Wishing to deter Greenwashing

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In his first Thursday Night Insight piece earlier this year, Nick Hague underlined how important it is nowadays for companies – whether consumer or business-to-business organisations – to take green issues seriously.  Yet in his Differentiation Through Being Green article, he warns against the dangers of ‘greenwashing’ – that is to say deliberately misleading customers about your environmental credentials.

An article spotted in British newspaper The Guardian last week showed that Nick is not alone in his assessment. This article talks about MTV’s new global marketing push to tackle climate change, which includes a TV ad attacking businesses that are guilty of greenwashing.

With the launch of this campaign targeted at 15- to 25-year-olds, MTV urges corporations to make their lifestyle greener by "speaking to young people in their own language".

One of the campaign’s TV adverts features an animated character singing a humourous ‘green song’ about how to identify ‘false greens’, by talking about businesses and politicians who choose to ‘paint’ their policies green.  The character encourages viewers to remain alert to environmental practices and to take action themselves in their everyday lives.

As Nick highlighted, environmental issues allow companies the opportunity to differentiate themselves from the competition, but should not be used purely as a marketing gimmick.  Protecting our environment is a serious subject and deserves to be treated as such.

Posted in Commercials, Environment, Nick Hague, Branding |
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Economic storm in a teacup?

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In a week of undoubted economic turmoil across the globe – and in particular for American and European markets – Alaric Fairbanks, General Manager of B2B International’s Beijing office, gives us a timely analysis of how things are shaping up in China.

Over the last few months and particularly days, many of the conversations I’ve had with friends and colleagues in the UK and Europe have, at some point, unsurprisingly centred around the seemingly never-ending series of crises affecting the major economies of the West: credit crunch, fuel prices, Northern Rock, Wall Street Crisis, I could go on.  So how do things seem in China? Is the pessimism that I sense being felt in the business community here?

Firstly, let’s have a very brief look at overall economic forecasts: this week the Asian Development Bank adjusted its forecast for economic growth in China in 2009 downwards, by 0.3%. There are a number of factors behind this, including, of course, decreased demand in export markets resulting in a reduced trade surplus, increased production costs, an increase in the value of the renminbi and rising commodity prices. Bear in mind, however, that this reduced growth forecast for next year still stands at 9.5%. A slowdown, maybe, but the economy is still developing at a rapid rate.

Taking into account this backdrop, how are things on the ground? Recently we conducted the first British Business Climate Survey for China with the British Chamber of Commerce. 17% of members were represented, ranging from large multi-nationals with years of experience in this market to newly established branches of SMEs. Whilst there were some issues, such as a lack of transparency, regulation and availability of appropriately skilled staff, the overall outlook was extremely positive, with over 80% being somewhat or very positive about both the business environment and their own companies’ performance in both the short and medium term. Possibly the strongest indication of this is that 54% of respondents stated that they will definitely invest further in China within the next three years.

It could be that those running Western businesses in China are all natural optimists: how else could you cope with the ambiguities, constant change and minor frustrations that confront us every day? I don’t think this is the case, however. You may say, come on then, can you come up with any other evidence that this apparent optimism is justified?

Well, yes I think I can: exports from the UK in the first eight months of this year stood at over £1.6 billion, which is a 50% increase on the same period last year (UK Office of National Statistics). All this in a market that has been the UK’s fastest growing export market since 2002. For us in the service industry, we can point to the fact that services exports to China are in the UK’s favour, at around £1.5 billion last year. The confidence is also borne out by the amount of British investment in China, which stands at over £7 billion, making the UK the largest single investor from the EU in China.

It is worth pointing out, however, that not all business shares the confidence, with those involved in export and sourcing already feeling the pinch. This also applies to domestic, particularly in lower value-added industries such as textiles, which are already operating on wafer thin margins, and certainly feeling the downturn in their existing markets, and there are reports of factory closures, especially in Guangdong and Zhejiang. And I am not saying that no other companies here will face problems; some undoubtedly will.

In general, however, I think – as I hope I have shown – the economy, although not without its pitfalls, is worthy of the confidence shown. And B2B International? – Well put us with the 54% of UK companies I pointed to earlier, as we are moving to bigger and better premises before the year end.

Posted in Credit Crunch, China, Recession, Market Intelligence, Thursday Night Insight, Alaric Fairbanks, Market Research China |
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Be strategic and be smart

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At the moment, it feels like the global economy hits a new low almost every day.  Massive financial institutions go into administration, established global airlines go bust, redundancies are on the rise…  Most people, and the companies they work for, are understandably facing the future with more than a little trepidation.

