The new ESOMAR global market research industry report for 2011 shows that the industry has now grown to US $31.2 billion in 2010.  

This represents an overall growth  of 5.2% and 2.8% after adjustment for inflation – a significant improvement on 2009 but in line with expectations of economic recovery.

Some of the key highlights of this report include:

• After falls in several regions in 2009, the 2010 growth trends extend across all regions of the world, with the single exception of the Middle East
• Recovery in Latin America is stronger than anticipated; the region reports growth of 20.4% year to year and 13.9% once inflation is taken into account
• The other main emerging regions: Asia Pacific and Africa, welcome less accelerated improvements but nonetheless, still report growth against their 2009 performance (3.5% and 4.3% respectively – after inflation)
• Europe experienced the softest increase globally (3.3% in total and 1% once adjusted for inflation).  However, Europe still does account for the largest share of research spend globally with 42% of the market (based on turnover value)
• North America is still second in terms of research spend (34% = $10,614 million) and growth adjusted for inflation showed net growth of 3.1% in 2010

 For a more detailed look at the figures visit: http://www.esomar.org

B2B International’s Matthew Harrison was one of the expert market researchers to attend Marketing magazine’s annual Greater Insight round table last month.

On the day, Matt brought to the table his thoughts on ensuring success in both developed and developing markets:

Interest in developing markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia has increased rapidly over the past 10 years. This has resulted in market research and intelligence agencies exploring a wider variety of geographies than ever before. This presents challenges throughout the market research process, for field workers, managers and analysts alike.

As is to be expected, different insights arise from one geographical location to the next. A closer look at the critical marketing success factors in the developing and developed worlds provide a good illustration of this…

click here if you would like to read more of Matt’s thoughts, or to see a short video.

With worldwide expenditure on online research predicted to almost treble over the next three years, market research specialist B2B International believes the future is rosy for most online techniques, especially focus groups.

The technological revolution of the past 15 years has led to the rapid development of online data collection methodologies. Of these, the online survey is the most established but, more recently, online focus groups have emerged, making it possible to obtain qualitative information online.

Following similar principles to Internet message boards, the online focus group differs from online surveys in that it allows every participant to see the responses of all of the other respondents and encourages them to respond to these views as well as to the initial question posed by the researcher. In addition, the researcher inserts questions as the discussion develops, in order to probe areas of particular interest, or to gain further information on new topics that participants introduce to the discussion. In this way, online focus groups enable a real-time, dynamic discussion to develop between the researcher and the respondents, just as would be the case with a face-to-face focus group.

Business-to-business market research specialist B2B International has been firmly established in the online research industry since the company’s inception in 1998 and remains one of the forerunners in e-enabled research. B2B International has recently published a comprehensive White Paper – Using Online Focus Groups As A Business-To-Business Research Technique – which gives a balanced assessment of the rationale behind using the online focus group as a research methodology.

The White Paper outlines 13 key reasons to conduct online focus groups:

• Volume of information
• Depth and quality of information
• Reflection time
• Accuracy and granularity
• Inclusiveness
• Honesty of respondents
• Better spread of respondents
• Incorporating different geographies and time zones
• Researching senior respondents
• Participation rates
• Introducing stimulae to the conversation
• Everyone has an equal say
• Client participation

In addition to highlighting the undisputed benefits, B2B International Director Matthew Harrison, author of the White Paper, shares some of the insights that B2B International has learned through the large number of online focus groups it has conducted over the last several years. According to Harrison: “Online focus groups can take place for a defined period of, say, 90 minutes, as with a face-to-face focus group but our experience shows us that online groups are more effective when spread over a period of 2 days, with respondents entering the discussion at different times to suit their convenience. This way, groups generate more considered opinion and a greater volume of information, adding real value to the research.”

However, internet focus groups are not suited to every research project and B2B International is quick to recognise the limitations. These include the fact that certain target audiences – particularly the less web-savvy – are less suited to online groups than others; respondent recruitment can be labour-intensive and expensive; and certain limitations exist with presenting physical stimulae for respondents to touch, feel or smell.

In spite of this, Harrison is optimistic about the future for online focus groups: “There are many reasons why we believe the prominence and effectiveness of online focus groups will increase, but key among them would be convenience and technology. Increasingly busy schedules coupled with the need to speak to respondents all across the world make online focus groups an ever more viable option. Secondly, there will continue to be huge advancements in the capabilities of and familiarity with technology, enabling greater numbers of respondents from all across the world to take part with increasing ease and improved effectiveness.”

To read the white paper in full, please click here.

