Aha! Research Blog

Creating Aha! Moments....one at a time

2010-03-04T15:03:00.018+08:00

Learn about the world of market research in Asia, and around the world. Brought to you by Asia's most loved research team. Your right-brain will spurt... Aha!

(All content in this blog has been publicly released by our clients and if not, special permission to use has been granted)

Australian survey reveals strong feelings towards the recent Rugby scandal

2009-05-28T19:30:00.007+08:00

A survey conducted across Australia over the last few days by independent research firm Aha! Research and Toluna (a leading global online panel and survey technology provider) found strong opinions about the recent Cronulla Sharks Sex Scandal which shocked the world of Rugby in Australia and around the globe.

The study revealed that almost two thirds of 18-39 year olds (65%) who are aware of the scandal feel that all those involved in the incident should come forward and admit to their involvement. Females in this age group are more likely to feel this way (68%) than males (62%).

The above views are generally very firmly held with 43% “strongly” agreeing with the statement that “all those involved should come forward and admit to their involvement” and a further 22% “somewhat” agreeing. On the other hand, only approximately 1 in 8 (13%) disagreed, either strongly or somewhat, with the statement.

The survey also found that the Australian population is slightly more divided about whether or not Cronulla Sharks management should name the individuals involved. Almost half (49%) of the survey respondents agreed with the statement that “Cronulla Sharks management should name and shame those involved”, while some 28% disagreed.

There appears to be a strong feeling among younger Australian adults that those involved in the scandal should not leave Mathew John’s on his own to take the rap for the incident. On the other hand, while a significant proportion of this group still feels that Cronulla Sharks management should name those involved, they are slightly more divided on this issue.

About the study:
The study was conducted online among a sample of 330 (18-39 year old) males and females across Australia. Fieldwork took place from 21-26 May utilising Toluna’s Australian panel of some 50,000 double opt-in respondents.

Big Brands Sounds - Content Asia

2009-04-27T18:25:00.004+08:00

Sponsorship of sports, arts, and charitable events has developed into a mainstream marketing activity. What's next? Justifying the expenditure, says Aha! Research managing director, Peter Steyn.

Read the full article

Aha! Research talks about Customer Satistaction with "Asian Hotel & Catering Times"

2009-04-07T11:28:00.009+08:00

In an April 2009 interview with "Asian Hotel & Catering Times", Peter Steyn of Aha! Research talked with Zara Horner about Customer Satisfaction in the Asian hospitality industry.

"Taking full responsibility of client satisfaction and dissatisfaction is the trademark of a successful company", he told Zara. "When consumers of services are let down, serious damage can be done to the company's brand image. This is becoming more critical in the digital age as online word-of-mouth can spread dissatisfaction with the brand around the world to millions in a split second", he said.

"Every economic downtown is followed by economic prosperity. Now is the time to understand current and new customers to be well prepared from the economic recovery". Read the full article

Measuring sponsorship effectiveness in the digital age

2009-03-18T12:02:00.009+08:00

Brand recommendation may be the ultimate yardstick for measuring sponsorship effectiveness in the digital age

Thoughts from the Aha! Research team: This article reports on a research study conducted by Aha! Research (data collection sponsored by Global Market Insite - GMI) about event sponsorship (2008 Beijing Olympic Games) and found that sponsorship can have a positive effect on brand recommendation (a strong driver of future growth) dependant on a corresponding level of sponsorship recognition. Brands with a higher level of sponsorship recognition achieved a higher level of recommendation, whether they were actually sponsors or not. This suggests that measuring brand recommendation in digital social media should be an essential element of measuring the effectiveness of sponsorship on future earnings.

Continue reading article

Investment in Digital Marketing on the rise across Asia Pacific

2009-03-12T13:42:00.001+08:00

Aha! Research recently conducted the 5th annual marketing and advertising industry survey for the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) and found that marketers across Asia Pacific increasingly allocate budget towards digital marketing. More than half of respondents expect to increase their digital spent in 2009 as a direct result of the current global financial crises. The full report will soon be publicly released so please come back for a link to the online report.

Grow your brand with only one measurement tool

2009-03-10T15:38:00.000+08:00

Digital Marketing in Asia: Regional marketing dynamics

2009-03-08T12:19:00.002+08:00

In the recent publicly released report, "Asia Digital Marketing Survey", for Heidrick & Struggles, (the world’s premier provider of senior-level executive search and leadership consulting service) Aha! Research found there is no shortage of interest and intent to explore digital advertising options among senior marketers. Yet, spending has failed to keep pace with the plans. For instance, while marketers in the U.S. and Europe placed upwards of 20-25% of their total advertising budgets on digital channels in 2007-2008, Asia wallowed closer to 10-12%. And while our respondents say they plan to increase digital ad spend to as much as 28% in 2009, evidence of this is spotty at best. Marketers throughout Asia confess only limited comprehension of digital marketing and its inherent benefits. Others say that media planning or creative agencies remain poorly equipped to handle their digital marketing and advertising needs. Continue reading

Characteristics of Serious Bloggers

2009-03-05T14:05:00.005+08:00

Published in Public Relations Quarterly by Aha! Research's Peter Steyn, et al: A recent survey by Aha! Research conducted for Text100 Public Relations, Asia Pacific, found that technology, corporate, and other serious bloggers around Asia Pacific have very specific needs in terms of how they should be contacted by Public Relations (PR) professionals, the contents they prefer, the preferred media for receiving PR content, etc. With the exponential growth in online social media, PR professional and corporate marketing communications people may want to listen carefully to what bloggers want. View report summary on the Text100 website.

Beijing Olympics Sponsorship

2009-03-03T15:33:00.002+08:00

Hong Kong (PRWEB) September 13, 2008 -- A survey conducted by Aha! Research has found that the 2008 Beijing Olympics official sponsors have enjoyed significant benefits as a result of their involvement. Sponsor brands were shown to have experienced higher brand recommendation and brand attitudes compared with non-sponsor brands.

According to estimates, each of the top 12 sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics spent about US$70 million to have their brand associated with this truly global event. Although watched by up to four billion people worldwide, it remains difficult for marketers to assess the impact of sponsorship on their business. Continue reading....

Olympic sponsors’ medal tally - Television Asia PLUS

2008-11-20T13:13:00.000+08:00

Wall Street Journal awards large project to Aha! Research

2008-11-05T12:55:00.002+08:00

Digital Marketing in Asia: Regional marketing dynamics

2008-09-16T12:34:00.008+08:00

According to the findings of the 2008 Heidrick & Struggles’ Asia Digital Marketing Survey conducted by Aha! Research (report publicly released by H&S), there is no shortage of interest and intent to explore digital advertising options. Yet, spending – so far – has failed to keep pace with plan. For instance, while marketers in the U.S. and Europe placed upwards of 20-25% of their total advertising budgets on digital channels in 2007-2008, Asia wallowed closer to 10-12%. And while our survey respondents say they plan to increase digital ad spend to as much as 28% in 2009, evidence of this is spotty at best.
Add to this the uncertainty of the current global economic climate, and the debate heats up as to whether it is best to “go digital” or remain conservatively attached to the more traditional TV, newspaper and outdoor advertising options. In late October, when our survey results were coming in and the scale of the financial crises was dawning, 47% of respondents anticipated that world events would “moderately” impact their 2009 marketing budgets, whereas 27% expected that it would “significantly” affect them.

