The Japanese marketers are facing a variety of challenges: The Japanese consumers are demanding better quality, uniqueness, varieties and new features. They are changing their lifestyle and values. They have more income and more time to spend. Leisure is a trendy word. Japan is getting more grey at much faster pace than other countries ever experienced. She faces an acute shortage of labor. Land prices have soared up, particularly in the large cities, which made it almost impossible for the city workers to own a decent house. Yet, many people who can afford it, are spending a lot of money to rebuild or remodel their houses. More women are working than ever before and the working women are spending money lavishly. They demand better quality, better services, and better design.
This paper discusses the process involved in a network's acquiring the rights to telecast the Olympics and examines the role research played in NBC's decision to acquire the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. The paper will provide a brief historical perspective of telecasting the Olympics, including the nature of the coverage, the amount of air time, the audience attraction and the "rights fees". Research is intimately involved in the decision- making process which starts with estimating Olympics rating performance four years in advance of the events. What factors go into these estimates? Why are they important? Networks and advertisers pay a premium for these events. How can this be justified? Over time, the cost of acquiring the rights to telecast the Olympics increased dramatically. There was more need to examine critically the value of the Olympics for the network managements and the advertisers. This paper also reports on the research studies conducted by NBC designed to deal with the answers to these questions. The Olympics have become one of the premiere advertising and merchandising events of the 20th century. This paper will examine how a U.S. television network prepares for the Olympics. I will discuss from a historical perspective the ratings of the Olympics, how much the networks paid for their rights, the factors that go into the decision to acquire rights, the nature of the coverage and the audience performance. I will also examine the role research plays in this process and then review two studies conducted by NBC Research. One was designed to make the coverage more appealing to viewers and the other to help advertisers assess the value of the Olympics as an advertising and promotion vehicle.
At a time when American and Japanese companies are exhibiting great interest in the new market opportunities to be found in a fully integrated EC, European companies are achieving the scale and competitive strength to seize their own opportunities overseas. This paper presents a hypothetical encounter with three such companies- a Scandinavian marketer of modular housing, a joint venture between a French food manufacturer and an English food service company, and a German industrial and financial concern. Each company has achieved considerable success with segments of the European marketplace. Each also has the resources to consider expanding operations to the United States and Japan. The strategic issue this paper treats is: Will consumers in these new markets be equally receptive to their marketing efforts? In each case, the answer can be found in GLOBAL SCAN, a worldwide consumer study being conducted by Backer Spielvogel Bates Worldwide that is the largest such survey done by any advertising agency in the world. Now in its sixth year, GLOBAL SCAN has discovered the existence of five common classes of consumers in virtually every country analyzed. The richness of GLOBAL SCANâs readings on these consumer segments allows each of the hypothetical marketers to uncover a detailed portrait of the most promising target market. GLOBAL SCAN also warns these would-be global marketers on how to vary their products and marketing communications messages to suit the local nuances of each market they are entering.
The challenge for European researchers in the 1990s is to meet the requirement for information which is truly global in scope, but which retains a clear focus on local markets and issues. The imminence of the Single Market is merely accentuating the need of international companies for integrated research services which span European and global markets. This is particularly TRUE of continuous marketing information, with manufacturers and retailers demanding databases which enable them to evaluate international brands and markets across conventional national borders. To be truly effective, these databases must be supported by common analysis tools which facilitate the assessment of international marketing strategies in many countries. However, for the present - and the immediate future - local market conditions will continue to have a profound influence. This paper will argue that the development of international services must take place in an environment which also addresses the differing requirements of local market places and the complex behaviour of an increasingly fragmented consumer base. The paper is divided into three main sections. In the first, we will examine the paradoxical trends towards both global and micro marketing, together with the new information demands which each is creating. The second part will use case history material to explore the role which global marketing information can already play in supporting local and international marketing strategy. Finally, we will discuss the ways in which the marketing information industry can and must harness new technology to serve the changing global market place.
In a period of rapid and dynamic change in Japan, an understanding of Changing Values and Lifestyles provide strategic advantage to the today's marketer by providing an opportunity to observe emerging needs and desires among various psychographic types. INFOPLAN's study of the Japanese Rich uncovers five distinct types of rich Japanese consumer; Overt, Clasic, Conservative, and two new emerging types of Japanese personalities which we identify as The New Rich: The Modern Rich, a younger, highly educated and very independent-oriented consumer and lastly. The Overt Rich, a dynamic, very consumption-oriented "Nouveau" type. The three top items the Rich like to use money for is Travel, Hobbies and Culture, and Home Development/Home Interiors. An alive interest in possession of luxury items such as dramatic recent increases in Gold Jewelry including gold bracelets for men as well as high rates of diamond ring ownership among women. Diamonds for Men has also begun to have an impact on the market, especially among the Overt males. The Japanese Rich are rather favorable towards Foreign Products, especially the Overt Rich. This interest includes foreign cars: 25% of Rich would like to buy a foreign car, compared to 39% who have no interest. Among the Overt Rich, the opposite is dramatically true: 43% would like to buy compared to only 21% who would not. Changing attitudes towards tradition and relationships indicate dramatic new trends toward a more independent and personally satisfying lifestyle compared to the more traditional Japanese group behavior.
