THE DE-GLOBALISATION OF MARKET RESEARCH BURNT …mobile and multi-platform environment is chal-lenging. The industry needs trusted, undupli-cated measurement that accurately captures

ASIA’S MARKET RESEARCH AND CONSUMER INSIGHTS MAGAZINE

THE DE-GLOBALISATION OF MARKET RESEARCH

BURNT FINGERS

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ISSUE 47, QUARTER 2, 2017www.asia-research.net

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CONTENTS

BRIEFS

5 News: In case you missed it

7 MRMW Awards

FEATURED

9 Burnt fingers

11 Employer image of the ‘Big 4’ agencies

12 What employees in market research seek from their line managers

13 Is predictive modelling improved by looking at both desire and regret?

15 Calling full time on non-mobile research

17 Using video to reinvigorate the open question

19 AI chatbot puts consumer insights in your pocket

20 5 tips for better consumer insights

21 Breaking habits

EVENT REVIEWS

22 Asia Research Kuala Lumpur Breakfast Seminar

25 WHAT conference

PEOPLE SECTION

26 On the move

Follow @asia_research Connect with Asia Research Magazine

www.asia-research.net4 ASIA RESEARCH | Q2 2017

Dear readers,

Welcome to the Q2 edition of Asia Research, 2017.

The recent closure of Flamingo’s Asian offices, along with all their other international offices, brings into question the appetite of market research firms to go international. We analyse the possible reasons underlying what could be the ‘de-globalisation’ of market research in our feature “Burnt Fingers” on Page 9.

On a more positive note, we are delighted to provide a report on our inaugural breakfast seminar in Kuala Lumpur, held on 20th April. Featuring four papers from our sponsors, the seminar presented various topics on customer experience (see Page 22).

Other significant market research events were held during April, and we’re pleased to bring you the results of the MRMW Awards for innovation and excellence in market research (Page 7), and a summary of the Netherlands-based WHAT conference, the first ever conference dedicated to behavioural data (Page 25).

Because there was too much to cover from our staff satisfaction survey in the last issue, we have extended coverage of this survey’s findings on the importance of management qualities (Page 12), and included our popular ‘Big 4’ employer image survey (Page 11).

We have an article from BDRC Asia on the challenges of breaking consumer habits (Page 21), with a different approach to understanding consumer happenchance. SKIM provides a very technical article on predictive modeling based on a ‘regret’ model, an alternative to traditional conjoint methods for evaluating consumer choices (Page 13).We also have two articles on mobile research from Join the Dots (Page 15) and SSI (Page 17), both covering usability and respondent interface issues on the increas-ingly important platform of mobile surveys. Finally, Toluna provides a guide on how to navigate the world of big data based on five tips for professionals to obtain better insights (Page 20).

Diana SartikaEditor and [email protected]

Claudia Siregar-HauensteinContent Strategist and [email protected]

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EDITORIAL

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Join the DotsContact: Karen Schofield Tel: +65 3157 9338 Email: [email protected] Web: www.jointhedotsmr.com

MRDCContact: Phil Hearn Tel: +66 (0) 38 376847, 416865-66 Email: [email protected] Web: www.mrdcsoftware.com

QPAContact: Sandra van Hellemond Tel: +62 812 94090373 Email: [email protected] Web: www.qpavenues.com

Resources GroupContact: Rowan Haylett Tel: +61 2 9258 1121 Email: [email protected] Web: www.resourcesgroup.com

SKIMContact: Robin de Rooij Tel: +65 6597 0957 Email: [email protected] Web: www.skimgroup.com

SSIContact: Oleg Safine Tel: +61 (0)2 8020 2600 Email: [email protected] Web: www.surveysampling.com

TolunaContact: Christine Tan Tel: +65 9184 8455 Email: [email protected] Web: www.toluna-group.com


NEWS: IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

TOP HEADLINES

IPSOS EXPANDS SYNDICATED GLOBAL THERAPY MONITOR PORTFOLIO IN CHINA

Ipsos Healthcare has extended its syndicat-ed Psoriasis and IBD Therapy Monitors into China, where it will also relaunch its Lupus Therapy Monitor.

The new Chinese autoimmune studies, part of Ipsos’ syndicated Global Therapy Monitor portfolio, will incorporate real patient record data with doctors’ perceptions to analyse the current market landscape, market shares, reasons behind treatment trends, and potential impact of products in development. They will complement Ipsos Healthcare’s existing real-world evidence offer in China, which spans oncology, diabetes, cardiovas-cular, respiratory, and virology diseases.

The new monitors come in response to local and multinational companies’ increasing focus on understanding the rapidly evolving treatment landscape across multiple autoim-mune diseases in China. Specifically, they will offer subscribers an in-depth analysis of

the various factors shaping treatment choice in these increasingly complex indications, including drivers for and barriers to the uptake of biologics.

Pieter De Richter, Regional Head of APAC Syndicated at Ipsos Healthcare, comments, “The uptake of biologics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases has been slower in China than in established markets such as the US and Europe. However, the large number of patients suffering from these often debilitating conditions, linked to continu-ous improvements in reimbursement cover and access, present a huge opportunity for pharma companies offering effective and well-tolerated therapies. Furthermore, the dynamic between innovator compounds and biosimilars is particularly important to under-stand in the Chinese market, given the high penetration of local biosimilar brands and the importance of affordability.”

Web: www.ipsos.com ■

MAJOR PROJECT WIN FOR BDRC ASIA

BDRC Asia has won a major banking mystery shopping study plus its first financial services community panel in Indonesia.

Piers Lee, Managing Director of BDRC Asia, commented on the new project win and mentioned that, in designing the study, BDRC Asia wanted to introduce new dimensions to the mystery shopping programme to make the customer experience more tangible to the client.

BDRC Asia will be using an innovative method of mobile data reporting, and voxpops of real customers interviewed after particu-

lar service interactions. The results will be reported through online dashboards and a video library, allowing the client to obtain real-time results and live customer feedback from its vast network of branches through-out Indonesia through centralised portals. The Online Community know-how has been in part imported from the BDRC head office in the UK, where communities have been developed among both mass market and SME banking customers.

Web: www.bdrc-asia.com ■

COMSCORE LAUNCHES MMX MULTI-PLAT-FORM IN INDONESIA

comScore, through the introduction of data from its recently launched mobile consumer panel, has launched MMX Multi-Platform, along with major upgrades to Mobile Metrix in Indonesia. The introduction of Android mobile panel data expands comScore’s mea-surement of mobile audiences in Indonesia to enable more robust reporting of visitation, en-gagement, and demographics, including new segments for age and gender. This develop-ment follows comScore’s appointment as the Online Audience Measurement Partner in Indonesia by the Indonesian Digital Measure-ment Consortium (IDMC) and Bekraf.

“We are committed to bringing robust solutions to Indonesia, and are delighted to announce the introduction of mobile panel data which will enable more granular insights into audiences and their content consumption across smartphones and tablets,” said Joe Nguyen, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific at comScore. “This development marks a key measurement milestone in Indonesia.

Have news to share? Send to [email protected]



We look forward to delivering even more data and insights that media buyers and sellers need, to optimise their digital strategies and better understand the competitive advertising landscape.”

“Audience measurement in today’s evolving mobile and multi-platform environment is chal-lenging. The industry needs trusted, undupli-cated measurement that accurately captures how consumers are engaging with content across devices and platforms, especially mobile as it plays an increasingly important role in our lives,” said Jerry Justianto, Chairman of IDMC. “We fully support comScore in their continued commitment to advancing digital measurement in Indonesia, and delivering innovative, quality solutions to advertisers, agencies and publishers alike.”

comScore’s MMX Multi-Platform and Mobile

Metrix combine data from desktop and mobile consumer panels with data from the comScore census network. This approach provides unduplicated, persons-based mea-surement of total digital reach. Further, comScore measurement continues to evolve to address consumers’ changing behaviours and new technologies. This includes the ability to measure and credit traffic from third-party apps and content distributors such as Facebook Instant Articles and the Google Play Newsstand, to ensure publishers are able to consistently account for their entire digital audience across devices.