Funding is not the only thing that has – or could – limit digital ad spend in coming months. Marketers throughout Asia confess only limited comprehension of digital marketing and its inherent benefits. Others say that media planning or creative agencies remain poorly equipped to handle their digital marketing and advertising needs. In other words, 2009 is lining up to be a pivotal year for digital marketing in Asia, where marketers will either get onboard the digital bandwagon and spend in new, innovative, and cost-effective ways, or retreat to the safe – albeit less interactive – TV, radio and print mediums.

Survey Objectives
The objectives of our survey were:

To explore regional marketing dynamics across all sectors as it relates “digital”
To seek an explanation as to why “digital” spend is low relative to total marketing spend in a region where web and mobile penetration is ubiquitous
To collect insights as to how regional “digital” marketing will evolve in coming years specific to investment, tools and key focus areas
To understand the linkage between expected trends in digital marketing and the skills/people required to drive its development

We asked high-ranking marketers around the Asia-Pacific region how they felt about digital media, where their ad spend was flowing, and what – if anything – was holding back investment in digital ad campaigns. While our findings reveal key issues, they have also raised a number of questions, which we hope to unfold for you in the weeks and months ahead.

Survey Results
Heidrick & Struggles and Aha! Research surveyed 92 different firms across a spread of industries. The majority of respondents were employed in the FMCG sector and worked for multinationals with large marketing departments of 50 or more staff in their marketing teams (47%). About one-third (30%) of the sample had a marketing budget exceeding US$40 million a year. The survey sample enjoys very strong geographical or business links to mainland China. With the most Internet users in the world and a burgeoning middle class, China is tipped to continue to be a driver of world growth, even during the current downturn.

In its 2008 Annual Yearbook, the Asia Digital Marketing Association (ADMA) reported that 87 percent of its pan-Asian membership had a marketing budget for digital media. About 15 percent of total ad spend was devoted to digital. It is important to note here that ADMA’s membership represents that portion of the Asia marketing community already sold on digital’s attributes. A more general slice of the marketing community shows that overall knowledge of digital marketing is much lower.

Even so, the proportion of budget devoted to digital is increasing. In 2007, our survey found that 11 percent spent more than a third of their budget online, mainly on display advertising and EDM (Electronic Direct Mail). In 2008, 75 percent of our respondents said their digital budgets would increase. 28 percent of respondents said they would devote a third or more to digital marketing this year.

Overall, digital ad spend was closely linked to prior experience with new media. The more experience our respondents had, the more likely they were to employ digital media in the execution of their ad campaigns.

Prospects For Digital Ad Spend
While the trend line for digital ad spend is on the rise, the current economic distress lends a cautionary note. In times like these, overall marketing budgets tend to shrink. It is difficult to say what impact this will have on digital. If presented as a lower-cost and more accountable channel, there is a chance that digital could trump traditional TV, radio and print as marketers allocate this year’s budgets.

Still, our survey findings suggest that beyond funding, three key issues linger and threaten to hold back widespread digital spend:

A lack of knowledge is preventing marketers from spending on digital. It is our assertion that top-line managers and CEOs fail to grasp the medium’s relevance
The metrics used to measure ROI are convoluted and can be difficult to compare across different campaigns. Ironically, the proven matrix for TV and print are even less reliable than digital given the “non-interactive” nature of these traditional mediums
Large marketing departments lack the in-house talent to deliver and measure a digital campaign. Specialist agencies are the drivers of digital media, and generally provide a standard of work that is well received by their in-house project managers

In The Digital World, Knowledge Is Power
Central to our research is the finding that a company’s leadership is more likely to be involved in digital marketing if they understand how digital media works. The Internet is still a relatively new channel for connecting to consumers, so we understand why some CEOs may not have fully grasped its power. Even so, those leaders, who take the time to understand how it all works, stand to reap the rewards.

The survey revealed three expertise groups among marketing decision makers; The Experienced, The Inexperienced, and The Naïve. About 22 percent of the survey sample said they had either a good or very good understanding of digital marketing. About one third said they enjoyed a “good” level of experience. By far the biggest group was ‘The Naïve’ – a whopping 44 percent of respondents.

When asked why they had not to date spent more on digital marketing, Asia Pacific marketers claimed that budgetary constraints were holding them back. When pressed further, they confessed that without sufficient knowledge and the right skills in place within their organizations, they remained reluctant to take the digital plunge; a situation further compounded by the fact that most marketers felt that agencies – upon whom they depended – also lacked the appropriate digital skills and execution know-how.

So it remains that finding the right people – either internally or externally – is a major hurdle. Digital is at the cutting-edge of marketing. Trying to understand a unique and diverse marketing channel such as digital requires time and commitment. Our findings show that those who have had a uniform positive experience tend to direct more of their budgets towards digital. To back that finding, smaller, younger companies (we define them as firms with less than 50 employees) are significantly more likely to use digital compared to medium or large firms. There is a generational gap at play here as well. The fact remains that a new generation of consumers – the ‘Y Gen’ and the ‘Millennials’ – do not use media in the same way that their parents did, and a new, younger generation of marketers know this. The MySpace generation watches YouTube, not cable TV. They chat on Instant Messenger, not email. If brand managers want to interact with them – and interact is the key word here because you cannot broadcast a message to this generation of consumers – then digital is a key component. On the other end of the spectrum are large, multinational organizations. Our survey suggests – perhaps not surprisingly – that larger budgets and in-house resource breed greater marketing experimentation – particularly in all areas digital. We found that companies in Asia with more than 50 marketing professionals (47% of the survey sample) are more likely to experiment with digital, while those with medium-size budgets and limited autonomy are less inclined to innovate and more inclined to stay in line with status quo marketing mediums.

Marketing In Cyberspace: Mitigating The Risks
Big dreams, hot money, Internet start-up, Internet boom and Internet bust. This is an industry that promises to deliver much but has a chequered past. No wonder many organizations are reluctant to invest.

The survey asks decision-makers why they had not devoted a bigger slice of their ad spend to digital. Many said they doubted the reliability of statistics and measurement metrics used by digital marketers, and questioned the effectiveness of digital marketing over traditional advertising media. Indeed, the metrics used in digital marketing are far from complete. A McKinsey & Company study from June 2008 found a trio of reasons to explain the problem of metrics on the Web; constantly evolving technologies, inconsistent ways of measuring share, and an industry reliance on media models that just do not apply to the Internet. They also found that marketers who effectively plan and understand what it is they are trying to do, and who
target a specific demographic, appears to be highly satisfied with the results of their campaigns. Experience, it seems, rules the day. Is it that seasoned “old media” marketers failed to understand that a range of metrics can be used to measure outcomes online? Is it possible that mature marketers failed to grasp that a TV-style ratings system does not apply online? And if there is a generational divide in Asia’s marketing community, do younger marketers feel that digital is more accountable, and ultimately more effective? In fact, our survey reveals a strong correlation between digitally well-versed marketers and their propensity to depend on Web and mobile channels.