This paper is about a new international approach to consumer research. The Approach uses the concept of Everyday-Life Research (EDL) which is derived from the principles of phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and social psychology seeking to understand the world as people experience it. The research covered four European key markets: Great Britain, France, Italy, and West Germany. Using fundamental values, beliefs and attitudes, it identified eight distinctive Multinational Target Groups which share similar views on life, enjoy comparable life styles, and are subject to similar codes and rules in spite of different national flavours. In combination, the Multinational Target Groups constitute a Euro- Positioning Model for marketing and communication. The Model provides the methodological flexibility and cultural insights needed to adjust global marketing to different local requirements. Together with product and brand related attitudes and behaviours, the Multinational Target Groups have proven to be very powerful tools in marketing and communication strategy.
This paper analyzes the similarities across countries in the way consumers respond to new product ideas, then describes a technique that can successfully screen new product ideas around the world.
Kao launched a new compact biotex detergent "Attack" in April, 1987 and the maximum saturated laundry detergent market changed to this new type successfully and innovatively. However, this successful story of "Attack" had a long hard history before the development. In 1975 12 years before the launch, which was the age of save-resources and save-energy after the detergent panic originating from the oil shock, Kao quickly introduced a condensed compact detergent to preempt needs of the age, but consumers did not support it and Kao had to withdraw it from the market. It was a bitter experience to Kao. Even after that, Kao did not give up the intention to innovate the detergent market which was in the midst of price competition under the stagnation. It was alternate continuation of efforts and collapses surrounding R&D. A happening in the long-term qualitative panel, a newly developed testing method, broke through that deadlock. The long-term qualitative panel means a method that new products under development relating to detergent, for example, be used one after another and be evaluated by the panelists. In other words, it is a new qualitative research method to integrate group interviews with experience of several uses of test products. At a group interview after uses of the prototype "Attack", one panelist mentioned, "It made laundry much whiter than bleach tested just before". This one expression made the bleach development staff disappointed but it made the "Attack" R&D group excited. It was really a good chance to accelerate the development of "Attack" toward launching in the market.
Economic integration is a worldwide phenomenon produced by the development of transport and communication technology. Economic interdependency of countries and continents has never been greater than today. Economic integration in Europe has been underway for a long time, and is accelerating as a result of the political will to undo artificial barriers. Whatever our own personal perception of the present may be, it is truly astounding what has been accomplished in the last twenty-five years. Present economic integration is accelerating due to the 1992 programme which will remove the last barriers towards a fully integrated common market. What does "common market" mean? To many people it seems to mean uniformity within the European space. Obviously within Europe, absence of barriers does not imply similarity. A common or European market simply means that the administrative barriers will have been reduced to the point where the free flow of capital, goods and people will not be interfered with significantly. Countries and governments will continue to exist as highlighted by the discussions around the European Monetary System and the future European political organization. Local legislative differences will continue to exist as well as differences in languages, habits, value systems, tastes as well as discrepancies in the standard of living. Specialization of countries and regions will probably grow - but one should be realistic. Even today in the United States, the federal structure has not done away with a number of administrative distortions between the states. Economic integration, however, is proceeding. Multilingual packaging is frequently used and common brand names and products create a feeling of similarity throughout important parts of Europe. What is the issue? After all, many companies have been operating across Europe or have had a presence in several European countries for some time now. In many cases the European market was seen as the juxtaposition of a number of markets (in reality countries) due to the political organization of the continent. Europe was seen not as one marketing space but as a number of spaces in which the company had a presence.
One year and a half before SAMSARAâs launch, the French perfume house GUERLAIN asked us to study the project and give information upon which to base strategic choices. We custom-tailored a two-step qualitative investigation, the first about the ideal scent among six which were being developed and the second on the coherency of all the elements of the marketing mix, both without any mention of the brand for purposes of confidentiality. We call our approach "high touch" because it is a precise, very structured yet intuitive one which takes into account the subjectivity of the consumersâ relationship to scents. It is a dynamic developmental method which places a marketing project in its ever-changing environment and takes hypotheses about the future into account, contrarily to static assessment approaches.
Today the Japanese market is rapidly becoming a site for international competition. In the field of household daily necessities too, several large foreign-affiliated companies have entered the Japanese market and are achieving considerable success. The main reason for this success lies in the excellence of their products. Japanese consumers are extremely unique in their strict judgement of products, their strong demand for improvements in their lives, and their quick response to change. Indeed, these characteristics explain why Japanese products have maintained their strong position worldwide. More than anything else, the key to being successful in Japan lies in having outstanding products. Whatever marketing methods are used, it will be difficult for products to achieve success if they are relatively weak.
The following summarizes the key findings of my book. Marketing to Women: A Global Perspective, which examines the women's market in ten countries: United States and Canada (North America); Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela (Latin America); Great Britain, West Germany, and Italy (Europe); and Japan and Australia (the Far East). The study intertwines such basic demographic facts as age, occupation, marital status, and presence of children in the household with attitudes and social values to describe the dynamic, ever-shifting international consumer marketplace. The conceptual approach suggests an actionable way to segment the women's market. One dimension to consider is women's place in the life cycle, which divides women into four groups: -1 married women with children, -2 childless wives, -3 unmarried women with no family responsibilities, and -4 single mothers. The other dimension is based on the concept of the New Demographics. The New Demographics typology segments working and non-working women into four distinct groups, each with a different view of womenâs role, each with different life aspirations, and each with certain consumer predilections. The groups are: career women; women who consider their work "just a jobâ; housewives who plan to go to work in the future; and stay-at-homes who want to remain there.