Web: www.comscore.com ■

ABSOLUTDATA LAUNCHES AI PLATFORM

Data analytics firm Absolutdata has launched NAVIK AI, a game-changing artificial intelli-gence-driven decision engine that combines data, analytics, and technology to optimise sales and marketing decisions. CEO Dr Anil Kaul says, “The NAVIK AI Platform develops an intelligent, self-learning system that contin-uously learns from your unique business envi-ronment for better decision making.”

The company has also rolled out NAVIK MarketingAI, a tool designed for non-techni-cal marketing staff to personalise offers for maximum results, and NAVIK ConceptAI, a tool that allows for faster concept testing by managers and researchers, and provides decisive Go/No Go results.

The release of this user-friendly product line is especially timely given the global shortage of data scientists which has hampered companies’ attempts to fully embrace AI-en-abled sales, marketing, and brand manage-ment. Thanks to NAVIK AI, companies can now make optimised sales and marketing decisions without having to build a compre-hensive data science team.

The foundation of the NAVIK AI platform is the decision-engineering methodology and human-machine model form, which includes an AI Design Lab with a machine learning library, self-learning model builder, and text mining lab. At its heart is the Decision Engine, with a prediction simulator, decision option generator, and recommender bot that find the actions most likely to yield results.

The platform’s effectiveness has been tested and proven in real-world business scenarios. Dr Kaul says, “Use cases with sales and marketing teams demonstrate that the NAVIK AI Platform is capable of delivering amazing results across industries. What makes it revo-lutionary is that it operates at a higher level to actually improve decision-making.”

Founded in 2001, Absolutdata is based in San Francisco and employs 400 profession-als across offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Singapore, Dubai, and Gurgaon.

Web: www.absolutdata.com ■

TOP HEADLINES


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On 25th April 2017, during the MRMW Conference in Chicago, the winners of the MRMW Awards were unveiled.

The MRMW Awards are a celebration of inno-vation and excellence in the market research industry and aim to recognise the hard work of individuals who have achieved significant breakthroughs in market research.

The panel of judges for the MRMW Awards comprises an international team of expe-rienced market researchers, respected thought leaders, and MRMW Advisory Board members. Jasper Lim, CEO of Merlien Institute, comments: “It is an honour to recognize their achievements. The award winners’ accom-plishments show superior dedication and in-novation in advancing the market research industry.”

“It is both inspiring and encouraging to see that the works of research professionals in Asia are now being recognised at a global level, with such a prestigious industry award,” adds Claudia Siregar, Director of Asia Research, Asia’s leading trade publication for market research and consumer insights.

The 2017 MRMW award winners:

Researcher of the Year (pictured): Jitendra Papneja, Director, Strategic Initiatives, Global Strategic Insights & Analytics, Johnson & Johnson. Papneja was honoured for developing a best-in-class toolkit (including digital and mobile research tools, Facebook and Google tools) for IMC (Integrated Marketing Com-munication), and training 125 colleagues including senior executives around the world.

Research Company of the Year: Borderless Access. The company was recommended for its innovative work done with Unilever over the past 12 months, combining active and passive data collection and integrating mobile social media to reach new target groups.

Best New Technology: GlimpzIt. The company won the award for its platform analysing un-structured data (pictures, videos, and text) using machine learning.

Best Use of Mobile Technology: Antedote. The award was presented to Antedote for leverag-ing Snapchat as a research tool to step into consumers’ lives and identify advertising rules of engagement.

Best Client–Supplier Collaboration: Firefish & Paypal. The two companies were honoured for their global study about the modern perception of money and financial services using expert interviews, digital diaries, and the use of an in-novative, wearable Fish-Eye camera to record personal behaviour. ■

THE WINNERS

MRMW AWARDS

Dushyant Gupta from Borderless Access, Jens Cornelissen from Merlien Institute

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In April 2017, the Flamingo Group, a global insight and strategy agency, announced that it would close all seven of its international offices

on the grounds of “the organization’s inability to reach unspecified revenue goals”. This an-nouncement came after the company recently made new investments in international offices in Jakarta and Tokyo.

A statement from Omnicom (the holding company that acquired Flamingo 10 years ago) stated that the international offices were “under-performing” and the group would “be placing a renewed focus on its presence in London”, the only remaining office.

This drastic decision indicates very serious problems, but ones that can affect many market research companies that try to internationalise. In 2015, Truth, another UK-based research consultancy, also decided to close all its inter-national offices, with a renewed focus on its UK operation. Several years back, Harris Inter-active closed some of its international offices; Australian research firms The Leading Edge and Colmar Brunton also closed their offices in Singapore.

Two related observations here are, first, that the acquirer made a substantial investment in the Flamingo Group, partly because of its interna-tional network at the time (i.e. Singapore and

San Francisco), and then embarked on further international expansion into additional foreign offices. The other observation is that centralisa-tion, specifically in the UK market, is now seen as the solution to underperformance or financial difficulty.

What can we conclude from this?

Certainly centralisation brings some economies of scale, and can bring about more control over operations. With more data collection being conducted online, it is also easier to co-ordinate global fieldwork (e.g. through the global account managers within the panel companies). But in the case of Flamingo and Truth, predominantly qualitative specialists, this has its limitations – the lack of a local presence would then become a liability for international qualitative surveys.

But it is unlikely that the networks themselves represented a liability; an office in Jakarta and Mumbai would be a lot cheaper than any ad-ditional headcount or office space needed in London to serve these markets. There are good examples of cases in which international networks have been a considerable asset for research firms. For example, the international network was very much the value adder for the original AMI Group, and ultimately for the global network under the Synovate brand that was sold for $700 million.

BURNT FINGERSTHE GLOBALISATION OF MARKET RESEARCH SEEMS TO BE ON THE BACK FOOT THESE DAYS

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FEATURED

The international network allows you to service clients in different time zone. More importantly, not having people on the ground within specific markets means that the researcher’s understand-ing of these markets is that much less – a bit of a liability if you are in the business of market research.

Moreover, the international network provides reach to a much wider client pool. Multi-national corporations (MNCs) are actually cutting back on their research spend, whereas some of the fastest growing spenders on research are local corpora-tions and the public sector. While not impossible, it is very hard to win work with local clients with no local office – worse still if there is no presence in the entire region.

So the root causes of the ‘underperformance’ must be in the local proposition itself. In many respects, market research is becoming deglobalised. MNCs are now placing more emphasis on tailoring their products and communications to local markets, by considering local culture, competition, and prices. The MNC market research firms are losing shares to a growing range of boutiques that have a better understanding of these local markets, with more palatable prices to match. They are also better placed to undertake international research for the same reasons (i.e. through the resources of the global panel companies).

But since these companies had local offices, the problems might be in the mismatch of the product proposition. The UK agencies that have undertak-en quite aggressive international expansion in the last 10 years have also been some of the most progressive and innovative. Business strategies were based partly on the company introducing cutting-edge techniques to local markets. The problem is that relatively unsophisticated markets are simply not willing to pay the premiums for ‘advanced’ research, which can sometimes just come across as ‘fluffy research’.

Another common underestimation is the level of competition in the local markets. If a market is viewed as ‘unsophisticated’ then one can draw the incorrect conclusion that it is ‘underdeveloped’ and therefore wide open to business opportunity.