Despite evidence to the contrary, old school marketers hold fast to the idea that traditional marketing offers a better brand impression or returnon- investment. This group holds to the belief that “consumers ignore online advertising”. When we consider that by some estimates, consumers are bombarded with between 245 to 3,000 commercial messages each day, such a position might seem reasonable. In reality, heavy users of Internet, email, mobile phones and other forms of interactive mediums are quite amendable to online advertising. Interactive messages, they say, can be intimate, relevant, and even entertaining. If well-conceived, an engaged consumer remains open to “brand” messages, and that means a higher probability of retention or conversion

Digital Talent In Short Supply
When asked why some marketers resisted the draw to digital, a range of reasons was given. “Most marketers are not equipped with the right skills,” said some. “Finding a good B2B digital agency,” was noted as cause for concern. Still others said: “Getting the right people” and “finding the right expert marketers” remained barriers to new digital investment.

Across the board, one of the greatest weaknesses the survey uncovered was the lack of creative digital skills in the market. Among the survey’s Experienced group, respondents agreed that creative talent was in short supply. They felt that the digital talent required was unlikely to be found within the Asia Pacific marketing community. In its absence, regional marketing organizations say they will continue to look to creative agencies and media buying organizations to provide them with the digital skills and know-how that they require. Indeed, our survey findings suggest a strong correlation between the strength of these vendor-marketer relationships and the subsequent degree to which marketers are inclined to invest in digital media, suggesting once again, that knowledge and trust in this emerging media leads to greater
investment and digital ad spend.

Summary
Make no mistake, digital marketing is on the rise. Even so, Asia Pacific marketers are holding back, largely due to:

A general lack of understanding that prevents decision-makers from investing more
Unease with metrics used to measure today’s digital campaigns
A shortage of skills or lack of confidence sufficient to create successful digital marketing campaigns.

The key to all these problems is education. Marketers owe it to themselves and their brands to explore the diverse opportunities that digital provides. Research also shows that without support and patronage from an organization’s senior-most executives, digital investment lags.

The point is, like all things, consumer tastes, preferences, and advertising tolerance have changed. A new generation of consumers who gather news and entertainment via laptops and mobile phones, are less inclined toward TV ads that broadcast a myopic message, and are more inclined toward brands that seek consumer input and participation across a diverse array of mediums. For those who seize the challenges of interactive marketing, innovation and experimentation will remain the hallmarks of change. For laggards, the end of your marketing days may be at hand.

Grow your brand with only one measurement tool

2008-09-15T14:39:00.004+08:00

Thoughts from the Aha! Research team:
Market researchers have been measuring the impact of word-of-mouth for ages by asking consumers a simple question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [brand X or company Y] to your friends, family or colleagues?” We have always known that this is an important measure, but now in the era of Online Buzz, it may very well be the most important measurement tool you need to grow your brand.

“Buzzmeister” - the master of their domain

Ty Braswell, former V.P. New Media at Virgin Records who managed online campaigns for artists including Lenny Kravitz and Janet Jackson, says “Developing an online buzz requires capturing the attention of folks I call ‘Key Multipliers. Their social status is connected to finding something really cool and passing the buzz on to their friends. They find new stuff, bring it to their not-so-online friends, and this role as ‘buzzmeister’ keeps them popular in their peer group. They are defined by what they hunt.”

Buzzmeisters are masters of their domains, or fields of expertise. The ‘gadget guru’, the ‘travel teamster’, the ‘high-quality hunter’ and the ‘value finder’ all declare with pride and joy that “I love it – and so will you”. Online Buzz is digital word-of-mouth and it is flourishing in online social media.

Social Media

Wikipedia defines Social Media as “...the various activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and ‘building’ of common meaning among communities, as people share their stories, and understandings.”

Word-of-mouth is no longer limited to gossip around the water-cooler or over the fence with neighbours. At the press of a button, Online Buzz via Social Media is global and brings with it both huge opportunities and major pitfalls for public relations, brand management, advertising and research professionals.

Bloggers are blogging and consumers are… advertising managers

A recent survey (May 2008) by Hong Kong-based Aha! Research and PR Consultancy firm, Text100, conducted among corporate news and technology bloggers across eight countries in Asia Pacific, found that 84% welcome information from PR firms and corporations. These bloggers prefer email and comments on their blog over other forms of contact. They want “opinionated responses by corporations to their blog posts“. It’s all about informal buzz rather than traditional marketing communications.

Informal online buzz can extend to consumers creating ads of their favoured or despised brands. These can generate a lot of media coverage for their innovation, creativity and audacity.

A recent California Management Review article, by Berthon P. et al, explores the factors that drive consumers to generate their own advertisements and the strategies available to companies to respond. The authors contend that the consumer is starting to run the show for marketers and the consequences are significant. Consumers are empowered with Online Buzz to make or break brands.

Good and bad Online Buzz

Happy consumers who truly own, nurture and promote a brand represent “good profits”. “Bad profits” are earned from customers who continue to purchase but who generate a negative and damaging buzz.

It is assumed that loyal customers keep purchasing a brand in the long term. Marketers have traditionally focused on loyalty and been satisfied with high scores of customer retention and continued purchasing as indicators. The problem is that various exit barriers such as price and marketing incentives may induce customers to continue purchasing even though they are unhappy with the brand. On the other hand, consumers who discontinue purchasing may not be unhappy with the brand but responding to other circumstances in their lives. Clearly, regular customers may not necessarily be solid drivers of growth.

Question:
If loyalty and customer retention are not good predictors of future growth or profitability what is?

Answer:
A loyalist who is willing to put their own reputation on the line in recommending a brand to their friends, family and colleagues.

“Buzzmeisters” as “net brand promoters”

We need “promoters” who can drive positive buzz to take charge of our brands. Research by Reichheld FF, in the Harvard Business Review, shows a strong correlation between a brand’s growth rate and the percentage of its customers who are “promoters” of that brand. These “buzzmeisters” may be the most cost effective marketing managers for our brands.

Reichheld’s validated scale is a zero-to-ten semantic differential scale with “Extremely likely to recommend” at the one end and “Not at all likely to recommend” at the other end. Respondent answers are classified in the “promoters” of the brand, those who are “passively satisfied”, and those who are “detractors”. Subtracting the percentage of “detractors” from the “promoters” produces a “net promoter score”. It has been found that in most industries, this is the most important measurement and the one number you need to drive growth and profitability.

Calculating the one most important measure

Maintain a high level of reliability and reduce non-response bias by keeping your survey short and simple.

Select a statistically valid sample of your customers, and ask them the all important question: “How likely is it that you would recommend [brand x or company y] to your friends, family or colleagues?”
Subtract the percentage of “detractors” from the percentage of “promoters” to determine your “net promoter score”.
Benchmark this score against your other brands, other branches, sales representatives, customer segments or whatever other factors make sense such as your competitors’ brands.
Focus your marketing initiatives on improving your “net promoter score”.

Customer equity drives brand equity. Building brand “promoters” and converting “detractors” are key strategies for achieving sustainable brand growth. Monitoring and managing this one important number, in the era of Online Buzz, is now more important than ever.

