Other than governmental entities, employers for sociologists include scientific research and development services; as well as management, scientific, and technical consulting services. Years ago, focus groups became a popular testing tool for potential new consumer products and for polling surveys of all kinds. The research that sociologists are trained to conduct is somewhat similar. Their focus is on the impact that a product, a public policy, a public project or the introduction of some cultural variant may have on the populace as a whole or a certain subgroup.
Relevant questions along these lines can arise for manufacturers of consumer products; distributors of financial products such as investment plans; a major developer contemplating a large scale development; or a television network making a major programming reorientation. It often falls to a trained sociologist to develop the research protocol and get the study done.
Within these general occupational categories, sociologists work in one or more specialty such as social organization, stratification, and mobility; racial and ethnic relations; education; the family; social psychology; urban, rural, political, and comparative sociology; gender relations; and demography in general.