Last month, Carol-Ann Morgan’s contribution to our Thursday Night Insight series commented on why challenging times bring changing market research needs.

In it, Carol-Ann recognized that, while economic difficulties may bring obvious challenges, the answer often lies in best utilizing your budget to give yourself a competitive advantage.  This could be anything from a re-allocation of marketing spend to the commissioning of a piece of market research in order to spot new opportunities that your competitors might shy away from presently.  Whilst a little more caution than in recent times is perhaps prudent, Carol-Ann summarized that the worst thing you can do when times are hard is nothing.

It would appear that Bob Liodice of the Association of National Advertisers would agree.  In an article appearing in BtoB Magazine, the ANA’s president-CEO comments that: "Historically, marketing budgets are among the first to be cut in a budget crunch, but marketers should be cautious about trying to find a quick fix.  Marketers need to make far smarter decisions about marketing investments than ever before and, hopefully, influence CEOs and CFOs to not cut as drastically as before. Marketers need to invest strategically and tactically to make sure their brands remain strong. When marketers do increase spending and do it in the right way, they can gain share of market."  

Liodice’s comments were made in response to a recent ANA survey, which found that more that half of all U.S. advertisers questioned expect their advertising budgets to be reduced over the coming six months as a result of the tough economic climate.

To read the article in full, please click here

Posted in Commercials, Recession, Carol Ann Morgan, Branding, Advertising Research |
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Speak Dog To Get On

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"Around 10 years ago, on a cold and snowy Boxing Day, I went hiking with my brother and his wife…", writes Paul Hague in his latest Thursday Night Insight post.

"Our starting point was a remote part of the Peak District.  We had only been walking for around half an hour when out of a forest ran a boxer dog puppy.  The dog had no collar; it was thin and scrawny and ravenously hungry.  To cut a long story short I inherited the dog and Alfie (as he was named by me) has become my shadow.

As a relative newcomer to dogs I became interested in communicating with him and bought a book called How To Speak Dog by Stanley Coren. Quite clearly doggy language is very different to French and Greek in that there are very few words – in fact, speaking dog is all about body language. 

One important communication device for a dog is its tail.  A wagging tail is an obvious sign of pleasure and happiness.  The tail between the legs indicates that the dog is crestfallen or sad.  Alfie had virtually no tail.  Whoever had bred him had docked his tail virtually clean off soon after he was born (by the way, this is illegal now).  This meant that when Alfie greeted other dogs, they found it difficult to read him.  His one inch stump would work like mad but this was not obvious to his canine friends.  As a result, he has had trouble socialising – his would-be mates cannot work out what he is saying.

Now the point of my story is that Alfie awoke in me an interest in body language.  After all, to be crude about it, we ourselves are only animals – something we forget just because we slip on a pair of jeans and a shirt each day.  In the 100,000 years of human-kind’s existence, we began a crude form of grunting language 50,000 years ago and modern speech is possibly no more than 30,000 years old.  This probably explains why, when we talk to people, around a half of the communication comes from body language, just over a third comes from the tone of our voice and only 10% comes from what we actually say!  We are still communicating like our animal cousins!

If this is the case then surely we should be paying far more attention to body language.  You would think that alongside the English lessons at school there would be a body language class.  And yet this is an area where we are left to fend for ourselves.  Not surprisingly, some of us are better than others, and those with a generous dose of X chromosomes seem to have the best body language antennae. 

As market researchers it is our responsibility to find out what is going on, and we do this principally through words in questionnaires and interviews.  How much more could we learn by observing body language?  The clues are always right underneath our noses - in people’s eyes, their hands, their facial expressions, and their tapping legs.  By the way, when someone rubs their nose, beware, because although this is a strong signal that they are telling a lie, they could simply have an itchy snitch.

And look at some non-verbal signs beyond body language. The car that someone drives makes a huge statement; their watch is carefully chosen and reflects strongly on their personality; the newspaper they read tells us far more about their social beliefs than 10 clever questions.  We seem to pass these issues by and yet surely they offer evidence on values and behaviour, perhaps much more believable evidence than the words that people use.

So, my insight tonight is hopefully clear - learn to speak dog and you will become better at listening to and understanding your fellow humans.

Posted in Communication, Paul Hague, Thursday Night Insight, Market Research |
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An Organised Mess?

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We market researchers often have to deal with all sorts of information being thrown at us from all directions.