Beijing Olympics Sponsorship

2008-09-14T14:09:00.003+08:00

Measuring the effectiveness of sponsorship within the marketing mix has always been challenging, and as such its high costs can be difficult to justify. In this online survey conducted among 1,330 Chinese respondents randomly selected from an online consumer panel provided by GMI (Global Market Insite, Inc.), Aha! Research employed the crucial measures of brand recommendation and brand attitude to assess the marketing effectiveness of the brands that sponsored the event against those that did not. Awareness of sponsorship is a strong determinant on the scores of both these measurements, which also underlines the value of so-called ambush marketing.

"This research is groundbreaking in terms of understanding the effect of sponsorship, consumer awareness of it, and the importance of the two critical measures of brand recommendation and brand attitude," explains Peter Steyn, managing director of Aha! Research based in Hong Kong. "Research in most industries has found that high levels of brand recommendation and positive attitudes toward a brand are the most effective measures in determining brand loyalty and predicting future growth and profitability. This survey found that not only sponsorship itself, but more importantly, sponsorship awareness (whether accurate or not), differentiates brands on these two crucial measurements. Both measures exert a significant influence on consumer decision-making, as people often simplify buying decisions by opting for familiar brands."

Brand Recognition

The survey covered 29 official Beijing Olympic sponsors and partner brands. Ranked on recognition of brand being an official sponsor, the top five were Coca Cola, China Mobile, Lenovo, Bank of China and PICC. Those sponsors that achieved less than 20 percent recognition included Manulife, Atos Origin, Johnson & Johnson and BHP Billiton. Among the 41 non-sponsor brands mentioned in the survey, those with high levels of incorrect brand sponsorship recognition were Li Ning (67 percent), China Life Insurance Company (54 percent), Nike (50 percent) and Sina (41 percent).

Brand Recommendation

In the analysis of the survey data, 25 comparisons were made between a sponsor and a non-sponsoring competitor, for instance Air China compared to non-sponsor United Airlines, and Budweiser compared to non-sponsor Heineken. In all but 11 comparisons, the sponsor brand scored significantly higher on respondent's likelihood to recommend the brand to friends and family than the non-sponsor brands.

However, the survey data suggests that recognition of a brand being a sponsor is more crucial. All nine sponsor brands tested on brand recommendation showed a significantly higher score among respondents aware of their sponsorship than those who were not aware. This is also true for non-sponsor brands. Eleven of the 15 non-sponsor brands measured on brand recommendation also scored higher among those who incorrectly identified the non-sponsor brand as a sponsor. These findings clearly show the importance of sponsorship awareness among consumers.

Brand Attitude

The survey measured consumer attitude towards five brand sponsors - Air China, Bank of China, Tsingtao, Samsung and Adidas - against their five non-sponsor counterparts - United Airlines, ICBC, Heineken, Nokia and Nike. All sponsors, except Samsung and Adidas, scored significantly higher for brand attitude than their competitors. However, among all the sponsor brands, scores were significantly higher among respondents who correctly recognized the sponsor brand. Similarly, among the non-sponsor brands, scores were significantly higher among respondents who incorrectly identified the non-sponsor brand as a sponsor - except for Nokia.

As with the brand recommendation measure, the survey showed that where respondents correctly recognized a sponsor brand, or incorrectly identified non-sponsoring brands as sponsors, they had a more positive attitude towards the brand. Clearly for sponsoring brands, it is crucial to ensure high consumer awareness of their sponsorship to maximise their return on investment.

"Survey results suggest that the investment brands made in sponsoring the 2008 Beijing Olympics are possibly justified for most, but likely not all," concludes Steyn. "Millions of dollars were spent this year by the sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Our research indicates that most of these brands are enjoying improved recognition, attitudes towards their brand and brand recommendation. But there's a sting in the tail - it is not enough to be a sponsor - brands must take the initiative before, during, and after the event to communicate their leading role to consumers to make the most of the significant sums they have invested."

For further information, please contact:
Peter Steyn, Managing Director, Aha! Research

Olympic ambushers end up winners

2008-09-11T13:27:00.000+08:00

Event Sponsorship in the Digital Age

2008-08-17T11:51:00.003+08:00

Aha! Research talks about Customer Satistaction with "A

2008-08-17T11:40:00.003+08:00

Sponsoring Olympics Pays Off - AdAsia Magazine

2008-08-16T15:29:00.002+08:00

Download full article

Measuring sponsorship effectiveness in the digital age

2008-08-16T12:04:00.005+08:00

Brand recommendation may be the ultimate yardstick for measuring sponsorship effectiveness in the digital age

Thoughts from the Aha! Research team: Sponsorship of sports, arts, and charitable events has developed into a mainstream marketing activity no longer in need of extensive introduction and justification. It is regarded as an important tool for marketers who seek to achieve favourable publicity for a company and/or its brands within a certain target audience by associating it with a popular activity not directly linked to the company's normal business. In fact, event sponsorship of particularly big-ticket events with global audiences, such as the FIFA World-Cup, Rugby Sevens, and the Olympic Games, accounts for a significant investment by corporate brand marketers and continues to grow. Over the past two decades, the growth in sponsorship-linked marketing expenditure has outstripped the growth in advertising expenditure by several percentage points with the (non-Olympics year) 2007 figure for sponsorship topping US$37 billion worldwide.

To justify these hefty investments, marketers and their agencies are spending great effort on evaluating the effectiveness of their sponsorship investments through brand visibility measurements such as brand awareness, brand recall, and brand recognition. Other measurements are also employed such as brand image transfers, purchase intent, and future financial performance analysis. However, the correlation between increased brand visibility and increased brand sales has been difficult to establish as extensive performance analysis is prohibitively complex. Visibility measurements are merely first-line measures of sponsorship impact and do not themselves serve to facilitate understanding of consumer engagement with sponsorship. Clearly, there is a need for a measurement tool that is easy to administer, analyze, interpret and most importantly, has a strong link between sponsorship investment and brand profitability.

In the digital age, marketers need to reconsider the applicability of traditional measurements of sponsorship effectiveness. They need to recognize the importance of online social media in building their brand equity. The power of word-of-mouth is amplified exponentially through online social media and gossip is no longer limited to groups “gathering around the water-cooler”. When a consumer makes a brand recommendation online, it has an immediate and global audience and carries the credibility of a non-commercial message. As a result, the consumer is increasingly taking control over the marketing communication function and the firm is no longer in exclusive control. Online word-of-mouth through consumer generated advertising, product review blogs, and other social media, can build or destroy brands in the wink of an eye.

For corporations as well as brands, online social media offer immense opportunities to build equity globally so building and monitoring positive brand recommendation through word-of-mouth should be an essential element of any brand strategy. Unquestionably, brand recommendation has never been so important to marketers.

Several studies have found that, in most industries and in most economic conditions, brand recommendation is a strong predictor of future growth and profitability. This necessitates that one of the primary communication objectives of marketers should be to increase the propensity for consumers to recommend their brand though word-of-mouth.

If brand recommendation is a significant driver of brand equity and is also strongly correlated to future brand growth and profitability, it may just be the ultimate yardstick for measuring sponsorship effectiveness.