But the decision of Flamingo and Truth to withdraw to the UK could be a sensible one. While there are considerably more market research firms in the UK than in all other markets apart from the US, the UK has by far the highest market research spend as a proportion of GDP than any other country globally. When the demand/supply ratio is x2 or x3 that of international markets, it could be sensible to concentrate on picking the low-er-hanging fruit. ■



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EMPLOYER IMAGE OF THE ‘BIG 4’ AGENCIES

Part of the purpose of the annual Asia Research staff satisfaction survey is to assess the image of the ‘Big 4’ agencies in Asia: Nielsen, TNS, Millward Brown, and Ipsos.

Based on the surveys of 286 research professionals conducted at the end of 2016, of whom 232 were either currently or formerly employees of one of the Big 4 agencies, we undertook analysis of how people view the Big 4 agencies from the standpoint of being an employee.

At an overall level, the strongest association with these companies is that they have ‘interesting and varied projects’, particularly so for TNS and less so for Millward Brown. Over the years, TNS has consistently been viewed as the company that can provide this job variety. All four companies are also quite strongly associated with being ‘innovative and progressive’, but when we examine the views of those who have actually worked for these companies, Millward Brown is ahead of its peer group in this area.

Each of the companies is associated with providing ‘good training’, but in terms of ‘career prospects’ there is a very wide divergence of opinion, with Nielsen being rated very well and Ipsos poorly.

Generally, Nielsen gets better ratings on the other attributes, and Ipsos lags behind its competitors on most attributes.

But for all these companies, the lowest associations are with being ‘fair in dealings with staff’, ‘understanding staff needs’, and being ‘committed to a fair work–life balance’, although Nielsen is seen as doing more than the other companies in ‘providing enough resources’.

In summary, the Big 4 agencies can provide employees with a good start to their careers by exposing researchers to a wide range of projects, backed up with good training and an innovative and progres-

sive company culture. But this does come at a price, which can mean long hours and putting the company’s financial interests over those of its staff.

Opinion varies considerably within each company about career prospects, remuneration, and the ratings of senior management. But despite this, nearly 80% of researchers in the industry would still consider working for one of the Big 4 agencies in the future, with little difference in the propensity to choose between these companies. This indicates that potential employees would judge the individual offices and line managers within these companies on their merits, rather than on the overall image of the company. In this respect, agencies should thoroughly read our Special Report, ‘What employees in market research seek from their line managers’ (next page). ■

% associating company with image attributeHas interesting and varied

projects

Innovative and progressive

Good training

Good career prospects

Good senior management team with strong leadership

Fun working environment

Offers secure employment

Provides enough resources

Offers competitive remuneration

Fair in its dealings with staff

Understands staff needs

Committed to a fair work-life balance

KANTAR TNS Nielsen Ipsos KANTAR Millward BrownHigher average association

Lower average association

Image of Big 4 Agencies based on views of current and past employees of each company (2016 year end)


The annual staff satisfaction survey reported in the Q1 edition of Asia Research highlighted the broader needs of market research staff in relation to what they look for in their line manager, and the

extent to which their manager is delivering on these needs.

We dug a bit deeper to see how the required management qualities vary by type of employee. Most relevant and actionable are the qualities that researchers look for according to the seniority of the line manager. Here we examined the differences in whether someone reports to a CEO/‘group’, an MD/country manager, a director, or a unit manager.

The most important qualities that are universal to all management levels are the ‘honesty/sincerity’ of the line manager, and related to this is their ‘fairness/accountability’ and their setting of ‘realistic targets’. Other factors that are important and expected of all line managers are their ‘cultural understanding’, their ‘experience’, and their ‘work ethic’, including their own ‘reliability’ and ability to uphold ‘discipline within the team’.

However, the qualities that people look for in their line manager differ

in some respects according to the line manager’s seniority. Those reporting to the most senior management (e.g. the CEO) place more importance on their manager having a ‘vision’. Many other attributes are not expected from a CEO (e.g. ‘mentoring’, providing ‘daily solutions’, and helping out by ‘mucking in’), presumably because the person reporting to the CEO does not need mentoring, or has other resources to assist them.

In contrast, those reporting to managers are looking not just for mentoring but for their manager to provide ‘ongoing solutions’ (e.g. helping out if a project is going wrong), while at the same time being ‘fun to work with’.

We also looked at different types of researcher – for example, if they are more qualitative or quantitative. The needs of these two types of researcher are broadly similar, although quallies place more im-portance on their line manager being ‘fun to work with’. A more distinctive group is the researchers who manage a roughly equal proportion of qualitative and quantitative research. A niche group

of just 15% of researchers, they place more importance on their line manager providing ‘day-to-day solutions’, ‘training and mentoring’, and ‘mucking in’ from time to time. It seems that people in this position might be ‘forced’ into a role of multi-tasking and multi-skilling with which they are not entirely comfortable, and therefore need this additional support from their manager.

Finally, we also looked at the needs of female vs male researchers. The results are somewhat influenced by the more senior profile of male researchers compared to females in our sample, and we have already commented on the different needs of those reporting to more senior line managers. However, indicatively, females’ needs are different from males’, tending towards needing more realistic targets and solutions to day-to-day work problems from their manager. They can also be more discerning about their own manager’s ca-pabilities, talent, and expertise, and want more training and mentoring from their line manager. ■

Manager Director MD / Country Man. CEO / Group % stating ‘extremely & very’ important

Honesty / sincerity

Fairness / accountability

Setting realistic targets

Providing a vision

Performance feedback

Cultural understanding

Mentoring

Experience of manager

Work ethic of manager

Flexibility

Reliability, timeliness

Discipline within the team

Understanding of personal needs

Daily solutions

Fun to work with

Willingness to ‘muck in’

Relaxed / laid-back management style

Higher importance

LowerImportance

Manager Director MD / Country Man. CEO / Group % stating ‘extremely & very’ important

Honesty / sincerity

Fairness / accountability

Setting realistic targets

Providing a vision

Performance feedback

Cultural understanding

Mentoring

Experience of manager

Work ethic of manager

Flexibility

Reliability, timeliness

Discipline within the team

Understanding of personal needs

Daily solutions

Fun to work with

Willingness to ‘muck in’

Relaxed / laid-back management style

Higher importance

LowerImportance

Type of qualities looked for in a line manager (analysed by the management level people are reporting to)

SURVEY

WHAT EMPLOYEES IN MARKET RESEARCH SEEK FROM THEIR LINE MANAGERS


As marketers and market researchers, we’re constantly trying to understand consumer behaviour so we can better tailor products and services to their needs. Therefore, a thorough understand-

ing of how people make choices is crucial to beating the competition. Although human decision-making behaviour is highly complex and can be influenced by a wide variety of factors, researchers typically try to simplify consumer preferences and choices. We try to replicate a complex reality using a model that captures the main drivers of choice.

Conjoint analysis is one very effective method for isolating drivers of choice. A product is broken down into its most basic characteristics or elements, allowing researchers to examine how each one affects choice. The Random Utility Model (RUM) is the most commonly used conjoint model, in which consumers select the product that offers them the best value (i.e. utility) based on a combination of product charac-teristics.

An alternative and lesser-known model is Random Regret Modeling (RRM), which assumes that, rather than going for the optimal product, consumers aim to minimise the potential regret of missing out on some product characteristic(s).

Both approaches have their pros and cons, and each is more or less suitable in different market situations. In an effort to improve the pre-dictive validity of conjoint results, SKIM researchers compared and combined the utility model and the regret model by means of a case study and posed the question: would a hybrid model lead to more realistic results?

Limitations of the utility and regret models

The utility model (RUM) is widely used to estimate the preferences for different product characteristics, such as price, brand, size, and so on. It is based on the principle that a consumer chooses one product that has the best combination of characteristics, and this is dependent on which characteristics matter most to them. Chances are, if you’ve ever done a conjoint study, it was conducted using the utility approach.

This model works well, yet it has its limitations. For one, it assumes that choices are based solely on optimising the combination of characteris-tics of the product they select, independent of alternative products that are available on the market. In other words, it does not fully consider the context of the available products on the market.

