Journals

The Need for Competitive Intelligence in a Recession

Global competitors never stop their Strategic Planning and Competitive Monitoring In any recession, companies may be tempted to believe that their competitors have “shut down” their Market Research and Competitive Intelligence budgets. While corporate budgets are cut, there are ways that companies can continue their competitive monitoring during the year and the next few years … Read more

Automotive Sensor Market Research

Automotive Sensor Market Research   Automotive systems are getting smarter with each passing day. The evolution and inventions for the advanced systems powered by a growing automotive market of Europe are increasing at a high pace. Sensors today define a new wave of automotive comfort and advanced technology. The European automotive sensor industry is in … Read more

White Paper: Which Comes first: Demand or Supply?

By Dmitry Shimanov, General Director of MAR Consult Research Agency
Also accessible on SIS Worldwide Intelligence A famous economic law says: “Demand determines supply”. Is this really true?

Regular consumers take this assumption for granted. In today’s market, however, this law requires further revision and clarification. At first, supply determines demand and only then does demand begin to expand the amount of supply.

Book Review: “Hey Whipple Squeeze This”

As part of our series of marketing-related books, we have reviewed Luke Sullivan’s book “Hey Whipple Squeeze This.” While focused on advertising, the book delves into solving problems and understanding consumers. Likewise, it can be applied to other areas of marketing services. We have structured this review on interesting concepts on which the author focused.

Brainstorming
Sullivan asserts the value in posing the problem as a question. One of our favorite quotes in the book was when Sullivan stated, “A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” By focusing on the question, people can facilitate the brainstorming process.

Large-scale Research for Small Companies

By Dmitry Shimanov, General Director of MAR Consult Research Agency
Also accessible on SIS Worldwide Intelligence Library. One of the common mistakes existing in business circles is that marketing research is necessary only for large companies. As a matter of fact, small businesses require it as much as transnational corporations.
Why? Here are four reasons.

First, in order to expand market share, small companies need to find a suitable niche. This is why market analysis and SWOT analysis of competitors will be required. Second, small companies deal with extreme pressure of competition. They have to keep hold of every client, and to do so, complete information on consumers is necessary (from social and demographic features to psychographic portrait).

Book Review: “Truth, Lies & Advertising”

As part of our series of marketing book reviews, we have recently reviewed Jon Steel’s “Truth, Lies and Advertising: the Art of Account Planning.” While focused on advertising, the book’s content can feasibly be applied to other branches of marketing services. In particular, we were eager to read its perspective on market research in Advertising campaigns.

Steel’s goal is to propose a new model of advertising based on the complexity of people and their emotions. The model incorporates a partnership of stakeholders in an advertising campaign:

  • client’s business perspective
  • agency’s creative perspective
  • opinions and prejudices of the people at whom advertising is aimed; In other words, the consumer needs to be probed for insecurities, motivations, habits, prejudices

The Nigerian Market: Culture’s effect on Business

Culture can be simply defined as a way of life of people in a particular society. In a broad term, culture is a configuration of learned behaviour whose component elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular community. People from the same cultural background have common trait, ideology, norms, belief, value system, consumption pattern, speak same language and use same currency. Different cultures show a tremendous spectrum of diversity in how a society perceives either a product, idea or service as well as what its members expect.