Rob Klingensmith, Chief Strategic Officer of Marcel Worldwide, worked with mindswarms to collect consumer insights in 5 different countries for Luxottica, makers of the world’s iconic Ray-Ban and Perso brands. He discovered mobile video surveys are redefining global qual, opening doors for companies to efficiently and affordably test foreign markets.
In The Past
Up until relatively recently, global qualitative research was out of reach for a lot of companies and occasions. Yet, many companies are looking to expand globally and have very little understanding of how their products or services may fare in foreign markets. Historically, executing a global qualitative research study in multiple countries could run companies anywhere from US $300,000 to US $600,000, making it cost-prohibitive for a lot of businesses. In addition, global qualitative research could often take at least three months, and even six months or more, to complete. The result is that global qualitative research was not even a realistic option for many companies and/or research occasions.
A New Frontier
Mobile video surveys allow a broader range of companies access to global qualitative research, quickly getting feedback from consumers around the world, in their native language, in situ. In addition, mobile video surveys’ flexibility enables global research to be applied to a wide variety of occasions from early stage need-finding in R&D through prototype testing, packaging testing, and all the way into marketing and advertising
Methodology
- On assignment with Luxottica in Italy – makers of some of the world’s most iconic eyewear brands like Ray-Ban and Persol – Marcel Worldwide needed to gather insight on attitudes towards the different brands, globally. Based in France, Marcel Worldwide’s Chief Strategic Officer – Rob Klingensmith – had a specific list of countries he needed to gather consumer insight from. He was also faced with a very tight timeline in order to inform Marcel’s upcoming campaign.
- Rob’s team worked closely with mindswarms to identify the right type of consumer in five countries around the world. Each respondent was asked to respond in their native language to seven survey questions via mobile video. Those responses, translated by a dedicated project manager, were fed back to Marcel Worldwide where the study helped shape the creative brief and key messaging platform.
Luckily I knew about mindswarms from my days in San Francisco when they were a start-up. There would have been no other way to get global qual insights in time to inform our work, with the budget we had.
~ Rob Klingensmith, Chief Strategic Officer
The insights that Marcel Worldwide gathered not only created the foundation for their work across multiple brands, but also helped the client feel more confident in the messaging. Thanks to mobile video, the clients could literally see for themselves that the messaging was addressing real consumer insight versus speculation gathered anecdotally through organic internal channels. Marcel Worldwide reaped the benefits of this innovative method, and they see it as a paradigm shift that opens up so many possibilities for the future.
I’ve been in this business over 15 years. Mobile video surveys have dramatically changed the way we think about global qual; it’s not just for special occasions anymore. And global qual is not just the province of only the elite brands and companies with deep pockets.
~ Rob Klingensmith, Chief Strategic Officer