This paper examines the role of research in the process of adapting international publishing products to local markets. In this specific case the goal was to adapt a computer magazine that had been successfully launched in Germany to the Spanish market. This paper describes how research contributed to the process. We employed an exhaustive ad hoc research process that combined qualitative and quantitative techniques to reinforce the TRUE and differential essence of the offering and to uncover the attributes most appreciated by consumers. The positive results drawn by the first issues of the magazine support the work performed.
This paper assesses the state of business intelligence and competitive intelligence in Mexico and Latin America and assesses historical and cultural factors that must be addressed specifically in this geographical area.
This paper compares and contrasts consumer usage patterns of the Internet and traditional media across the top fifty markets in the United States. While interest in the Internet is high, most surveys describe the Internet user in general terms. This paper uses a local market database source to examine the differences in Internet access and usage across the varied local markets which comprise the United States, and shows that Internet users concentrate in larger markets where higher income and higher education consumers live, and also in smaller markets with significant high-technology economic, academic and industrial activity.
Recently there has been a great deal of discussion concerning the opposition between local brands associated with specific cultures and global brands destroyers of differences coming to dominate the world. This paper wishes to demonstrate that behind global brands are hidden the most cultural and emotional brands which exist. These brands have achieved their success by respecting all the cultural dimensions. If they continue to be operate effectively it is because of their anchorage in a very cultural existence. Giving an international dimension to a brand certainly means giving it a very clear identity which will make it well-known throughout the world and it also means making the brand itself very accessible so that it touches people emotionally.
The paper deals with the Indian experience of supermarkets unable to significantly impact on the retail structure, and the simultaneous growth of the small independent retailer, especially in fast moving consumer goods. It attempts to hypothesize the reasons for this phenomenon which is contrary to the trend experienced in the developed markets.
Please allow us to interrupt the stable course this ESOMAR seminar has taken so far. We have not set ourselves the task of presenting you with the most advanced technologies in marketing research, neither do we intend to stun you with sophisticated attitudes to brand building. Instead we simply wish to provide an optimistic report from places, which, until not so long ago, were still very well hidden behind one famous Berlin wall. Our report claims that the theory of brand building works also in ex- Communist States! Furthermore, in the same way as in the West, it holds TRUE that no theory can be successful until it has been applied to talented and bold enterprising activities. We (myself and Tomas Tereba, co-owner of the Czech company TOMA) are very glad to have the opportunity to present to you such a success story. It is a history of a local soft drinks brand, TOMA, which has, step-by-step, gained the third position on an extremely competitive Czech soft drinks market.
Since April 1994 the Bundesverband Deutscher Anzeigenblatter (BVDA) and its member publishers have been pursuing their concept of systematic readership research for editorial and advertising marketing. On the basis of research standards, set up by the Zentralverband der Werbewirtschafit (ZAW) and the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Mediaanalyse (AG.MA), the BVDA has developed a standard model for local reach analyses. The aim of this initiative is to provide more openness and a better planning basis for the advertisers in the local market. Furthermore, it will enable the advertisers to compare the profitability of ffee-sheets with that of local competitors especially with the daily regional newspapers. These analyses also allow to check the editorial competence and acceptance of free-sheets in order to put the strategic decisions of the publishers on a sound basis and to reveal deficiencies. It is TRUE the use of media in Germany has become much more selective due to the increasing information supply and the grown variety of media. But despite or exactly because of these changes local topics related to terms like shopping, leisure-time and local events and incidents are of great interest to the population. Free-sheets put their editorial focus exactly on these local service information and even give them a "human touch". They complete the general local information supply of the regional daily papers and the local radio stations with a weekly overview.This is confirmed by the results of the analyses. Generally more than 60% of the German population read an average issue of a local free-sheet. Despite partly great regional differences in mentality there is a great correspondence in the use of free-sheets. Beside information about important events and incidents in their local area the readers mention their interest in ads of retailers and service trade. In the media landscape of Germany free-sheets are the only mass medium which is read not only because of the editorial information but also particularly because the local ads are of great interest to the consumer.
