ESOMAR Member Companies Organize Meeting with Students&Industry Professionals
On October 18, GIPA (Georgian Institute of Public Affairs, School of Social Science), the association ESOMAR and its Georgian member companies, met with Georgian marketing professionals and students.
The participants had an opportunity to find out more about successful research cases conducted by Georgian research companies and to learn of international standards that exist in the field. They also got the chance to listen to the online presentation of invited speaker, Dr. Stephen Needel, and ask him questions.
Keti Javakhisvhili, representative of IPM research, Tako Basilashvili of ACT Georgia, Giorgi Abramishvili of Market Intelligence Caucasus- TNS’ official licensee, and Nino Gogoladze, Managing Director of TV MR GE Nielsen Television Audience Measurements official licensee, all shared their experiences with participants through PowerPoint presentations and Q&A sessions.
Since 1948, ESOMAR has been aiming to promote the value of market and opinion for effective decision-making. ESOMAR is a large organization with 4,900 members in over 130 countries. In Georgia, only 5 companies are members of this association: IPM research, ACT Georgia, Marketing Intelligence Caucasus: TNS’ official licensee, TV MR GE Nielsen Television Audience Measurements official licensee and Research House Georgia. Through industry-specific and thematic conferences, a large pool of publications and best practice guidelines, ESOMAR aims to raise international standards in the field of marketing research. Further, it provides ethical guidance and promotes self-regulation in partnership with a number of associations across the globe.
ESOMAR also helps its members when dealing with legal problems in the countries in which they operate. Nino Gogoladze gave the example of when ESOMAR helped TV MR GE to win a dispute with the Revenue Service of Georgia. The authorities wanted the company to give out information on research participants that, according to ESOMAR GGTAM guidelines, were confidential, thus the association provided strong legal and ethical support for its member company to win the dispute.
Gogoladze also discussed a number of research findings on the TV advertising market this year, presenting a list of the most active companies in terms of placing televised advertisements, which included Bank of Georgia, PSP, Natakhtari, Zedazeni, TBC bank, Geocell, Net Credit, Elit Electronics, Tolia and Magti. The list is especially important for advertising agencies and Georgian broadcasting companies, in order to know who their biggest potential customers are, as well as for companies themselves to know who their main competitors are in terms of promotion and marketing.
Gogoladze went on to present a new project- Internet Audience Measurement system in Georgia, as well as social media reach and average frequency. Facebook was presented as the widest used platform (with 81.46% reach), while the usage of LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest are relatively insignificant in Georgia. This might be important information for digital marketers and advertisers seeking to know which new media platform they should be targeting in order to penetrate the Georgian digital market.
As technology evolves, a large volume of data is gathered on a day-to-day basis. Yet there is still no definitive answer among scientists, researchers or business professionals how to use and analyze this “Big Data” in order to achieve better decisions and make rational strategic business moves.
“Even though large organizations, such as Google, IBM, and SAS, all use Big Data in terms of marketing (when it comes to Google), finance (IBM), info tech (IBM, SAS) and operations (IBM, SAS), using Big Data in research and business operations has its downsides in terms of validity,” said guest speaker Dr. Needel.
“Using Big Data in science in order to conduct successful business operations is not realistic, as in science deterministic behavior is being assumed, while Big Data assumes that there is behavioral consistency or homogeneity of domain,” Dr. Needel said. “Shoppers, for example, are not consistent or homogenous, in fact, they can be irrational; they seek variety and are subject to mood, thus simply having more information does not necessarily guarantee the utility of it. Causality is unclear. It is also unclear in having one data set, according to which characteristic that data should be organized. Big Data does not create its own statistical models; results need to be checked for anomalies and rationality. Further, there are questions with competency as using Big Data has no obvious context for results and data crunching companies do not always have the expertise to interpret,” he added.
The presentation at GIPA also saw a number of Georgia-relevant success cases being presented. Representative of ACT Georgia, Tiko Basilashvili, talked about the successful utilization of research that ACT Georgia carried out for PSP, the Georgian pharmaceutical company, in order to find out why its customers were switching to its competitor, GPC. The research outcomes elicited the need for improvements in customer service, 24-hour service, better organization of physical space, new design of the logo, and better distribution of the products. In the end, PSP was able to successfully bring back its customer base.
IPM research and Market Intelligence Caucasus- TNS’ official licensee- presented new and very impressive techniques and methods of research on the Georgian market. The combined many-year experience of the two companies, combined with innovative techniques and methods of research, creates a new reality on the market, helping businesses to make the right decisions.
Natia Liparteliani