Research world
The ESOMAR magazine for marketing intelligence & decision making

Research World stimulates challenging debate on the critical role of research in commerce and society. It brings you the latest developments, research tools, technology and applications to support effective decision making and provokes discussion and debate on controversial issues.

The start of the decade brings with it a few changes to Research World, most notably we will publish 10 issues per year as we merge our November and December magazines into one issue, similar to the July/August Research World. And as of January 2010, all members and subscribers will also have access to an electronic version of Research World in addition to the printed version.

Issue 16 - January 2010

This issue focuses on what the industry has learned from the recession and what 2010 holds for consumers, advertisers and researchers.

Cover Story
Lessons from the recession
Aiding business recovery

Jeff Hunter, director of consumer insights at General Mills, looks at what we have learned about customer preferences and future business strategy.

We are moving towards a more stable economy, but there are still concerns about the impact of high unemployment levels and the availability of cash to invest in business growth. Jeff presents eight observations:

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is still relevant
2. Traditional values still have value
3. We need to source ideas broadly and adapt quickly
4. Innovate
5. Always stay very close to the consumer/customer
6. Be creatively efficient
7. Understand the value proposition and its consequence for the business model
8. Religiously assess what works and does not

Read the full article...

Research Challenge Survival of the fittest Carlos Harding of Ipsos, Eric Salama of Kantar, Robert Philpott of Synovate, Klaus Wübbenhorst of GfK and John Freeland of IRI, discuss the year ahead. 2009 showed that market research isn’t recession-proof with falling budgets, shrinking departments and clients desperate to do more while spending less. Despite this, industry leaders remain positive about the future, but also say that we can continue to expect big changes to come. Read the full article

Hot Topic Faster, better, free…? Amidst the recession, the public is consuming more media content than ever before. Yet media companies have been falling like ninepins in some developed markets. What can advertisers and media companies do about this and how can market research help? One thing that is certain is they will have to make far greater use of market research to survive and thrive. Login or subscribe to read the full article