Regret modeling (RRM) is one way to counteract the limitations of the utility model. The regret model assumes that, instead of choosing the option with the best combination of product characteristics, consumers make choices to avoid the potential regret of missing out on something else that’s available. The regret model assumes that as soon as people make trade-offs, they run the risk of regret. Usually there is at least one non-chosen alternative that outperforms the chosen product on one or more characteristics (e.g. it is cheaper, prettier, or performs better). Hence, the regret model considers external factors surrounding the selected product more accurately than the utility model.

As a simplified example, suppose you go to the cinema and would like to buy some popcorn. Let’s say that there’s a medium box available for $4, and a large box offered for $6. In this case you might choose the medium option. However, if the cinema were also to offer a jumbo option for $10, you might be more likely to choose the large box over the medium one. Even though nothing changed in the price and size of the medium and large boxes, knowing that there is an even larger, more expensive option available can have an impact on your choice

between two other alternatives. It’s easy to imagine the same principles applying when other available products offer benefits different from the options you’re considering, whether it’s about available flavours, flashy pack designs, or any number of other characteristics.

Nevertheless, the regret model also has clear drawbacks. For example, to properly analyse the context of a choice, one must test for different types of context. In the popcorn example, if we want to know the effect of either two or three available products, we need to present choice tasks with both two and three available options. However, if we want to understand the regret effects that might take place with four available options, these options need to be shown explicitly as well. This makes the setup of a regret model a lot more complex than the more commonly used utility model, in which we can predict choice regardless of the number of products available. In practice, this means that the regret model is very difficult to apply to product categories with many available choices.

The hybrid solution

As described, both models have their shortcomings. The question is, which model brings us closest to reality? Do people base their choices more on selecting the optimal combination of product characteristics, or do they choose based on the desire to minimise the risk of regret? What if we combine both methodologies? Would a hybrid model yield results greater than the sum of its parts?

Case study: tablets

To answer this question, researchers at SKIM set up a study in which they examined the choice behaviour of consumers buying tablets. The utility, regret, and hybrid models were applied to this same dataset to determine which model best fits the data and which model has the highest ‘hit rate’ – a measure of predictive accuracy.

SKIMIS PREDICTIVE MODELLING IMPROVED BY LOOKING AT BOTH DESIRE AND REGRET?



1 Hardon, Jeroen and van der Wagt, Kees. “RUM and RRM – Improving the predictive validity of conjoint results?” Paper presented at the Sawtooth Software Con-ference, 2015.

As we reviewed the results of the three different models, we saw that the difference in both data fit and predictive validity between the hybrid model and the utility model was rather small. Only the pure regret model performed less effectively. Moreover, the average correlation across the three methods was 0.95. In other words, none of the models clearly outperformed the others in these terms.

Even though the accuracy of predicting choices was similar, the predicted shares for hypothetical scenarios in simulation models based on each approach were not. A closer look reveals that large differenc-es exist in the predicted shares. In the example scenario below, all three methods predict limited shares for Product 2. However, using the utility model, Product 1 clearly performs better than Product 3. While using the regret model, Product 3 performs better. The hybrid approach predicts that both Products 1 and 3 will perform similarly. Therefore, the same data could potentially lead to different recommendations (Figure: Test Scenario).

The hybrid approach

The result of the hybrid approach has a similar predictive validity to the other two models, but takes into account how some consumers choose to maximise utility, while others choose to avoid regret. The

main advantage of combining both methods is that, without knowing the underlying decision-making tactics of consumers, the results are more actionable. Assuming that both utility maximising and regret minimising are equally likely in a market, the hybrid model is the safest bet because its output is less likely to be skewed to choices in either direction.

In terms of statistical predictive validity, the most often-used utility model still performs well. As a simplified model of complex choice behaviour, it’s still a solidly reliable tool. That said, the utility model is more likely to overestimate the ‘rational’ utility-maximising decision behaviour of consumers, potentially leading to skewed insights. Whenever possible, a hybrid approach is more likely to correctly take into account both utili-ty-maximising and regret-minimising choice behaviour for more reliable predictions of choice. After all, the goal of modeling is to more accurate-ly replicate the complex process of real-world decision making. ■

Study setup:

• >1200 respondents• Six attributes (e.g. RAM, camera quality, and price) of which five are

nominal (with 5, 4, 4, 3, 5, 5 levels)• 15 tasks, all with three concepts (three holdout tasks)

METHODOLOGY


Researchers have long been obsessed with talking about mobile. Mobile first. Mobile-optimised. Mobile-ready. These days, the discussion about whether and how to mobile-optimise surveys

shouldn’t even be a discussion; mobile is how people do things online, whether it’s instant messaging, catching up on the news, or taking part in research communities. That means it’s not optional for us to design research with mobile in mind; we have to default to thinking mobile when designing our surveys and other research tasks. This means rethinking the whole research design process, from how we write email invitations to what language we use, and what types and number of questions we ask. And if we don’t – well, say goodbye to anyone engaging with us more than once.

We’ve been running long-term communities for clients for over 10 years, and we’ve seen significant changes in the ways people engage with them during that time. We recently compiled a league table to look at the devices people used during 2016; unsurprisingly, we’re seeing the proportion using mobile devices increase year on year, although there are some interesting differences between our communities. Many of our communities span multiple global markets, which has an effect. Partic-ipants in Asia and Africa, for example, are more likely to access via a mobile device than in some European markets, since that’s typically the main way consumers in those regions access the Internet, bypassing laptop and desktop computers completely. There are also differences in demographics such as age and sector. We see amongst our financial

services communities, for example, that there’s a strong preference to take part on a laptop/desktop rather than a mobile device, and we may be heading towards the natural limit of mobile with some of them, but in other sectors we’re seeing definite mobile growth in areas such as retail and leisure.

So, to keep up with the behaviour and device preferences of today’s consumer, we have to tailor our invitations, our platforms, and our language to meet the demands of a ‘mobile research participant’. A ‘mobile research participant’ is, of course, a normal human being going about their business using a mobile, who happens to be a member of one of our communities or panels and, quite reasonably, expects us to provide an engaging and fun experience on said mobile device. They are time-poor and have multiple demands for their attention, and so for our tasks to compete with the myriad other activities they could be doing at any given time, we need to make them interesting. Language needs to be human and personable, and pared back – cutting back words makes our communication direct, easy for the reader to scan through, and fits better on a small device. Language should be fun, reflecting the human way in which brands communicate with their consumers, and should not use the pseudo-scientific language that market research adopted in the 1950s and has never seemed to shake. Questioning should be creative; asking questions in interesting ways yields interesting insights. Platforms have to be optimised so they work for all devices of all sizes; epic grids have never given a good user

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experience and they’re nigh on impossible on a mobile. We have to challenge ourselves to think creatively about how to get the information we want without defaulting to the hefty grids and satisfaction ratings we might have used during the on-street or CATI surveys of yesteryear. Not only is it more fun to design a creative survey or qual task, it’s much better for participants and results in higher-quality data.

So, back to the mobile league table. There are some commu-nities waaaay down in the second division who didn’t even make it into the premier league of mobile use (maybe in 2017…), but in the final standings for 2016, one of our retail/leisure clients held the top spot with 77% of all members accessing the platform via mobile devices. There has been some consternation and debate in the office about whether this is a well-deserved top spot, since the standings are a combination of tablets and mobile phones – technically, the community in fourth position has the highest proportion of members using an actual mobile phone (and a very low pro-portion of tablet users) – but the referee’s decision is final: research design and the mobile premier league should not discriminate between any type of mobile device, no matter how much one may protest about the size of the device. (I say this with confidence, since I own a phone which is almost the same size as my unspecified-brand e-reader, and for which I frequently get mocked by my friends and colleagues. But whether it’s huge or not, it’s still a mobile device and definitely not a laptop.)

