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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.

Hungary’s Economic Woes

According to Al Jazeera, Hungary was once the 10th most dynamic economies in the world.  Yet, many multinationals that sought this growth have divested and gone elsewhere, to Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania.  Now the country may become divided on why the economic crisis has turned so sour.

The heating and plumbing business mentioned in the video blamed the left-wing government for its policies.  Another family business which imported soya beans from Latin America is struggling from the Credit Crunch and a lack of liquidity to finance operations.  It made it difficult to pay for the cargo.

The IMF bailed out hungary to prevent economic destablization in the region. More instability may arise due to the social services being cut in order to service debt and lack of liquidity.

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

China, the next wave in Competitive Intelligence?

The China Institute of Competitive Intelligence (CICI) is promoting its 4th Annual Competitive Intelligence International Annual Conference from November 13-15 in Shanghai. Last year, nearly 150 people attended. The China Institute of Competitive Intelligence claims that CI in China is on the rise.

NYU’s Aggressive Globalization Plan

Last year, New York University (NYU) announced an agreement with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to build NYU Abu Dhabi. The research university, with a complete integration of a liberal arts and science college, will be the “first world-class, liberal arts university in the Middle East”.

NYU Abu Dhabi is still underway, with the first formal academic year planned to start on the fall of 2010. NYUAD, which offer NYU B.A. and B.S. degrees, as well as specialized graduate programs, is projected to enroll at least 2,000 undergraduate students and approximately 800 graduate students. The students will be admitted from all over the world, especially the broad Middle East and South Asia.

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.

Book Review: “The Culture Code”

As part of our series of marketing-related books, we have reviewed Clotaire Rappaille’s book “The Culture Code.” In marketing research, Rappaille is known for his style and unique theories on human behavior. He is known for his rejection of the traditional focus group; instead he proposes a 3-hour focus group in which he does unstructured probing of obscure questions to elicit deeply rooted emotions and attitudes. In the book, he talks about how a culture has a code for every concept, and that it is the job of marketers to decode those meanings.

Rapaille lays out 5 central principles that belie his marketing research approach.

The Next Wave in GCC Hospitality

In the June edition of Gulf Business, Mr. Welf Ebeling, EVP and COO of the “Leading Hotels of the World” indicated that while the number of 5 star hotels in Dubai is exploding, the next wave to follow is budget hotels.