Internet users are spending increasing amounts of time on social networking sites, cultivating and expanding their online relationships. They are creating profiles, communicating and interacting with other network members. The information and opinion exchanges on social networking sites influence consumer decisions, making social networks an interesting platform
for companies. By monitoring social networks, companies are able to gain knowledge about network members which is relevant for marketing purposes, so that by introducing the appropriate marketing measures, they can influence the market environment. The multiplicity and versatility of the information in tandem with the complexity of human behavior exhibited on social networks is posing new challenges for marketing. The present contribution illustrates how market research can assist marketing on social networks. In the first instance, it describes the potential benefits inherent in analyzing the information obtained from social networks, such as profiles, friendships and networking, for identifying and forecasting product
preferences, advertising effectiveness, purchasing behavior and opinion dissemination. In the second instance, it discusses the opportunities and risks of marketing measures such as advertising, word-of-mouth marketing and direct marketing, on social networks. In each part, insights obtained from literature are summarized and research questions of relevance
to consumer research are derived.

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Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Media use in Europe

3. Preferences for TV genres

4. Preferences for radio programmes

5. Preferences for sections in periodicals

6. Preferences for sections in newspapers

7. Preferences for internet applications

8. Mobile phone applications

9. Cinema admissions

10. Reading books

11. Willingness to go without media

12. Results and outlook

13. Research method

14. Socio-demographic characteristics

15. Duration of media use

16. Biographical lifeworlds

Sources

Description

The European Consumer Study produced by GfK-Nürnberg e.V. provides annual information on fundamental trends relating to behaviour among private consumers in the European Union and also among 142 million Russian consumers. The eight EU member countries included in this study represent around 75% of total consumers among the near 500 million inhabitants in the 27 EU Member States (cf. Eurostat 2009a). The representative group of 14, 15 and 16 year olds or older relevant for empirical studies of this kind comprises a total of 438 million private consumers in these eight European countries and Russia.

Media in modern societies fulfil a multiple function: they create openness in the shape of public opinion and are expected to safeguard its diversity. For citizens and consumers, media establish contact with the world beyond the directly tangible social lifeworlds in their families, education and careers. Needless to say, media also convey advertising messages.

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Table of contents

1. Introduction
2. Method overview
2.1 Preferences and decision-making
2.2 Conjoint methods at a glance
2.3 Overview of ACBC
2.4 Overview of HILCA
3. Study specification
4. Results
4.1 Internal validity across Holdout Tasks
4.2 Spread of relative levels of importance
4.3 Validity of measuring non-compensatory buying behaviour
4.4 Monotonies
4.5 Perception of the interviews conducted
4.6 Interview time
4.7 Conclusion
Annex
Sources

Description

Knowing all about customer preferences is an essential prerequisite for the success of products or services, because it is the only way in which an optimal arrangement of products and services can be established. This is one of the most important parameters of the marketing mix. In recent years the measurement of customer preferences has made significant progress. An important step in this came with the development of the HILCA method (Wildner et al, 2006) by GfK Association in collaboration with Ansgar Hölscher (McKinsey) and Professor Markus Voeth (University of Hohenheim). HILCA validly measures preferences for products with many attributes, provides information on purchase decisions and tracks the natural purchase-decision process.

Sawtooth Software, in cooperation with leading academic figures, has spent the last five years developing the new ACBC (Adaptive Choice Based Conjoint) approach (Sawtooth Software 2009). The new process has been available for commercial users, along with its corresponding software, since March 2009. This process displays various parallels with HILCA and has received a great many plaudits at an early stage.

At present, different processes often exhibit specific strengths and weaknesses. In order to obtain the specific strengths and weaknesses of HILCA in comparison with ACBC, a method test was conducted to compare both processes. The result provides a general suitability profile which also allows measures to be derived in order to further maintain the HILCA instrument’s competitiveness.

Another undoubtedly positive effect is the benefit GfK derives in terms of experience and knowledge. The comparative study makes GfK one of the few institutes which can demonstrate early project experience with this new instrument.

This paper first presents a short overview of the state of the art within the conjoint field by focussing on the two methods, namely HILCA and ACBC. This is followed by a description of the study’s structure and a comparison of both processes with the help of assorted criteria.

