Significant changes have occurred within multinationals during the past few years and most of them are now in the process of implementing new international marketing programmes. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part reviews the major aspects of the "changing world of marketing" and the new demands and needs addressed to the research industry. The second part will provide an analysis of the consequences of these new needs for the research agency, concentrating on the changes needed within the agency itself. Globalisation may be the way most companies are going, but this concept only, does not give the whole picture of the new marketing process. Marketing achievement is assessed in terms of getting the balance right between central marketing and strategic thinking and a decentralised and flexible marketing approach, adapted to national cultures. Operating today on a Pan-European basis means, even for companies which have been used to dealing with international issues for decades, being prepared to take on new challenges: in all aspects of their lives clients are now facing bigger and bigger decisions, and have to deal with extremely complex issues. International research has changed in scale and kind. Its role is clearly about helping clients to perform in their new tasks, and as there are many more issues in the marketing world today, there is more than just one possible research answer. There are basically three levels of services which can be provided by the research agencies, and it will be critical to assess in which area it is best concentrating our efforts and our investments. A marketing led agency will have more chance of succeeding in this new context than an agency purely technically led. Understanding the emerging market trends and the specific client needs, defining more precisely its positioning and its ranges of products and services and finally assigning the right people to take on the new challenges are going to be critical for the success of the research agencies of tomorrow.
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 age old complaint of suppliers is that "clients won't pay for quality"; of clients, that "suppliers never define what they mean by quality, so you might just as well buy on price". What can both clients and suppliers do to remedy this Push-Me-Pull-You situation? Obviously strict quality control needs time and hence costs more money, but recent experience as a consultant, has convinced me that quality is still a neglected isssue, particularly as regards client service which, for many clients, is as important as the quality of the work itself. We shall start this paper with some examples of poor client service from suppliers. We then look at some of the ways in which clients make it difficult for suppliers to conduct top quality research and, finally, at ways in which both sides can work together to improve things. Quality and client service depend on good communications and attention to detail. These are needed on both client and supplier side, but surely, the onus is on the providers of the services to do their utmost to ensure customer satisfaction.
Multi-cultural Marketing has existed in Asia since colonization. While a number of multi- national companies have been very successful in this region, their success was not, necessarily, due to their understanding of the markets in which they operated. Success was mainly achieved by, as a senior executive of Coca-Cola (Taiwan) expressed on one occasion, 'filling holes'. Colonization resulted in that those companies, who came first, held, and still hold to this day, the largest marketshares, in spite of continuous attacks from other, sophisticated, multi-national marketers.In order to enter new markets, marketers need to generate a whole new set of Consumer Benefits and Needs, totally ignoring those Need/States established by the pioneers. Since most of the early brands are based on Generic/Intrinsic Positionings and have thus become the CATEGORY, success of new entries is only possible by going beyond and finding Synthetic/Transcendent Positionings. While the paper will concentrate on Asia/Pacific, I believe that its recommendations are universal and can be applied anywhere in the world when entering new market
Since the Treaty of Rome, there has been a considerable number of marketing studies concerning Europe: six countries were sometimes concerned, during the sixties. Nowadays respondents quite often represent twelve nationalities. The development of national studies was important also during the last 35 years. At one time, a local piece of research was exhaustive, at another time it was reduced to basic essentials. In this second case, Paris and Lyon often are the organ of France; London and Edinburgh quite often represent Great Britain; Rome and Milan can be the ambassadors of Italy; Frankfurt, Munich and the newcomer Leipzig sometimes represent Germany. Mutatis mutandis, in international matters, Belgium could be the most favoured country to represent Western Europe or better the neighbouring European countries; Belgium could be used a.o. to carry out European guidance research and European market tests. This point of view is attractive also when considering management, time and cost quite often consumed by international research which has to cross co-ordination difficulties, modifications and oppositions. This prospect is consistent too with the thoughts of several famous marketing researchers who betoken substantial similarities are often greater than superficial differences in Western Europe. It is clear all these considerations are necessary to get Belgium accepted as an area for European experiments. Such arguments, however, are not sufficient and, of course, must be confirmed in practice. Fortunately, several actual cases are in line with our belief. This paper, with prudence, describes all these aspects of the theme.
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to better cross- cultural communication. In order to achieve this, we have selected concepts put forth by anthropologists, sociologists and specialists in international management which shed light on some of the issues that companies find the most conflictual in their day-to-day experience with intercultural relationships. First, we give a definition of culture and how it affects us and the way we work. Next, we examine some of the main differences in the way Northern and Southern Europeans work. Finally, we offer some suggestions for dealing with cross-cultural situations and creating synergies.
