This paper examines how WGBH and Applied Research and Consulting LLC conducted collaborative research that identified strategies for transforming ZOOM, a highly successful 1970s children's educational television show, into one of the most exciting 1990s children's educational destinations in the world. This paper illustrates how a variety of qualitative research methodologies (designed to uncover specific concerns, attitudes and preferences of the target audience and the ways these concerns, attitudes and preferences had changed since the 1970s) resulted in the merger of new and existing technologies into an integrated, interactive educational media platform that would provide additional learning opportunities through the initial integration and ongoing enhancement of the integrated media offering.
In recent years, since the advent of the Internet and Web-based communication, business operators have come face to face with a series of entirely new needs for knowledge. One such need is topical in the extreme: it concerns the design and evaluation of web sites. Market researchers are therefore confronted with a new challenge: to develop and fine-tune research techniques to assess web sites capacity to effectively perform their many functions, from communication of corporate image to e-commerce. Eurisko has developed original tools for data collection and analysis. This paper presents these methodologies by exploring them from a theoretical standpoint; examining some interesting results obtained; and highlights possible solutions to develop and test for the future.
This paper, drawing on both historical analysis of various aspects of the market research industry, together with original global research, addresses the issue of whether the market research industry will continue to follow our historic pattern of steady evolution, or indeed whether we are at the gateway to dramatic change for our industry.
This paper investigates how workplace structures throughout Europe are changing, driven by the new economic and social environment. New research amongst leading employers in the United Kingdom will help reveal how organisations are responding to the challenges and will help predict the likely effects on the way we work. In particular, the paper reveals how flexible working patterns are going to be key to the success of the European economy and we discover how organisations differ in their approach to changes in workplace structures.
This quantitative study of 802 survey responders and non-responders from around the world examines the general publics acceptance of survey research. Key findings include: the importance of incentivization is increasing; poorly constructed surveys are convincing respondents that their time is being wasted; and telephone surveys are more frequently considered an invasion of privacy than mail or online surveys. On the other hand, people will make time for surveys that respect their time and privacy concerns; the activity of survey participation is not considered to be boring per se; and respondents feel that participating in surveys allows them to voice their opinions.
This paper describes how the market research function at Ford Motor Company has successfully transformed itself to help meet the corporate objectives set forth by senior management. The company became committed to Delivering on the promise to become the worlds leading consumer-focused company. This required an effort to understand the value of the department in its traditional role and, more importantly, a vision and implementation plan for making it more integral to the pursuit of the company mission. Several initiatives have been put in place, including leveraging research suppliers to help implement this transformation. Some of the specific research areas most effective in supporting this evolution will be described. The department has moved from a traditional market research organization to one that is a proactive function that provides global consumer insights.
Collaborative and ongoing work between The Dow Chemical Company and Total Research Corporation over a number of years has explored how organisations who measure customer perceptions can convert this information into influencing how customers ultimately behave. The aim of this paper is to show how understanding what drives customer loyalty (rather than simply what satisfies customers), allied to effective market planning and deployment tools, can lead to successful business performance. The main themes covered include the definition and importance of customer loyalty; the establishment of a Loyalty Chain linking business activities to customer loyalty and financial performance; the measurement of customer loyalty and its drivers at Dow; customer information as the basis for action at macro and micro levels; the linkage between loyalty and purchase behaviour and its impact on selecting action priorities; and the importance of needs-based segmentation and Six Sigma tools for successful deployment.
Greater access to information has allowed people to be more involved in their healthcare to the point where many health conditions can now be viewed as quasi-consumer markets. This creates a new landscape for marketers where customization is the key to designing campaigns that successfully target todays consumers. This study uses data from 278 men with diabetes who also report having sexual dysfunction to describe how pharmaceutical marketers can use consumer information and illustrate the benefits and advantages of these insights. In various studies, the prevalence of ED (erectile dysfunction) in men with diabetes has been estimated anywhere between 20% and 90%, with most estimating between 35% - 50%. Clearly, this is an area with much unmet need and many marketing challenges.
This paper argues that semiotic and cultural analysis is the best and quickest way to first assess what is going on in any marketplace, before embarking on any other kind of developmental consumer research. It shows why this form of investigation is so powerful in providing the groundwork for any form of marketing development and describes the analysis process itself. From this the author outlines the integration of findings into a three-stage programme covering creative and concept development and the final evaluation stage of conventional qualitative consumer research.
The paper describes the international validation of a heuristic model for pre-testing TV commercials. The validation is based on the models internal measures rather than external comparisons such as pre- and post-test validations. The model states that all effective advertising, anywhere in the world, must accomplish three goals: attract an audience, clearly link the ad to the brand in the viewer's mind, and motivate the viewer to take action. The model clearly defines key measures that determine Attention, Brand Linkage and Motivation scores. This paper reports data obtained from over one hundred thirty (130) pre-tests conducted in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific for multiple clients.
This paper cautions against rushing toward new data collection technologies and instead urges an assessment where and when they are appropriate. Only a small amount of primary research on this has been undertaken, and as such the assertions are intended as a start point for debate. The paper focuses on one area of research with high value, account-handled customers and examines the outcomes companies seek when carrying out research with these accounts. It reviews how far current and emerging technologies could provide the outcomes and finds that current technologies lack on many counts. The authors have developed a model to assess what would have to change for new alternatives to become a suitable replacement for existing preferred data collection methodologies in the business research environment. By analysing the extremes in this way the personal but time consuming and expensive, face-to-face data collection method and the impersonal, but speedy and cheap(er) e-methods the direction that new technology must take if it is to support researchers becomes clearer.
In this ESOMAR Congress 2001 with its theme Marketing Transformation we have an opportunity to examine how well market researchers are responding to the changes taking place in society, the world of business and to the structure, and techniques, of our own industry. Survival in the 21st century will, in part, depend on the honest application of the more traditional ways in which market researchers have always operated. But there is a growing feeling that now is the time to embrace a new form of market research: a fresh way of thinking about how we harness the plethora of marketing intelligence now available to us to complex business decision-making.