Research Challenge

Engagement, research and the strategic process

Jim Collins, best-selling author of Built to Last, Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall, talks about the role of engaging customers in the success of a company.

“There is a huge distinction between people having their say and people being heard … great leaders do such a marvellous job of was making sure that people were heard as opposed to, ‘Well I’m going to let them have their say and then do what I want’.”

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Business Issues

Rules of Engagement

Not many people in our industry know there is a war going on. A high-level war that appears to be about the fundaments on which our industry is built: the respondent.

Kees de Jong looks at how the market research industry must change in order to rebuild relationships with respondents and fight disengagement in a time of increasing online competition.

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Latin America on the rise

Marta Lagos, Latin American pollster and founder of Latinobarómetro, talks about the impact of growing democracy on social stability and the economy in the region.

The key finding of the 2009 Latinobarómetro poll conducted in 18 countries is that over the course of a year in which many economies suffered from the fallout of the global economic crisis, satisfaction with democracy in Latin America was strengthened rather than weakened.

Read how the actions of Latin American governments to combat the recession have not only strengthened faith in democracy but also improved conditions for ongoing economic growth and an emerging middle class with greater access to consumer goods and services.

On the left side of this window, you can listen to the full interview with Marta Lagos on why the Latin American market holds so much promise.

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Research Challenge
Good to great

Jim Collins, best-selling author of Built to Last, Good to Great and How the Mighty Fall, talks about what makes a truly great company stand out.

“Any great institution has a core that has tremendous continuity – a set of values and a reason for being that remains constant over time … it stimulates progress, changing its practices, methods, strategies and ways of doing things – even changing the business that it’s in. This notion of ‘preserve the core and stimulate progress’ is the secret of a truly enduring great institution.”

On the left side of this window, you can listen to the full interview with Jim Collins on why research and empirical data are so important to those companies that are truly great.

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Made in Asia
Innovating from East to West

A handful of Asian brands have become fixtures in living rooms, kitchens and garages around the world. But why have so few big names from the East made it in the West? 

Only seven Asian brands were in the top 50 of Millward Brown’s most recent ranking of the world’s most valuable brands. Benjamin Joffe, founder of innovative research and strategy consultancy Plus Eight Star, says that there’s no lack of ideas in Asia, nor that they wouldn’t translate to other parts of the world. In fact, much of what’s being produced in the East is not only as good, but superior to their Western counterparts, Joffe says. 

What is holding Asian brands back, and how can market research help? 

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Trends
Social media in Asia 

Pete Blackshaw, executive vice-president, Digital Strategic Services, at Nielsen Online looks at how social media trends challenge past thinking, and promise a greater understanding of consumers across AsiaThe new social media landscape provides a vast reservoir of insight, but not all markets use social media in the same way. Read about the latest developments in key Asian markets such as China, Japan, South Korea and India and what researchers have to do to adapt.Read the full article

High-impact research – The new strategic partner

What does it take for market research to become a true strategic partner in the decision-making fabric of a corporation? Is there a roadmap for transforming the research function to proactively sense consumer needs that lead to innovation and drive growth? How can researchers be trained to think and act like consultants? 

According to Ian Lewis of Cambiar consultancy, the answer to these questions has four components: 

1. The way we work
2. What we work on
3. Capabilities
4. Relentless execution

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Research Challenge – Maintaining brand value in a recession

We talk to Rita Clifton, chairman of Interbrand, about connecting with consumers during a downturn. 

“You need to understand what drives behaviour across the whole customer experience and what it is that connects the customer to your brand. You need to make sure that you are touching and adding as much value at every stage of that customer decision, customer use, customer conversation process, as you can because you need them like nothing else during a recession!” 

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Lessons from the recession 

Jeff Hunter, director of consumer insights at General Mills, looks at what we have learned about customer preferences and future business strategy. 

We are moving towards a more stable economy, but there are still concerns about the impact of high unemployment levels and the availability of cash to invest in business growth. Jeff presents eight observations: 

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is still relevant
2. Traditional values still have value
3. We need to source ideas broadly and adapt quickly
4. Innovate
5. Always stay very close to the consumer/customer
6. Be creatively efficient
7. Understand the value proposition and its consequence for the business model
8. Religiously assess what works and does not

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 Survival of the fittest

Carlos Harding of Ipsos, Eric Salama of Kantar, Robert Philpott of Synovate, Klaus Wübbenhorst of GfK and John Freeland of IRI, discuss the year ahead.

2009 showed that market research isn’t recession-proof with falling budgets, shrinking departments and clients desperate to do more while spending less. Despite this, industry leaders remain positive about the future, but also say that we can continue to expect big changes to come.

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