At Spark, we work alongside Bangor University (check out the School of Psychology here) and I wanted to share some of my experiences of academia and market research.
I studied for a psychology undergraduate degree and loved it so much I stayed for Masters in Consumer Psychology with Business.
After graduating, I dived into a psychology-led market research agency and I’ve been advising brands on their shoppers’ behaviour for the past four years.
My degrees really helped me gain a thorough grounding in shopper behaviour and decision making that I continue to use today. At Spark Emotions, we are always looking at behaviour and attitudes through a psychology lens, trying to understand why shoppers behave as they do. It’s great to able to continue to combine academia and market research in my work. More than anything, I think studying at Bangor encouraged me to be curious and question behaviour.
We continue to work alongside Bangor University, which is great for me as it gives me the opportunity to go back! In the past, we’ve briefed students on specific research questions we have, and helped guide their research projects. We try and see students presenting their dissertations, including some of our current team! On our last visit, we delivered a guest lecture on our methodologies, our favourite insights, and the industry – which was a nice moment for myself.
I don’t think I could overstate how much I enjoyed my time at Bangor and how well it has set me up to work in the industry. I’m really proud that we continue to recruit team members from the university.
To learn more about the brain, please click here for more articles on why we behave as we do.
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Written by Scott Willey, Associate Director at Spark Emotions
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Scott via email scott.willey@sparkemotions.com or connect with him on LinkedIn
