May 9th, 2008
In his first Thursday Night Insight post, Research Executive Oliver Truman looks at how an unlabelled 170 year old beer serves to illustrate some important points on the nature of brands.
Belgium. Famous for fine chocolates, Brussels sprouts, statues of urinating children and also as the country that gave the world the Duffel coat. Furthermore, and contrary to the belief that it’s impossible to name 3 famous Belgians, it’s also the birthplace of Audrey Hepburn, Hergé and, erm, Jean-Claude van Damme. And all of this, without even mentioning that it arguably produces some of the best beer in the world.
I can certainly attest to this last point having visited the country recently – Not only is it a far more diverse country than it’s ever given credit for – it must also be said that the ale in Belgium is pretty good, too.
You may, at this point, be wondering where on Earth I’m going with all these misty-eyed (and, it could be said, dreadfully stereotyped) ramblings about the place. Well, it comes back to the beer…
You see, during my trip I was lucky enough to have sampled what is considered by many to be the finest beer in the world: Westvleteren Abt 12. This shining example of tradition over the depressing homogeneity of the modern world has been brewed by Trappist monks at the Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren for around 170 years, with little change in the methods or scale of production in that time. Indeed, production levels have remained static since about 1946, in spite of skyrocketing demand for the stuff and record levels of brand awareness.
The monks’ view is a pragmatic one – "We sell beer to live, and not vice versa", in the words of Brother Joris, the brewery director. To this end, the monks have never advertised their ale and it continues to be sold in unassuming, label-free brown bottles. The question then arises: how has the “brand” of Westvleteren been cultivated?
On first blush, the fact that I should even describe Westvleteren as a brand, and not a quaint cottage industry may be anathema to some. It is easy to simply think of brands as being constructed from logos, slogans and colour schemes all backed-up with global, wall-to-wall advertising in the manner of big consumer names like Coke or Nike.
This is anything but the case: instead, brands are probably best thought of as the consistent norms or values that become attached to a company or product. In all sorts of ways, brands are shortcuts for the feelings and connotations we all attach to particular commodities and entities.
In this respect, Westvleteren is just as much a brand as any other: The tradition and folklore surrounding the product, and the undeniable quirkiness that this brings, all serve to create a strong identity - the like of which many marketers would kill for. That said, it’s probably safe to assume that the monks of Saint Sixtus don’t see it this way.
And all of this has direct relevance for those operating in Business to Business markets. Very often in these more specialist, niche markets, the visual aspects of a brand may be less pertinent than to bigger, consumer-oriented multinationals. However, this isn’t to say that branding shouldn’t concern B2B companies – it just happens to be manifested in different ways.
Just like the wider public, industrial buyers purchase on the basis of trust. This means that other projections of a company’s ethos and values become especially important – and this may include, just as in the case of Westvleteren, the provenance of a product or an unusual story behind a company.
However, while all this is easy to assert, perhaps the most difficult part of cultivating a successful brand is firstly identifying precisely what an organisation’s strengths and core values are. With years of experience in helping organisations to build effective corporate identities, this is something that B2B International is pretty good at.
More information about branding is available through the following B2B white papers:
Posted in
Oliver Truman, Thursday Night Insight, Branding |
Comments:
None Yet »
May 6th, 2008
Forget the traditional Oxbridge boat race, here’s the Manchester-Salford equivalent!
B2B International is donating money to the North West’s Two Cities Boat Race on 10th May, an annual event at Salford Quays where thousands watch university rowing teams from Manchester and Salford fight with sculls.
Nick Hague, director at the Bramhall-based business-to-business market research agency, says:
This race presses many buttons for us. Both universities are valued clients so it’s an opportunity to support them. Also, money from the sponsorship is donated to SPARKS, a fantastic charity that supports medical research for children. What’s more, the Chinese Dragon Boat Race, which takes place alongside the main Regatta event, is of great interest to us as B2B has an office in Beijing and does a lot of work throughout China.
Dragon Boat Racing has established itself as the UK’s favourite mass participation water sport (allegedly) so B2B is planning to enter a team next year…once 17 staff have practiced their team-building and rowing techniques!
Posted in
Market Research China, B2B News, Articles |
Comments:
None Yet »
May 2nd, 2008
In this, his first Thursday Night Insight blog post, Jason Zhang, Deputy General Manager of B2B International’s Beijing office, takes a look at stereotypes and preconceptions, and reiterates the importance local knowledge plays in understanding people’s opinions and perceptions. Presently working out of the B2B International UK head office, Jason knows first-hand that, in spite of some common ground, there is still plenty to talk about when the East meets the West…
Before coming to Manchester for a two month placement in our Stockport office, I went to see my uncle in my home town near Beijing to say goodbye. My uncle, who is nearly 70 years old, has worked his whole life as welder for a local pharmaceuticals manufacturer, and has never travelled outside of China. In spite of this, he does know the name of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and he knows Manchester to be the hub of England’s textile industry. However, he also asked me “Are there still a lot of people in London who suffer because of the heavy smog?” It surprised me that my uncle still thought London to be a heavily polluted city as I know that this has not been a real problem for some years now.