A study conducted by Hong Kong based Aha! Research among Mainland Chinese consumers in the online panel of Global Market Insite (GMI), found that brand recommendation is a valid measurement of sponsorship effectiveness. Over the three days immediately following the closure of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a total of 1,330 online surveys were completed. The sample of online consumers surveyed was over the age of 18 and closely representative of China’s national online population.

This study found that brand sponsorship has a positive effect on both brand recommendation and attitude towards the brand. Claimed sponsorship (correctly or incorrectly recognizing a brand as an official sponsor) is critically important in achieving high levels of brand recommendation. Sponsors with a high level of claimed sponsorship, achieved a higher level of recommendation than sponsors with low levels of claimed sponsorship. Likewise, non-sponsor brands with a high level of claimed sponsorship also achieved high levels of brand recommendation, thus suggesting successful ambush marketing.

The findings clearly underscore the fact that the distinction between an official sponsor and a non-sponsor is critical.

Measuring brand recommendation in digital social media should be an essential element of measuring the effectiveness of sponsorship on future earnings. This does not only apply to measuring sponsorship effectiveness, but to all marketing activities.

APAC bloggers call for PR people to get online and blog

2008-06-28T13:32:00.001+08:00

Casual Relationships in research

2008-03-02T15:44:00.000+08:00

Casual Relationships in research

Where one can infer that two variables are related in some way. Three conditions have to be met before a causal relationship can be inferred; there has to be evidence of association (concomitant variation), the dependent variable has to change after the independent variable has changed (temporal ordering) and all other possible causes have to be eliminated.

Sampling Errors

2008-03-01T16:59:00.000+08:00

Systematic Errors (Non-Sampling Errors) Systematic errors result from decisions that bias the sample selection or response to your survey

Population Specification Error: This error is one of not understanding who you should be surveying
Sample Frame Error: A frame error occurs when the wrong sub-population is specified from which the sample is drawn
Selection Error: Selection error results when the respondents self select their participation - those that are interested respond
Non-Response: Non-response errors occur when non-respondents are different than those who respond.

Non-Systematic Errors (Sampling Errors)
Sampling errors occur because of variation in the number or representativeness of the sample that responds. Sampling errors can be controlled by

Careful sample designs
Large samples
Multiple contacts to assure representative response.

Two types of samples may be drawn: a probability sample where every person in the sample has an equal and known probability of being selected, and a non-probability sample where the probability of a person being selected is unknown.

What are Constructs?

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Constructs are latent variables. They are latent in the sense that they cannot be measured directly, but only through measurable indicator variables. While there are many ways to combine indicators to achieve a measure of a construct, all methods assume that what is being measured is a single entity, even if it is an abstraction like "efficiency" or "happiness."

What is meant with Validity?

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Validity is whether the measurement truly reflects the concept we are studying. Truthfulness.

Internal validation checks the relation between the individual measures included in the scale, and the composite scale itself. Do you feel confident that you can make truthful and definite statements about what happened in your study? If your study is relatively free of confounds, you will have high confidence in its results.

External validation checks the relation between the composite scale and other indicators of the variable, indicators not included in the scale. Can your results be generalized to people outside of your study?

Construct validation checks what underlying construct is being measured and there are three variants of construct validity - convergent validity and discriminant validity.

Convergent validity shows if the items that compose a determined scale converge on only one construct.
Discriminatory validity verifies if a determined construct is significantly distinct from other constructs that are not theoretically related to it.

Content validation verifies how well the scale measures what is supposed to measure.
It refers to the extent to which a measure represents all facets of a given social concept.

Our Technology

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Aha! Research Proprietary Survey Platform

Aha! Research's platform is a true multi-language online survey and research platform to collect and analyze data efficiently and effectively through all forms of digital media.

Its a user-friendly web tool to create, manage and analyze market research surveys, feedback forms, and opinion polls, with the ability to accept real-time on-line payment, file upload and scored results.

A team of experts including experienced Internet researchers, statisticians and web developers have been constantly developing this powerful platform since 2004.

This platform uses proprietary award-winning technologies, which enable us to greatly enhance traditional data collection and analysis and hence to lower expenses. Using enhanced web modules and exclusive form components and question types, surveys are presented to respondents in an easy to fill out design. It works on all popular browsers without the need to download additional software or plug-ins.

Aha! Research offers you total flexibility and empowers you to get the information you want, when you need it, so you can make more timely and informed decisions. Survey findings can be viewed online or offline in charted report formats. A query module can be used to search data and view cross-tabulated results. Data can also be exported as raw and SQL data to commonly used statistical analysis packages or spreadsheet applications, such as Microsoft Excel.

Online research firm chooses China gateway

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Online research firm chooses China gateway (01/08/2008)
Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) Trader Magazine


	Peter Steyn, co-founder of Aha! Research, says Hong Kong makes the ideal place for new business

In corporate speak, a sudden flash of clarity is referred to as an "aha! moment." Three business partners who shared such enlightenment decided to name their company after it, and in November 2007, Aha! Research was born.

Peter Steyn, Managing Director of the boutique online market research consultancy, brings to the business 20 years of industry experience in Canada, Hong Kong and his native South Africa. Having identified a niche for specialised research services, he knew Hong Kong was the place to launch. "We intend to grow Aha! Research into a regional and global company, and there is no better place to start up a new business than Hong Kong," he said.

Mr Steyn, who spent 16 years with ACNielsen, explained how a start-up can compete with an established global brand. "There are pros and cons of working with a global leader with offices in almost every country in the world. However, as I gained more experience with clients in different industries, I identified that often, client needs were not properly met by the large research firms: needs such as flexibility of research designs and executions, fast turn-around times and catering to clients in niche markets. These motivated me to set up a boutique-size research firm that has the flexibility to respond to our fast-changing markets and client needs.

Targeting new media

"I also identified a need in the Asian market for a boutique-size firm specialising in creative online research techniques to not only measure new media, but also to effectively employ new media to conduct high quality market research."

The name Aha! Research was conceived by one of the company's co-founders, Douglas Khoo. "Like all internet startups, having a name that would differentiate us from the traditional research firms was crucial," Mr Khoo said. "But just having a name that was different is not enough. It had to convey the core of what our research solutions would lead to, and this was the ‘moment of enlightenment - the aha! moment.' We also thought that most research agencies were viewed as stuffy, monolithic, and slow to adopt new methodologies and technology. We wanted to project ourselves as more creative, progressive and exciting, given the new medium - the Internet- that we would be employing to conduct research."

Aha! Research's service retains the fundamental principles of sound market research, but uses modern technology to expedite the gathering of consumer feedback and providing creative analysis. The technology platform is home-grown and can easily accommodate most languages around the world. One area of specialisation is the niche consumer panels that will be developed over time.

"Our business objective is to develop Aha! Research into the online research agency that is known for its creative, flexible and sound research solutions," Mr Steyn said. "With our strong background and experience in three areas - market research, advertising research and information technology - we aim to develop, improve and apply creative online methodologies to gain consumer insight for our clients. Aha! Research will be known as a leader in advanced online research solutions. Our growth plans include the expansion of our current, proprietary consumer panels in Hong Kong, to the rest of Asia, most importantly, China."

State-of-the-art services

The firm's services, from its proprietary online advertising effectiveness measurement methodology and loyalty modelling, to standard brand tracking or market segmentation studies, can easily be applied to a variety of industries. Some of its clients, to date, include global HR firm Aquent, Toys'R'Us, and PR firm Text 100.

