Business Superbrands

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According to the latest annual Business Superbrands Top 500 survey, Microsoft has risen three places in the rankings to take this year’s top spot, knocking I.T. rival Google down to number 5 in the process.

The survey, compiled by The Centre for Brand Analysis (TCBA), takes an initial list of 1,200 brands, of which 500 are shortlisted by a panel of 25 branding and marketing experts. More than 1,700 business professionals then rate each of the 500 shortlisted brands before results are combined and a final ranking is assigned.

Rolls-Royce maintained its second place ranking, and Blackberry (42nd place in 2009) and Virgin Atlantic were strong climbers to complete the top 5 Superbrands this year.

Hotel chain Premier Inn was the biggest grower overall, moving up from number 437 to 240. Insurance company Aviva also rose impressively, from 315 to 144.

The full Top Ten is shown below:

Posted in Branding, Business, Corporate Positioning, Information Technology |
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Always Different, Always the Same

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In this week’s Thursday Night Insight, Oliver Truman ponders whether being unique and innovative is always something we should strive for.

Plagiarism. It’s a word loaded with negative connotations, but we’d all have to admit to indulging in a little copying in our time.

It’s often said that the majority of popular music is highly derivative. To pick one trite example, only a few weeks ago, a music rights company successfully brought legal action against the 1980s antipodean pop behemoths Men At Work for “stealing” the signature flute riff of the song from a copyrighted nursery rhyme penned many decades ago by an Australian primary school teacher. And only the other day, the shuffle function on my mp3 player threw up another lawsuit-in-the-making: The Jam track Set The House Ablaze was immediately followed by Helicopter by Bloc Party – The guitar refrain in both songs being almost exactly the same to the note. I cannot imagine Paul Weller ever assenting to his work being used in this way.

We know from a lot of our work in the education sector that plagiarism is a particularly hot topic – New GCSE specifications being introduced this year will do away with many of the coursework elements of courses in an effort to curb the problem of copying from the Internet and drawing on parental help. In its place, pupils must complete assignments under “controlled assessment” conditions – effectively an exam in a classroom. In the consultation work we’ve done with the teaching profession in the run up to the new GCSEs, doubts have been voiced as to whether this focus on “cheating” is at the expense of encouraging children to be creative.

In the higher education sector, of course, ensuring plagiarism doesn’t take hold is crucially important to the vitality of intellectual thought and the academic process – and this rigour is instilled right from the very start at undergraduate level. Universities are actively seeking to use electronic systems of submission of students’ assignments so that all work handed in can be automatically verified using automated systems.

Looked at another way, though, plagiarism is possibly best seen as the flipside of the insatiable human desire for true innovation. Anything that is very obviously the same as something else is railed against – Not just because it might have been appropriated without someone else’s permission, but also because of the “oh no, not that again!” effect. And attempting to be genuinely different is the perennial challenge laid at the feet of marketers (and by extension, market researchers).

Taking all elements of the marketing mix – price, product, place and promotion – market research is often seen as the gateway to addressing how a company can position each of these uniquely against its competitors. But as all the best ideas are thought of – it could be argued that the room to innovate is closing.

From a price perspective – The supermarkets provide no better example of the way in which cost can be eliminated as a genuine differentiator. The shopping comparison site Mysupermarket demonstrates this amply. A simple search for virtually any branded product reveals that all the major players have pricing (promotions excluded) that is nigh-on identical. A few months ago, Sainsbury’s even ran a national print media campaign highlighting the fact that the products shown “Look the same… and cost the same”. And I thought price fixing was illegal(!).

Taking promotion as another example – a lot of the segmentation work we do is with a view to addressing the common needs of like-minded customers with effective, targeted and relevant marketing and service. This is a laudable ideal, and an approach we’d naturally endorse. However, segmentations only work if they’re usable and it’s here that our obsession with always doing “something different” can come unstuck.

When segments are awkwardly labelled, indistinct from each other in the real world and where there’s too many of them, an “innovative” approach soon becomes an unworkable one. Something far less glamorous, tried-and-tested but, crucially, actionable is the one that sometimes needs to win out. In other words, it’s sometimes better to be roughly right, than precisely wrong.

So what’s my conclusion in this innovative/conservative debate? I’m going to shirk out of this one, I’m afraid, and go for something non-committal by returning to the theme of music. I’ll leave you with the words of the late John Peel who, in describing one of my favourite bands, The Fall, concluded they were “always different, always the same”. Awkwardly for us market researchers, we have to be both too…

Posted in Education Research, Oliver Truman, Plagiarism, Thursday Night Insight |
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Research Energises VPhase Product Expansion

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Environmental issues have undeniably come to the fore in recent years. Topics such as carbon emissions, waste reduction and energy conservation are now a central part of the political and commercial agenda in every country. Whilst this trend has created its own unique set of financial pressures for businesses and householders alike, it also represents a major opportunity for companies to develop products and services that can help.