To be honest, I myself also have some preconceptions about the UK. Two Saturdays ago, I went to watch Stockport County play MK Dons at football. I was expecting to experience some sort of hooliganism but there were none there! I am not a football fan, but just thinking about English football makes the concept of hooligans spring to mind.
Let me tell you another funny story about myself. Some years ago, when studying for my Masters degree at the University of Hull, I did some shopping in the supermarket ASDA. At the cash point, the staff asked me “Cash back?” I was so excited to hear that, as in our country the supermarkets have some kind of lucky draw to reward their customers by giving them cash or vouchers. So I answered, “Oh great, how much can I have?” When I saw everybody in the queue laughing at me, I finally came to realise that there was something wrong with my understanding of the expression “Cash back”.
It is fair to say that everybody has got his or her own perceptions and opinions about the outside world. However, the most successful companies out there are those which are very good at continually listening to their customers and understanding their perceptions. In turn, these companies then inform their target audience with certain information via specific vehicles.
Let us look at the example of Carrefour, one of the most successful foreign supermarkets in China. The French operator opened 19 stores alone in 2007 across mainland China, with the total number of stores now standing at 109.
Some years ago, I supervised some customer satisfaction face-to-face study projects for Carrefour in Beijing. There I leaned that this French operator was the first supermarket in China to introduce live seafood displays of fish, crabs, prawns, etc in their stores. They understood through listening to local customers that Chinese people like live fish as they are fresh. Previously, the only place to buy live fish was in the open market. Now you can see, in all the Carrefour supermarkets in China, big glass tanks full of water where live fish and other water creatures are swimming around.
So, perhaps you should ask yourself - How good is your company at listening to customers and translating this into marketing campaign actions?
Posted in
Thursday Night Insight, Jason Zhang, Market Research China, International Market Research, Customer Satisfaction, Market Research |
Comments:
None Yet »
April 29th, 2008
B2B International’s USA office opens in White Plains, New York in June 2008.
This office will allow us to better meet the needs of our many North American clients, as well as providing us with an on-the-ground data collection presence in the United States for all of our clients worldwide. From New York we we will offer our full range of qualitative and quantitative market research services, across the following sectors: chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering and manufacturing, construction, education, finance, IT, paper & print, telecoms and transport.
Julia Cupman, who has been named Business Development Manager of the US company, explains:
B2B International has set out ambitious international expansion plans, and the opening of our New York office is an important element of that strategy. Following the success of our Asian subsidiary in China, we are now ideally placed to meet the needs of our Clients, wherever they may be based and whichever geographies they wish us to explore.
For further details about our services in the United States, please email newyork@b2binternational.com or call +44(0)161 440 6000 and ask for Julia Cupman or Matthew Harrison.
Posted in
Market Research USA, Julia Cupman, Matt Harrison, International Market Research, Market Research |
Comments:
None Yet »
April 28th, 2008
To some degree or another, loyalty schemes have been around for generations, but loyalty cards as we know them really took off in the 1990s. Company after company introduced them as a way of encouraging us consumers to keep coming back to buy more – often, in fact, persuading us to try or buy things we didn’t really want.
Tesco Clubcard is one of the better known points-based loyalty card schemes. Supermarket competitor Asda, meanwhile, rejects loyalty cards as a "gimmick" and considers it more beneficial to concentrate its resources on offering lower prices and better value across the board to its consumers. So who is right?
Is it really loyalty when shoppers turn up week after week collecting points on their Tesco Clubcard? Is it sometimes maybe just that Tesco happens to be the closest supermarket, and that customers figure they might as well get as many "freebies" and discounts as possible whilst they’re there? Unless they feel that they are really benefiting from them, many customers will lose interest in their loyalty cards eventually.
Of course, loyalty cards don’t just give rewards to customers. They give valuable insight to the retailers on the buyer behaviour of their shoppers – who buys what, where, how often and in what quantities? But is a loyalty card the best way to understand what makes your customers tick and to get them coming back for more? Great price, great quality, great service…these are all valuable assets which a company can offer to encourage more customer loyalty. At the same time, ever more advanced CRM systems help to build customer relationships and promote loyalty. And, of course, market research offers, amongst other things, market segmentation techniques and customer satisfaction studies to better understand and meet the needs of your various clients.
More information on ways to improve customer loyalty can be found in our white papers:
Posted in
Segmentation, Customer Satisfaction |
Comments:
None Yet »
|
