The first part of this session will focus on Data Privacy Updates in the region, why is this so important right now and how ESOMAR can help you! Get ready for a bulk of great tips and practical recommendations from our Government Affairs & Professional Standards Team.
Research - more than any other discipline - provides objective insight into the domain-specific dynamics of business, that it reduces uncertainty, helps to solve marketing problems, and makes a contribution to improving effectiveness and performance. Or that it helps to anticipate, or even explore the near future. Greater emphasis is now being given to accountability and demonstrating the real added value of market research. We witness a stronger emphasis on the speed of work and enormous growth in online and other possibilities for collecting real-time passive data. In addition to more do-it-yourself research, a range of small-scale techniques such as observational research has become much more popular. It can even sometimes appear that these approaches and their visible outcomes are better received and more accessible than those of the more abstract classical research tools. Whatever the case may be, every definition of marketing will normally contain the concept of being centred on satisfying needs. Only by focusing on needs can individual and organisational objectives be achieved. With this as our point of departure, we question the extent to which market research satisfies the needs of marketers. Are they satisfied? What other information sources do they use? What should be different? We make an initial exploration of this subject in this issue of Research World.
Some contend that the market research industry has missed out on opportunities in the last few decades but is this true? They point for example, at the possibilities of data mining or those offered by the internet. Whatever the case, it is apparent that the growth of the industry will remain relatively modest and that profit margins will not exceed a few percent for years to come. Renewal in marker research is often provided by newcomers and outsiders, as in other industry sectors. Of course, change is also driven by businessmen who have a major influence on working methods through effecting mergers and acquisitions and by streamlining operations to increase efficiency and effectiveness. In the period to come, we will explore the boundaries of current market research and in doing so, aim to shed light on the dynamics of change and the emergence of new and promising approaches. We begin with this edition of Research World by asking several key questions including what will be the impact of more entrepreneurial behaviour and to what extent will industry insiders or new entrants determine how the game is played. What is certain is that technological developments and convergence are creating numerous opportunities. Advances in software will also play an influential role. Perhaps Marketing Productivity Analysis" is also acquiring new powerful impulses: a change in the image of market research is highly dependent on more attention being paid to accountability and the application of analytical concepts, measurements and metrics in order to show the actual contributions that marker research makes, crystal clear.
Accountability is here and the quest for objective truth is gaining strength. But then in this post post-modern age it might be a long time waiting to be found. In the meantime market research contributes a great deal to illuminate consumers and companies unique truths in all their similarities and differences from around the globe.
Since 1996 the global interactive media industry has been striving to demonstrate accountability. Similarly in 1930 print media advertisers began to insist on independent measurement of circulation. They were also working on early versions of research into readership. The same was true later for radio, TV, exhibitions and ambient media. The fundamental difference for interactive media was the opportunity to start the process globally. This was never and is still not the case for any other medium. Different measurement providers around the world (and competing companies in the same country) still use different definitions for a paid copy of a newspaper, for example. This paper discusses the two ways that website traffic can be measured as well as various methodologies that are used to analyse server based traffic data. Case studies are provided.
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.
This paper sets out to: Compare the published radio audience figures for a wide range of countries in Western Europe, as generated by their national audience measurement systems. Look for any systematic differences in the figures being reported by diary-based and 24-hour recall systems respectively. Examine evidence of the reliability (or otherwise) of these two conventional techniques for measuring radio audiences - not least what happens to figures when methodological changes are introduced. Report the professional opinions of the public broadcaster research community of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two techniques. Examine empirical evidence of the validity and reliability of radio audience measurement systems. Argue for more debate within the research community towards a consensus on preferred technical procedures for radio audience measurement - separately for 24-hour recall on the one hand and the 7-day self-completion diary on the other. Demonstrate the pay-off of such initiatives in terms of the value of more robust radio audience figures, to meet the needs both of senior broadcasting management for basic measures of public accountability and of the advertising community.
Generally speaking, advertisers are not very interested in media research as such. Of late, accountability of advertising expenditures has become a key topic. The popularity of the advertising effectiveness awards is growing, but the focus of the award criteria is still mainly on creative performance of campaigns while the contribution of the media plan to the overall advertising effect plays a minor role, if any. Syndicated media research such as S.U.M.M.O. (the Dutch National Readership Survey), is providing reach and frequency data for media planning, i.e. estimating the efficiency of media in reaching different target groups. How can we show that the efficiency data from a syndicated survey can contribute to a greater effectiveness of a particular advertising campaign? This question has been sought to be answered by the model for effectiveness research developed by S.U.M.- M.O. and Inter/View. This model, combining the measurement of readership and effectiveness in one study, has been tested and proved a promising track. Three case studies are reported to support this conclusion.
The paper is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the factors which will lead advertisers in general, and one advertiser specifically into complementary data sources to the traditional data banks preferred by marketers, or those preferred by the broadcast media. The goal will be to significantly improve target group identification and the evaluation and selection of media. The second part presents the information concept, "Unity of Data", from an integrated data source, which enables advertisers to identify markets and consumers in terms of media habits. A specific category will be presented to demonstrate the complete process. The presenter will also establish the close relationship of this data source to the traditional services employed by advertisers and media. It is not the intent to replace these services which best meet the demands and interests of their respective constituents. The concept of "Unity of Data" is seen as a marketing enhancement to make advertising more accountable.
Advertisers desire accountability for their media expenditures. Information Resources Inc. (IRI) findings and other studies highlight that a critical variable in explaining sales is prior brand purchase. Secondly, reaching more of the brand target tended -to generate sales increases. This paper reviews an analytic approach that attempts to integrate these two hypotheses. It does this by analyzing the potential effect of incremental brand reach and its contribution to sales. The method is to calculate reach and frequency of specific brand network TV schedules in terms of how well they reach brand users vs. non-users. The reach difference between them is Incremental Reach. Incremental reach is used to analyze how well a schedule is targeted and its estimated contribution to sales. Targeting users directly, rather than using surrogate age and sex demographics, can lead to significant increases in incremental reach and incremental sales.
Advertising research has always had two objectives: First, to help the creative person sharpen and improve the execution of strategic positioning and ideas. To help him push his imagination as far as the understanding of the consumer will permit. Second, to provide assurance to the advertiser that the advertising will work. To help the advertiser reduce the risk of his investment. In our pre-test work we often investigate these objectives by representing multi-country samples supplied by the international network of BUY(c)TEST affiliated institutes. The personal presentation will illustrate such research designs with special emphasis on how we obtain cross-cultural confirmation, evaluation and diagnostic insight. For a short introduction to the methodology and model of the BUY(c)TEST system we refer you to the description in the appendix.
Government regulations make it mandatory for all companies to publish their financial data on a periodic basis. Again presentation of the financial data have to conform to certain accounting standards and be approved by the certified public accountants. Preparation and presentation of financial data is necessary not only to satisfy the Government regulations but also serves as a valuable document for the Management and share-holders. While many companies do have an automated or semi-automated financial consolidation system, we observe that there are many companies still carrying out such exercise manually.