TOPICS Archive - ResearchTalk

Jun 1, 2009 2

Diego Meller, Livra Panels

We present another entrepreneur’s tale.

Specialist Latin America panel company Livra was sold a year ago to Ipsos after nine years of profitable growth.

It was started by Argentinian students Diego Meller and MartÃn AÃ±azco at the height of the dotcom boom when they were only 19- and 20-years old respectively.

Diego is now London-based so we managed the above 8-minute chat with him to find out how the company got started, how they turned it round to generate healthy revenues, and why they sold when they did and why to Ipsos among a number of interested buyers.

Enjoy!

May 27, 2009 0

The Listening Posts

image courtesy of wordle.org

Our article in the Apr ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.

Memes aren’t merely some abstract academic idea. They are real. And they’re becoming big business.

It’s arguably the next big thing in research. Or, perhaps, the next really big thing.

It’s the emergence of what Suresh Vittal, principal analyst at Forrester, calls the ‘listening platform’, something he defines in his recent report as: “A technology and analytics infrastructure that mines a wide variety of traditional, online, and social sources to extract and deliver insights that shape a firm’s marketing strategy.”

In a market dominated by firms that aren’t from the mainstream research community, Vittal anoints Nielsen BuzzMetrics and TNS Cymfony as the leaders in “a pack of strong performers.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Mar 11, 2009 0

At last, BBC allows embedding – yeh!

Feb 16, 2009 0

How Retailers are Surviving the Downturn

image courtesy of wordle.org

Our article in the Feb ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.

How a passionate focus on value along with other basic approaches are helping retailers to survive and thrive during the downturn.

My, oh my, how things have unravelled.

Back in September, Research World looked at the impact of the downturn and the focus was on the collapse of financial organisations.

But now the focus has shifted to collapsing retailers, among them household names such as Circuit City in the US and Woolworths in the UK, one of the world’s oldest retailers.

What’s more, “Ten chains ‘face closure’ in 2009” declares a headline from a UK consultancy as a dismal prelude of the carnage to come.

In this Darwinian environment, retailers need to adapt or face the real prospect of death.
Read the rest of this entry »

Jan 18, 2009 0

Buyology: Sound Science or Wishful Thinking?

image courtesy of wordle.org

Our article in the Jan ‘09 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.

Martin Lindstrom’s new book and company, Buyology, hope to kick start the next wave of neuromarketing. Will they deliver?

We talk to Martin Lindstrom from his New York City hotel.

Just hours after Barack Obama is elected US President, Lindstrom is getting ready to leave the US for his European book tour, the US tour having generated over 700 articles, including many in the mainstream press and an appearance on the couch of TV’s The Today Show.

It’s his bid to popularise the business book: “I realised that no one reads business books any more…what people, including business people, really read is novels…that’s the style I’ve tried adopting in Buyology.”

And the book is indeed a pleasant, easy read. But that’s one of the criticisms levelled at it by the Bob Barocci, CEO of the Advertising Research Foundation, who apparently dismissed the book in an Advertising Age article by saying that the ARF did not review “pop” books.

Notwithstanding that, the book has received widespread praise and is a bestseller.

So, just what is Buyology all about?
Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 9, 2008 0

Just How Healthy is Brand Health Measurement?

Our article in the Dec ‘08 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.

Brand health monitoring is an important tool, particularly during tough economic times when managing RoI becomes critical for CMOs. But what are some of the tools, and are they fit for purpose?

The Millward Brown Approach
Don’t say we didn’t try.

In the ceaseless search for simplicity, we ask Eileen Campbell, CEO of Millward Brown for a single measure to encapsulate brand health: “We aren’t really advocates of single number measures – the same way you wouldn’t monitor your personal health with a single number.” Sounds reasonable.

Instead, the philosophy behind BrandZ, their brand health tool/framework, is to measure the strength of the consumer bond, says global brand director Peter Walshe: “Consumers have relationships with brands, and the intent is to strengthen those relationships.”

Strength is derived from a couple of (exotic-sounding) metrics: ‘bonding’ and ‘voltage’.

Bonding refers to one of five levels that indicate the strength of the consumer bond. It is based on factors such as: spontaneous awareness, knowledge, relevance, performance, and perceived competitive advantage. For example, the lowest level (weakest bond) typifies a consumer who is simply familiar with a brand and nothing else. The highest level (strongest bond) reflects a consumer who regards the brand as relevant to them and way ahead of the competition.

And voltage? That, says Walshe, reflects how effectively consumers move up the bonding levels. Strong brands tend to have high conversation ratios between the levels.
Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 3, 2008 0

Giveaway: ‘Buyology’

Elizabeth Luke

And the winner of the Buyology giveaway is…Elizabeth Luke.

Elizabeth is a senior at the University of Southern California spending her final semester abroad at the University of Amsterdam. She is a communication major with an interest in persuasion and consumer behavior. She will be graduating magna cum laude in December 2008, and shortly after, she will begin her career as a research analyst for emerging consumer products at Nielsen BASES.

Elizabeth’s book is on the way, thanks again to Martin Lindstrom and publishers Random House.

Here are Martin’s responses to some of the questions you sent in (thanks for all the entries):
Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 25, 2008 0

Building a Research Community

Matt Rhodes Tom Ewing There’s quite a bit involved in designing and running good research communities, so we decided to create this podcast where we speak with a couple of folks who have been actively developing communities for a number of years.

First up there’s Tom Ewing, yes theTom Ewing who created quite a stir at this year’s Research ‘08 conference. Back in 2000, Tom created the ILX (I love music) message board as a personal endeavour and it grew viraly. At the time of recording Tom was in a marketing role at Research International. But soon after, parent Kantar had the sense to make him a social media adviser.

Next there’s Matt Rhodes of FreshNetworks, the online community-building part of the award-winning FreshMinds. Matt’s an active blogger and recently revealed that FreshNetworks had won a Â£5m ($7.5m) interest-free loan as part of an entrepreneur competition – quite a nice prize in the (economic) circumstances.

Hoping, as always, you find this useful.

STARRING

Matt Rhodes, Head of Client Services, FreshNetworks
Tom Ewing, Social Media expert, Kantar Operations

Read the rest of this entry »

Standard Podcast [24:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Nov 17, 2008 0

Why Qual had to Change

Our article in the Nov ‘08 edition of ESOMAR’s Research World. Grab your copy here.

In an age where innovation is de rigeur, we look into how well qualitative is keeping up with the times.

“You must have mis-recruited me,” says Chris Forrest of qualitative house The Nursery, “I’m not sure there is lots of innovation in qualitative.”

Moreover, he feels there’s no need for innovation: “Qualitative research is quite evolved… a major tool for us is the good old focus group…it’s just a very good way to get people to interact with each other.”

But far from being a Luddite, Forrest is innovating, it just takes him a while to acknowledge this. And that’s not dissimilar from the initial reaction we get from others we spoke to.
Read the rest of this entry »

Nov 11, 2008 0

BrainJuicer’s Innovation Conference

BrainJuicer’s Chief Juicer John Kearon is a regular on the conference circuit.

After noticing that many events tend to mainly attract agencies, he began to wonder whether there was a way to significantly increase the client quotient.

Well, a few weeks ago he ran his inaugural Oktoberfest, a one-day event in London and Amsterdam with a hand-picked line up of ‘innovators’ as speakers. Each intimate gathering attracted over 100 clients.

The events were free and in true bootstrap fashion John partnered with Unilever and Philips to host the events and provide refreshments.

John Griffiths blogged about the London event. And we were asked to film, the result being the 17m highlight clip below (from 6hrs worth of material) which we hope you enjoy.

STARRING