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Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Brand orientation in Europe

2.1 Overall brand orientation

2.2 Individual values and brand orientation

3. Brand orientation when buying selected products

3.1 “I always make a point of buying the same brand”

3.2 “I always choose from several brands in the shop”

3.3 “In all cases I choose the cheapest from among several brands”

3.4 “I always buy the cheapest product”

4. Brand orientation and commercial structures

5. Results and outlook

6. Research method

7. Socio-demographic characteristics

8. Product-specific brand orientation: non-purchasers

9. Biographical lifeworlds

Sources

Description

The European Consumer Study produced by GfK-Nürnberg e.V. provides annual information on fundamental trends relating to behaviour among private consumers in the European Union and, since 2005, among 143 million inhabitants in Russia. The eight EU member countries included in this study represent around 75% of total consumers among the 495 million inhabitants in the 27 EU Member States (cf. Eurostat 2008a). The representative group of 14, 15 and 16 year olds or older relevant for empirical studies of this kind comprises a total of 426 million private consumers in these eight European countries and Russia.

For all nine countries the latest results are also analysed in terms of differences within biographical lifeworlds (cf. GfK-Nürnberg e.V. 2005a; cf. Chapter 9). The development of consumer attitudes specifically among middle-class people is of key importance for private consumption in all developed societies. Together, today‘s proportion of lower, middle and upper middle-class people in all nine survey countries stands at 48%. The highest such proportion of people is recorded in the Netherlands, at 66%; Poland and Russia register the lowest proportions, at 33 and 34% respectively (cf. Kleining 2007a). Generally speaking, the middle classes worldwide might be described as the driving forces in the process of social and economic change – including with regard to the manner of consumption and brand orientation (cf. GfK-Nürnberg e.V. 2008a).

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Table of contents

1 Introduction

1.1 Selected basic indicators within the context of changing v

1.1.1 Population and age structure

1.1.2 Economic output

1.1.3 Human Development Index (HDI)

1.1.4 Corruption Index and Gini Coefficient

1.1.5 Urbanisation

2 General trends in global changing values

3 Changing values in individual countries

3.1 Argentina
3.2 Brazil
3.3 Mexico
3.4 Poland
3.5 Russia
3.6 China
3.7 India
3.8 Japan
3.9 South Korea
3.10 Australia
3.11 Canada
3.12 USA
3.13 Great Britain
3.14 Germany (west)
3.15 Germany (east)

4. Dimensions of national cultures

4.1 Power distance

4.2 Individualism

4.3 Masculinity versus femininity

4.4 Uncertainty avoidance

4.5 Long-term versus short-term orientation

5 GfK Roper Consumer Styles

5.1 Value orientations and consumer preferences

5.2 Distribution in the individual countries

6 Creative work, open-mindedness and Internet use

7 Conclusion

8 Research method

Sources

Description

The World Value Survey (WVS) is a social-science enterprise with the established aim of monitoring changing values in assorted countries around the world. The World Value Survey, which conducted its founding survey in 1981, now carries out representative surveys in just under 80 assorted countries on all continents, from Nigeria via China and India through to Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, North America, Australia and New Zealand. Assorted value ranges are surveyed on the basis of the assumption that people everywhere in all countries of the world, regardless of their level of development, are able to report something in this regard based on their own experience of life. At the heart of this lie attitudes to religion, people’s aims when bringing up children, gender roles, the relation to the environment and nature, attitudes to human rights and to democracy, the relation between market and state, and much more (cf. Inglehart/Welzel 2005).

The scope of the World Value Survey is illustrated in Figure 1. Countries coloured orange and dark blue are the ones in which at least one survey has been conducted in the last 30 years. The number of countries in which a series of surveys has been conducted over time is somewhat smaller. As a result, there is a period of 25 to 27 years – roughly corresponding to one generation in most countries – in which it is possible to observe what has changed in that time.

The current situation (2006/2007) regarding global changing values is illustrated perfectly by the example of the following 16 countries:

• Sweden
• Australia
• Canada
• USA
• Germany
• Great Britain
• Japan
• Mexico
• Poland
• Russia
• Brazil
• South Korea
• Argentina
• China
• India
• Indonesia

The ranking order here corresponds to the respective country’s position in terms of “creative work” , starting with Sweden in first place and ending with Indonesia in 16th spot. Many African and Arabic states display even lower index values for this core indicator of changing values (cf. Inglehart/Welzel 2005 / cf. Cap. 2).

