Sheila Byfield: Worried that research isn't changing fast enough

When Sheila Byfield began researching media 12 years ago, it was a job that got the smallest and the remotest cabin in the offices of major advertising agencies. But over the years, as clients turned the screws on their advertising budgets, expecting an ever-increasing bang from their ad buck, the person who is helping put the most effective advertising together is the researcher. For instance, at her employer WPP Media Worldwide, where Byfield heads consumer insight, there's more than $16 billion (Rs 76,464 crore) of advertising spend at stake each year. And when screw-ups happen, it's usually because the consumer has not been researched adequately. Says Byfield: ''We have enough of data, but sometimes we may be lacking in insights.''

If few dispute Byfield's contention, it's because everybody is veering round to the view that every consumer is different and that even with the same consumer, what works in one situation may not necessarily work in another. Byfield, who sold space in print and television for 18 years before turning a researcher, believes that brand perception plays a much bigger role than most people think. ''Just because there are hundreds of teas or magazines, people don't stand out and cry, but manage choice,'' she points out.

In India, WPP Media-it has three media planning and buying division, MindShare, Maximise and Fulcrum with an annual spend of over Rs 1,500 crore-is taking the lead by starting a page-by-page qualitative research for print. Once done, the model will be taken to markets elsewhere. (In February this year, Byfield finalised a plan to locate WPP Media's global research centre in Bangalore.) Her rationale for a page-by-page analysis is that consumers, especially the younger ones, have become very aware of advertising and marketing techniques and, therefore, trying to communicate with them is becoming increasingly difficult. Hence, there's a need to understand media consumption from the consumer's perspective, not just numbers.

But is there anything about media research that worries its high-priestess? Yes. The fact that people are changing very fast and research isn't. Her challenge is to quantify consumer's media involvement and translate that to a brand plan. ''Basically, bringing research for the boardroom,'' she says. That's a lot of distance to have covered in just two decades.

-Shailesh Dobhal

GENEXT
"Try Reverse Mentoring"

Don Tapscott: Keeping track

Can kids teach seasoned marketers anything? Plenty, says Don Tapscott, Speaker, Author and Co-founder of Digital4Sight. In a recent interview to BT's Priya Srinivasan, he explained how. Excerpts from an interview:

You've been urging managers to watch the "Net Generation" for clues to the future of business. Why?

These kids-about 250 million of them (an "echo" of the baby boom period) who were born anywhere between 1977 and 1997-are growing up very differently from the baby boomers. For one, they have the internet and spend 24 hours a week "interacting" rather than watching television, which is largely what the baby boomers did. As result, they-the "net gen"-process information very differently. When these kids come into the workplace, they are already "authorities" on subjects, since unlike the baby boomers they are interacting, searching and developing strategies very early on.

What should companies do?

Try reverse mentoring. Get a few teenagers to surf the net with your executives. Secondly, just hire more young people. Most companies do not have a conscious policy of hiring youngsters. In some extreme cases like the record industry, companies actually run the risk of being devastated unless they hire young people.

How do you see the Net Gen in India?

It is a huge force that will propel technology and innovation. But for India, the bigger issue is to address the chasm between the "knows" and the "know-nots." This chasm could spell disaster since the internet is rapidly becoming the tool for education, development, employment, you name it.

CRYSTAL-GAZING
"The Decade Belongs To Sensor Tech''

Paul Saffo: The future is here

Want a peep into the future of computing? pop open Paul Saffo's pill box and you will find it swimming in a shimmering fluid. It looks like a magnetic flake and costs about two-and-a-half cents, but it's actually the face of smart technology. Affix one to anything-your car or a suitcase-and voila, you have a "smartifact" that can "talk". ETA? Just another two years. Or that's what Saffo, futurist and Director at the Institute for the Future, would have you believe. BTsss's Priya Srinivasan caught up with the technology forecaster for some crystal-gazing. Excerpts:

What does the coming decade belong to?

To a ubiquitous robot, not shaped like a human, but more like consumer durables. These objects will have sensory capabilities thanks to chips affixed on them. These chips will be activated when they come into a microwave field since they will have antennae that can absorb energy and activate them. They then become sensory organs for the object.

Where would we use them?

Airline baggage, for example. If a passenger doesn't show up in the plane, the attendants don't have to go through all the bags and hold up the plane. The piece of luggage would identify itself. Logistics, security and the automobile sector could be the early adopters.

Who will gain or lose from the new wave?

Each wave of innovation has a technical underpinning. The processing wave had the pc as its poster child, laser dials (which allow for pumping of information over cable) had the World Wide Web as their poster child, now it's all about giving objects sensory organs and someone has to deliver the software and services. That is the biggest area.

K-ZONE
Tech Parks Plug 'N' Play
South India's technology parks want to be seen as business enablers, not landlords.

Chennai's Tidel Park: More than just real estate

When product chain Management Solutions, part of the NASDAQ-listed Agile Software Corporation, came calling to India, it wanted to move into an office where it could start business from day one and not have to worry about telephone and electricity connections.Wasting little time, it zeroed in on Bangalore's International Technology Park Ltd (ITPL). Why? Because at ITPL, it had nothing to take care of, except its own business. Says Chan Kah Hoe, CEO, ITPL: ''Companies, especially MNCs, couldn't care less about things like building maintenance or infrastructure.''

Bangalore's ITPL: Enabling business

It's not surprising for companies to demand a big business-centre-like arrangement, but what is surprising is that India's technology parks-there is one each in the four southern states-are rising to the occasion. Says Rajiv Vasudevan, CEO of Technopark, the country's first: ''We are not into real estate, but rather in the business of enabling business.'' To that end, Technopark offers incubation services, including mentoring, consulting and advisory services. It even assists in executive recruitment.

Hyderabad's Hi-Tec City: Much more than brick and mortar

ITPL's Chan is thinking bigger. His plan is to provide an integrated city with offices, shopping malls, recreation facilities and, of course, houses. His customers are delighted. Says Martin Prinz, Joint Managing Director of sap Labs India, which moved to ITPL in 1998: ''The park has a health club and a business centre, where we can pay as we use. Doing all that on our own would have been nearly impossible, given the capital costs.''

The Taj Group has announced plans of setting up a business class hotel within the 69-acre ITPL campus. Therefore, when clients of any of the tenant companies come calling, they can stay on the campus. ''The ultimate goal,'' says Chan, ''is to cater to all the business-enabling needs of our customers so that they can just concentrate on their business.'' Bless outsourcing.

-Venkatesha Babu