Mr Steyn said Hong Kong makes the ideal base for the business for a number of reasons, including the city's low corporate and personal taxes, personal freedoms and free economy, economic and political stability, transparent government and its world-class infrastructure.

"As expansion into China is part of our growth plans, Hong Kong serves very effectively as a gateway to mainland China. There is simply no better place in Asia which would attract me to set up a new business."

FAQ's about Aha! Panels

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How are the Aha! online panels recruited?

Panelists are recruited mostly online via a cross section of portals and websites. Recruiting is also supplemented by on-location recruiting in areas with a high concentration of our target audience-the youth and young adults. Due to the very high Internet penetration levels in Hong Kong, on-location recruiting is not as essential as in countries with lower penetration levels.

How can you be sure that the panelist are who they say they are?

Determining whether the panelist is who they indicate they are online is challenging. One of the methods that we employ to validate their demography is through cross checks on their past responses, e.g. age range compared to year of birth. We also validate in-person when we recruit them on-location or when they come in-person to collect their incentives.

What is the difference between the Aha! online panel and other online marketing database?

The Aha! online panel is comprised of consumers who all have double opted-in to participate in surveys about products and services. They were clearly informed about the terms and conditions of their participation, our privacy policy, and most of all, that they were recruited exclusively for market research purposes. Aha! Research collects a broad range of demographics, products ownership and usage, and extensive information on a wide variety of subjects. This information is extremely useful in selecting individuals with a specific profile to participate in a targeted survey project.

The extent of this information is most often not available in the standard marketing databases where individuals may have opted-in to receive information from specified companies, but they most likely have not opted-in to participate in research surveys. Participation rates in surveys are known to be extremely low among people in marketing databases.

What response rates can be achieved with the Aha! online panel?

The participation of Aha! panel members is encouraged through our continuous reinforcement on the importance of their consumer voice, and through our rewards programmes. We constantly aim to offer a well-managed panel that will result in higher response rates but could vary depending on the survey topic, target respondent group, and the length of the survey.

How are panelists invited to participate in a survey?

Panelist are randomly selected from the general database, or randomly within a special segment of consumers as may be required by a specific research project such as women, ages 18-24, who have completed tertiary education and own an MP3 player.

Panelists are invited via email with links to the secure area of the Aha! panel website. Only registered and approved panel members may securely log into their account to participate in the selected survey. Neither the survey objectives nor the name of the client company or products are ever disclosed to the panelists.

What are the guidelines of panel utilization?

We believe in panel utilization that would give us an optimum level of participation without exhausting the panelist. By monitoring the usage, we maximize panelist interest and avoid the development of "professional" respondents. Panelists are employed in accordance with established industry guidelines.

Can the Aha! online research panel be employed for any marketing or sales campaigns?

All Aha! Panelists have been recruiting and opted-in under the clear understanding and agreement that their participation is limited to providing their opinions about products and services by responding to research surveys, opinion polls, or a selected form of voicing their consumer feedback. We believe that our panelist’s primary motivation to participate is based on their interest to share information and not to receive information.

What about privacy laws?

All our panelists are protected by our privacy laws which are based on local Hong Kong standards as well as that of international research organizations such as the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) of which Aha! Research is a member in good standing.

Will we get the same survey findings online compared to offline methods such as telephone interviewing?

The answer to this question is highly correlated with the level of Internet penetration in the country where the survey is conducted. As Hong Kong has one of the highest levels of Internet penetration in the world, we most often achieve no significant differences between research findings of offline and online surveys.

Do we lose control of a survey if its not administered by an interviewer?

It is a known fact that an interviewer can highly affect the answers provided by respondents. It is also almost impossible to achieve consistency in the way interviewers administer questionnaires due to their means of clarifying, probing, and their overall interaction with the respondent. These can all bias the results. We believe that all respondents must be exposed to the exact same stimuli to protect the integrity of the responses and research results. This is best achieved by self-administered online surveys.

About Aha! Research

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Aha! Research is an independent full-service online market research company delivering leading-edge solutions to our clients around the world.

We have extensive industry experience and apply the latest research techniques and technology. Our data collection is primarily through client provided email lists, online managed consumer panels, as well off web-site recruited surveys. We often draw on the online managed panels of Global Market Insite (GMI) and other online consumer and specialist panels across Asia Pacific and the world

Aha! Research was founded by Peter Steyn, Douglas Khoo and Leonard Chan - respectively veterans in market research, advertising, and digital media/technology.

Peter is the Managing Director and has 21 years of experience in market research while based in South Africa, Canada and Hong Kong. Prior to founding Aha! Research, he served as Managing Director of Nielsen//NetRatings Hong Kong/Taiwan/Korea, and director of ACNielsen specializing in global multi-country research. He spent more than 16 years with ACNielsen in both Hong Kong and Canada. He has also taught marketing at the University of Pretoria, University of South Africa, and Hong Kong City University. He is currently enrolled in a Ph.D program in Marketing at Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden.

Our senior researcher, David Chu, has solid experience in handling statistical analysis in a variety of studies such as ad evaluation, brand tracking and customer satisfaction studies across several industries, in particular the fast food catering and automobile sectors. He is also our in-house IT specialist and responsible for survey programming and database management. Prior to joining Aha! Research, he was with TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres Research) since 2004. David is a graduate from the University of Plymouth (UK) with a bachelor’s degree in Applied Statistics. David is fluent in English and Chinese and an avid nature photographer.

For complex statistical modeling, our team includes Kevin Gray, President of Cannon Gray LLC, our statistical and analytics consultant who has nearly 25 years experience in marketing research, both on the client side and with The Nielsen Company and Research International. Kevin's focus is on helping our clients address their business needs by applying state-of-the-art research techniques and innovations developed in diverse fields such as Psychometrics, Econometrics and Biostatistics. Kevin has completed Doctoral-level course work in research and statistics and has tutored at a number of training seminars, both in Asia and in his native U.S. He is a member of the American Marketing Association and the American Statistical Association.

Our Clients

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Our clients' word-of-mouth is our biggest success!

“Aha! Research to me is Responsive and Brilliance. Leo Burnett has always had a keen interest in understanding the female consumer.

Our long-standing partnership with Procter & Gamble has pushed us to further explore how female consumers in Asia Pacific are responding to brands and communication. We tasked Aha! Research to deliver a 6-country online quantitative research study that would extend our knowledge of the female consumer and to do it in just 2 weeks. We were thoroughly impressed with the way Peter Steyn and team jumped into the driving seat and took our insight project to a level rarely delivered in commercial marketing research.

Aha! Research's depth of research science and their art and precision of operational execution is a killer combination.”

Angela Koch, Strategic Lead - Leo Burnett

“We are very pleased with the work done by Aha! Research for The Wall Street Journal Asia. Excellent customer service and responsiveness are what make Aha! Research stand out. Peter Steyn and David Chu also impress us tremendously with their professional knowledge and expertise. Among several projects executed efficiently and in a timely manner was a project of critical importance - The Wall Street Journal Asia's 200 Leading Companies. The results of Asia's 200 Leading Companies are published in a much-anticipated annual series in The Wall Street Journal Asia. It is a large-scale, complex online project that covers 12 countries, five languages, and multiple versions/randomizations. Aha! Research is doing great work for us!”

