Paper presented at Esomar Qualitative Conference 2010. The presentation covered the area of "how go away from brand preconceptions for multinational brands".

1. Qualitative 2010
Foresight on moods and thoughts
Barcelona / 16 - 18 November
Everything’s global, nothing’s really global!
Webinar 02.12.2010

3. Global brands expanded…

4. Global assumptions on
local consumers

5. Today the consumer is different
He/she doesn’t just listen anymore to
the brand and welcome the stories it has to tell
He/she has/wants to play an active role
He/she interprets the brand
wants to be a partner of the brand itself,
in changing its shape and substance

6. How can the new consumer relate
to global brand needs?

7. The case: situation
Italian spirits market is showing a slight drop overall in the last 2/3
years
Aperitifs, vodkas and rums are the only growing categories,
mainly thanks to an increasing trend of mixable drinks
Brand X market keeps on decreasing year after year and “Brand
X” is one of the few brands that still over performs, although it is
showing slight dropping signals in the last year
“Brand X” has a strong brand image, a good spontaneous brand
awareness and a well distinctive positioning
However it seems to face a recruiting problem maybe linked to a
loss of relevance and appeal to its core users 18-34 y.o, which in the
short/medium term can start hindering the growth path

8. The main research objective…
What of the 5 global core values at local level
The state of the art of the local relationship

9. Spirit market is gaining
volumes, but is the
specific segment of the
brand failing? “Brand X” has a
strong brand
image but a lack
of relevance?
The core target
of the brand is
becoming the
weakest one?

10. what we immediately understood
Too linear approach could have risked not
to catch the real issues behind

11. What the Client specifically asked
A mix of qual/quant approach
Web interaction
Creativity and Innovation

12. Our objectives
“few moves” to build a “research
system” capable of diving into the
local consumer, his own life, language
and the way he interprets the brand
itself.
meeting at the same time the need to…

13. Our objectives
meeting at the same time the need to…
identify the stereotypes of the “globalized” view of the
brand,  to move forward and deeper
 helping the target to escape the “iron bars” of those
stereotypes …
 …leading them to emit signals, mainly the weak
ones, less conscious, caged but emotionally stronger
IN THE END..
to give the global team keys and findings,
comparable throughout all the countries involved,
nevertheless very peculiar, detailed and
definitively consistent with the local market
reality, thinking and specific values

14. So our keywords:
no trade-offs
qual & quant; quick & deep; offline & online
immersion
behaviours and use of the language inspired us
more than answers to questions

15. Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis1: if we understand which of our values people
have, we can ride them communicating our brand values
Understand local
values, their hierarchy,
Assess brand from..
perceptions
local expressions
…to
Portion of values to be covered by
the brand locally Hypothesis2: if we understand how global brand values are
interpreted and the brand “grids”, we can leverage on it
Understand how
brand values are
locally interpreted
and relevance
Local brand values
+
to locally activate
Understand reported
brand image

16.  We became
friends by:
 -Open Listening
-Spending time
 together
-Dialoging
?

17. Open Listening
T@LK, a proprietary tool of quantilitative technique: to a sample of
300 respondents we asked open ended questions using qualitative
projectives via CAWI interviews.
Using validated qualitative projective we let the consumer speak
about their feelings on the brand and the product, their
experiences, the typical target by using recalls, stories and
images.
Verbatims were analyzed with Statistical analysis of texts and
qualitative interpretation: people language and the semantic
segments emerged, allowed to understand the “hidden content”,
beyond the needs, perception and evaluation explicitly expressed

18. 67%
Brand/category icons
Bottle bung waiting make_old
advertising scene years pull wood
old winery firm grassland desert
11%
A calm place to stay
Fireplace sofa fire fun
cigar warm place
A sunset beverage company sip
22% Landscape bar sit sunset
The words are the most important in identifying clusters (chi-squared)

19. Fun seeker
Fun new people night life moment
2
12%
ready want intense accompany
dynamic easy nice
Upper side of the map identifies
Enjoy the life local brand interpretations, far
Life older prefer quality young chat from brand image (below)
12%
2 usually sit company discotheque
reflexive watching living
Open balanced
14%
2 Particular calm different reflective
taste chat determined nice
Coinesseur
Ice neat drunk rock alcoholic
drink normal tough 2
13%
coinesseur taste discoteque Rough guy
Cocktail elegant real_men 2
12% Strong beard wild Resolute
robust taste flavor Resolute strong
determined
2
15% The gentleman personality taste
2
23% Glass_in_hand years man not fat nor beautiful
thin consumer distinctive drinker mix
The words are the most important in identifying clusters (chi-squared)

20. Spending time together
Ethnographic to understand how the brand and its
observations  competitors lived the experienced and
perception during the evenings of the
interviewed people.
pure observation and follow-up
conversations put at disposal
rich insights and allowed to
gather motivations behind
what we observed.

22. Dialoging
Discussion
To generate local marketing activities
groups  and branded events, with a direct
involvement of brand lovers and
“simple” consumers.
Longwave  online diaries, thanks
to which the consumers were able to
supply multimedia material (photos,
movie clips, music) that describe their
way of expressing the brand at its best.

23. Hi all! In this discussion we’ll speak of
independency […] how would you describe the
independency of ‘BrandX’?

24. Results

25. A huge number of brand interpretations emerged, which
were then classified into the 5 core values plus others
GLOBAL VALUE1
Rude
Masculine
Rough
Self-confident
GLOBAL VALUE2
Determined
Responsible
Conscious
A self-made man Any possible route of
Leader
Arrived GLOBAL VALU3 those brand
Robust, against every storm
Knows how to do things interpretations for a
GLOBAL VALUE4
Always the same
Cares of its roots
new engagement?
GLOBAL VALUE5
Honest/Doesn’t tell you lies
Authentic
Of substance
Sincere
Within us
Intimate sharing
Well known Co-generation
Well considered/someone which others ask
OTHER VALUES
Outstanding
Unique
Different
Excellence
Of quality
Relaxed
Smooth

26. Client’s actions after the research
Key Learning: no real
engagement between
the category and the
younger target, mainly
due to the focus on
product, its origin vs
consumer needs and
lives
MKTG said : “More
than before we need
to transcend the
category in all
activities and
communication being
«Brand X» more than
a spirit”

27. Client’s actions after the research
Key Learning: The Brand is
a respected brand but
perceived as too ‘ego-
referred’/ distant for a lot of
target people
MKTG said: we need to
inject warmth and a
contemporary state to the
brand
•Key role of BTL activities
and Radio/digital in media
mix
•Values like irony and
fraternity to be leveraged
for engagement

28. Conclusions
T@lk and ethnographics had quickly how the consumer gives back his own
and effectively given us back the “interior feelings” of the brand and the
measure and the form of the product, through the way he speaks and
engagement of the consumer lives it
t@lk the collection and the
measurement of the areas of
engagement + mind cages of the global
brand image
ethnographics the brand in the
context of the occasion, competition
consumer life The groups’ interaction had dived
deeply into the world of values of
the local consumers, where they
meet the global brand values for
generating marketing options.

29. Conclusions
The consumer is no longer as easy to understand, catch and track as he used to be 
research necessarily needs to move forward.
One possible direction: moving toward the consumer himself , trying to
take out insights from his real life, behaviors and way of interpreting global brands.
Using technology
Cogenerating
Mashing qual and quant
Observing more than asking

30. Is the brand still the actor?
It’s maybe more the stage-set
or the scene designer!

31. Is the researcher still super-partes?
Why don’t we try to engage
respondents ? Why not be a friend?