Alongside Western core countries for changing values such as Sweden, Great Britain, Germany and the USA, this selection encompasses societies in transition from the former Eastern Bloc like Russia and Poland, emerging markets like Brazil, Mexico and China, Asia’s traditional industrial powerhouse, namely Japan, and the world’s largest majority-Islamic state, Indonesia, which has a population of 226 million inhabitants.

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Table of contents

The Image of Germans in Germany and in Europe
1. Introduction
2. Frequency of visits to Germany and proficiency in German
3. What personal ties are there with Germany and the Germans? 3.1 What personal ties are there with people in Germany?
3.1.1 Order, industriousness and dependability
3.1.2 Kindly and benign people
3.1.3 Arrogance and “gloom and doom”
3.1.4 Efficiency and wealth
3.1.5 Grim and serious people
3.2 What personal ties are there with Germany as a country?
3.2.1 World War II and National Socialism
3.2.2 An economic power and trading partner
3.2.3 A neighbour and partner in Europe
3.2.4 Made in Germany
3.2.5 German food
3.2.6 Places of interest in Germany
3.2.7 Economic, social, and political problems
3.2.8 Welfare state and democracy
3.2.9 Events in recent German history
3.2.10 Football and sport
4. Characteristics of Germans
4.1 Conscientiousness
4.2 Tolerance
4.3 Openness and positivity
4.4 Criticism of others and diffidence
5. Results and outlook
6. Research methods
Sources

Description

From 2 June to 3 October 2006, the National Museum of German Art and Culture in Nuremberg will be hosting a one-off cultural and historical exhibition on the issue of “What is German?”. Five subject fields, “Aspiration”, “Belief”, “Fatherland”, “Spirit” and “Character”, provide the framework for presenting reflections on this topic. Further details about this exhibition can be found on the exhibition website: www.was-ist-deutsch.info. A slightly modified version of the following report is also featured in the exhibition catalogue, under the title of “What is German? Questions regarding how a brooding nation sees itself”, published by the National Museum of German Art and Culture.

GfK-Nürnberg e.V., in collaboration with the National Museum of German Art and Culture, conducted a survey in early 2006. This set out to make an empirical contribution to the subject field of “Character” for this exhibition of things German. Along with Germany, the survey was also conducted in France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Turkey. The survey was less about investigating attributions of popular character in the narrower sense, but instead more a matter of forming a picture of the perceptions which people in Germany have about themselves and their country more than 60 years on from the end of World War II and sixteen years since German reunification. This self-perception was then contrasted with outside perceptions, i.e. the image which people in other European countries have of the Germans. After all, such images are invariably construed as the norm and shape people’s thinking and attitudes towards members of a society – consciously and subconsciously (cf. Kleining 1963).

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Table of contents

1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

2. REQUIREMENTS OF MODERN BRAND MANAGEMENT

3. DEVELOPING BRAND PERSONALITY

4. BRAND PERSONALITY MEASUREMENT BASIS

5. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE BRAND PERSONALITY GAMEBOARD
5.1. Expecations of the Brand Personality Gameboard
5.2. Reference to archetypes from Greek mythology
5.3. The Brand Personality Gameboard and its 13 personality characteristics
5.4. Classification of brands within the Brand Personality Gameboard
5.5. Relevance of brand personality

6. USE OF THE BRAND PERSONALITY GAMEBOARD IN ORDER TO SELECT ADVERTISING PARTNERS
6.1. BASIC PERSON-SPECIFIC CONDITIONS: FAME, LIKEABILITY, AUTHENTICITY
6.2. FACTORS SPECIFIC TO PRODUCT SEGMENTS: PLAUSIBILITY FOR THE PRODUCT CATEGORY
6.2.1 Product category: confectionery
6.2.2 Product category: soft drinks
6.2.3 Product category: beer
6.2.4 Product category: automobiles
6.2.5 Product category: banking and insurance
6.2.6. Summary

6.3. COHERENCE BETWEEN BRAND AND CELEBRITY
6.3.1 Kellogg’s and the Klitschko brothers
6.3.2 Haribo and Gottschalk
6.3.3 Müller Froop and Daniel Küblböck
6.3.4 Bonaqa and Johannes B. Kerner
6.3.5 Krombacher and Günther Jauch
6.3.6 Krombacher and Rudi Völler
6.3.7 Mercedes Benz and Mario Adorf
6.3.8 Deutsche Bank and Franz Beckenbauer
6.3.9 Sparkasse and Rudi Völler

7. SUMMARY