In the first half of 2017, we’ve already started seeing this data change as we move into different markets and interact with different audiences, and as participants increasing-ly use their mobile devices to manage all aspects of their lives. But one thing’s for sure: mobile isn’t going away any time soon, although your participants will be if you don’t offer them an experience which works on a mobile device – whatever its size. ■

METHODOLOGY



Over the past 15 years, online data collection has proved itself to be the pre-eminent data collection mode. Being both elec-tronic and a form of self-completion, it is inherently better than

any other data collection method. Given its advantages, however, one question type has suffered: the open question.

In interview modes, the open question gives the participant a chance to speak in their own words, and gives the interviewer a chance to engage in something approaching a conversation, clarifying and probing until the topic is exhausted. In self-completion, there is no conversation; the question is put and the open box gapes like an empty void to be filled with the written word. Open responses from self-completion surveys will be peppered with incoherent statements that beg to be clarified, and responses that bear little relation to the original question posed. Whilst such responses are in the minority, the majority are thin and lacking in any colour or substance.

However, many devices are equipped with cameras and microphones as standard. Would then a video-recorded answer be any better than a typed one?

In order to make video an integral part of the online survey, the partici-pant needs to be doing the questionnaire on a device with a camera and a microphone. Most participants take surveys on a PC or laptop. Just under half of participants (48%) in the US told us that they have both a camera and a microphone in their device. Unsurprisingly perhaps, there is an age skew towards younger people having video-ready devices

(three-quarters of 18–24-year-olds vs one in five of the over-65s). One would expect the prevalence of cameras and microphones to increase over time, but it is worth considering skewing the starting sample if the sample doing the video needs to be demographically balanced.

In order to do a video, we also need to obtain informed consent, and not everyone agrees to be filmed. In some instances we see a gender difference in the levels of agreement to do a video. In the US, we found women to be less ‘ready right now’ to do a video. Two-thirds of American men agreed to do a video, compared to only half of women. This is not a global finding; in the UK the same numbers of women as men were willing to do a video. Age does not seem to play a part in agreement levels.

Overall, around a third of all participants were able and willing to do a video, with a distinct age skew. We found around 6 in 10 (in the US) agreeing to do the video and somewhat fewer in the UK (1 in 2). Of course, maximising the acceptance rate is of key importance.

It is always necessary to get full informed consent from the participant; they need to know who is going to be seeing the video and to what use it is going to be put. They may also need to be reminded not to include anyone else in the video.

We found that acceptance rates were highest when the circulation of the video was at its most restricted (i.e. when only a coder would view the video): two-thirds accepted. Acceptance reduced marginally to 6 in 10 when it was stated that the video might be shown to an external audience. Interestingly, acceptance did not vary depending on whether the video would be seen by a group of researchers at a market research conference or made publicly available via a website.

The language style of video requests is also important. Plain English requests consistently fared worse than their legal-sounding counter-parts. In fact, the more permissions being sought, the greater power the legalese had.

Yes, will do video

Both the quantity and the quality of the responses gained via video were far better than those from typed-in answers. Since more answers were given (between 1.33 and 1.50 times as many), the relative im-portance of the answers changed. Second-ranked answers generally remained in second rank but became more important in absolute terms. Some even ranked more highly. As an example, “a reliable source” was

USING VIDEO TO REINVIGORATE THE OPEN QUESTIONBy Pete Cape, Global Knowledge Director, SSI

Analysis only Limited circulation Broadcast

Legalese Plain English Legalese Plain English Legalese Plain English

67% 63% 65% 54% 64% 53%


mentioned by 8% of people who did not make a video, putting it 6th in rank. Almost three times as many people in the video group mentioned this (21%), making it a substantial answer and moving its rank to 4th. Quality also improved, with between five and six times as many charac-ters being spoken as written, providing greater colour and depth.

These differences between video-recorded and typed-in answers mean that the two data types cannot simply be added together to produce a total answer; nor can video data be used alone, because for all the increase in quantity and quality, there was a twist. There was a correla-tion between the saliency of the topic and the willingness to make a video. We were slightly more likely to get a video about home heating choice from people who were either more or less satisfied with their heating fuel. A second experiment on the subject of politics revealed an even greater bias. A mere 17% of those claiming to be not at all inter-ested in politics said they would answer using video, compared to 79% of those extremely interested in politics.

Yes, will do video

The importance of capturing, measures of interest in, satisfaction with, and saliency of the subject matter cannot be overstressed. These would be key variables required to weight responses to the open question.

We can clearly see that video offers great advantages in terms of the quantity and quality of data collected. But this will be collected from a minority and they are likely to be skewed in terms of both demographics and attitudes. ■

METHODOLOGY

Interest in politicsExtremely interested Very interested Somewhat

interestedSlightly

interestedNot at all interested

79% 63% 37% 26% 17%

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Amazon, Facebook, and Apple already know it: Artificial Intelli-gence (AI) is here to stay and it will have a huge impact on our lives.

Will it also impact the market research industry? Of course! And instead of fearing the inevitable, we had better talk about all the opportunities. We already see examples popping up where AI machines help with research tasks like survey design, qualitative moderation, and data analysis. They will help us save time, which will allow us to focus on those parts of our jobs that are really of added value: understanding the business issues, crafting powerful consumer insights, and bringing those to life in front of managers.

But can AI do even more for us? Can it become a manager’s next best friend in day-to-day decision making?

A smart agent

What if every employee within an organisation could chat with a bot, a personal assistant who has answers to all their ‘consumer questions’? Through the AI-driven chatbot, employees could have direct access to all consumer research ever done. It would give them the right ‘answer’ anywhere, anytime and inspire them with new insights which it believes one might need during the day. And last but not least, it could also impersonate the consumer, giving an employee the chance to have a simulated ‘chat’ with their target consumer.

Starting from this dream, we created Galvin.

How does it work?

Galvin is connected to a database of all sustainable consumer insights/research from the past years within an organisation. By starting a con-versation, one can ask Galvin to bring up consumer insights that are in-teresting for a specific query. Next, Galvin will use its AI power to search through the enormous database, create connections between different insights, and give relevant ‘answers’ to the question asked. It will not send the full PowerPoint report of a research study, but it will share ‘insights’ in a short, sharp, and visual way.

What can Galvin do for a decision maker?

We identified three ways in which Galvin can become the perfect ‘assistant’:

1. Consumer meet-up

Have a chat with a consumer! Using predetermined consumer segments, Galvin impersonates a persona. Choose a persona, ask them to tell a bit more about their life, or ask them specific questions. It’s a simulated chat based on all the insights Galvin has about that segment. It feels like having a conversation with a real consumer.

2. Consumer-centric-thinking coach

Galvin coaches employees to create a consumer-centric mindset, with daily fresh and new inspiration on the topics in which one is interested. A five-minute update with consumer news along with their morning coffee.

3. Personal insights assistant

In a meeting and in urgent need of a specific insight? Galvin will provide you with the right insights anywhere, anytime. Galvin asks specific follow-up questions to be sure you get exactly the insights you need to make the best possible decision.


AI CHATBOT PUTSCONSUMER INSIGHTSIN YOUR POCKETBy Tom de Ruyck, Managing partner & Head of Insight Activation at insites Consulting

Maximising the impact of your insights

With AI assistants like Galvin, we enter a new era of consumer research usage. First of all, this will kill the typical PowerPoint reports. Instead of sharing these heavy documents via email, everyone inside the company can now have instant access to all consumer research via their mobile. But it’s more than just sharing. Tools like Galvin will bring the insights to life in a new, conversational way, giving employees the chance to really make consumer-centric decisions. All this will result in a stronger consumer connection in the hearts and minds of the employees, leading to better market decisions and a higher ROI of research dollars. ■

!