Alice Chai, Research Director, Dow Jones Publishing Company

“Aquent is the leading global staffing and managed services firm specialising in marketing, communications and creative with an international network spanning 70 offices in 17 countries. For our 2008 comprehensive global salary and industry monitor, the 'Aquent Orange Book', Aha! Research developed and implemented a multi-lingual online survey across 16 countries in Asia Pacific and Europe, and completed the data analysis and report writing in a record time. Aha!'s flexibility, professionalism, commitment and customer service by far exceeded our expectations! We certainly could not have achieved the production of such a complex and detailed industry report without the support and expertise of Aha! Research.”

Jolene Andrews, APAC Operations Director, Aquent

“Aha! Research offers something that most other web-based research firms don't. Insight and absolute attention to detail. From our first conversation, through to execution, and on to final analysis, Aha! Research maintained the highest research standards, proactively interjecting ideas and suggestions throughout the process in order to ensure the most complete and robust results.”

Steve Stine, Heidrick & Struggles

“The flexible proprietary online survey tool of Aha! Research easily accommodates our special questionnaire designs in several Asian languages, and helps us launch our surveys in different markets across the Asia region timely and efficiently. We have been very impressed with the professional research services provided by the Aha! Research team.”

Argha Sen, Head of Marketing and CRM, Toys“R”Us Asia

“To successfully manage a research project on the Asian blogosphere, Text 100 required a reliable, credible research partner. Aha! Research was able to rapidly turn our questions into a flexible on-line survey that supported several languages. We were quickly able to go from concept to a survey of bloggers across eight countries. The resulting analysis was professionally delivered and the insights offered were incredibly valuable.”

Jeremy Woolf, APAC Peer Media Lead, Text 100 Public Relations

Why Online Market Research

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Whether you already embraced online research or not, its here to stay. Latest industry findings from the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), is that online research is growing fast! In some countries it already represents more than a third of all data collection.

Facilitated by the rapid growth in internet access, most consumers in developed markets today are connected to the World Wide Web while middle and upper income consumers in developing markets are becoming increasingly connected.
Today, online market research has become a trusted and accepted data collection methodology for primary research projects.

Market researchers and clients alike acknowledge and appreciate the many Advantages of online market research like data reliability, accuracy, design flexibility, reach, cost, time, and convenience to the respondent.

Elimination of interviewer bias as research results from interviewer-administrated interviews can be biased through unintentional body language and tone of speech of the interviewer or by respondents’ eagerness to keep an interviewer “happy” with their answers.
More accurate and ‘considered’ answers and a greater recall as online respondents are not pressured into giving quick and “right” answers.
Since respondents have already been profiled at the time of recruitment, each survey can be made shorter to focus on the actual research content. This will help improve the rate of response to survey invitations.
Geographical expansion of surveys to national, regional, and global coverage without a substantial increase in cost and time.
More reliable data on sensitive and personal issues as no interviewer is involved.
Availability of an extended repertoire of aids such as video clips, images, audio and flash programming that allow for richer questioning techniques. Ample opportunities to duplicate face-to-face interviewing at a fraction of the cost and time required.
Higher sample sizes can be achieved without an exponential increase in cost and timing.
More accurate and higher quality responses as online respondents can read and better comprehend the questions on their own.
All respondents are exposed to the same stimuli (written question) without potential explanations and bias by interviewers.
The relatively high cost of respondent recruitment can be spread over multiple projects rather than a single project. Panels are particularly cost effective in the targeting of respondents across granular segmentation variables;
Rapid survey completion timelines compared with lengthy fieldwork by traditional data collection methodologies.
Researching and monitoring evolutions over a period of time is more feasible as a researcher can contact the same or a sub-segment of the respondents in the future to administer follow-up questions.
More accurate questionnaire administering in particular where specific questions apply to certain respondents, question skipping, complex question rotations and quota controls.
Automated data cleaning and fast reporting of cross tabulations and charts.
Online project monitoring with continuous monitoring of project completion status and response rates.
Cost effective and less time required to target lower incidence populations. Relatively hard-to-get-at respondents (such as doctors or users of a certain brand) can be targeted through specialized panels. Online research also allows for easier access to high-income, high-tech professionals who are normally difficult to identify and reach via traditional methodologies.
Online research is more effective in reaching early adopters of new products and new technologies essential to product marketing.
As legislation is used more frequently to protect consumers against unsolicited telephone interviewing, permission-based online research is a cost-efficient and viable alternative to approaching consumers.
Our proprietary online research software allows for randomization of questions and answers because respondents tend to pay greater attention to the first questions, answers or statements than the last. Upcoming questions can also be constructed based on responses to previous questions.
Answering machines, caller ID, call blocking and no answers do not prevent delivery of the survey request.

Despite the many advantages of online research, this channel also has certain limitations. However, at Aha! Research, direct measures are taken to overcome and to eliminate these shortcomings altogether.

Since online respondents are not visible at the time of recruitment, they can lie more easily about their gender and age. However, at Aha! Research, respondents are visually validated during in-person recruitment or shortly after online recruitment.
Like mail-out studies, it is difficult to authenticate the respondent of each survey. At Aha! Research we authenticate each respondent automatically by asking them selected profiling questions and verifying their answers from our records.
Online research respondents are not representative of the population. The Internet population has a slight bias towards younger, more computer-literate users. In time however, this will change as the general population become increasingly internet-savvy and dependant.
Long surveys are harder to conduct online. The personality of today’s online users do not allow for long surveys. The golden rule of high quality opinion surveys has always been, and always will be – the more you want, the less you get. As such, Aha! researchers highly recommend to keeping your surveys short to ensure high response rates and focused respondents.
Some online respondents rush through surveys without giving careful thought to their answers. The Aha! Research data quality system builds in validation questions to ensure answers are consistent against the respondent profile and against anchor questions within the survey. Our data quality system also identifies and flags down questionnaires with repetitive patterns and that were completed exceptionally quickly.
“Professional respondents” may fill out several of the same survey to reap maximum incentives. The Aha! Incentive scheme will not reward non-validated surveys, surveys with inconsistent answers and surveys that were completed too quickly.
If respondents do not fully comprehend a question, they cannot seek clarification through an interviewer. At Aha! Research, we believe that all respondents must be exposed to the exact same stimuli to protect the integrity of the responses and research results. To ensure survey questions are understood, potentially hard to comprehend questions are pre-tested online in a qualitative format prior to launch.
Respondents may provide insufficient answers to open-ended questions, rendering the answer useless. Aha! Research data quality system will insert a probing question such as “What else?’ for answers which do not meet a minimum number of words.
It may not be possible to seek clarification to answers provided by respondents. The Aha! Research survey system can identify selected words or phrases and follow-up automatically with a related question. Follow-up qualitative research is also another way to clarify selected responses of particular interest to the client.
Without a doubt, online research has many more advantages than limitations. Given the continued difficulties and escalating costs associated with conducting research via traditional data collection methods, the reliance on online research methods will continue to expand.

Why Aha! Research?

