This paper describes how cultural understanding can be effectively utilised in the development of strategic marketing communication.It describes the values of young people in the MENA region, how these impact on their aspirations and expectations from brands, and how brands could utilise this information in communication. The paper ends with a case study on the localization of Coca-Cola's 'Real' campaign. It is based on various studies done across the MENA region, including large-scale cultural understanding studies.
Understanding trends in youth markets is challenging due to the dynamism and fluidity of consumer attitudes. This paper aims to outline how a bricolage approach using creative methodologies can help understand these changing dynamics, and how leading-edge opinion can be harnessed to anticipate future changes. The presentation also outlines how to design such a future-focussed study in order to build in the flexibility and partnership needed to adapt as findings emerge, allowing findings to shape the research process as it evolves, and creating actionable outputs which can be used to fuel strategic decision making. Additionally this presentation provides an insight into how luxury and prestige are being re-defined by young European consumers, and the implications this has for the brands attempting to reach them.
Has technology invaded the domain of qualitative research? Are we, as researchers utilizing it to our advantage?This paper addresses the overall needs regarding reporting, conclusions, and an action standard, i.e. operational use of the qualitative research output; and the use of video clips, graphics and/or audio clips and provides an introspective look at using technology in qualitative research.
This paper describes our attempt to understand the respondent's 'true' inner self during qualitative research in Mexico. The essay begins with a short review of a number of key respondent biases associated with traditional qualitative focus groups. Since the validity and reliability of the respondent's information, based on traditional focus group techniques, can be called into question, we have applied theoretical psychology and social anthropology to aid in the identification and assessment of the respondent's 'true' inner self.The paper demonstrates the triangulation method, which involves the linking of the true event or observation with the customer's perception of it to an unbiased measurement of the event/observation, and illustrates the use of a number of these triangulation methods utilized during Ford de Mexico's product testing for the new Eco-Sport SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) in Mexico.
These two presenters are probably among those very few who can allow themselves to converse openly about the efficacy of using research and, in particular, qualitative research by clients. The reason is the 12-year-old unbroken partnership of the two companies: Unilever as a client and Research International in Hungary as a research agency. The long-term co-operation and the hundreds of projects conducted led both parties to realise that the power of qualitative research could be much more fully exploited than it usually is. This understanding made us design the training program called 'Silence behind the Mirror'. The program aims to support users of qualitative research in order to obtain better value from those hours spent behind the mirror and in backrooms and be more sensitive to qualitative information. The program was conducted on the first two groups of marketing managers. This presentation describes the creation, the procedure and the follow up of the entire program.
Philips Design is a global community of professionals, focused on delivering competitive value to its clients through design, and striving for innovation in both design services and in the solutions offered.This paper based on the 2003 research program at Philips Design in which the authors took part. It describes the approach in conducting qualitative research aimed at giving more value to design in our innovation process. In this approach conventional qualitative research methods are combined with design research methods to gather real-life data. A structural analysis enables visualization of the connections between people's values, their needs, and concrete solutions in the context of their everyday life. This information is translated into 'Personas', which are fictional characters based on real-life stories. Personas are used as a tool to communicate the research results to designers. This paper illustrates how the use of Personas improves the innovation process at Philips Design.
This presentation considers the power and importance of brand and advertising stories in generating a marketplace in which we all want to participate.After all, the marketplace itself is a matrix of stories, a delicate fabric of dreams held together by our readiness to believe and our willingness to engage, and perhaps we are increasingly looking to stories that offer fulfilment of a higher order than simply just 'having'.This presentation considers some of the ways in which our brands and our markets are, or could be, responding to the changing face of these two fundamentals.
This papers provides a dialogue which gives conference attendees the chance to have an inside view on the two sides of qualitative research - practitioner and client. The paper explores the key to the challenges involved, talks to other senior decision makers about their perceptions of market research and asks questions of the way forward.'The future of the market research industry is potentially under threat - because it hasn't evolved to be useful.'
The presenters argue that a true understanding of the appeal of hip-hop can have valuable implications for marketers seeking to connect with young people. Hip-hop incorporates a number of key values which resonate powerfully with the youth target. This presentation seeks to describe and explore these values and how they work, before articulating the interaction between hip-hop and the world of brands - an interaction which has rich potential if it can be properly harnessed.
This presentation discusses the way new developments in audio capture and editing technology can enhance the utility of qualitative research for the moderator and clients. Specifically, the presenters employed the Interclipper (R) software program to facilitate the once onerous task of editing audiotapes.Through this process, the client and moderator 'marked' verbatims that best express the key hypotheses of the research. In the study, telephone depth interviews (TDIs) were conducted with a respondent group of Golf Digest magazine subscribers.The technology-enhanced final report enabled the client to literally hear the 'voice of the reader', providing practical insight to both the editors and business management.
The presentation traces the origination and development of focus groups from the methods beginning in 1941 at the hands of Robert Merton of Columbia University, New York.Attention is given to the intellectual ethos from within which focus groups emerged and how, when introduced to market research, the method lost its original logic to the extent that late in his life Merton attacked market research for abusing the method.Consideration is given to this position and warning offered that unless market research takes steps to counter weakness in the method the consequences for the market research industry as a whole could be grave. This presentation is, in a sense, offered as a lesson from history for current users of focus groups, and as a lesson about its current public/media standing, but is also offered in the hope of recognition by ESOMAR of Robert K. Merton, and his contribution to market research by the development of focus groups over half a century ago. Merton died, aged 92, at the beginning of this year.
Senior citizens have the time to enjoy life, but the way they do that and their needs and desires differ per individual. Senior citizens cannot be seen, nor handled, as a single homogeneous group.They can be segmented based on their need to control their own life and their social orientation. Each segment has specific needs in the area of brand and product usage, specific desires with regard to products, and specific preferences for brands.In addition, communication for senior citizens must conform with specific do's and don'ts to be appealing to the target group.