client services

director

director of client services

senior associate

sales director

Kantar

A typical day at work consisted of a LOT of meetings and required company webinars/trainings or other events that essentially just took away from much needed work time. I actually really enjoyed the data analytics and project management tasks of my role, but the corporate culture of bending over backwards for any client's whim was ridiculous and led to most of the people at my level being overworked. I would say I averaged 50 hours a week, but it was up to 60 some weeks. And all of these hours were jam-packed with tasks, meetings, etc, meaning that even a 45 hour week would leave me exhausted. We were supposed to receive 3 weeks of PTO each year, but it honestly felt like I could hardly ever take it. Despite working extra hours to be on top of things, it felt like it was never enough for management. This led to a high turnover rate among people in my department, and because the company was always so focused on reducing costs, they often did not rehire for positions, or it took them a long time to get a new person in. Their products and systems are quite complex, so there is a large learning curve of about 3 months with intermittent trainings. This led to further unhappiness among employees who stayed, and thus the cycle continued.

We were also responsible for both bringing in new business and maintaining existing business, yet we were not bonus eligible. This often amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in business for the company, yet there was no system to reward us for it. Our directors could get credit for this and extra pay, but we couldn't, which is frankly ridiculous and cheap of them.

While I actually did like the tasks of the role, the workplace culture, extremely top down and segmented corporate structure, and lack of work-life balance killed it for me. At the level I was getting paid, this job was really not worth it.

Toxicity in the building is so high it can kill a rat infestation.  

Favoritism is like a flashing neon sign.  

Gossip travels fast and rumors are created.  Management is even more childish than regular employees intend to be and take nothing seriously.  

Clueless people who have been there for 2+ years move up without knowing the work and people who do know the work get stuck at the entry level or get passed on for promotion due to favoritism and "friendship".

Be careful if you get this job.  You're already on a thin line and anyone will come up with an excuse to get rid of you, trainees especially.  

(The whole training group of 5+ people all got removed because of something the new manager of ONLY 3months felt something she didn't like about us.)

Mistakes aren't tolerated, no warnings! The only warning you'll get is from the reviews on here.  

-WARNING-

No ands, ifs or buts.  

Breakdown:  went to lunch, got food, I ring up my food, an employee comes in and reminds me I don't have to clock out because it's a half-day (this was a few days before Christmas btw), I didn't pay for my food apparently because I thought I already did before the "employee reminder."  They accused me of stealing the food and remove me from the company after Christmas.  

Careful in the cafe as well there's a camera that captures everything.

Solution: I tried to make a fix and they denied all compromise and any possible fixes.  I apologized and offered to make up the payment on the food, but they declined and figured it was better to remove me entirely instead.

I needed this job to support my family, but nothing will help you according to this job Kantar Media and the agency associated with them AppleOne.

If you need a dependable job then look elsewhere.

As a Research Design Manager, my job is to interface with various departments and the client to create and execute market research studies.  The majority of our research is conducted via internet surveys, but we have a strong global presence and it's not uncommon for more of our larger clients to commission studies in other countries.  

In a typical day, I am designing questionnaires, prepping and requesting data pulls, reviewing financials, attending meetings and calls with clients, and launching research studies.  

I really enjoy my coworkers and the management is really supportive of the employees.  They really do try to provide ongoing training for us and they stay up to date with current market trends and keep us abreast of that.

MB provides great benefits, and they have a lot of perks, like frequent company and team outings, free food and beer on certain days of the week in some of the offices, discounts with partner companies, and the ability to work from home frequently.

However, the culture is such that there's not really any boundaries between work and personal life.  Many of us put in 50-60 hour work weeks.  We're not supposed to, but when you work on million dollar accounts, it's hard to log off at 5 because you want to.  There are lots of employees with kids, but many people in lower positions leave soon after having kids, or don't stay long if they already have them when hired.  

The company also tends to be slow on promotions, and raises and bonuses are few and far in between, so if you get a job here, be sure to negotiate a decent salary before you start - it may be all you see for a few years. While they are trying to improve growth opportunities, there's a lot to be desired.

Overall, if you are passionate about market research, this is a really great company to work for and learn from.

I have worked at Millward Brown for over 6 years, and recently the company instituted a new service delivery model for the Client Services department.  

Taken from the perspective of 10,000 feet up, the new model make sense as it cuts down on redundant work, empowers employees to act more like consultants and boosts job profitability.  

Taken from the perspective of the employee, the new model makes for a very challenging work life.  There is no longer foundation level support on accounts, and as a result mid-level managers spend a lot of time handling routine tasks or responding to basic client requests.  With most of the time spent handling such tasks there is very little time to focus on higher levels tasks such as generating insights for clients or becoming experts in their business.  The new model spreads mid-level managers too thin, and as a result long-time clients are becoming frustrated with the reduced level of consultancy they receive from MB and employees are under a great deal of stress.

The new model could be much more effective if employees were responsible for fewer accounts.  This would give each employee enough time to handle the more routine tasks, but still allow them to become experts in a clients business and provide the level of consultancy clients are seeking.

MB is a great learning environment and despite the added stress of not having adequate staffing resources there is sense of camaraderie.

MB is highly political and does not value or foster the career growth of their employees.

