Consumer Insights Strategist

The Consumer Insights Strategist is the marketing research expert for the Alumni Relations team at the Wisconsin School of Business. This position will utilize leading marketing research techniques to create breakthrough insights, guide business strategies, and support broader school and university objectives focused on alumni engagement and philanthropy goals. This position is responsible for serving as the "voice of alumni" by leading customized qualitative and quantitative research including, but not limited to, managing a panel of alumni (creating and deploying surveys), conducting segmentation analysis, measuring and tracking marketing effectiveness, and conducting interviews and focus groups. This position will also champion insights into action by providing action-oriented recommendations derived from consumer insights and market trends.

The Wisconsin School of Business employs over 80 faculty and over 250 staff members in support of its programs, which include an undergraduate program, a range of graduate degrees, and executive education offerings. This position is critical to securing the success of the school and ensuring the legacy of the Wisconsin School of Business as a leader in business scholarship. With more than 1/3 of the School's budget funded by philanthropy, alumni and donor engagement is a key component in the School's success. The mission of the alumni relations team is to understand the needs and goals of our more than 40,000 alumni and nearly 5,000 donors to create effective engagement, marketing, and fundraising strategies to meet our increasing philanthropic goals. The Consumer Insights Strategist position will design, execute, and interpret a variety of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to socialize insights that will enhance how alumni experience and build a relationship with the Wisconsin School of Business.

Principal Duties:

65% Consumer Insights

• Design and execute primary qualitative and quantitative research.
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative data to provide insights that will enable WSB to achieve engagement and fundraising goals.
• Design and moderate qualitative research, including focus-groups, for qualitative insights.
• Design, recruit, and ensure on-going health and engagement of an online panel/community. 
• Design, deploy, and analyze survey data to inform alumni relations business decisions.
• Foster a professional environment that promotes research, experimentation and innovation.

20% Business Analytics/Market Research/Marketing Effectiveness Measurement

• Conduct market research to keep the WSB team informed of industry trends, best practices, and market conditions. 
• Analyze CRM, web analytics, and other internal data to help the team effectively segment and market to alumni. Knowledge of statistical modeling and SPSS is a plus.
• Assess marketing effectiveness (and track over time) to provide recommendations for future marketing campaigns.

10% Communications & Documentation

• Champion the development and sharing of practical project management best-practices. 
• Share key insights/research reports with teams across WSB, campus, and alumni. Must be comfortable presenting in front of a group.
• Provide oral and written project updates to the project team, steering committee, and senior management as requested.
• Make evidence-based recommendations on the form and substance of WSB's marketing messaging and content across all customer contact points, including alumni engagement opportunities.
• Maintain user friendly library of reports and insights that can be accessed by partners across WSB.

5% Other duties as defined

• Bachelor's degree required in Business, Communications, Marketing, Marketing Research, or a related field. A master's degree is preferred.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in consumer insight research, business analytics, moderating/facilitation, or a similar field. Prior experiences in higher education, non-profits, or fundraising is a plus.

The successful candidate will possess:

• Experience in qualitative and quantitative research, including study design, moderating, and survey design.
• Experience managing online panels or communities, including recruiting and incentivizing participants.
• Experience in data analysis and reporting, including assessing marketing effectiveness
• Experience in the management of projects, deadlines and budgets
• Experience developing and maintaining strategic partnerships to ensure brand consistency
• A understanding of marketing, branding, editing/publishing, business development, client services and state relations in order to provide actionable recommendations
• An understanding of non-profit or philanthropic fundraising and engagement.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Exceptional interpersonal skills
• The ability to advise leadership on the aspects of consumer insights and business analytics
• Experience analyzing CRM data to uncover business insights.
• Knowledge of statistical modeling and SPSS is a plus.