The T word (transformation) is actually creating a barrier to change. It makes it sound like it's a big, scary, finite task. The reality is the way we live, play and interact in the world is changing and so the way we work and interact with each other at work needs to change too. I will share through my own personal examples how I shifted a multi-billion dollar organization's insights vision, purpose, behavior, tools and processes to move from resistance to change and love for 'Best in class' to embracing change and experimentation.
The Great Communication Experiment is a pilot project carried out by Coca-Cola with Keen as Mustard Marketing to find out how to improve internal communications for the insights team. In particular, the study looked at how to influence broader stakeholders within the business, those who are not directly involved in insight projects but who would benefit from the knowledge in their research and insights.
The premise of this paper is that the use of a single qualitative research methodology - especially one which searches for understanding and insights away from the context in which behaviour is taking place - can result in misleading recommendations and is therefore professionally irresponsible. The paper will argue that the nature of the window through which human behaviour can be interpreted differs depending on which methodology is used.
At the end of 1993, Audipress, the Italian national readership institute, launched an experimental survey which, in addition to the main focus of the survey, readership habits, also examined general buying habits. The results have been available since the end of 1995 and were presented to users and advertising agencies in the spring of this year. This is the first official media-product based survey in Italy, and analysis of the results have indicated two important opportunities: - An improved awareness of print media in general, through a more detailed profile of readers, confirmation that big readers are also big and qualified consumers; - the possibility of new approaches to planning - thanks to a precise definition of the relationship between the reader and his behaviour with respect to products, the definition of more clearly focused targets for marketing objectives is possible.
An experimental study on attitudes towards time and on the behavioural implications of such attitudes was conducted on 46 staff members of an Italian bank. The methods used were a Semantic Differential (SD) composed of three stimulus words (the past, the present and the future) and twelve adjectival scales, as well as in depth interviews aiming at providing a character-profile of the subjects. The results indicated that the largest grouping of subjects could be considered past-oriented. The second group fell into the category of future-oriented and the third group was made up by present-oriented individuals. For a minority, time dimensions were blurred and no specific orientation prevailed. Other SD measurements permitted to obtain a more articulate picture of the nature of attitudes toward time.
The purpose of this contribution to our seminar on modelling is to make two points: 1. There is usually little point in modelling something if we do not know what it is; 2. Developing the required empirically-based generalisations in marketing is both possible and essential. To illustrate, we summarise an experimental study on pricing carried out in the UK in 1986. Our aim was to establish whether the sales response to a given price change would generalise.
The purpose of our paper is to evaluate the application potential of experimental research, especially experimental field research, from the viewpoint of marketing decision making. On the one hand we try to demonstrate extensively some general and feasible application issues. On the other hand, to illustrate the possibilities and problems of experimental research, we utilize as a case an experimental field study done in Finland. We classify the area of experimental research and point out some critical features as well as exemplary characterisations of field experiments, especially concerning organisations as experimental units. After presenting some possible experimental targets we go through the process of experimental reach pointing out both positive and negative aspects of our case study. In chapter 3 we illustrate by our case study the nature of experimental results and how the results can be exploited. Finally, we shortly evaluate experimental field study on the basis of the case study and characterize the future of experimental field study. The objective of this paper is to show in rather detailed manner the efficiency and practicability but also weaknesses of experimental field research.
All designing a controlled experiment should begin with the design of the ideal experiment. If the ideal experiment cannot be executed because of financial, factual, moral, or legal obstacles, we should make a systematic effort to save the controlled character of the experiment by redesigning its objectionable features. As a rule, the redesigned experiment will be less powerful than the ideal one, and we must then decide whether we want to live with that loss or move to quasi-experimental designs. The review in this paper of redesign strategies that have saved controlled experiments in the past should help us to be prepared and inventive the next time our ideal experimental design runs into a roadblock.
This paper emphasises methodology and subject matter. The latter serves to illustrate the former. The paper discusses an investigative assignment from the German Federal Ministry of Commerce which, in order to stimulate the rate of economic growth, proposed a campaign that would encourage people to set up their own businesses. We were to develop an instrument that could identify the groups of people who would perhaps like to become self-employed. Next we were to determine which media could best be used to reach those groups.
This paper emphasises methodology and subject matter. The latter serves to illustrate the former. The paper discusses an investigative assignment from the German Federal Ministry of Commerce which, in order to stimulate the rate of economic growth, proposed a campaign that would encourage people to set up their own businesses. We were to develop an instrument that could identify the groups of people who would perhaps like to become self-employed. Next we were to determine which media could best be used to reach those groups.
This paper is concerned with a study commissioned by a local authority in London to check reactions of residents to a scheme by which traffic re-routing eased congestion on most roads at the inevitable expense of increased congestion on some. Pressure groups, mainly representing the residents adversely affected, had presented evidence of opposition at a higher degree of intensity than that shown by a representative sample. The paper continues with a discussion of the dangers of "amateur" research which does not used those aware of research procedures and problems. But it stresses, too, the fundamental dilemma of a survey concerned with an issue on which (unlike most of those in market research) everybody is involved whether or not they are aware of it. To inform the ignorant in the sample makes them no longer representative of the relevant universe. An experimental survey is described in which, before answering certain questions, respondents were given the opportunity to study in great detail the reasons behind the scheme under study. Results would appear to indicate that such a technique creates more problems than it solves. In conclusion, a plea is made for more continuous research in local government. A problem can then be studied at all stages rather than simply at a single point in time.