This month, Campaign magazine published its second Going Global supplement. A number of experts in the field of branding gave us their thoughts on the issues that face those tasked with international branding. One of those experts was B2B International’s very own Paul Hague, who provided some advice for business-to-business marketers taking their promotions to a global audience:

We have all heard of communication gaffes made by regionally focused consumer companies as they attack a wider market. If Rolls-Royce had gone ahead with the branding of their Silver Mist car in Germany, it would have found it was trying to sell Silver Sh*t. Such cultural and linguistic differences are a marketer’s nightmare and they indicate the importance of using research to understand the difference between customers throughout the world.

HSBC has made an effective campaign out of the way different people see the world. In a long-running and highly recognisable series of adverts (particularly noticeable in international airports), they humorously provide examples of how people’s interpretation of the same objects can be vastly different depending on their culture, heritage, education, etc. They demonstrate, if you like, how one man’s meat can be another man’s poison.

All the while, business-to-business marketers have been sitting on the sidelines. They do not have the huge marketing budgets that are required for global campaigns. In fact, $200,000 is likely to be a respectable budget for many an industrial company or division aiming at an international market. With such meagre funds to play with, their communication efforts have been much more targeted and therefore less visible for us to examine and critique.

With an emphasis on below-the-line advertising, business-to-business marketers have focused on anything that gets them close to shaking hands with a potential customer. High on the list are exhibitions, brochures and technical sheets translated into local languages, and, if you’re lucky, a website on which you may just have one or two language options. There is very little attempt made to understand the local culture and to design a promotional campaign that meets local needs.

If marketing budgets are really so small for business-to-business marketers, it may be hard to imagine how they could afford to spend $100,000 on a market research campaign aimed at testing different communications and finding out what works over a wide geographical area. Mind you, the investment in research to establish the principles of what works pays dividends – not only on the current campaign but on all future campaigns.

I encountered a good example a couple of years ago during the concept testing of an advert. Of the seven adverts being tested, the design agency had a clear favourite – a nicely designed ad showing two futuristic-looking heads. However, in what was a huge disappointment to the agency, this particular ad bombed dramatically when tested against the six others among an international group of target customers. Existing and potential customers actually found the ad confusing and felt it portrayed the company as two-faced. Adverts that tested much better were less stylish but they featured the product, or the product plus a person.

A good test for any b2b marketer is to lay out their promotions in front of customers and prospective customers, and ask the following questions:

• What are first reactions to the promotions?
• What are the key things that jump out of the promotions?
• What are the promotions saying to you?
• How would you rate the clarity of the message(s)?
• What are the benefits that are communicated by the promotions?
• How important are these benefits to you?
• How effective are the promotions in terms of being compelling (“stop-ability”), relevance, links to the positioning of the advertiser, and clarity?
• How successful are the promotions in “calling the customer to action”?
• Do respondents think anything is missing from the promotions?
• How clear is it what people should do next, having seen the advert (i.e. how effective are the response mechanisms and instructions)?

Market research isn’t the only measure that can be used to test the effectiveness of promotions. Additional indicators can be quite simple, such as:

• The correlation between the sales of a product and a promotional campaign. However, the long lead times in business-to-business markets seldom show strong links between the two.
• Response mechanisms built into adverts or literature that over time provide feedback on the effectiveness of campaigns.
• Orders taken on an exhibition stand (or, more simply, the number of business cards collected on the stand).
• Feedback to the sales team (and order takers) that a promotion has been seen.

In conclusion, here’s a checklist of questions that business-to-business marketers should consider when addressing global markets:

1. Start with the views of locals – no one knows or understands the market better and their views are always worth listening to. However, be prepared to experiment and be bold, because the best promotions are those that break the mould.
2. Promotions are most effective if they have a single, purposeful proposition. Many promotions are overloaded with too many propositions or they are too clever by half.
3. Promotions that look authoritative, even editorial in style, will be eagerly read by a technical audience.
4. Technicians love facts. Give them loads of them.
5. The product may be boring to some people but it isn’t to the person who is buying or specifying it. Show them the product.
6. Promotions that feature someone from the company are far more believable than those that use actors.
7. People will give a fraction of a second to a promotion (a blink) as they make up their mind whether it is for them or not. Catch their attention with images and visuals at the top of the ad and use them boldly. Use them to draw people into the promotion.
8. Make sure that the images are relevant otherwise the audience will quickly move on. The closer the relevance of the images to the industry and the text, the better.
9. The headline of any promotion needs to be strong and powerful. Many headlines fail by being too long, too complicated or irrelevant. The headline should follow the visual or lead at the top of the ad.
10. When developing a campaign, give it “legs”. Wherever possible, create a connection with parallel or previous campaigns so that there is a link that provides continuity for the audience.