known total

7. Which chart would you use to show brand awareness across eight quarters, and why?

   What a good answer covers

   • Picks a line chart for change over time
   • Adds confidence intervals or notes when changes are within the margin of error
   • Labels directly and keeps colours limited
   • Considers what the audience needs to decide
   • Mentions an interactive view in Tableau for stakeholders who want to filter by segment

8. Walk me through how you would run a 45-minute customer interview.

   What a good answer covers

   • Prepares a discussion guide with open questions and a few probes
   • Gets recorded consent and explains how the data will be used
   • Starts with easy questions and builds to the main topic
   • Stays neutral and leaves silences so the participant can think
   • Codes the notes into themes and picks quotes that back each theme

9. Where would you use ChatGPT in a research project, and where would you avoid it?

   What a good answer covers

   • Uses it to draft questions, suggest themes in open-ended answers or tidy summaries
   • Checks every output against the raw data
   • Keeps personal data and confidential client material out of a public tool
   • Follows company rules on approved AI tools
   • Keeps judgement and final conclusions with the analyst

1. A brand manager wants to know in two weeks whether to launch a new drink flavour. The budget is small. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Confirms the decision to be made and what evidence would change it
   • Starts with existing sales data, past studies and public sources
   • Runs a short, focused survey or quick concept test
   • Looks at online reviews and social conversation as a secondary check
   • States the limits of the result clearly and proposes a next step

2. Your survey says customers love a feature, but sales of products with that feature are flat. What do you do?

   What a good answer covers

   • Checks definitions, timing and who was surveyed
   • Notes that stated interest often differs from actual buying
   • Looks at price, availability and promotions as other causes
   • Compares survey and sales data at the segment level
   • Reports the gap honestly and suggests a follow-up study

3. A senior stakeholder asks you to change a finding because it does not support their plan. How do you respond?

   What a good answer covers

   • Listens and checks whether the concern points to a real data issue
   • Walks through the method and evidence calmly
   • Keeps the result as the data shows it
   • Offers to show the findings in a different way or add context
   • Escalates to a manager if the pressure continues

1. Tell me about a time your analysis led to a decision.

   What a good answer covers

   • Describes the original question and the people involved
   • Explains the method and why it was chosen
   • Shows how the findings were made clear to non-specialists
   • States the decision and what changed as a result
   • Reflects on what could have been done better

2. Describe a time you had to learn a new tool or method quickly for a project.

   What a good answer covers

   • Names the tool and why it was needed
   • Explains how they learned, such as through documentation, a colleague or practice data
   • Shows a first working result and how it was checked
   • Describes what they would do differently
   • Shows they share what they learned with the team

1. Your survey collects names, mobile numbers and opinions from people in Singapore. How do you handle this under the PDPA?

   What a good answer covers

   • Tells respondents why the data is collected and how it will be used, and gets consent
   • Collects only the personal data the study needs
   • Keeps data secure, limits access and sets a retention period
   • Separates identifying details from answers where possible
   • Checks with the company data protection officer when unsure, including rules on contacting people by phone

2. How do you make sure a study of Singapore consumers reflects the population?

   What a good answer covers

   • Sets quotas by age, gender, ethnic group and housing type where relevant
   • Considers language needs, and whether to offer questionnaires in Mandarin, Malay or Tamil
   • Decides whether to include only citizens and permanent residents or all residents
   • Checks the sample against public population data from the Singapore Department of Statistics
   • Notes that online panels can under-represent some older adults and says how to address it

Common questions about a market research analyst job

Sources