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Aha! Research is a full service market research solutions provider with a complete range of online data collection applications and services.

Through qualified online panels, state-of-the-art web-based survey capabilities, opt-in email surveys, and other interactive applications, we deliver superior quality consumer insights that meet your marketing needs.

Solutions Providers with Research Knowledge and Experience
Our researchers are solution providers with an in-depth understanding of market research techniques and analysis. They will recommend, design and deliver the research findings that best serve your objectives and research requirements. In the rare instances where we encounter a research problem too big for us, we temporarily expand our team with specialists (on contract basis) such as for high-end special statistical modeling.

Affordable Research
Whether we're in a global financial crises or not, clients are always looking for the best value for their research budget. Our small team at Aha! Research consists of experienced researchers working in a modest office, without all the big-item overheads and top management salaries and benefits which inevitably push up the research fees of the large research firms. At Aha! Research we do it better and can afford to offer lower research fees.

Innovative and Advanced New Media Market Research
As consumer dependency on the internet and mobile devices continues to grow, we will continue to enhance our proprietary software in online data collection, analysis and reporting.

Rapid Results
Through the use of new media, you will enjoy accurate and rapid access to your survey results. This in turn, will allow you to make immediate business decisions. Aha! Research is known for the speedy delivery of their reports!

Quality Panel Recruitment
We take great care in the recruitment of our panelists. While online recruitment is far easier and more cost-efficient, we also recruit through offline channels that offer visual verification of our panelists and ensure you have a wider representative selection of consumers.

Accurately Profiled Panelists
Our in-depth and validated knowledge on each panelist gives you immediate access to the type of consumers you want to reach and engage.

Active Panel Community
Our panelists are an interactive online community who are conscious about the importance of their participation in market research. We promote interaction without exhaustion and our high level of panel management integrity results in an effective panel usage with high response rates.

Through our “My Opinion Can Make a Difference” programme, we maintain and encourage thoughtful and careful participation in surveys amongst our panelists. “Involvement” rather than “Incentives” is the primary motivator for participation. In fact, our panelists actively sign up to be a part of this programme because they genuinely believe their opinions are heard and valued by brands and services and as a result, wish to help influence the development of everyday brands and services.

Our Analytics

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We treat each client's research needs as unique, relying on our vast experience and the brilliance of our team of researchers. Within the constraints of possible limited data and research budgets we develop an analytics plan for addressing our client's research questions, rather than haphazardly applying fancy analytics to impress others. From our research design, through our data collection and analysis, we always apply the most appropriate and rigorous research methods. Our approach to research is customized, rather than syndicated or canned.

Among some of the analytics we often apply are:

General Multivariate Analysis
For ad hoc analyses we have wide-ranging experience with Principal Components and Factor Analysis, Discriminant Analysis, ANOVA/MANOVA, Logistic Regression and a range of other multivariate methods. Correspondence Analysis and Biplots are two popular techniques we provide for image research.

Consumer Segmentation
Not all consumers are the same. Some buy the same brand for the same reasons as other consumers. Others may buy the same brand, but for different reasons. Yet others may buy different brands for same reasons…or different brands for different reasons. Confusing? Yes!
We cannot treat all consumers as the same because they are not. They differ in who they are, how they behave in the marketplace as well as what they say is important to them when making consumption choices. Modern techniques such as Latent Class Clustering are ideal for identifying the consumer segments on which you should focus your resources.

Key Driver Analysis
What are the factors that are the strongest drivers of satisfaction with your service or purchase intent for your brand? Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Path Analysis, Mixture Modeling, Bayesian Regression and MaxDiff are some of the advanced methods we offer to help untangle the web of customer perceptions and experiences and how they relate to success in the marketplace.

Econometric Modeling
When data are collected over time the usual regression methods can yield inaccurate results. This is because they are designed for cross-sectional data. If you scramble the order of the cases in the data file it will make no difference in the results! So, for example, to study the effectiveness of different advertising campaigns (Advertising Response Modeling) or model other data that are correlated across time specialized time-series methods such as ARMAX, VAR or Arellano-Bond models are recommended.

Specialized Data Analytics
It is often necessary to profile pre-determined groups of consumers or examine how some kinds of consumption behavior are related to other kinds of consumption behavior, as well as with demographics. We use advanced methods that are tailored to the particular requirements of a project instead of “black box” software.

The above are just some of the wide range of creative analytics we can apply to uncover market dynamics.

Our Approach to Research

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At Aha! Research we analyse data with the left side of our brains and interpret it with our right sides to place our findings in the larger context of our market knowledge. You will utter Aha! when you see your research reports! Why? Because, neuroscientists have found that the flashes of insight that precede "Aha!" moments are accompanied by a large burst of neutral activity in the brain's right hemisphere. When researchers are merely analysts (left-brain-directed), clients don't get those "eureka" (Aha!) moments. Our abilities to switch between left and right brain thinking, ensure our client's right sides are profoundly activated upon seeing our findings.

We don't push our client's research problems into a canned or syndicated research product and have junior analysts flush our a string of charts. We rely on our years of customized research experience to offer customized insight into research design, execution, and interpretation. Knowing that you work with senior and creative researchers is the alpha to an successful project.

What does this mean to you? It means we are more than analysts and number crunchers. We leave that for our fast processing computers while we do the interpretation of findings in the bigger context of your marketing problems, your target audience, and the market as a whole. They call this the "The Symphony of Thinking"!

At Aha! Research, we recognise the significance of having your hand on the pulse of consumers in a way that will allow you to respond immediately to emerging market opportunities and threats. As such, our solutions focus on providing you with timely, and actionable consumer insights, which is interpreted in a broad context.

You're going ...Aha!? See, it works already. Came talk to us!

Our Services

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At Aha! Research, we deliver the optimum new media research solutions that best suit your research requirements. These can range from the enlistment of responses from our validated, profiled panels, your email list or through direct recruitment off websites (banners, embedded polls or on-exit of specific sections within the sites).

Research projects can be commissioned on an ad-hoc, dip-stick, or continuous tracking basis. While most of our projects are full-service, we also offer field-only or field and data processing services.

Our researchers are highly experienced in managing the most complex of full service research projects. Among these include, but is not limited to, the following:

Usage and attitudes surveys
Customer segmentation
Customer satisfaction (products, services and web sites)
Employee satisfaction
Brand image and brand positioning
Brand and advertising awareness tracking
Online advertising effectiveness and brand lift experimental studies
Advertising copy test
Product concept testing
Pricing research
Packaging and logo evaluation
Internet audience research and website profiling

Big Brands Sounds - Content Asia

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Join the Aha! Research team

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We are a young and growing company, constantly in search for research-minded people with diverse skill sets and interests.

Our success is based on our people and their ability to deliver creative and innovative solutions to our clients.

Whether you are a fresh graduate, an experienced market researcher or in a related field, we’d be very interested to discuss your possible career with Aha! Research.

If you are interested in joining our team, please get in touch with us. We look forward to talking with you.

CONTACT US:

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CONTACT DETAILS:

Peter Steyn (Managing Director)

Email: petersteyn[at]gmail.com

9th Floor, Amtel Building
144-148 Des Voeux Road Central
Sheung Wan
Hong Kong