You'd be Surprised What the Average Kiwi Thinks

April 2008

One of the most frustrating things market researchers will typically face during their careers are those businesspeople who don’t believe that they need market research, because they claim to already know what their current or potential customers think.  Interestingly, these same people who profess to know what thousands of people think are often the first to admit that they don’t understand their spouses or teenage children.  But if they can’t understand the people whom they know better than anyone else, what hope do they have of understanding the real thoughts and attitudes of comparative strangers?

Granted these people will be quick to point out that their relationships with family are more complex than those held with their customers, but again this is where they short-change themselves.  Any researchers will tell you that peoples’ relationships with the goods and services in some categories can certainly share much of the intensity and passion as many interpersonal relationships.

In addition, it is true that much of today’s business growth is based on companies extending into unexpected areas as a result of research that gives license to unprecedented brand expansions. Who would have thought of a baby food company (Gerber) offering life insurance? Harley Davidson aftershave? A Mars Bar ice-cream? Peugeot bicycles? A computer company (Apple) becoming a music store?  All these examples arose from having insights into consumers’ needs and brand relationships that gave credence to business growth strategies which went beyond more baby food flavours, better motorcycles or faster processors.

Many readers may feel that these sentiments are only to be expected of a market researcher who believes in his craft; or that these views don’t apply to their businesses for other reasons – perhaps because they already commission research regularly; or because they have only a small number of customers who they know well.  All three of these contentions are true to an extent, but there always remains room for research to throw up surprises that will have a potential impact upon a company’s performance.

Searching for examples relevant to readers of the National Business Review I uncovered a survey about how consumers around the world define financial success, their attitudes to cash and what actions they take to get more of it.   The survey was conducted by Synovate in January – February 2008, involving over 12,500 interviews in 16 countries.  Being the early days of Synovate’s New Zealand operations there is no local data, but the value is in the message, not the detail.

For example, the anglo-western countries most similar to New Zealand, such as the UK, Australia, Canada and the US all rated a lack of debt as the most important factor in defining financial success. This factor, a ‘lack of debt’, out-ranked more aspirational factors that might be expected to define financial success, such as being able to pay for childrens’ university education; having one’s own home; owning investments in property, bonds or shares; or affording luxuries such as holidays and good cars. 

What does this mean for New Zealand businesspeople, their marketers, advertising agencies or PR staff?  These results demonstrate that not all people aspire to the material, nor consider their success in terms of others quite as much as they once might have.  The Synovate survey was conducted with the US sub-prime crisis well underway and no doubt has caused many people in the affected markets to re-think their priorities and to realise that keeping up the Joneses isn’t so important when the Joneses’ flash cars and houses are being repossessed or subject to mortgagee sales.

This is further demonstrated when examining the definitions of financial success in emerging or struggling markets.  In countries such as India, South Africa, Malaysia, Brazil or Bulgaria, the key definer of financial success was a  more down to earth desire to know that the month’s food and housing can be paid for, or, even better, that there will be a little left over for ‘a rainy day’.

So far, so predictable. The afore-mentioned market research nay-sayers will conclude that these are predictable results and market research isn’t required to make such insights. How then, to explain why consumers within the industrial powerhouse of Germany are also placing the most emphasis on just having enough to get by this month?  Managing Director of Synovate Germany Harald Hasselmann says that this is linked to German values:  "Average Germans rate issues like responsibility, financial independence and career aspirations high on their radar system. So while at first it looks surprising that people in a such a developed economy seem to rate the basics as their top priority, it actually makes total sense that they are sharply focused on providing for the family."

This example proves two things.  Firstly, that expectations can be confounded, and thus so too can business plans which are based on anecdotal insights, stereotypes or blanket assumptions.  Secondly, this demonstrates that without researchers on the ground who can interpret and explain such differences, businesses run real risks of getting it wrong, a la New Coke, Bic perfume, Crystal Pepsi and Boo.com.

It’s important to note that the message behind these examples can be extrapolated to the New Zealand marketplace.  New Zealand society has never been more fragmented, and there is an ever-increasing number of sub-communities and sub-cultures, many of which may as well be completely foreign countries for most businesspeople. As a result, it has never been harder to get a ‘feel’ for New Zealand society as a whole, and businesspeople who think they don’t need market research because they already have a handle on the ‘average New Zealander’ are deluding themselves.

Jonathan Dodd