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The term ‘big data’ has been talked about for quite a while. Yes, we live in a data-rich world; companies have built up databases that contain enormous customer records, both online and offline. But

the challenge – and opportunity – is not in gathering the ‘big’ data, but rather in gathering the right data. It is critical to have an accurate, up-to-the-minute view of how consumers are making decisions and scoring your business. Here are five recommendations to help marketers make smarter, more informed decisions nowadays.

Study Cross-Device Behaviour. Behaviour tracking is well established on desktop computers. Capturing the mobile consumer, in cross-de-vice behaviour (looking at activity on mobile devices and within apps), will emerge as an essential marketing tool. This will help you and your brand better understand digital behaviour and paths to purchase. In evaluating cross-device behaviour, you will gain greater insights into the ‘day in the life’ of consumer activities and spending, helping you speak to the customer, not the device.

Ask “But Why?” to Improve Customer Experience. The act of col-lecting data is no longer a challenge for marketers, with the availability of transactional data, passive data monitoring, and more. To optimise the quality of your research, be sure to place greater focus on asking “but why?” to gain deeper consumer insights that will improve customer experience. Answering the “why?” can help you pinpoint emotion, which “is the core driver of customer loyalty and spending”, according to Forrester Research.

Leverage Automated Concept Testing. Companies are launching new products more easily and quickly than ever. Predictive modeling is often not feasible in product development, so quick survey data can be the best option. To back up your marketing plan, leverage automated

concept testing to understand the strength of branding, product, and advertising concepts. This will allow you and your brand to move from ideation to insight in just days or even hours, something traditional con-cept-testing methods can’t support.

Learn to Navigate the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things brings about its own host of marketing challenges. While the Internet of Things is increasing the amount of information marketers can use to analyse consumers, it greatly complicates the path to purchase and will necessitate a more developed approach to data analytics and consumer research. To build a successful marketing strategy, you must embrace this change instead of fighting it. Once the avalanche of Inter-net-of-Things data is mined for patterns, buying variances (as in lapsed buyers), and brand preferences, you will have a better understanding of consumer behaviour.

Address Your Business’ Need for Speed. Time is a scarce commodity for marketers, so speed is king. Viral trends emerge and then disappear quickly. News cycles are short. There is constant pressure to make quick decisions. That being said, these compressed timelines are no excuse to fly blind or to make decisions with outdated consumer data. Instead, look to leverage online surveys – with do-it-yourself tools – for data and insights that keep pace with fast-moving business.

Marketers will always struggle when looking into the best ways to un-derstand their customers in a rapidly changing landscape. Leveraging these five action steps can provide marketers with the reliable, action-able, and high-quality customer data they need to discern the consumer quest to purchase, and to make better decisions in an uncertain, fluid world. ■

5 TIPS FOR BETTER CONSUMER INSIGHTSBy Stephen Walker, Business Director, Toluna Australia & New Zealand

The next Research & Results trade show will take place on 25th and 26th October 2017 in Munich, Germany. Admission is free for registered visitors. Detailed information on stand booking can be found at www.research-results.com

Meet the Future of Market Research Today

With 3,200 participants, 191 exhibitors, and 90 workshops in 2016, Research & Results is the world’s biggest market research trade fair, representing a global hot spot for the industry. It’s the place to find the most important full-service agencies, as well as field, IT, and special-ist services.

Market research providers and buyers make up 76 percent of the fair’s specialist visitors. These visitors include potential research buyers, market research service providers, and agencies – an exclusive selection of clients with high decision-mak-ing power. In a global world, Research & Results is becoming more and more international; last year the trade show

welcomed attendees from 41 countries.

Networking is one of the most important reasons that visitors come to the Research & Results trade show, followed by the desire to get general information about market research and to find special information on new subjects and trends. “A lot of interesting contacts. Very many countries represented and many new people that you can meet,” says Ben Lepez from Nordic Viewpoint. Roman Ogloblin of Socis MR reports, “It’s a very good event. One of the best, I think, in the world. A great show for market research-ers.”

Workshops are also a big part of the two-day fair. They enable exhibitors to

present a topic of their choice to a wider audience and set guiding themes for their trade-show appearance, an offer that was embraced by almost 7,000 visitors last year. In 45-minute presentations, exhib-itors have the opportunity to show what they have to offer on the subject of current findings, methods, studies, and instru-ments in market research. For a major part of the workshop programme, simul-taneous translations into English will be provided.

Corporations are told that they must “innovate or die”, and so they invest significant amounts in new product development. Market research firms are engaged to undertake ideation,

product development, and concept testing to help feed new lines of successful products.

Much of BDRC Asia’s work is in this area, but in order to establish whether a product really will be a success, we also have to under-stand the likelihood of a consumer or business following through on their intention to buy a new product or service.

Certainly, establishing whether a concept or product researches well is the starting point. For FMCG products, ‘intention to purchase’ scores can be benchmarked against products that have been re-searched in the past and gone on to do well in the market. However, FMCG products are low-cost-purchase items and, more importantly, require minimal effort to buy. For example, there is minimal risk to the consumer in buying a new snack just out of curiosity and to see whether they like it or not, and the wide range of retail outlets that can stock the product make it an easy purchase. However, switching to a new IT system for your office requires significant investment, effort, risk, and time to implement.

BDRC Asia is undertaking a lot of research into ‘customer on-board-ing’; part of this is to establish the level of effort required in taking out and starting to use a new product or service. Financial services is an area in which on-boarding can require various levels of effort from the customer, ranging from the initial application (e.g. for a credit card) and approval process (e.g. for a home loan), to using the service on a regular basis (e.g. Internet banking).

In recent research conducted by BDRC Asia, we found that even the smallest barriers to product on-boarding lead to a lot of consumers just ‘giving up’. This places a lot of demand on financial institutions. Firstly, they are under pressure to comply with increasing regula-tions (e.g. in relation to the opening of bank accounts). Due to mon-ey-laundering issues, more details about the identity of customers and the source of their funds are now needed in the account opening process. Secondly, the ability of the bank to assess creditworthiness (e.g. for credit cards) requires a certain number of questions on ap-plication forms, but the longer the form, the less likely people are to apply for the product.

Internet banking is another interesting area. Even in Singapore, one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world, with almost universal Internet access, there are still many consumers and businesses who do not use Internet banking.

There is often a trade-off between security and ease of use. The easier it is to set up an Internet banking account and the easier it is to access it, the more customers you will attract and the more they will use it. However, consumers also expect the very best security.

But this is not the only challenge facing banks. In recent research conducted by BDRC Asia among small and medium enterprises, we asked businesses why they do not use Internet banking. The answers included somewhat passé fears about hacking, but perhaps the biggest barrier is simply the habits related to banking that have been formed over the years.

Habits are a strange thing – we actually found in our research that businesses ‘enjoy’ going to the branch and queuing, and for this

reason do not use the Internet banking alternative. While banks have tried to make the in-branch experience more enjoyable, there is only so much that can be enjoyable in branch! Logging into your Internet banking from the convenience of your desk and completing a trans-action in three minutes must surely be the selling point in comparison to thirty minutes in the bank, and that doesn’t even include the time taken to travel to and from the bank, which in places like Jakarta can be quite significant and stressful.

There are theories behind why people like queuing. Apparently the participation in queuing has socialist roots (e.g. showing respect for others and treating yourself as an equal by waiting your turn). The trip to the bank, while monotonous, can actually be a welcome break from the office environment – some bosses like to tell their staff, “I’m going to the bank” as a means of showing their status (e.g. “I have control over the money”) and reassuring staff that they are in control of the company’s finances.