VPhase, part of the Energetix Group, has developed an energy-saving device for domestic premises, which uses the concept of voltage optimisation to significantly reduce electricity costs for householders. By “smoothing” fluctuations and lowering output voltage moderately, the VPhase unit delivers typical cost savings of 17% on fridges and freezers, and 15% on lighting. All of this is achieved using a compact device that can be installed at minimal cost and requires no change in consumer behaviour.

Although voltage optimisation has been used in industrial settings for many years, adapting the technology for use in the home is a significant development. VPhase has made significant inroads in bringing the product to market in the UK, and has teamed with British Gas and Scottish and Southern Energy to offer the technology to their customers. Moreover, VPhase has recently begun selling the VPhase unit directly to householders and the trade.

Given the success of the unit in the UK, VPhase naturally wished to explore opportunities for introducing the device to the European market. Business-to-business market research specialist B2B International was commissioned to conduct a Europe-wide market assessment exercise, designed to appraise the size and nature of the opportunity for selling the product more widely. The research used a combination of extensive desk research and in-depth expert interviews with parties responsible for marketing and distributing energy efficiency products right across the continent.

Results found that there was significant groundswell amongst consumers for taking energy efficiency measures in their homes and that the promise of pain-free, consistent savings in both electricity use and CO2 emissions was especially valuable. The research also revealed that Northern European countries, with higher relative electricity costs, greater average consumption of electricity, and supportive governmental incentives for adopting energy efficiency measures, were especially attractive for launching the product.

B2B International’s research manager Oliver Truman, who directed the project, believes that the positive reaction to VPhase is indicative of a wider shift in attitudes towards environmental products: “We found that it wasn’t just publicly-funded energy efficiency bodies that showed enthusiasm for the product. The commercial sector, particularly large utility companies, have embraced the energy efficiency agenda whole-heartedly and were keen to learn more about what the VPhase product could do. So long as the energy-saving benefits of a product like VPhase are proven and well-communicated, consumers can rationally see the virtues of making an investment in energy efficiency”.

Lee Juby, CEO of VPhase, said: “The principles of voltage optimisation have been delivering energy savings to industrial and commercial buildings for many years. VPhase brings these savings to the home. I am looking forward to rolling out VPhase to many millions of customers across Europe”.

Posted in Environment, Europe, Green Products, Product Development, VPhase |
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Market Research Across Europe

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Recently released figures from mainland Europe show that some parts of the European market research industry found 2009 to be a difficult year.

Market research revenues in Germany fell by 5% last year, according to figures provided by 151 German agencies to industry publication Context – the total revenue of those taking part amounting to €2.08 billion.

According to Context, fewer agencies agreed to provide figures for 2009 than did for 2008, probably because of disappointing results. Of the agencies that did take part, 54% reported a fall in revenue and 17% saw a rise.

In spite of staff cuts at many agencies, the total number of permanent employees in the German market research industry was actually up overall – yet revenue per employee was down for the third year running.

Meanwhile, in the Czech Republic, market research revenues were estimated to be down 4% last year, according to industry association Simar. Based on preliminary figures from 22 research agencies in the country, 2009 total revenue was put at Kc2.2 billion (£73.2 million).

Brighter news for 2010, though, with predictions that the industry will return to 2008 levels (Kc2.3 billion or £76.6 million). Most agencies surveyed expect their revenues this year to be the same or higher than they were in 2009.

Posted in Credit Crunch, Economic Crisis, Economic Recovery, Market Research |
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Buying Into Love

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With many of us celebrating Valentine’s Day over the weekend, Simi Dhawan explains how, like all successful marketing, this event tries to tap into people’s fundamental needs and desires.

Across the globe, February 14th marks a special unity between individuals on numerous levels. For some, cards, flowers, chocolates and various other adornments are offered to partners and spouses as a gesture signifying their unwavering love for one another. For others, this national ‘holiday’ (which isn’t actually a holiday, let’s be honest) unites a sub-culture of individuals who would gladly take up watching paint dry as sport over entertaining this commercial frippery. So where on Earth (let’s remain within familiar parameters) was this tradition born?

Legend has it that St. Valentine (our customarily crowned patron saint of love) reacted to Roman Emperor Claudius II ruling that soldiers were to remain unmarried in a bid to keep them better focused. Our now hailed St. Valentine nobly (and romantically) defied Claudius’ demands by marrying some of the aforementioned young soldiers in secret, only to be later discovered by the emperor and imprisoned as a consequence. Whilst in prison (and clearly without much else to think about in the way of daily activity), St. Valentine fell deeply in love with his jailor’s blind daughter who often visited him there and in doing so, helped soften the ill-fate which was soon to meet him – his tragic death sentence. Shortly before this ominous moment, history was forever-changed when he sent a letter to his secret love signed ‘from your Valentine’ – the letter which would thereon be remembered as the first ‘Valentine’ in history all the way back in….wait for it….. A.D. 270….!