-The salaries are very low compared to other marker research agencies, due to the fact that they have very high overhead.
-Part of the reason overhead is so high, is because there is a lot of waste in terms of spending from upper management.
-Office politics are stifling, if you aren't tight with the right people it is difficult if not impossible to move up
-Nepotism is a alive and well at MB
-Office-wide communications are inconsistent, distorted, patronizing, or nonexistent.
-Some senior people are willing to cross ethical lines if it suits them. Generally involving lying or misrepresentation in order to protect themselves, at the expense of someone junior to them.
-A lot of people have been leaving lately and MB has not rehired anyone to take there place, causing an excessive amount of work for the Foundation staff.
-MB prides themselves on Work/Life Balance; however the Junior staff is expected to work 50+ hours without being compensated accordingly (they only pay you for 37.5 hrs). Also, if you work below the 'desired' number of hours, upper management will keep piling on additional projects forcing you to work overtime.
-No merit increases or spot bonuses in the past 2 years
-Gossiping is a daily occurrence within the office

I worked at Precise/ Kantar for four years, and it's the best job I've had so far. Being comfortable with nocturnal living it didn't take long for me to get used to the 7 nights on/ 7 nights off shift pattern, which allowed me to make good use of the additional time off this provides. This job attracts interesting and creative people, and I quickly found that the anti-social hours I was working half of the time were off-set by a separate second social life with my colleagues, and having every other week off plus two weeks annual leave gave plenty of scope for keeping up with everyone else. The work itself was intense at times (we had strict nightly deadlines, and worked in an almost silent office) but easy once you get the hang of it. I also found myself reading parts of the press that I would normally skip past, so it can expand one's knowledge. I've also learned to touch-type very efficiently. Unfortunately there haven't been any opportunities during my tenure to pursue promotions or pay rises. Another aspect some people might not like is entire weeks spent living in darkness during the winter. Take your vitamins, folks. However, working here you will never have to cram into a busy train, tube or bus, which alone is enough to justify doing it.

A typical day at work would be to sign in, set up my time tracker, check my email, take care of pending rejections, creative issues, get into the system and begin to QA my team's work. If the work is too high then I will get into attribution and my Supervisor will QA my work.

I have learned how to manage my time better, keep everything organized, how to meet people where they are in order to bring about work improvement, how respect all authority, how to keep my personal life from distracting my work, etc.

Management- I am in the lowest level of management because I oversee the overall quality of each of my team members and see about ways of improvements in their work, constantly. I make sure they are encouraged and not discouraged so that they will perform their best. I also manage the ads in the system. Each week we have a Closeout, meaning our clients want their ads by noon every Wednesday. With Closeout, many ads are out of place and I get them to where they are supposed to be, which takes time as well as contacting different people throughout higher level management who have a different access than me to help push ads through. Overall, all the ads needed for Closeout must come through me, be checked by me and sent by me each week.

The hardest part of the job would be watching commercials all day.

The most enjoyable part of the job would be encouraging others to do their best.

A typical day at work as an Exec Asst to so many people was never a typical day. It required extreme dedication, flexibility and pro-activity. I thoroughly enjoyed interacting with such talented, educated, driven individuals on a daily basis. This role let me touch a bit of everything - speaking with leaders of large corporations, PR/book launch planning, website initiatives, recruiting, staffing, all financial aspects, travel coordination, etc. Anyone who had a question - whether internal or external - always directed it towards me.

I believe the most enjoyable part was feeling so productive. By multitasking, paying attention to details and taking on such an extreme load of work, I saw a lot of results and felt I kept many of my team members running on a daily basis. The hardest part of the job was also exactly that - overload of responsibilities.

This role would have been better suited for two people. I leave with a very positive and fond remembrance of my position within this company and definitely felt their appreciation of my hard work.

I worked at MB for several years before leaving on my own when the new model took over. 

The every day people that work here are great, however management talk behind your back and treat you like children. They will make you feel good, but really it's a face that they put on.

Zero salary increases for anyone that is NOT upper management in about 3 years now. All the everyday hard workers do not get compensated at all but the upper management will. Think about that, not one person in 3+ years has actually gotten a merit increase or anything....really nice and great for the employee moral.

Most managers have zero direction or care, they only care about themselves in the long run. I have learned that if you want to play their corporate game, then you'll have to be a lying worm to get anywhere.

Overall, if you're just graduating from college this might be a good place to work for a year or so for the "experience". But don't leave your current position to work here. You won't be happy in your day to day life. Unfortunately, that is ONLY because management is terrible and treats you like dirt and NO increase in pay because their system is failing under the new model.

Millward Brown is a great company to have on your resume and get exposed to basic market research. Its no surprise that they are at a downward spiral because much of their work is templated and there is so much emphasis on being perfect that creates a stressful environment.

Unfortunately, they have promoted young managers from years ago w/ no mgt experience and jaded from being given so much grunt work that they too have become master delegators.

MB can definitely turn themselves around if they trusted their team members more, giving more responsiblities and created process improvements and get w/ the times by eliminating paperwork and creating digital processes.

They have a great onboarding process and you should take excellent notes because that will be the best learning experience.

Expect to work ridiculous hours because that is what is expected of everyone especially if you go in as an entry level employee.

Negotiate salary & perks and dont back down even though HR will tell you "sometimes in your career you need to take a step down to move ahead" total BOGUS!

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Client services 26 salaries reported	$86,802 per year
Director 6 salaries reported	$113,683 per year
Director of client services 9 salaries reported	$127,389 per year
Senior associate 1 salary reported	$74,650 per year
Sales director 2 salaries reported	$142,425 per year

Working at Kantar: Company Overview and Reviews

Kantar

Kantar Ratings

Popular jobs at Kantar

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected