Market research: shared electric scooters
Shared electric scooters can be found in many cities and have gradually taken their place in the market for shared means of transport. While shared bicycles are a well-known mobility option and are present in many metropolises, shared electric scooters have established themselves as an essential part of urban mobility over the last 2 years or so. Summary Market statistics for shared electric scooters Market overview Competition and profitability Regulations Shared scooters and covid-19 Market statistics...
Market research: Bulk buying and zero waste market
Many social movements point to our environmental footprint. To take the example of the city of Brussels: climate protests were organised once a week for several months in early 2019. Consumer behaviour is following this trend as more and more consumers are starting to shop in “zero waste” shops. Indeed, consumers are becoming more and more aware of their environmental footprint and their responsibilities in this respect, leading them to question the way they consume goods...
Nudge: 3 tips from Nespresso to sell its most expensive machine
Nudge marketing techniques can be used to promote good behaviour. But they can also be used to direct your buying behaviour in favour of the seller. This is what Nespresso is doing as part of the promotion of its subscription offer that we have already discussed here (note in passing the price increases). You have to admit that the marketers at Nespresso are smart (remember the Prodigio offer to track your slightest purchasing habits). Let’s take a look at their...
8 factors influencing customer loyalty after a complaint
Good customer complaint management has proven its effectiveness in increasing customer loyalty for decades. Recent market research, published in September 2020 provides insight into how this efficiency varies according to your business sector. This is the first research to understand the economic, sectorial and relational effects on customer loyalty after a complaint has been processed. The authors study the differences between products and services, as well as the impact of constraints linked to the customer himself (age, gender, and so on)....
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[Podcast] Drug trafficking in Antwerp: anthropological research by Teun Voeten
Teun Voeten relates in this podcast how he combines science and journalism to produce unique sociological and anthropological studies. With a doctorate in cultural anthropology from the University of Leiden, Dr. Teun Voeten has spent 30 years of his life travelling the globe and dealing with wars and conflicts around the world. Only for our subscribers: exclusive analyses and marketing advice Email address * Subscribe By signing up, you agree to our Terms of use and...
Market research: Tax incentives for electric cars in Europe
Today, electric vehicles are even more expensive to purchase than internal combustion vehicles. Fortunately, there are tax incentives for the purchase of electric cars in Europe. These incentives are intended to simplify the transition to cleaner mobility. Discover in this article a comparison of the different financial incentives depending on the country. Contact us for our B2B studies Summary France Belgium Luxemburg Great Britain Germany Only for our subscribers: exclusive analyses and marketing advice Email address ...
Can a Belgian streaming platform beat Netflix?
In the days of confinement, interest in entertainment increases. The Belgians are looking to keep busy with free movies, and are interested in Netflix. The figures from Google Trends are conclusive. The research of Belgians since the beginning of the Coronavirus crisis also shows us that interest in the RTBF Auvio platform has never been so high. It even exceeds the level reached during the last football world cup. Does this mean that a Belgian content...
This is what the post-COVID-19 era will look like: new behaviours and impacted activities
In a previous article, I showed that the confined French were adopting new consumption habits. Their research on the Internet shows this. But how will we react once deconfinement is allowed? Will we go back to our little practices or will our behaviour change? What will be the economic impacts of these new behaviours and how will companies have to adapt? This is what I suggest we explore in this article. This analysis is part of...
Google Trends reveals our new behaviours during Coronavirus
What are the new habits caused by confinement? How does consumer behaviour change when consumers are stuck at home? Which companies will be the big winners from the Coronavirus crisis? This is what we invite you to discover thanks to the evolution of the research carried out on google. We have selected 22 keyword searches carried out over the last 90 days in France and Belgium. They are the perfect mirror of our questions as humans...
Market research on the market for organic products
In Europe, the organic market and thus, the consumption of natural products is growing steadily. The mass retail sector dominates the sale of food products, while the short distribution channel and specialist shops are competing fiercely for ever more significant market share. In this article, we look at some key figures of the organic food market to provide an overview of the organic food market. Update (April 2021) Online market research conducted with 20,000 French respondents...
Retail: Levita’s levitation of objects in the shop window
Always looking for new trends in the retail world, this year we returned to interactive window displays, which are increasingly used by brands to differentiate themselves from their competitors and offer a unique experience to their customers and attract shoppers. Today, two magicians (Clément Kerstenne and Philippe Bougard) put their tricks in-store and create shop windows that levitate objects. Philippe and Clément tell us about this experience. A few words about Levita In 2018, Clément Kerstenne...
You can shop at Sephora without being disturbed
The consumer is becoming more and more independent and has less and less need for salespeople for his purchases. Sephora has understood this well and has even developed an ingenious system to ensure that customers are not disturbed. A paradox as it goes against most beliefs on the subject, that contact between salespeople and customers makes it easier to sell. But we have to admit that behaviours are changing. Has the time come when salespeople will...
FMCG: consumers’ purchase behaviors are increasingly different
In our last article, we showed how new tools, based on “data”, allow large FMCG groups to keep up with market developments and consumer expectations. In today’s article, we reveal the effects of the evolution of the FMCG (“Fast-Moving Consumer Goods”) market on consumers’ purchasing habits. A recent study (August 2019) by the University of Chicago unveils an unexpected phenomenon: the rise of niche consumption. The average annual growth of abundant consumer goods companies (FMCG) increased...
Gmail: a friend who wishes you well (but who will not let you go)
Gmail has just launched a new feature: dynamic emails. This new feature, described in a Google blog post, introduces a subtle innovation that contributes a little more to the creation of an ecosystem from which we cannot leave. Under the guise of improving the Google user experience and its multiple subsidiaries seek to keep users captive at all costs. Explanations in today’s article and feedback on the featured snippets introduced by the search engine in 2014....
How smartphones have changed our lives and enslaved us
You probably won’t read this article up to the end. And that’s because of smartphones. Smartphones have changed our lives. For the good but also for the worse. This article is not about the positive contribution of smartphones to our lives, it’s about its pervasive effects on our behavior and in particular on how it changes the way our brain works. “I want my life back” was the starting point of my quest for a better...
Evolution of alcohol consumption and the market for de-alcoholisation
The evolution of alcohol consumption in Europe is leading many industry players to rethink their offer. In this article, we return in particular to the initiative launched by Philippe Stassen and the Meurens brothers who are joining forces to propose a new de-alcoholisation offer in the Charleroi region. Alcohol consumption in Europe In France, alcohol consumption has been on the decline for nearly 80 years. While a Frenchman consumed an average of almost 26 litres of...
A new generation of electric bicycles: the match between France and Belgium is being replayed
After the marketing of electric bicycles and the spread of electric scooters in large cities, it is time for connected and high-end electric bikes. As this sector is trendy and entrepreneurial projects are multiplying in the field, we thought that a look at 2 significant players could help those who are still at the market research stage. In today’s post, we compare two electric bicycles: Cowboy on one side and Coleen on the other. Summary Cowboy:...
Music streaming: the primary source of income for the music industries
While the sales physical formats are suffering, the SNEP (National Union of Phonographic Publishing) report reveals that only the sales of vinyl’s are on the rise in France, attracting consumers to their vintage and authentic side. More and more music lovers are using digital platforms such as music streaming platforms to listen to their favourite artists and music while discovering new musical creations. Summary What is Music Streaming? From the United States to Europe Which developments...
What are the habits related to money withdrawals in Europe?
Withdrawals of money from ATMs are, for many Europeans, the most efficient way to obtain cash. Recent events with the Bpost Bank in Belgium prove that consumers are very attached to their money habits. This article aims to understand the differences in money withdrawals across Europe and continues the report that we have written on payment methods in the countries of the European Union. Summary The Connection to Cash The Conditions for Cash Withdrawals from ATMs...
Market research: who are the customers of ride-hailing applications?
Travel options are changing, and many American consumers’ habits are also changing. 10 years after the creation of Uber, what is the status of private transport and ride-hailing applications? Who uses this type of application, how and why? In this article, we propose to analyse the evolution of transport applications for private individuals according to their consumers. As most of these applications originate from the United States, the data developed and examined in this article will...
Interactive showcases: the innovative tool that retailers have always dreamed of?
The creation of attractive storefronts is an integral part of the marketing plan in the retail sector. In the digital age, retailers are moving towards interactive displays. Storefronts that adapt to their environment and create interaction with this environment while keeping essential functions such as displaying the brand’s new products, promoting ongoing discounts, and much more. In this article, we will review the status of interactive display cases, a technology increasingly used in the retail world,...
Facebook’s hidden strategy to increase your addiction
As part of my good resolutions for 2019 I decided to further reduce my use of social networks which take my precious time away. Banning Facebook during the month of January was my first step to achieve my objectives. To resist the temptation I logged out from all my devices to make it more difficult to access Facebook. In 2018 I also drastically reduced the number of notifications to avoid those temptations. It seems however that...
Recommendation systems: a scientific investigation of user inaction
One of the most interesting researches at RecSys 2018 was for me the paper on user inaction by Qian Zhao, Martijn Willemsen, Gediminas Adomavicius, F. Maxwell Harper and Joe Konstan (full title: “Interpreting User Inaction in Recommender Systems“). We are so focused on interpreting signals that we often forget to take the absence of signal into account. Yet, as this paper shows, lack of information is already a piece of information in itself and sometimes it can make a...
Retail: arrange products attractively to make customers buy more
In an earlier article we started dealing with examples of attractive visual displays in the retail industry. We argued that product arrangement influences information processing by customers and in return purchase decisions. Ensuring that products are displayed next to each other in an homogeneous way makes information processing easier for the customer. During our retail tour in Berlin we spotted a few of this well-designed products arrangements. In our article on the newest New Era store...
2/3 of value lost in 18 months: future of Snapchat doesn’t look good
What is Snapchat’ future? Will Snapchat still be alive in 5 years from now? In the light of the latest financial results investors can be doubtful. We predicted this downturn 3 years ago when most people were seeing Snapchat as the next Facebook, the best social media to capture the attention of the younger generations. Snap Inc. has lost 2/3 of its value in 18 months Snap Inc., the company that owns Snapchat, was introduced on...
Market research : the combined effect of music and light in the retail sector
Sensory market research has focused mostly on the effects on consumer behavior of specific cues: light, scent, temperature, … Some of those cues are always present in a retail setting (light, temperature) and past studies have therefore investigated the effects of the variations of those cues (higher/lower temperature, more or less light) Company industry atmospherics charcateristics purpose abercrombie & fitch clothing loud music, dark light targets young customers victoria secrets clothing soothing music facilitate conversation between...
Societal and ethical issues of digitization: are emotions covered by GDPR?
An academic paper by Royakkers et al. (2018) is currently available from “Ethics and information technology” magazine that offers an interesting overview of the societal and ethical issues of digitization (hence its title). Digitization issues are analyzed along 6 axis : privacy autonomy safety and security balance of power human dignity power It’s not my intention here to sum up the whole paper; I’d rather want to focus on one aspect at a time. In today’s...
We live in a technocracy : technology is driving behaviours and law
The inaugural 2018 FAT conference was opened in New-York by one of the most influential academic researchers on privacy and computer science : Latanya Sweeney. In her keynote Sweeney showed how technology is driving behaviors and new laws. Here’s what I think is a very compelling series of examples that clearly show that innovators are always ahead of lawmakers. In today’s world, driven by technology and data, this poses even bigger questions. As Sweeney puts it...
Cambridge Analytica scandal: it’s the user stupid !
The Cambridge Analytica scandal is one of a one-of-a-kind size. It attracted the attention of many and resembles a wake-up call. Yet also triggers some very hypocritical reactions from people who “seem” to discover that Facebook collects an awful lot of data and makes it available to, basically anyone who asks for it. Zuckerberg, king of the hypocrites Everyone seems to discover that the most personal data is being collected by Facebook, shared to and analysed...
Retail: here’s how you can make it easy for people to buy more
How do you make sure your products are visible among a larger assortment and immediately attract shoppers’ attention ? By using visual salience. Summary Highlighting products in supermarket shelves Help the shopper’s brain make decisions What can be done to increase in-store purchases? Conclusion Supermarkets make it impossible for shoppers to understand the assortment Supermarkets organize products by departments and by categories. Within any given category products are placed next to each other without taking aesthetic...
Retail : here’s how Lego ensures customers buy more
Supermarkets used to earn a lot of mony just before checkout. All the gums, sweets, … were there to tempt customers and add fat money to the bottom line. With the advent of smartphones retailers were surprized to see their sales plummet; consumers were too busy looking at their smartphones’ screens and impulsive behaviors were suddenly stopped. The Lego store in London found a way to counterattack. A checkout path was implemented that put temptation items...
Online market research reveals the #1 factor to reduce showrooming
Showrooming is a massive problem for brick-and-mortar retailers. Customers visit stores but eventually make their purchases online. Operating a brick-and-mortar point of sale becomes more and more difficult. A scientific research reveals the #1 thing retailers should do to avoid showrooming. And it’s not about price. Showrooming in context and phygitalisation Showrooming is a symptom of the tug-of-war between the offline and online worlds. Offline business are slowly dying while online sales are booming. As a...
The history of media resistance : from printing to social media through TV and radio
Throughout history people have shown remarkable resistance to new forms of media, be it books, cinema, radio, TV or Internet. Today social media addiction leads to a new form of resistance. A new book by Trine Syvertsen sums up remarkably the history of media resistance. The electronic version of the book is free and can be downloaded here. Here are some highlights from the book followed by thoughts on the evolution of media resistance. Contact us...
The 3 benefits of the new “Tap To Go” Ahold no-checkout supermarket
Since Amazon has launched its no-checkout Amazon Go store (see our article here), other retailers are keen on experimenting the same type of innovation. Ahold Delhaize is currently testing its “tap to go” system in a “Albert Heijn To Go” store of Zaandem where the headquarters of the group are located. Clients need to enroll first in the program and will receive an “instant payment” card equipped with NFC technology. That card is directly linked to...
Advertising : limiting cookie lifetime will destroy value
Preliminary information : there are two competing rules for setting up maximal cookie lifetime. The European Commission (based a.o. on a proposal by CNIL) suggests to limit lifetime to 360 days whereas Google proposes 720 days. One year vs. two years is basically what you have to chose from. In no case it should be more than that. Yet, as Miller and Skiera explained at the 2017 EMAC conference, lifetimes of up to 8000 years have...
Market research : authentication on media website, a growing trend
As announced in an earlier article of this blog, I organized a 2-day conference on Single-Sign-On at RTBF (read more here). From a market research perspective this conference allowed participants to clearly understand that SSO was a growing trend among public service broadcasters. We had the please to listen to 9 amazing speakers from very different organizations and horizons : Tim Rowell (Piano.io), Ben Sekhon (Gigya, leader on the SSO market), David Teague and Maya Ross...
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