Among consumers, we found from research in Singapore that one reason people do not use Internet banking is that they like going to the street to use ‘their’ AXS machine. AXS machines are well-de-signed self-service machines that allow consumers to perform a range of transactions such as paying bills. All of this can be done in the comfort of their own living room using Internet banking, but the ‘trip to the AXS machine’ is a routine that people seem to enjoy, even in the rain!

This places challenges on organisations looking to introduce new products. While the product can research well, the research itself puts people on the spot – for example, you ask, “what are you going to do?” and they reply, “yes, I will buy it”. We then not only need to analyse the likelihood of follow-through, which can involve a number of additional questions, but also to examine what can be done to ‘break the habit’. Direct questioning on the likelihood of a consumer to follow through on their intentions can sometimes work. For example, in a follow-up to the ‘will buy’ answer, we can ask people whether in reality they are likely to follow up on their intentions. We need to establish the ‘priority’ to follow through – for example, are the current alternatives really that much worse? How much time and effort is required in following through on your intentions?

More indirect ways to assess the likelihood of follow-through is to establish how much the consumer or the business has broken habits in the past (e.g. tried new brands, changed software, acquired new products, switched vendors), essentially to see the extent to which they are creatures of habit, habitual changers, or somewhere in between.

But to bridge the gap between research and sales, we need to know how best to convert the business opportunity to revenue. Sometimes this is down to ‘happenchance’: a consumer happens to be in the right place at the right time to be sold a new product. A much un-derutilised part of research is to obtain market intelligence from the front-end salespeople. These people are valuable sources of infor-mation who can advise on ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ of consumers buying new products, and based on these findings corporations can refine their business development strategies. Furthermore, research among your own sales force can be quick and highly cost-effective, and can help to maximise the follow-through on the purchase of the products that have passed the research stage. ■

BDRC Asia

BREAKING HABITS




Asia Research held its inaugural research seminar at the Majestic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 20th April 2017. This was an extension of its highly successful series of breakfast seminars that have

been held in Singapore and Jakarta.

With Malaysia having relatively few research events, the Asia Research seminar was well attended, with over 80 delegates, including half from client organisations.

The seminar focussed on the latest best practice in customer expe-rience research, with various takes on this theme that covered the meaning of ‘loyalty’ in the context of today’s busy consumers, and how best to gather the information needed from consumers to evaluate this loyalty.

Shreya Baksi Sen, Customer Strategies Lead at Kantar TNS Malaysia, presented a paper that explained new metrics pertaining to customer loyalty, but very much in the context of the ‘distracted consumer’. Shreya argued that because consumers today are that much more distracted (by their mobiles, multi-tasking, and the greater demands put on them by work), they are mostly ‘sleepwalking’ through a lot of their customer experiences with service providers.

In this respect, there are few ‘proper engagement moments’ with the customer during the product or service interaction (typically less than 10% of the consumer’s recall), and what the consumer remembers from the interaction is generally the more delightful or disappointing experi-ences of the engagement, otherwise referred to as the ‘emotional hook’. These experiences become the ‘memories’, and from these ‘memories’ the relationship is formed. The memories are not always accurate, but for the consumer these become the ‘personal truths’ upon which loyalty with the product or service provider will be built or destroyed.

While much customer experience research these days emphasises the importance of ‘in-the-moment’ research, Shreya argued that, because her approach evaluates the memory of a particular customer service interaction, it can be better to wait a week or so after the interaction before undertaking the survey.

Kantar TNS’ model is based on evaluating two main measures in the customer experience: 1) the ‘performance’ of the interaction (i.e. how well it was achieved) and 2) the emotion (i.e. how pleased the

customer was during the interaction). In a presented case study, 42% of consumers gave ‘excellent’ for the performance of a particular service interaction, but only 23% described themselves as ‘delighted’. Those that were delighted were 7 times more likely to repeat purchase, 15 times more likely to spend, and 20 times more likely to recommend the service provider to others.

The key to ‘delighting’ the customer is usually in the human interaction (e.g. the attitude of the staff). This means that those who have tradition-al customer service (e.g. ‘live’ rather than online) have the opportunity to build customer loyalty more.

Karen Schofield, Managing Director of Join the Dots, presented a paper on the importance of ‘people-centred’ research. Karen pointed out that the market research industry is not keeping up to date with the way people really talk. For example, questions in surveys are phrased too formally or use business language – this is simply not the way people talk to each other!

The other aspect is the interaction with consumers through online surveys. Join the Dots has looked at best practice in the online world to see how surveys can be improved. Organisations such as Trip Advisor and Amazon have invested a lot in obtaining the best consumer responses through book reviews or hotel reviews. Simple star ratings (as opposed to complex scales), and asking consumers to provide reviews or ‘make a headline’ on their views of the product, help in improving the quality of responses. The online dating website Tinder works on the principle of binary choice: you are either interested in someone or not (there is no scale rating). Karen argued that research should also be more binary, asking whether you are interested in a product or not, and not asking for ‘marks out of ten’.

Another technique being employed in research is the use of emojis (small digital images or icons that are used to express an emotion). While there are challenges in standardising emojis across markets and cultures, in some respects emojis break down language barriers and are apparently the fastest-growing ‘language’ in the world today!

Atsushi Yamamoto, Director Marketing Communications at GMO Research, presented a paper that highlighted the issues facing adver-tisers who plan for cross-media campaigns. Consumer purchase paths are becoming more complex because consumers are not using search

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Claudia Siregar (Asia Research), Datin Kala Sethu (Compass Insights, MRSM), Yoga Sureshkumar (QPA, MRSM)

Atsushi Yamamoto (GMO Research), Piers Lee (BDRC Asia), Karen Schofield (Join the Dots), Sutapa Bhattacharya (Leo Burnett)


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in the same way as before, and the technology within search and social media is changing. For example, younger consumers are increasing-ly using Facebook and Instagram for searching, whereas Twitter now incorporates images within its platforms. This makes planning for new-media campaigns more complex.

To address this, GMO is partnering with a passive metering technol-ogy company so that respondents can download apps that can track the webpages they are viewing, log the search words they are using, and track the purchase path (including timelines in the path) through metering. However, questions still abound over the willingness of consumers to have such online activity tracked, as privacy issues over research are a prevailing concern among consumers.

Mani Padmanhaban, Country Manager for SSI for SEA and India, demonstrated the benefit of allowing people to voice their opinions through the online video method, or ‘voxpopme’. In a case study covering consumers’ attitudes to renewable energy, SSI demonstrat-ed how much richer the responses can be to open-ended questions if people can state their thoughts on video, rather than writing them down as in conventional open-ended responses. But again, privacy issues are a concern as consumers can be reluctant to take part in these types of survey, not knowing where or how their videos will be used.

Sutapa Bhattacharya, Head of Strategy & Brand Consultancy at Leo Burnett, delivered another slant on customer loyalty in today’s world.

Sutapa argued that conventional customer loyalty is a relic from the past and that some brand managers are simply getting it wrong by discount-ing in the hope of winning repeat business.

Loyalty, Sutapa argued, comes in many forms and need to be classi-fied in order to be managed. There is inertia loyalty, the reluctance of a customer to make the effort to move (e.g. to change bank account); mercenary loyalty, whereby loyalty can be ‘bought’; true loyalty, based on a relationship; and cult loyalty, based on brand affinity to particularly trendy labels.

Again, looking at the more complex and multi-dimensional customer journey, Sutapa presented a new approach to evaluating customer loyalty that examines five core human motivations: ‘autonomy’, ‘mastery’, ‘purpose’, ‘progression’, and ‘social interaction’.