Where it’s statistical tabulations of the latest survey we’ve just run, a briefing document from a client, or the latest report on the Tanzanian mining market - the amount of paper on the average researcher’s desk can be astonishing.

Even in a digital age, where document management systems aim to keep us better organised, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the paperless office was, and probably still is, a pipedream.

Even so, academics reckon that a moderate degree of desktop disorganisation may actually be a good thing. The following article from the Financial Times highlights some experiences that will be familiar to many:

In defence of the messy workstation
By Rhymer Rigby

Anthony Alderson, director of the Pleasance theatre company in London is the first to admit his desk is a mess: "We can’t all be neat, and my desk is a pigsty" he says. "Some people need to be organised but I’m not one of them . . . Really it’s about need - and I don’t need to find these things. If I have to get in contact with someone, I’ll find them.’

Since about the time of Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management , published in 1911, and his championing of the idea that every minute should count, there has been an assumption in most organisations that an orderly workstation is better. But is this really the case?

Eric Abrahamson, Professor of Management at Columbia Business School and author of a new book A Perfect Mess , says: "There is a sweet spot between complete order and complete disorder. What you have to remember is that there is a cost to order. If you stop to tidy up every time something becomes disordered you’ll continually interrupt yourself and never get any work done. But on the other hand, if you’re a complete mess you’ll never find anything."

Ian Smalley, creative director of corporate digital communications agency CTN, is a believer in just that sort of messy medium.

The perimeter of his desk is delineated by towers of paper: "I have a relatively big desk so as long as there is elbow room, things tend to pile up, even if some of them do date back to 2004."

But his main reason for untidiness is lack of time to tidy: "It is a busy environment and at the end of the day, while all confidential documents are shredded and recycled, I want to leave and see my son, not file bits of paper."

He adds: "I can get a professional-looking desk by doing a ‘five-minute tidy’ where I straighten all the piles of paper up if I need to."

Prof Abrahamson says messy desks can be good: "People with a moderate amount of mess usually have everything to hand." Leaving a mess on your desk can often work creatively too: "Mess puts items in context and the unexpected juxtapositions of unrelated items can cause you to make connections that you’d never make if the things were in two separate filing cabinets."

There are even economies of scale: "One trip to clean 10 coffee cups is much more efficient that 10 trips to clean one."

Messy desks have some celebrated advocates. Barack Obama recently allowed that he might have a messy desk; Nobel prize winner Robert Fogel dealt with the issue by buying a second desk; and Einstein famously asked: "If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, then what is an empty desk?"

Yet many people still believe untidy desks belong to slobs, whose disorganisation will make them unsatisfactory as colleagues and employees. Prof Abrahamson cites one chief executive who has two offices - one with a pristine desk where he receives visitors and one with the chaotic desk at which he works.

The messy desk has a vitual version. Not only is there the messy desktop, but PCs’ powerful search abilities enable us to have clutter on a hard drive. If a computer can search thousands of documents and e-mails within minutes or even seconds, why bother organising the information properly? Arguably, onedownside of the virtual mess is that, by being less visible, it increases the likelihood of being careless, say, with laptops containing personal data.

Many companies take a stand against workstation disorder, but they say it is for pragmatic reasons. Richard Jordan, head of employer brand at Ernst & Young, the accountancy firm, says: "We have a flexible desk policy as a lot of people work out at clients. For them having a permanent desk is a waste of space," and therefore they share a desk where personal clutter is kept to a minimum. Others insist on absence of clutter for compliance reasons.

Even those who have messy desks have sporadic clear-ups. "My desk gets a guaranteed deep tidy at key points of year such as when I go on holiday or we have a recycling drive,’ says Mr Smalley. "When you’re going off for two weeks, tidying your desk gives you a nice sense of closure."

The point where chaos is unacceptable may be when the desk becomes a health hazard. With more people snatching lunch at their desks, the workstation can be a haven for germs. Mr Smalley says that while he doesn’t mind mess, he is not so keen on grime: "I do clean my keyboard - if you eat at your desk, they can get pretty horrible."

Meanwhile, at Mr Alderson’s workstation: "The one thing that stops my desk from being disgusting is that I actually like cold coffee."

Perhaps the most compelling defence of the moderately messy desk, says Prof Abrahamson, is that working amid a modest disorder tends to make you more flexible, open to new experiences and better equipped to deal with the unexpected.

Mr Alderson puts it slightly differently: "I don’t need any of this stuff. If the office burnt down tomorrow, it wouldn’t matter that much. I carry the company around in my head."

Posted in Market Research |
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