ESOMAR Congress 2 – Evolving Researchers, Emancipated Women
September 17 2007
Papers in the morning sessions at today's ESOMAR Congress looked at 60 years of the development of research within electronics manfacturer Philips; and at the successful repositioning of the sagging SlimFast brand.
In the session 'Broadening Skills / Evolution' Charmian Tardieu of German agency MilesFurther presented a paper with Maarten Schellekens, now of McKinsey & Company and formerly of Philips, in the Netherlands. '60 Years: Then and now: Evolving research from a risk-reducer to a source of inspiration' highlighted the changing nature of the research function with the Dutch electronics giant, as a barometer of change in the industry as a whole. Throughout the period, the speakers said Philips had maintained a reputation for innovation in products, but the relative advancement of their notions of MR in 1950 did not mean things hadn't changed much since.
For starters the function, which now includes advanced concept labs for idea creation, no longer bears the catchy title of the 'Commercial Precalculation and Planning Department'. Admittedly, the upside of this was a direct report into the top man in the company.
Change was summarised as occupying 'seven dimensions', not the signal for a discussion of string theory, but a framework for pulling out the main areas where things had 'evolved'. You'll forgive us if we only picked out six (perhaps the seventh one was 'time' or something - never did understand that in Einstein - Ed.):
- once seen as a support discipline, research is now at the core of Philips' business
- research which once operated on a local scale and informed products for very localised markets, now operates on a global scale, although local needs and differences are not neglected - see the case study below
- the internal clients of 'Commercial Precalculation...' would as the name suggests require answers from research - nowadays, they are very often looking for ideas instead
- a function which was rather detached from the rest of the business, and was perhaps rather technical, is now anchored in understanding of the lives of its consumers
- a discipline that used to focus on scale and numbers is now focused on wanting to understand the unconscious mind - these last two might be linked as representing the rise of qualitative ideas
- where MR was once something delegated, these days the emphasis is on getting senior executives to participate, as the only way of truly sharing in the understanding generated.
As an example of the last, the speakers discussed a case study, the development of a new kind of epilator - that's removal of unsightly hairs. The team conducted research in Turkey and found many of their preconceptions about Muslim women wrong - respondents in fact talked about wanting to feel attractive and liberated in much the same way as women in western countries. Meanwhile a different niche requirement was identified among the strippers of Amsterdam, and Product Managers met with them to discuss their special hair removal needs. Yes - this is Holland we're talking about after all.
The afternoon 'Business Case' session included a talk entitled 'Insight into action: The joy of new confidence' by Catriona Ferris of Unilever, UK; Lyn McGregor of Flamingo International and Millward Brown's Karen Paterson.
The three Scots told a stirring tale of the revival with MR's help of a dying brand, SlimFast. Associated in 1990 with meal replacement products in sachets or tins, and not the proud owner of a good image. To illustrate the extent of the difficulty, the speakers said only 2% of the people they quizzed considered the SlimFast consumer to be 'someone they would like or get along with'. Such a consumer was 'no longer on its own in the corner at a party... it was not even invited to the party'. Meal replacement products were high churn, and the diet market has undergone a number of revolutions in the time since, particularly the idea popularised by the Atkins diet, that people could lose weight without having to suffer, or at least to give up on some very tasty foodstuffs not traditionally associated with diets. In addition, the rise of healthy eating awareness and government programs to promote it has changed the landscape for slimming products. How could SlimFast possibly survive?
Research both qual and quant was conducted, to provide both in-depth understanding of consumers and segmentation of the market. With refreshing simplicity, the speakers focused on just two resulting segments and illustrated them with film clips:
Julie, the 'cover-up' middle-aged mum who tries every diet but doesn't take them seriously; and the oddly named
stretch 10, a woman with kids and a busy working schedule who distracts herself and manages her diet well in the week, but then eats large quantities of pizza at the weekend and spoils everything.
To match the Atkins 'myth' that people could enjoy dieting and still lose weight, a whole new range of more interesting products was produced - soup, cereal bars, smoothies, pretzels - which had nothing to do with milkshake. Redesigned packaging emphasized that slimming could be a pleasurable experience - 'Slim Happy with Slim Fast'.
And the 'Joy of New Confidence' ? Well, sex sells and although this had been an interesting paper in any case, the speakers couldn't resist spicing up the summary of the rebrand results. Not only was the brand now seen as more confident, respondents are telling Unilever their use of SlimFast has made
themmore confident. Indeed, they're 'regaining their sexual identity', getting to their goals, and are 'doing it with the lights on'. Research is often positioned as shedding light on business issues, but clearly, this time it's personal.
The keynote speech from Monday's Congress is covered here. More ESOMAR session summaries will appear later in the week.
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
