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Doyle Research provides us with insight-laden reports in a format that we can readily use. Drew Arnold, Consumer Research, Humana |
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By Kathy Doyle & Thomas Malkin
I met Tom Malkin, President of GeeYee, in the fall of 2008 at a conference I was speaking at. He was my first real introduction to the idea of social media as a business tool. Yes, I was on Facebook, but that’s not what Tom was talking about. He was talking about tapping into the vast quantities of data available for the taking, and using them to inform business decisions.
The growing importance of the U.S. Hispanic market represents an enormous opportunity for a segmented target marketing approach, and qualitative research in the form of focus groups is the ideal first step in acquiring in-depth knowledge about the Hispanic consumer.
In the history of man, childhood as a distinct stage of life is a relatively recent notion. Children as a distinct consumer market is an even more recent concept. Before the baby boom came along, there was no market for children's products and services to speak of. Today, children aged 4 to 12 influence more than $165 billion in spending in the U.S., and some say this is a conservative estimate.
A considerable amount of research is being conducted among the youth population today, a population that creates a unique set of responsibilities for the researcher. According to ESOMAR’s Guidelines on Interviewing Children and Young People, “The welfare of the children and young people themselves is the overriding consideration-they must not be disturbed or harmed by the experience of being interviewed.” This is the point of view we take when approaching a market research project involving children.
The world of marketing has grown up.
As has become evident over the past few years, manufacturers of products ranging from candy bars to computers and cars, and businesses from quick service restaurants to four-star resorts have recognized the dollar power of the youth market…kids, tweens and teens. Whether they are spending their own money on chips and soda or swaying parents’ decisions on where to vacation, their impact on the corporate bottom line continues to grow.
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