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Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category« Previous EntriesFree, new e-book: Advice on growing businessesWednesday, January 30th, 2013  A brand new e-book has just appeared on our website: The Growing Business Handbook (14th Edition) offers inspiration and advice from successful entrepreneurs and fast-growing companies. This practical source of advice and reference is chock full of interesting articles which highlight the latest ideas, techniques and solutions for maximising growth, exploiting and protecting ideas and innovation, and controlling risks. To make it more digestible, we’ve split the 40 or so individual articles into 10 bite-sized chapters… or, for those who are really keen, you can read the entire book in one go! Click here to check it out.. A Question of EmotionsFriday, November 9th, 2012  How do emotions drive the choice of a supplier and how can we measure them? As business-to-business market researchers, we are inclined to believe that decision-making by buyers and specifiers is entirely rational. When has a buyer ever admitted that he or she chooses a supplier saying it’s “because I like them”? When has an engineer ever said that he or she specifies a supplier “because they make me feel important”? They usually tell us that their choice is driven by the quality of the product, the price, the speed of delivery and so on. And yet, many companies have suppliers that have been in place for years and years. Surely there must be something else influencing buying decisions? So what is going on? Maybe we are wrong in believing that the buying decision is entirely rational. We know that emotions play an important part in consumer markets, and we know that people don’t leave their emotions at home when they go to work. How much of the buying decision is influenced by emotions? It is hard to say, but some people argue that it accounts for up to half of the decision—even in traditional business-to-business markets. If we assume that emotions do play a significant role in influencing the buying decision—and perhaps a larger role than we have previously admitted—then we must find some means of measuring this. The brand of a company is where we are likely to find most of the emotional repository because brands create an expectation and expectations carry with them a great deal of hope and promise. This is where emotions come into play. What does this mean for us as market researchers? The starting point is to consider words we can use to measure emotions. Colin Shaw, the author of The DNA Of Customer Experience, suggests twelve positive emotions and eight negative emotions that can drive customer experience. He then places these into four groups which influence actions: advocacy, recommendation, attention, and destruction (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Hierarchy of Emotional Value
 please click on the image to enlarge
We researchers can measure the association that somebody has with these words and a brand to establish where it is strong and weak. In effect, we are generating an “emotional signature” which can be compared with other signatures. In Figure 2 below, the emotional signature for the company is the vertical bars and that of the competitors is the line graph.
Figure 2: Emotional Signature
 please click on the image to enlarge
After years of research in which we have asked thousands of people why they choose certain suppliers, we are convinced that there is a great opportunity for finding out more about the emotional drivers of the buying decision. In doing so, we believe it is possible to gain a great competitive advantage. It will help you improve your customer satisfaction, raise your Net Promoter Score, and build market share. Contact Paul Hague: paulh@b2binternational.com Beware, Your Business Is At Risk!Friday, August 31st, 2012  Recent research by B2B International for Kaspersky Lab shows that protecting against cyber-threats is one of the most important tasks facing all types of businesses (SMEs and Enterprise). Viruses, spam, software vulnerabilities and careless handling of confidential information are just some of the problems faced by IT professionals on a regular basis. A growing problem that was more evident in 2012 is the management of employees accessing the corporate IT infrastructure with their personal mobile devices. In terms of actions that companies can take, increasing the level of computer literacy among staff is an essential along with making sure top management are fully aware of the potential consequences of cyber-threats. Currently only half of the experts in the 2012 survey feel their company is ready to face today’s cyber-threats. To read the report in more detail please visit: About the research: In 2011 Kaspersky Lab, in partnership with B2B International, carried out a survey covering IT professionals working for large and medium-sized businesses. The aim of the survey was to find out what IT specialists thought of corporate security solutions, to ascertain their level of knowledge about current threats, the sort of problems they most often face, their ability to evaluate the risks associated with cyber-threats, etc. A year later, the two companies conducted a similar survey expanding the geography and the number of respondents. This gave us the opportunity not only to assess the situation in the sphere of corporate security in 2012 but also to compare the results with those obtained the previous year and to note the main trends. About Kaspersky Lab: Kaspersky Lab is a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions and was recently named Who is the next China?Monday, May 14th, 2012  China is a phenomenally important player in the world’s economy. The country does, of course, have a reputation as home to much of the world’s low-cost manufacturing, but this is not such an accurate reflection of its economic standing today; increasingly China is moving up the pecking order and shedding its reputation as the world’s workshop. All of which does perhaps beg the question, where will low-value manufacturing go next? Indonesia is one country creating a lot of interest in this regard. With a significant population, growing middle class and relatively stable government, it certainly ticks some of the required boxes, but some concerns persist, such as onerous labour regulations and weak infrastructure. Indeed, one trend that has been noted is for certain countries to carve out certain niches. Bangladesh and Cambodia, for example, are very much establishing themselves in the textile industry. Elsewhere, Vietnam is tipped by some to be the next stop for global supply chains, but others feel it is not living up to its potential for a number of reasons, among them a poor transportation infrastructure, political instability and high inflation. Meanwhile, manufacturing industries in countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, both of which produce a bigger share of sophisticated goods than China (particularly electronics and car parts) could actually find themselves threatened by Chinese manufacturers moving up the value chain – and therefore into their turf. With complex supply chains predicted to continue to fragment across multiple countries, specific industries are expected to gravitate towards countries with comparative advantages in that area. In summary, there is no one clear successor to China, but all Southeast Asian countries together might just stand a chance. — This blog is based on an article first appearing in China Economic Review. To read the article in full, please click here or to learn more about the potential of the Asia Pacific region for your business, visit our website. Research Shows The Impact Teachers Have On ALL Our LivesFriday, January 13th, 2012  A recent study conducted by Harvard University shows the importance of having a good teacher. So much so that the impact can be tracked throughout a student’s life not only from their chances of getting pregnant while they are teenagers but also to the likelihood of them going to University. The study, that was reported in The New York Times, also showed that the quality of your teacher can also affect your future earnings potential as an adult in later life. One economist stated that “by replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by more than $250,000”. Certainly food for thought! To read more about how B2B International can help your educational organisation provide comprehensive answers to many questions and challenges faced either through student satisfaction surveys, staff satisfaction surveys, brand surveys, facility evaluation research or assessment of the impact of central government changes in education then visit our website. « Previous Entries |
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