The placement of international radio programs on local frequencies, or rebroadcasting, is a growing phenomenon in the countries of the former Soviet Union. International broadcasters have hoped to stem the loss of listeners on shortwave frequencies and at the same time inherit new listeners from the local partner stations' audiences. While a certain amount of audience growth has taken place with rebroadcasting, it has not been clear why some rebroadcasting arrangements have been more successful than others and whether international broadcasters will be able to retain these new listeners. Over the last few years, the Media and Opinion Research department of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Research Institute (the predecessor to the Audience and Opinion Research department of the Open Media Research Institute) has carried out a two-tiered strategy combining city surveys and focus groups to study the many new questions posed by rebroadcasting, specifically as they concern RFE/RL. The research has revealed that rebroadcasting is not automatically beneficial. Arrangements vary and have greatly differing impacts on the international broadcaster's ability to retain its essential identity. If not handled properly, the rebroadcasting arrangement can be detrimental to both rebroadcasting partners. However, new listeners can be gained and retained if the right conditions of placement, scheduling and partner compatibility are met. This paper will discuss some of the important issues that rebroadcasting poses for international broadcasters and then examine the results from quantitative and qualitative studies in several cities in the former Soviet Union where Radio Liberty has entered into different rebroadcast arrangements.
The paper considers the issues of global branding and its relationship with local marketing with particular reference to food and drink markets. We also consider whether a global brand really requires a totally global specification. We also argue that international marketing demands approaches which can provide practical information in terms of data collection and presentation. By way of illustration we refer to research conducted on behalf of Fisherman's Friend a brand marketed in over 80 countries worldwide. The approach is based on a market model and systems originally developed by Len Marchant and Peter Hutchinson of Marcos, and marketed internationally to adopt a truly holistic approach to developing and managing successful brands demands a viable understanding of how markets work. This means that it is necessary to get below the observed behaviour of the purchasers to the underlying physics, if we may use the word, of the dynamic systems which we call markets. The Marcos consumer choice model, based essentially on the assumption that purchasers choose the brands which suit them best at the time, fits real markets accurately and consistently. It tells us why those brands which have a clearly defined meaning and a relevant relationship with the consumer are best positioned for success and what other elements are necessary.
As a result of the combination of the "Culture of the Jars" and the mechanism of transferring of state funds to the private sector there were: - impossible food prices, but the people feed themselves - solvent demand in goods for long-term use - political and social passiveness of the population - extraordinary tranquillity That is also the reason why in the eyes of many foreigners, Bulgaria looks like the "Sleepyhead of the Balkans", like an incredible country. The sacrifice and the self-sacrifice of a whole generation (the older people) is one of the major reason for this. And so 0 the economic reforms are not coming, there is no large-scale privatisation, the employment rate skyrockets, the state enterprises stop operation one after the other, the buying power of the salaries decreases in times and there is no reaction to all that. For example, You would like to buy a losing enterprise or not functioning at all. As the enterprise is state, You address Your offer to the relevant state department. You make a very good mutual advantageous offer. Nobody else wants to buy this enterprise. It doesn't mean, however, that You are going to accomplish a deal. In most of the cases an enterprise of that kind is part of someone's scheme of transferring budget funds to his private firm. The person (or persons) empowered politically to hold themselves in this situation have enough power to send your offer in the dust- bin. In short Your "mutual advantageous" offer is not properly addressed to those who really own the enterprise and make profit out of it.
The paper aims at providing an overview of the results of the transformation process after five years, with the emphasis on failures rather than on achievements. The bias is deliberate, aiming at better exposing problems and resulting policy challenges currently confronted by the transition countries. The analysis is limited to six central European transition countries, chiefly because both their history and recent economic performance have been shaped by broadly similar factors, in contrast to the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia. Expectations raised by the collapse of communism are briefly summarized in section 2 and are followed in section 3 by a discussion of main outcomes of the transformation process. Section 4 concludes.