The achievement of acceptable and consistent quality standards in international research is a vital topic which deserves wider debate. At present it is difficult for international research buyers and co-ordinators to know what standards and practices are being used across countries - and difficult to decide what standards should or could be set. In order to provide a review of the quality standards and practices currently in place, the author conducted a small-scale survey of research suppliers in November 1992. The sample consisted of 87 suppliers, the majority of whom were ESOMAR members. A good range of regions was represented world-wide, though with bias towards the Western European countries. The survey covered the main areas where quality standards might need to be applied, namely: qualitative recruitment, interviewing and analysis, quantitative fieldwork, questionnaire editing, back- checking, data-entry and record-keeping. The survey revealed considerable variation in practices and in standards maintained. Some suppliers applied very stringent controls and had clear policies for actions to be taken in the event of unsatisfacton or poor quality work. Other suppliers appeared to apply very low standards or in certain areas had no quality standards at all.
The increasing internationalisation of business activities, both in Europe and elsewhere, has led to a growth in demand for management development services with an international focus. Ashridge Management College and the Center for Creative Leadership, two organisations already active in this field, wished to develop a new concept whereby the services offered concentrated on helping businesses to plan and implement strategic change in the new international environment. In light of the competitiveness in the market and the investment risk involved, research was used as an aid to deciding; whether to go ahead with the project; and what modifications, if any, were needed to the concept proposed. The paper describes the design and implementation of the study which took place. It explains the difficulties encountered in terms of sampling, recruitment and interviewing, and discusses the steps and solutions taken to overcome these problems. It describes some of the findings, and explains how these findings were used: to gain greater understanding of the needs of potential user organisations; to amend the focus of the concept so that the services offered became more interesting, appealing and distinctive for the target market; to give an assessment of whether the opportunity was sufficiently 'real' to justify the investment of Ashridge and C.C.L.'s funds and resources, and their commitment to its implementation.
Key variations in international research management are encountered in the extent of central control exerted and in the function of the group chosen to manage the project (usually either research or marketing). Centrally controlled projects tend to be well managed and co-ordinated for comparability, but often lack sensitivity to important local issues. Locally controlled projects gain the active involvement of local management but fail to deliver a valid picture of the international situation as a whole. Projects managed by researchers tend to be technically well organised but not always sufficiently well geared to the needs of ultimate users. In projects managed by marketing people the briefing and use made of the research tend to be of a high standard, but the political aspects of the marketing role can sometimes threaten the neutrality necessary in the research process. The key recommendation for ensuring good international research management is to appoint from the start a team involving all parties - users, client researchers and local suppliers - at both central and local levels. Lines of authority and communication should be clarified to all concerned. Sufficient time should be allowed for full consultation at the planning stage, and the user team should insist not only on comparability of approach but also on being shown a synthesis of findings from all countries. Commissioning organisations should make use of the unique opportunities afforded by the research process to involve and motivate their international management teams.
The paper argues for a new research approach to provide more relevant and actionable information about consumer-brand relationships for those concerned with marketing brands on an international scale in the 1990's, It describes a contemporary vision of how these relationships need to be characterised, in the current consumer climate. It applies this vision to the task of finding a research methodology capable of combining depth of qualitative insight, with the necessary emphasis on comparability of data required for the international brand marketing context. It further presents some findings from an exploratory research project which experiments with a range of consumer measures designed to fulfil these aims. The central thesis is that consumer-brand relationships are multi-faceted and must be understood in these terms in research. While it is relevant to pursue a Tightly defined distillation of the core values of a brand (variously described as Brand Essence, Brand Image, Brand Personality, etc), it is both more relevant and actionable to explore a number of different facets of the whole, each of which, with the right form of questioning, consumers can separately articulate. The key concepts are: - Brand Function/Performance; Brand Character; and "Emotional Linkage" with the brand. The paper concentrates particularly on the latter area which is the result of some new theories about the underlying consumer 'predisposition' towards marketing communications in the 1990's. Here, the measures are at their most experimental but the resulting data appears to illuminate the composition of brand values from different measured perspectives. Some of these appear directly to illuminate the role and contribution potential of different marketing elements in the mix (e.g, advertising). There is encouragement that the measures may offer both reliable and insightful stimulus to those charged with international brand planning task.