Market research is in the 'informing and guiding companies business'. Its effectiveness depends on the quality of the informing service provided by both agencies and internal research departments. Examples from the motor industry suggest that many internal areas of car companies and also other important participants in the industry are not gaining the understanding of the market they need. Market research departments should be spending more time informing their internal clients but this means changes in attitude and a different quality of service from the agencies. Agencies can expand their traditional role to include a greater consulting dimension. They can also take more initiatives to include the smaller companies. Both parties need to re-examine and re-allocate their activities to meet the requirements of lean management in the more stringent economic climate of the 1990s.
Modem society is characterized by change : technological, political, economic... These changes all contribute to socio-cultural evolution, that is to say our evolving vision our ourselves and of the society in which we live. This, in turn, influences developments in technology, politics, economics, etc., in an on-going, self-repeating process. In a context of emerging opportunities and threats one cannot afford to adopt a wait and see attitude, nor assume that the future will be a mere extension of the past. Because yesterday's solutions will certainly not fit tomorrow's problems, anticipation and flexibility are the keys to successfully piloting oneâs business in an ever changing environment. More research and consulting firms teach clients such a philosophy. But, how can we apply it to our own field of praxiology, market research ? By consistently providing both a brand or product related actionable angle and a long term perspective in each research product, at each research level, anticipation can be built-in in market research services.
The increasing opportunities for development of cross-border business and the growing requirement for the major international client companies to rationalise their brands across the world has put renewed demands on international market research techniques, especially when it comes to product testing. This paper describes how the particular needs of the product development decision makers in the client companies can best be met by using a combination of sensory research and market research techniques. The paper considers the shortcomings of traditional product testing techniques for international projects and highlights how the language gap between consumers from different countries, the product developer and the marketeer can be successfully bridged, leading to successful product optimisation and rationalisation. Aspects covering consumers' difficulty to verbalise, limited vocabulary, inconsistent vocabulary, lack of sensitivity, misunderstanding of attributes and halo effect are included. The problems of inter-country translation and how these can be overcome are also covered. The use of sensory panels and the principles of quantitative descriptive analysis to produce product profiles are described. How this sensory information is linked with quantitative market research data from international countries using preference mapping techniques is explained. Case histories from the confectionery, fuel and flavour industries demonstrating the success of these techniques in overcoming the problems are shown. The fuel study covered the following countries: Chile, Malaysia, Hong Kong, France and UK, and looked at rationalising the odour of a particular brand of diesel fuel. The confectionery study was conducted in France, Germany and UK, and was required to rationalise the flavour and texture of a major brand of chocolate. The flavour project looked at the optimisation of a European brand of toothpaste and the study covered Spain, France, Germany and UK
The lack of entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour on the part of both suppliers and buyers is identified in various quarters as the central cause of the gap between client needs and the service provided in the research market. In order to bridge this gap, a holistic procedure is needed which will necessitate three broad areas of change from institutional and corporate researchers and, in doing so, form the basis of "relationship research": firstly, a change in their attitude towards their own role in marketing processes; secondly, the modernization of the different types of organization to make them more flexible and adaptable and, thirdly, the changes in user behaviour must be taken into account when empirical research is carried out.
Today the kinds of projects undertaken by research managers are no longer confined to traditional types of research. There are projects bringing together cross-functional teams and consumers to brainstorm ideas or to solve problems; there are specialist modelling requirements, scenario planning projects, commercial objectives which may offer more highly targeted consumer benefits than conventional ATL or BTL support. There is a need to decode the involuntary messages in our corporate communications as well as the voluntary, and to target our consumers in ever more accurate ways. To some, no doubt, this catalogue may seem odd, or even anxious. But to those of you in marketing roles, or who occupy similar positions to my own, it will no doubt be an increasingly familiar range of activities aimed at meeting a variety of new business challenges. New "specialist" suppliers are emerging around the edges of the market research industry who have different skills, and therefore offer a parallax view. In some cases, these specialists may not even see themselves as market researchers. They may be from the academic world, or experts in a particular area of technology. They may be management consultants who turn team building skills to problem solving. The key point, however, is that the cosy partnership between marketing and market research appears to be fragmenting. There is a recognition that research techniques developed for different marketing climates may not always be appropriate for situations we are facing today. The challenge is not just that of speed or scale. The challenge is to achieve quantum leaps and to find breakthrough solutions.
Experience in past and on-going scenario projects confirms our strong belief that the only way to provide real value to client organizations is to involve key managers in the project as early as possible. This not only enhances learning, but it also helps those who must live with the consequences of subsequent decisions to fully understand the rationale behind such initiatives. Therefore, the implementation of the Scenario Planning process is designed around the following tenets: enabling, as well as relieving, the client (i.e. with you, as well as for you). Interactive co-production with client managers, workshop-oriented learning, selective use of experts external to both the client firm and SMG.