The Challenge
Global trends shape the world we live in. What are the implications of megatrends for society, business and the economy, now and in the future? And with consumer attitudes having shifted over the last few months - how can brands help consumers navigate their new priorities?
Liveminds recently worked with B2B International to carry out an exciting multi-market project for a leading global tech firm. The aim was to understand cross-cultural opinions and attitudes towards influential global trends to help the brand build a long-term communications strategy.
The client needed to speak to people living in China, Germany, India and the US, who met the following criteria:
- Aged between 20-65, with a 50/50 gender split
- Employed, self-employed or studying
- Completed high school
- Consume news online or via newspapers, apps, tv or radio
- Interested in tech, innovation, news and current affairs, healthcare, healthy eating or lifestyle
The Solution
BEHAVIOURAL RECRUITMENT
The project involved using Behavioural Recruitment to find 80 highly engaged research participants living in China, Germany, India and the US.
Behavioural Recruitment allowed us to hyper-target the right audience based on their daily online activities and genuine interests. We created over 90 different adverts to optimise the campaign by A/B testing imagery, creative and targeting options.
Potential participants were invited to take a full online screener to both validate what the social data had already told us about them and to fill in details specific to this project.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
B2B International used the Liveminds online qual platform for a two-day research project with 80 participants across four markets. The project, presented in the native language of each market, involved 90 minutes of online group discussions.
The agency segmented participants into two age groups (20-35 and 36-65) and invited both groups to share their views and attitudes towards the following trends:
- Employment in an automated world
- Shifts in economic power
- Globalisation
- Digitalisation
- Health and wellbeing
The researchers were looking to validate the relevance of a historical piece of quantitative research post Covid-19. The qualitative approach enabled the researchers to add an extra dimension by identifying how these trends impacted participants and society at large, whether Covid-19 changed their views, and which brands were well positioned to meet and address these trends.
The research activities began by forming an understanding of the megatrend definitions, together with their impact on broader society and individuals through personal stories from participants. The end-client was revealed part way through the discussion. Participants were then asked how the brand might help society to manage the challenges discussed.
By identifying perceptions of the megatrends, the researchers were able to draw reliable and insightful data to highlight where there had been shifts in the importance of megatrends and to enable the end-client to remain relevant in its public-facing communications strategy.
The Results
The research highlighted how consumer attitudes have shifted over the last few months. Comparing opinions across different countries was particularly insightful. At the time of the research, India was under strict lockdown while measures had eased in China and Germany, meaning that the agency was able to identify different attitudes based on the response phase in which the country was in.
B2B International also gained a better understanding of how their client could adapt its global communications strategy to reflect the increasing importance being placed on common factors such as the climate, health & wellbeing and concerns around the future of work. By including different countries, they were further able to identify important localisation issues.
All participants were passionate about news and current affairs, worldwide and local, and actively engaged in open-minded debate. The agency and client were delighted with the feedback they received.
Liveminds did it again! We are regularly impressed with their ability to deliver authentic, engaged, high-quality participants often within a short period of time. This time the project covered four very different countries and the quality of the participants was consistently high. When we partner with Liveminds we’re confident that not only will we reach the desired participant profile, but each participant will be enthusiastic and will complete all elements of the research activity too. Knowing that recruitment is under control frees up more time to develop interesting research materials, such as the guide and activities, and crucially spend more time immersing ourselves in the discussions!Colette Stevens
Research Director, B2B International
