The growth of cross-disciplinary practices will aid the convergence of consumer research and market research impacted by the trends all being pushed forward by networking. As decision-making gets pushed down and out into critical regions/businesses, so will go research and planning responsibilities take on more urgency and require more production. This can only come from a re-definition of teams (virtual) and the emergence of new research and decision support role models.
The computer age has dramatically changed the way we communicate, exchange information, and conduct commerce. Much the same way the telephone connectedâ people around the world, the computer and the Internet will wire the world. However, computer ownership and Internet access have widened the divide between haves and have-nots. This well-researched divide does not solely exist based on socioeconomic determinants, but also on generational and cultural factors. Utilizing Cultural Access Group's Language Segmentation scheme, this paper addresses the issues described above and provides profiles of different Hispanic market segments, not only in terms of wired versus non-wired Hispanic households, but also acculturation, socio-demographics, and technology usage. Findings will help marketers and advertisers as well as social researchers better understand and access the growing U.S. Hispanic market segment.
There is currently unprecedented attention being focussed on car retailing and distribution. The speed of growth of the Internet retailing phenomenon has caught most traditional retailers ânappingâ and in the main they have been forced out of panic rather than as a result of careful planning, to prematurely introduce E-based schemes which are often unfit for the market Within the automotive sector the growth of the Internet poses a massive new threat to the franchised dealership system. In the UK, banks, credit card companies and supermarkets have all recently been reported as having advanced plans to move in this direction. It is interesting to compare the disdain with which the oil companies treated the supermarkets when they started petrol retailing and they now have 25% of the market! In the past two months the following are some of the organisations that have announced they are looking into car retailing.
The development of international trade as we have come to know it today has been the climax of many centuries of change. It first evolved slowly, from the early bartering and transfer of flints and metals between local communities. Over time, the geography gradually widened and from the Roman Empire to the seventeenth century an international coinage system was developed. The Commercial Revolution of the seventeenth century led a transformation to the sophisticated world trade networks that we know today, with the global economy dominated by multi-national corporations and the world of stocks and shares. I argue that we are now seeing the first signs of a new revolution in world trade which will not only change the way in which we trade, but will fundamentally alter the way in which we communicate with each other outside of the work environment. This is the TRUE impact: of the e-business revolution.
What belter way to explore new marketing and market research issues such as these than to be given the opportunity to examine recent ESOMAR papers on the subject? I trust I have managed to select a number that you will find both informative and helpful.
It is a complex, tangled and now seemingly somewhat fragile web that we have woven. The online population is now around 260 million people, just over 40% in the US. We are probably headed for 300 million this year. It has at least doubled since the first ESOMAR online research conference two years ago- There are now over one billion web pages on the Internet on 5 million unique servers - 86% in English. Yet, 70% of traffic goes to less than 5 sites and we are blind to most of what is out there as the best search engines only account for about 16% of coverage.
Hewlett-Packardâs award-winning advertising campaign shows a car breaking down and an onboard computer automatically rescheduling flights, updating hotel bookings, calling home, calling a breakdown truck and a relief hire-car- all in one transaction. Another advertising feature describes a "a thirsty Finnâ who âpoints his mobile phone at the drinks dispenser and a bottle of the real thing drops out just as its price pops up on his phone bill. Meanwhile Swedish car drivers, understandably unwilling to wind down the window on a freezing day, use their phones to instruct the car wash about which program they want. The charge then appears among their monthly phone call".
More than seventy-three million European households receive satellite TV two million in digital. However development is not consistent and there are marked variations by country. Digital broadcasting is adding an additional complexity to television markets already undergoing rapid change a phenomenon which market research institutes are obliged to address. This paper discusses two related issues: first the current configuration of television reception modes in Europe and how these are likely to change over the next decade; and secondly Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) ASTRAâs research experience in twenty-two countries methodologies employed and the challenges technology poses for the future.
The development of international trade as we have come to know it today has been the climax of many centuries of change. I argue that we now stand on the brink of a new revolution in world trade that will fundamentally after the way in which we live. Evidence for the e-commerce revolution comes from a number of sources. The majority of Western European companies are connected to the Internet and those that are not are earning on-line fast. Sophisticated commercial applications are more and more common-place on the Internet. Electronic order-taking and revenues generated from the Internet are set to take-off and European directors predict that their operations will have greater presence on the internet in future. Those very people who are responsible for leading the e-commerce revolution believe in it.
More than seventy-three million European households receive satellite TV, two million in digital. However development is not consistent and there are marked variations by country. Digital broadcasting is adding an additional complexity to television markets already undergoing rapid change, a phenomenon which market research institutes are obliged to address. This paper discusses two related issues: first, the current configuration of television reception modes in Europe and how these are likely to change over the next decade; and secondly, Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES) ASTRA's research experience in twenty-two countries, methodologies employed and the challenges technology poses for the future.
The paper describes the issues associated with researching the market potential for Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), a concept that was, at the time, largely unknown to most of the public. The work was sponsored by organisations with a wide range of objectives and posed a number of challenges, not least of which was how to communicate the concept to respondents. The approach that was adopted was to use a carefully structured questionnaire that introduced the various features of DAB in stages, identifying their importance to the respondent, interest in acquiring a DAB radio for the car or home and the perceived price premium. The survey provides a rich source of data that identifies: the demographic groups that are most interested in DAB; the key features that are likely to be of most importance (the key âdriversâ for DAB); and the extent to which a common marketing strategy can be applied across Europe and where between-country differences require distinct Marketing approaches.
The arrival of digital radio systems via cable and satellite at home in the living room will now be followed by the digital âeverywhere radioâ technology already knocking at the door: Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) to be received with a small aerial rod aerial. Besides excellent transmission quality, new radio programmes and additional data services displayed on a screen will expand existing radio broadcasting by new multimedia forms of mass communication. The DAB system will actually be launched at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in August 1997 in Berlin.