Ruth Stanat

Automotive Sensor Market Research

Automotive Sensor Market Research   Automotive systems are getting smarter with each passing day. The evolution and inventions for the advanced systems powered by a growing automotive market of Europe are increasing at a high pace. Sensors today define a new wave of automotive comfort and advanced technology. The European automotive sensor industry is in … Read more

White Paper: Which Comes first: Demand or Supply?

By Dmitry Shimanov, General Director of MAR Consult Research Agency
Also accessible on SIS Worldwide Intelligence A famous economic law says: “Demand determines supply”. Is this really true?

Regular consumers take this assumption for granted. In today’s market, however, this law requires further revision and clarification. At first, supply determines demand and only then does demand begin to expand the amount of supply.

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.

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

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.

Setting up a Business in Turkey

By Nese Yahya, Managing Director of Expatia

The Legal Framework

 

Starting a business in a new country is challenging, as it is everywhere. As a foreigner if you intend to set up a business in Turkey, you first have to look at and get familiarized with the Foreign Direct Investment Law (No: 4875), which was introduced in Turkey in 2003. The most important principles introduced by this law are those of non-discrimination and equal treatment, as they set the legal framework of the liberal investment environment in Turkey.

According to the Foreign Direct Investment Law, the prerequisites and obligations for establishing a company with foreign capital will be equal to those for local companies. Consequently, the various compulsory permits in the past in founding a company with foreign capital are now eliminated. Companies that are founded with foreign capital as considered by the rules of the Turkish Commercial Code are considered Turkish companies. Therefore, all duties and responsibilities are identical despite the nature of the company’s capital creation.

Additionally, within the new FDI law, there are no rules requiring Turkish participation in the capital or management of a company with foreign capital. A company may be established with 100% foreign capital, and almost all sectors are open to foreign capital. The company establishment procedures have also been simplified to a great extent. Now, with the efficient procedures, a company’s registration and establishment of a company in Turkey can be completed in as little as one day. Companies must submit a standard form at one location and will not need to submit applications to many authorities for approvals. Also, the law provides that it is no longer mandatory to establish either a limited liability company or joint stock company. These all are important points to be taken into consideration by foreign investors who plan to do business in Turkey.

MNP in Saudi Arabia

By Ahmad Al-Assad, Maktoob Research

My wife once told in one of our shopping If we bought this couch I would never ask for anything . The couch was ugly and expensive, but I took my s words literally and was tempted by her promise: not asking for anything else! Well, I should have done more analysis into it. I found out later that my wife meant that she would never ask for anything unless she liked something else!

One of the most important questions in competitive mobile markets if you can keep your mobile number when changing between mobile operators, would you be willing to change. In most surveys, a two-digit percentage of respondents always say yes.

As a result of this incredible potential and competition booster, a technology called: Mobile Number Portability (MNP) came up. MNP enables mobile users to keep their mobile numbers when changing from one mobile network operator to another.

Islamic Banking: Opportunities and Obstacles for the U.S. Financial Industry

The Islamic industry has grown dramatically since the 1960s into a multinational industry with a substantial impact on global finance. This sector largely involves religious (Shari’ah) and cultural norms into its mission, transactions and processes. Intending to promote the public good, Islamic banking forbids usury, interest-based financing and profits from alcohol, tobacco and pornography.

It accounts for more than $250 billion dollars, and has grown at least 10% each year during the past ten years. Supporting this extensive growth is oil windfalls from Islamic countries and the fact that the Islamic population (around 1.5 billion) is growing at one of the fastest paces. Currently, only about 300 Islamic banking institutions and European banks like HSBC and BNP Paribas are already in this market. Growth opportunities abound for these companies, and many Islamic Banks have already listed on the London Stock Exchange. Foreign banks, operating in countries with Muslim populations.

The Islamic banking sector reaches a growing segment of the world’s population that seeks alternative financial services. Furthermore, investments in these banks offer some protection from global financial shocks. For instance, Islamic banks were unaffected by the financial shock after September 11.

Estimates forecast that Islamic banks could manage as much as half of all Muslims’ individual savings worldwide in a decade. The industry also caters to a large number of high net worth individuals (HNWIs) given the prosperity in the Gulf region and provide financing to large-scale construction projects in emerging markets. Not only could it possibly give foreign banks a larger reach into the Islamic world and exposure to large deposits in Gulf countries, but also it conceivably opens them to Muslim communities in their own respective countries.