Each presenter, representing their own organisation, takes a somewhat different approach to understanding the customer experience. Clients these days are facing ever-increasing and perhaps ever-confusing choices as to which model to adopt for their own customer loyalty programs. Some of these arguments are bucking trends in research – for example by not doing ‘in-the-moment’ research but evaluating the memory, and by not looking at ‘shades of grey’ but ‘black and white’ yes or no answers. Arguably, in an age of the distracted consumer, the afterthought and the binary choice can be more relevant. ■

Shreya Baksi Sen, Customer Strategies Lead at Kantar TNS Malaysia

Karen Schofield, Managing Director of Join the Dots, Singapore

Atsushi Yamamoto, Director Marketing Communications at GMO Research

Mani Padmanhaban, Country Manager Southeast Asia and India at SSI

Sutapa Bhattacharya, Head of Strategy & Brand Consultancy at Leo Burnett

Piers Lee, Managing Director at BDRC Asia

Datin Kala Sethu (MRSM), Claudia Siregar (Asia Research), Kevin Van Noortwyk, Mani Padhmanaban (SSI), Piers Lee (BDRC Asia), and Sandeep Singh (SSI)

Yoga Sureshkumar, Nurshahadah Asikin, Nuur Alias, Angela Matius, Abigail Jong (QPA), and Claudia Siregar (Asia Research)


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The first ever conference dedicated entirely to behavioural data took place earlier this year in April in Amsterdam. Over two days, Netherlands-based behavioural data research company Wakoopa

brought together over 150 global market research and data profession-als in behavioural data to share exclusive insights and showcase their skills. Speakers came from KLM, J. Walter Thompson, Kantar, Elastic, GfK, YouGov, Forrester, and more.

With inspiring workshops, stories, and case studies, the WHAT con-ference was put together with the aim of impacting market research and encouraging the industry to embrace the opportunities of data by working towards a user-centric and data-driven future. One attendee said, “Not enough people are seeing the value of behavioural data and how it can drive strategic decision making.” The WHAT conference aimed to change that by connecting data and research profession-als and providing an interactive environment for networking and new business opportunities. According to the conference’s founders, “data is the new research”.

“Invest in the skills, the people and the organisation to harness data and give you the methodologies and insights that allow you to compete in the future of research,” said Simon van Duivenvoorde, Wakoopa’s Managing Director. “If you build it, they will come!”

At the conference, professionals in the field discussed strategies and best practices to do with behavioural data, and shared their perspec-tives and insights. Combined with a pre-conference half-day workshop in which leading data specialists provided hands-on training in data analysis, this conference was a great experience for speakers and delegates alike.

Emmanuel Flores, Innovation Director at JWT Amsterdam, gave a talk that demonstrated how data can fuel creativity. JWT Amsterdam launched its award-winning campaign ‘The Next Rembrandt’ for ING, and Flores shared some of his insights into what he learned on the campaign and how creative ideas can be supported by technology.

Steve Dodson of Elastic talked about real-world examples of machine learning techniques as applied to behavioural data, in his talk entitled ‘Machine learning for behavioural analytics’. He discussed the logistics behind machine learning methodologies and explained how they can be used to identify unusual behaviours in users, or to understand the typical behaviour of a population.

One of the key events of the conference was the presentation of the WHAT Datathon results. The Datathon was a pre-event to the confer-ence, also in Amsterdam. Data enthusiasts had 24 hours to turn raw behavioural data into a model, visualisation, or insight to better under-stand online behaviour. The winning teams presented their findings at the WHAT conference and were presented with prizes for their work.

‘Predicting your next destination’, the final talk of the conference, was presented by Marc Tollens and Jan van der Vegt from Dutch airline KLM. They presented a case study to demonstrate how behavioural data and machine learning can improve both company performance and customer experience. These insights are backed up by KLM’s own impressive figures; the KLM site uses behavioural algorithms that can predict visitors’ future travel destinations with 98% accuracy based on their last search.

Many of the conference’s attendees were enthusiastic about the day. One described the event’s “great initiative, great atmosphere and inter-esting people”, while another guest said, “You simply have to attend if you want to know what’s going on in behavioural research.” ■


BEHAVIOURAL DATAWHAT CONFERENCE


BDRC ASIA EXPANDS THE INDONESIA TEAM

Aristo Labare has joined BDRC Asia Indonesia as a Research Director. Formerly from Kadence and Millward Brown, Aristo is heading the quantitative division of BDRC in Indonesia. Aristo specialises in tracking studies, product testing, U&A, ad evaluation, and pricing studies and has extensive experience in the FMCG sector.

Piers Lee, Regional Managing Director of BDRC Asia, comments, “Aristo strengthens our team to provide a complete range of qualitative and quantitative research services to local clients. We will continue to focus on our core 4 category specialisms being FMCG, financial services, telco / media, and travel research.” ■

NEW HIRE AT JOIN THE DOTS IN SINGAPORE

The award-winning consumer insight agency Join the Dots, with offices in London, Manchester, and Singapore, has appointed Deepak Nautiyal as Research Director for its Singapore office.

“We’re excited to bring in Deepak as a senior, qual-fo-cused director with global research experience, and a genuine interest in technology and creativity – a perfect fit for our team, which combines cultural insight with innovative research methods to get a deep understand-ing of people. Deepak joins us at a key time of growth for both the Singapore and wider business, and we’re looking forward to welcoming him as our newest ‘dot’,” said Karen Schofield, Managing Director of Join the Dots, Singapore. ■

NEW ROLE AT KANTAR MEDIA PHILIPPINES

Kantar Media has appointed Jay Bautista as Managing Director for the Philippines. Bautista joined as Commer-cial Director in 2016, combining the role with running mentoring group Strategic Consumer and Media Incites, Inc. Bautista will now be responsible for deliver-ing Kantar Media’s services to clients in the Philippines, and managing existing and new services in the market. He will also define and execute growth strategies within the business development and client management areas across the company’s product portfolio.

Bautista brings to Kantar Media his two decades of experience and expertise in media research. He is actively engaged in industry organisations including the Marketing Research Society of the Philippines, Internet

and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philippines, Broadcaster’s Association of the Philippines, and Out of Home Media Advocacy Group.

“We are pleased to appoint Jay to this important role in the region, and look forward to continuing to work with him to deliver a high standard of media insight to the industry, as well as evolving the television audience service from measuring television to total video, which will provide a more comprehensive view of audience behaviour,” commented Nick Burfitt, Managing Director for APAC at Kantar Media. “Jay has an excellent un-derstanding of the evolving needs of our clients and a clear vision for the business in the Philippines.” “Kantar Media delivers a robust, secure and reliable service to measure and understand the behavior of the millions of highly engaged media consumers in the Philippines,” said Bautista. “In this changing media landscape we have a firm commitment to innovation, and as such, I look forward to cementing our position as the leading media research provider in the market.” ■

TOLUNA APPOINTS SENIOR LEADER FOR GLOBAL DIGITAL MARKETING

Toluna is planning to increase the size of its respondent community by 20% during the second half of 2017, and has hired Kyle Kim-Hays as Executive Vice-President for Global Digital Marketing, responsible for the push.

Kim-Hays joins with a marketing and product strategy background, which has included senior exec positions at Verizon, Warner Bros, Microsoft, SAP, and American Express. In his new role, he will oversee digital marketing strategies for acquisition, engagement, and retention of the Toluna.com community.

Toluna says the community expansion will enhance its ability to deliver access to low-incidence, hard-to-reach audiences, while expanding its reach and supporting its recent launch into nine new markets across Asia-Pa-cific, Latin America, the Middle East, and North Africa. CEO Frédéric-Charles Petit comments, “In addition to advancing our real-time research platform, we’re make unprecedented investments in our panel community. Bringing on Kyle to lead all aspects of our community digital marketing strategies will help Toluna continue to reshape market research through an innovative combination of technology and community that helps companies get the real-time answers they require from the right people to make great business decisions.” ■

ON THE M EO V

PEOPLE SECTION

Jay Bautista,Kantar Media

Kyle Kim-Hays,Toluna

Deepak Nautiyal,Join the Dots

Aristo Labare,BDRC Asia


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