Today, centuries later, greetings cards have now replaced the traditional love letter, with an estimated 1 billion cards being sent each year (ranking in at second place after Christmas). Valentine’s Day is a universal event which is certainly not exclusive to one part of the world. It transcends ages and cultures. It is global consumer populations who buy into this profit-making love affair year in and year out. Country masses of devoted followers (possibly deluded under Cupid’s spell) loosen their purse-strings/wallet-chains much to the delectation of multiple industry beneficiaries. We’re not simply talking about florists, card and confectionary shops, but also restaurants, bars, cinemas, jewellers, producers and sellers of romantic goods, love songs and movies, beauty salons who pamper and preen many hopefuls (both in love and looking for love), various hotel chains and airlines who benefit from increased bookings of romantic trips away and………….well ok, you get the idea. The point is, there’s money in this and as much as the cynics (erm..us singletons) try to bury our heads in the sand and talk about ANYTHING BUT our ‘Valentine’s Plans’ (thank you colleagues, friends and family – oh and my hairdresser), it is nothing short of remarkable that love helps keep the economy going (at least momentarily)….or put another way, we ‘buy into love’.

Love it or hate it (and the theory is that there is a thin line between the two for those claiming the latter), Valentine’s Day is every marketer’s playpen. Its success is founded upon the very fact that it sells to the ultimate in people’s needs and vulnerabilities….the need for love and all the security it brings. Aptly described as a ‘Humanistic Psychologist’, Abraham Maslow knew only too well the multi-faceted emotional and physical desires that collectively make up the human condition. He clearly defined these within his ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ as shown below:

For Maslow, our basic (or intrinsic) needs at the bottom of the pyramid are the physical needs we require for survival from birth, whilst rising up his model, our needs become more emotional and sophisticated where we must successfully meet all of those listed at each level to ultimately progress to the top and reach an eventual state of happiness and fulfillment known as ‘self-actualization’.

In the same way, businesses everywhere (in fundamentally appreciating the fact that they are selling to humans not robots) do vigorously attempt to tap into the needs of both their market and the individuals which make up that market. In fact, just thinking about the nature of any business or personal relationship, there is always a rudimentary transaction which takes place – financial or emotional, and each is reliant on understanding your recipients’ needs. Taken further, we could even argue that in introducing and thus ‘selling’ us his theory, Maslow himself was a chief marketer!

Following this lesson, there is rarely a week that passes in our UK office when a colleague does not openly share a new marketing item or ‘gimmick’ that they have received from a company which seeks to promote its products or services – be it the white chocolate plaques with elegantly printed company images marked on the front (they did make for a divine mid-morning snack!) or a kick-off-2010 diary book planner (that was wasted on me – I’m personally a bigger fan of my ‘Office Outlook’, thanks very much), companies will try every which angle – the quirkier the better, to grab people’s attention. If there was a surefire way to increase profits through such ploys, then we would all be doing it. However, quite like Maslow’s slightly ambiguous pyramid journey, people’s needs and consequently market needs are always changing, and so this is a game where precise rules do not exist and cannot be learned, but one where you throw the dice and then make calculated, strategic moves based on the options available to you at any given time, in any given place (of work).

Pleasingly, this year was no exception, and whilst February 14th is usually solely ‘owned’ by the madness that is ‘Valentine’s Day’, for the first time since 1900, as many of you may have already experienced, it also shared its place with Chinese New Year (‘Kung Hei Fat Choi’ and ‘Xin Nian Kuai Le’ to all by the way!). This I learned of, much to my delight, as I strolled through Manchester city centre last Sunday morning trying frantically to avoid the endless parade of loved-up couples drifting smugly along the sun-filled streets. The sound of Chinese drums and oddly placed fairground rides – including the ‘teacups’ (how quaint) – offered some welcome respite from heart-shaped foil balloons and red rose street sellers (who smiled sympathetically), and whilst this year, Valentine’s Day – as always – ‘sold’ to the masses successfully, I was one very happy customer drawn in by an alternative market route, found ogling instead over the beautiful handcrafted Chinese lanterns which stood stationary whilst I floated away happily into my own world……………………….waiting for the postman to deliver my lost Valentine’s Day card…!

Posted in Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Needs, Promotion, Sales, Simi Dhawan, Strategic Marketing, Thursday Night Insight |
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