Official Newsletter of The Research Pacific Group
Issue #2 2009
Greetings to all from The Research Pacific Group!
This is the second issue of our e-news since we re-launched it a few weeks back; if you missed the 1st issue and would like to see it please click here.
New Operations Head for Singapore
This issue’s CEO commentary…….”The aging China we rarely hear about”
We recently renewed for two more years our lease for the central Singapore offices we occupy. At the same time we took the opportunity to review our use of the space. The result is that we now have a new open plan area for our research and client service team, which although a bit ‘tight’ as is common in most Asian cities where rents are so high, is configured to encourage better teamwork and communications. We also have a more spacious area for our expanded IT team including a better chilled environment for our expanded server setup.
Of more direct impact on our clients, we have;
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increased our CATI call centre to 15 positions, all enabled with web access and automatic audio recording;
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renovated our Consumer Insight studio, which now offers relaxed lounge style seating for respondents, expanded viewing for on-site clients and web viewing for remote clients.
| CATI Room | FGD Viewing Room | |||
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| FGD Room (Moderator View) | FGD Room (Entrance View) | |||
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Business levels in India have been such that our Management team had barely the time to breathe recently, but here too lease renewal got minds focused! The result has been that we have now expanded to a second additional floor in our central New Delhi offices. This has enabled us to create new space for the expanding research team as well as improved and more comfortable client meeting spaces.
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Additionally we have now implemented a CATI centre for [mainly]
B2Bcalling and mystery shopping [see below] as well as upscale
consumer calling. Presently with 15 stations the facility is expandable when needed; all 15 stations are equipped with hi-speed wireless internet connection and automated voice loggers (that digitally record the entire interview from the moment the call is started to the time it is terminated); Running on Odin by NIPO [like all our other Research Pacific CATI hubs], New Delhi runs either ‘standalone’ for its own local Indian client surveys, or can be run off our central server in Singapore for regional surveys. [And a few notes about CATI in India]: Many western clients assume, [because they read so much about ‘Indian call centres’ in their own media], that CATI is commonplace (there) in India; Actually it is still not at all commonly used although increasing; Most ‘call centres’ one reads of are handling none MR work like order processing and credit checks, and the ones which are handling (none) non MR work are mainly not handling India-centric work but overseas 'cost-shifting' work. |
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CATI as understood by most western clients is still pretty limited in India because of several factors:-
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For consumer research it is still far from being truly useful; Sampling - whether it involves B2C or B2B calling - is a huge problem. Households telephone ownership is by no means universal although it has witnessed a sharp increase in the last decade because of the entry of private service providers. This however has created other problems such as lack of full connectivity across providers, absence of a single common business/commercial or residential telephone directory, non-availability of service provider wise directories etc; Even if one restricts the survey to telephone owning households getting access to the right respondents is difficult and can indeed be fraught with danger - as an MR agency that tried to call and invite newly married housewives to a hotel for a "group discussion" - found out!
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Many businesses are reluctant to tie up their phone lines in non-productive activities like surveys; Indian businesses also tend to have a very top-down management culture with multiple ‘gate keepers’ blocking calls to even middle management levels. Finally given the multiplicity of languages which may be needed for national wide B2B or B2C study, [quite possibly 12 or more] it is virtually impossible to find interviewers for all of the languages in any one city. And then there are other "minor" problems like absence of computer fonts of many Indian languages!
So why then do we now have CATI one might ask?
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for B2B one of our main applications is mystery shopping; we regularly call to auto dealers, and to various service providers using a specially trained team; We currently are conducting such studies for several of India’s leading domestic and foreign JV auto marketers, with dealer test calls [and f2f test visits] now numbering in the thousands annually
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for general B2B we are able to complete samples with adequate coverage when clients accept it will take longer in India to get the same level of achievement, and preferably, when it is list based or when the screening isn’t overly complex. It will not work with senior respondents to whom personal visits need to be made, but middle and technical levels we are finding increasingly receptive to the idea;
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Research Pacific India does also now have a team of well trained B2C callers for such work, but we find it works best when list based and the client ID is open, e.g. customer satisfaction and so forth, rather than blind random calling which is still very very hard.
New Operations Head for Singapore
We recently appointed Ronald Low as Head of Operations in Singapore local market. Ronald holds both a Diploma in Business Studies [Personnel and Administration] from Ngee Ann Polytechnic and a BSc [Business and Management Studies] from University of Bradford.
Prior to joining TRPG late last year he had close to ten years of experience in several local market research companies whereby he was exposed to quantitative as well as qualitative methods.
Ronald brings a significant depth of professional understanding to the position along with the people skills needed in tough labour market like Singapore.
This issue’s CEO commentary…….”The aging China we rarely hear about”
If you ask most western marketers what country in Asia has an aging population demographic, to the extent that a significant market exists for 'silver' goods and services, the usual response will be 'Japan'; Even if probed for a second country few will say 'China'.
In fact China represents a significant opportunity too.
In many ways the 'aging curve' in China is steeper and can be considered from a social POV more serious than Japan's.
Why?
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The Japanese, and Japanese marketers, have to a great extent been planning for this since many years. And, even if the country is short of nurses [who are also aging!] there is a fairly viable 'elderly care' infrastructure in place and a not bad overall health care system. And Japanese manufacturers have been bringing a wide range of new, and adapted existing, products to their 'silver' clientele for several years already.
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China however faces a totally different dynamic. Whereas at the end of the 1960's the 'average' Chinese female had birthed 6.2 children, by 1979 this was reduced to 1.7, and a few years later even lower due to a decade plus of ruthless enforcement of the 'one child' policy.
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By 2050 or even sooner by some estimates, 30% of China's population will be 65+ [the official definition of ‘elderly’].
Of course the Chinese Government is well aware of the issue which is one reason why there is a major effort on to invest more in the rickety health care system [beyond the top few cities] and to address the serious deficiencies in the pension schemes. [Past Government thinking had far too long remained rooted in the Confucian; Families took care of their elderly, the State didn’t need to worry too much];
Not only fewer children, but rural to urban migration patterns of the last decade of the ones who exists, have shown this isn’t the solution any longer.
From a marketing POV there are also huge opportunities in this aging sector;
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Savings rates are among the highest in the world; According to some economists as high as 45%, certainly close to 40%;
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Traditionally after taking care of the next generation's education, these funds were kept for old age & medical care etc. Only the small proportion of really wealthy 'indulged' in other expenditures;
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While we see that savings will continue to remain high for many years to come we also see that as the Chinese Government does indeed fix aspects of pensions and also improves healthcare access in even rural areas, the 'silver' generation will feel more comfortable about spending for themselves on goods and services.
Few Chinese marketers seem ready for this. Beyond the pharmaceutical industry few if any signs of recognition of even the existence of this market can be found! And the few attempts at advertising to this sector we have seen have been clumsy and kitchy at best.
Many opportunities still await marketers in China; add the 'silver generation' to the list.
For more information please contact us at respac@respac.com or view our website at www.respac.com