At this time of recession, it is more common to hear of reductions than of expansion in company research departments. It seemed an appropriate time to conduct a quantitative study among major European companies to discover whether this is a general pattern, and if so how serious it is. In interviewing 300 of the largest European companies, we found that almost half of them now rely on outside agencies for their research and that a third of those with research departments have considered closing them: reasons were almost entirely to do with cost, and it was stated bluntly that the research department was the first to go. A silver lining did emerge: where the research department provided input to strategic planning which proved valuable to the marketing department and which could not so readily be obtained elsewhere, it was likely to be seen as indispensable and to remain secure. If all that was provided was information, however well interpreted and presented, there was a risk that outsiders could perform the function equally well. To secure its survival, the company research department has always had to offer expertise on top of that available from outside suppliers. Now, however, it seems that this expertise must be more comprehensive than ever before, ranging from highly sophisticated modeling and forecasting to discovery of new, possibly niche, markets through a diversity of approaches to consumer segmentation. But most crucial of all, the information gathered and analyzed must be distilled into clear, precise recommendations, and eventually into numbers in marketing strategy documents. It was our conclusion that managers in today's research departments may need a much broader skills base than in the past and perhaps a different academic background, more akin to that of the marketing staff they report to.
This paper presents a framework for charting the cultural future of markets, from the standpoint of developing culturally insured marketing strategy for a firm. It is drawn from our experience of having to forecast the cultural future of the Indian market, which, after over four decades of isolation and protection, is now being swamped with foreign goods of the kind that consumers have never seen before; further compounded by an invasion from the skies in the form of satellite television (from two state-controlled channels to an orgy of soap operas from the west!)
This paper compares the nature of the response to advertising in different parts of the world. The paper shows that people's reactions to advertising are a normal part of every individuals repertoire of response behavior employed in all manner of quite ordinary situations. The paper identifies four basic patterns of response that people make to advertising no matter where or how they live in the world and irrespective of what type of stimulus material used. This overall similarity in the way in which people respond, no matter what stimulus is presented to them, means that for advertising pre-testing, category and country "norms" can be replaced by four universal norms that reflect the level of an individual's personal interest in that particular advertising material, at that place, at that time. One of these four response patterns is associated with effective advertising and this pattern is capable of being evoked by advertising in any form anywhere in the world. When advertising material achieves this level of response, it is extremely likely that it will be a very effective piece of advertising, adding to the core values that define the brands equity. Advertising responses that correspond to any of the other three normal response patterns are most unlikely to add any value to the brand.
In this paper, we argue that the dominant brand-building perspective on advertising is much too restrictive and leads to most advertising being seen as ineffective. We maintain that a neglected and under-developed alternative - the brand-maintenance perspective - provides a basis for a more realistic and productive approach to advertising problems. The nature of this alternative is indicated and a research programme designed to articulate and develop it is described. Two examples that illustrate the work proposed are discussed. A summary outline of other aspects of the programme is also given.
The authors main proposition is that market research is of limited value unless steps are taken to develop the market research remit, client side. This should embrace joint accountability for post survey analysis work in addition to primary accountability for all stages of a research project from problem definition or situation analysis, to competitive tender, questionnaire design, reporting and overall control of the project. All of these elements still need to have the close involvement of the internal customer (and agency)! This is to ensure the research project answers the right questions and that internal customers feel ownership of the findings. However, it is considered wrong to truncate the accountability of the clients market research team at the "final" report stage. This is when they should be at their most active! The strength of the proposed Fact Inference Conclusion Recommendation (FICR) technique lies in the ability to: - demonstrate to the most senior of managers how research is turned into action; - provide a trail of facts and inferences that lead to conclusions and recommendations, removing doubt about the process that led to the recommendation of (strategic) action. The technique raises some questions that have implications for the client, agency and market research industry. The paper will outline these implications but in essence they are: - the post survey analytical skills of market research personnel; - the extent to which the experience and training of internal customers should go; - the accountability of market research organisations in developing a greater focus on post survey analysis work and providing various frameworks and training to facilitate the change. This paper is divided into three main sections. The first section outlines the customer service research programme, upon which the study is based. The survey consists of the measurement of customers expectation of service levels as well as the quantification of the experiences of customers recently in contact with London Electricity.
It is argued in this paper that the use of text-databases implies a cost-effective and rational use of transcripts from broadly based qualitative studies. Special attention is drawn to the possibility of querying the data by means of an automatically generated "unique-words list". Text-databases are seen as a mechanical aid in qualitative content analysis, but it is also indicated how the data generated can be used in explorative, quantitative content analysis. A number of methodological issues are discussed. In particular, the rationality of using the unique-words list as an indicator of the contents of the database. The interpretive process is described in terms of queries and result files, and it is illustrated how the database allows a systematic definition of scope and levels of aggregation of respondents. Finally some indications for programme development are given, and it is suggested that the use of text-databases might imply a change in nature of qualitative research: Instead of being project-specific, qualitative studies can be seen as updates of text-databases. The empirical background consists in a series of market studies on behalf of the Marketing Board of Danish Agricultural Council (LAU). Examples are drawn from Spain, Japan and Saudi Arabia.