Recent Trends in Research

1. Recent Trends in Research A Presentation to A Publication House By: PQR - IMRB June, 2002

2. Ground Realities Today • Dynamic markets • Cluttered brands • New media – multiple resources • Reduced differentiators • Dynamic consumers • New emerging consumers for existing brands • Widening middle class • More accessible, better connected rural • Increasing literacy • New values emerging • Loyalty being inched out by flirtation, rotation • Greater astuteness in evaluating VFM, gain & loss Focus of Marketer: Remaining Linked with Shifting Ground Realities

3. Focus Today:Trends in Market Research Techniques • To Nurture and Grow Key Brands • To Guide Product Improvement • To Plan Strategies Today for Tomorrow • To Develop Product Mixes for Dynamic Media For Rapidly Changing Audiences • To Deepen Understanding of Consumers across Brands, Categories • To Shrink the Gap Between Brand Management Teams and Consumers • To Generate New Ideas, New Ventures

4. To Nurture and Grow Key Brands How does a brand stack up in the context of rapidly changing markets Changes in context: who consumes, how much is consumed, where and how, in what situations, what mind-frame transforming competitive set – changing consumption patterns, multiple brands coexist in the larder, increased accessibility of goods and services • Need To Know: • How are Consumer Expectations and Benchmarks Transforming • Tracking how your brand delivers vis-à-vis competition

5. To Guide Product Improvement, Development Eg. A Publication Flagging market shares Needed to reinvent Needs: What Needs to Change; What Competitive Need Gaps to Plug; How to Be Distinctive

6. Product Clinics • Capturing product interaction • Central Location Tests; In Home • Experiences, not perceptions • Identifying parameters which matter • Comparative strengths and weaknesses brought alive • Subliminal differentiators….. “I just like it…. But can’t tell you why…..” can be discovered

7. Deprivation Research • ‘What is Missed’ studies • Participative deprivation • habit product replaced by competitive product • sustained deprivation • Amplifying • the loss of deprivation • the gain of substitution • …… real strengths and weaknesses of our product over competition

8. Sequential Recycling Panels • Panel of consumers – current and competition users • Sequential placement of test products • Feedback used to improvise / alter the product • Placement of new product prototype

9. To Plan Strategies Today for Tomorrow Equity Studies: taking stock today for what needs to be done tomorrow Segmentation Studies: sharply positioning multiple offerings to distinct consumer mindsets

10. Absentee Values: Distinctive Product Features Superior quality cues Premium Imagery Detractors: Premium price Poor servicing among users Absence in an important segment BrandID Model: Example : a declining market leader brand Supports: Presence in the market Good media presence Peripherals: A mnemonic gone stale Humour in advertising Core: Old brand Good quality

11. Ethnography Research Example: The ‘Tweaks’ Based on Regional Differences Content, Emphasis to Stay Connected • Understanding differences between audiences • To uncover qualitative nuances that classifies & separates different groups by ... • Studying the cultural communities in terms of their Geographies, Lifestyle and Psychographics.

12. The Approach His interactions with is family His approach to life, his career, his goals His interaction with society PERSON His interaction with the product category

13. Consumer ID Concern: A brand is positioned for youth today Yet: • Consumers are heterogeneous • Needs are complex… multi-tiered • Brands have to satisfy multiple needs…. functional and emotional Segmentation… from demographic to psychographic variables

14. Using iDI’s Describing Distinct Types of Consumers Identify Distinct Personas • Who are they • How do I recognize them • How do I talk with them • How do they feel about…. • My category • My brand • My competition • My strategies – content, advertising, USP • How far is my Actual TG from the Intended TG? How Does Each Persona Relate With My Brand

15. Brand Depth Model A combination of QUALITATIVE & QUANTITATIVE Approach • Laddering Interviews to elicit important attributes, benefits & values • Association Pattern Technique • Means-End Maps • Understanding of key linkages • Identification of market segments • Attribute - Benefit Matrix (Product specific) & Benefit - Value Matrix (Consumer specific) • Conjoint Study to identify the strength of each of the key linkages and lay down guidelines towards the development of an optimum product

16. Vox Pop! • Finger on the pulse of the consumer • latest trends, issues, concerns, dress codes • consumer speak : language,what’s in what’s out • Constant interaction with consumers • frequent intervals • in their natural surroundings • informal and open forum of interaction

17. To Deepen Understanding of Consumers across Brands, Categories

18. The Environment Audit • For a Youth Study, observations to assess their : • Surrounding • Activities • Companions • Living quarters i.e.Room Survey • Appearances throughout the day • Consumer Lingo

19. ‘Live’ Studies • Observational data • Multiple tools • Candid cameras • Wallpaper researchers maintaining diaries • Participative respondents with cameras, audio recorders, diaries • Meeting ‘real’ consumers….. • Natural surroundings • Real time

20. LEP Studies Leisure, Entertainment & Pastime • By Target Grtoups : Proportion of time involvement with different activities • Classification of Key Activities by Leisure / Entertainment / Pastime Activities • Assess involvement levels of key activities Bio-Clock Daily Activities by HOUR “At Home” & “Outside Home” Media Routine / Normal Routine Quarter Hour Media Consumption

21. Emotional / Experiential Cognitive / Rational Bridges the two dimensions Cultural Imprint • Focussed towards the consumer rather than the product • Aims to understand how consumers think and feel rather than only track the product • Imprint refers to the collection of associations and emotions that are unconsciously linked with a word, concept, or experience • Imprinting is always associated with emotion; the stronger the emotion, the stronger the imprint.

22. To Shrink the Gap Between Brand Management Teams and Consumers

23. Reality Bites for Clients • Consumer Peeps • in home visits • focus: observing you • key issues on my mind • Soap Box • Client: • multiple stakeholders - brand managers, advertising agency, R&D • multiple questions, hypothesis, points of view • Free wheeling group discussion with consumers • Participative questioning by Clients with respondents

24. To Generate New Ideas, New Ventures Eg. Sponsorship Planning Eg. Internet Banking

25. GO P O Positioning Generating Options • The need for Sponsorship • High Product Clutter • Loud Media Clutter - key brand positions occupied • Consumers bewildered - low differentiation • Consumers also seeking novelty • What is the vacant opportunity for sponsorship ideas

26. GO P O The Process Lateral Thinking Exercise Generation of a huge bundle of ideas /impulses Conventional Impulsive Whacky Unconventional Brainstorming • Developing constructs out of those ideas • Creating marketing-friendly options/routes for sponsorships Output Clear and different sponsorship options Focus Groups for fit with Consumers

27. Brand Stretch Assessing Fit of Alternative Sponsorship Strategies with Brand • How much can the equity of the current brand be stretched • Fit of alternative sponsorship options with Brand Image of the Times Group; New Brand • What does the brand stand to gain from the current equity • How does the current equity impact expectations from the sponsorship

28. Technology powered research • Internet: • Lizard • Content Analysis of chats • FGD’s / DI’s on-line • Telephonic interviews • E-mail Surveys

29. In Sum: The Key Trends In Market Research Today • Continuous, on-going research programmes • Experiential Contact - not Cognitive Contact • The Macro Perspective over Micro • Product Development - with Consumer Voice • Enhanced presence of technology

30. In Sum:Impact of these trends • From providing ‘one-time’ information to ‘remaining connected’ • From focussing on ‘today’ to being ‘predictive for tomorrow’ • From being ‘descriptive’ to being ‘diagnostic’ • From restricting learning to ‘end-consumers’ to widening the scope to ‘all stakeholders’