The news media has adapted extremely well to evolving technology to become even more engaging and relevant in peoples' lives. What can we learn from this to increase our impact and relevance as qualitative researchers?
New media have been widely credited with providing a forum for young people to voice their opinions. To understand why the new media are such a powerful draw, we conducted a mixed-method study among youth in seven media markets. The methodology was replicated with little to no adaptation across selected countries. The study employed a suite of research methods from a large-scale national survey to expert interviews, focus groups, and ethnographic observations. While the new media did not turn youth into political activists overnight, they did make them more responsive to the world around them, and in times of crisis, more politically or socially active. The study served as a useful background for 'situating' findings from follow up digital research in selected countries.
Social networks are more than a trendy feature or a passing phenomenon but may well change human experience in all respects. How social networks are changing the relationship between brands and consumers, and how prepared brands are to face the forthcoming challenge is addressed in this presentation. Consumers now experience a level of power that goes far beyond that experienced in the past. Social networks highlight that consumers own brands. Brand's behavior in social media is reviewed with experience-based empirical research for new media focused social networks.
What do you do if you are a leader who wakes up one day and sees that the world has changed? Brick and mortar brands across developing markets are waking up to this reality. Some are falling by the way while others reinvent themselves. This paper looks at how market research can be used to tap the online world to help clients understand the emerging digital medium, discovering insights based on the digital idiom that help clients speak to consumers in their own language.
Market research is at risk of becoming irrelevant. The professional discipline is at a crossroads during a turbulent, global economic shift. This is adding extreme pressure for market research to prove its worth. Marketing also is evolving and the pace is more pronounced by the evolution in new media. Market research is highly dependent on the very functions of the businesses from which it has evolved and for which it now provides insights. It is interdependent and must grow and evolve to remain relevant.
This presentation comprises a case study of the usage of Web 2.0 technology channels to conduct marketing research to guide creation of a public service campaign directed at teens in the United States. Three years of qualitative research informed the campaign at every step in the process from initiation through launch and beyond. The research included both elements of old (in-person, in-home research) and new (video blogging, text messaging journals and surveys of social media pages).
Last month, the United States elected the first African American ever to the office of President. He was not elected because of his race, but because he ran a campaign that was so disciplined, broad and deep that it touched the culture, emotions and context of people's lives in a way that had not been seen since FDR. âBrand Obamaâ was perhaps that best executed campaign that we have seen in the last half century. Period. Its architecture, messaging, imagery and sheer reach, using both traditional and new media, was breathtaking. Its ability to energise people and to call them to action was the dream of any Madison Avenue executive. Across the articles in this issue, you will find clarion calls for innovation and imagination in the way that we approach understanding consumers and citizens in these unsettled times.
What kind of research is suitable for collecting real insights about media usage in the changing media world? The 'Day in the Life' approach is helpful to track communication behaviour in the daily life of media users. A consumer centric perspective also ensures the measurement of the situational context and the usage of non-traditional media such as internet, mobile media, word of mouth and social networking. Results from a recent German Day in the Life-study are presented and the relevance for media planning and marketing decision making will be pointed out. Methodological issues concerning diary research are also discussed.
Everybody is talking about us could well be the song for new media! With explosion of new media options notably online media there has been a general feeling of optimism and opportunism when one looks at the concept of new media. But decisions have been plagued with anxiety, insecurity and helplessness. Even if one acknowledges the relevance of new media beyond just critical mass, one is confounded by the relative lack of control and the correspondingly increasing power the consumer is wielding when it comes to engaging with the new media.Synovate decided that the only way to make meaning out of all this was to go ahead and actually conduct a study to understand consumer's motivations in engaging with all media old/established to new/recent media. The motivational framework of Censydiam was used effectively to help plot the United Kingdom as representative of the Western market and Singapore first and then Thailand as representative of the emerging Asian markets. The experiment is ongoing and in the future we will have many more markets to plot on the media landscape and derive more insights.
The media landscape is constantly evolving and increasing in complexity: fragmentation of traditional media and growing influence of new media means that car manufacturers are paying more attention to non-traditional contact points such as events or dealerships in order to communicate effectively.The automotive sector has become increasingly fragmented, but the amount of spend/model has decreased at the same time. Considering the increasing number of models per vehicle segment and the strong competition (i.e.) car manufacturers addressing the lower segment with three different models, for instance; car manufacturers are compelled to fine tune their communication strategy not only by model but also by consumer category.
All sorts of consumer-generated media have come into being in the last couple of years, including blogs, forums, podcasts, online social networks and communities. Here, we are talking about a collective name that is applied to different forms of digital communications whereby millions of consumers openly share their opinions and experiences, often about their reactions to products and services, sometimes providing very valuable insights. Some companies try to give this platform a key role and even refer to co-creation and co-production. Tests are also being conducted with narrowcasting. And experiments with infrared sensors are being carried out on the shop floor, in the search for in-store metrics. Is the market research industry, just like the communications industry, continuing in its search for up-to-date respondent-generated input? And will this give rise to new and innovative activities? How do we deal with the fascinating opportunities of digital connection and interactivity? We take a first look at developments in this issue of Research World.