A reminder that a great purchase doesn’t outweigh a negative purchase experience.

By Anna Clark

It is an oft-spoken cliché that British people love to queue. The author George Mikes, best known for his humorous commentaries on various countries and their citizens, said, “An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.”

The recent UK General Election saw the highest turnouts for 13 years, which resulted in long queues and, in a number of cases, people still queuing by the time the polls closed, meaning they missed out on their vote. One wonders whether people would have patiently queued (in the rain) past the deadline in other countries. That is not to say that there weren’t angry scenes when the truth became apparent, but there weren’t reports of people forcing their way in or worse still, queue-jumping.

I recently found myself musing on this topic when supporting some friends at a battle of the bands contest, where, after the last band finished their set, the crowd of thrashing metallers* formed an orderly queue on the dance floor to place their vote. It seemed an unlikely sight, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised.

When it comes to Personal Values, in the UK, like most other countries, concepts such as ‘power’ and ‘self interest’ rank at the very bottom of the pile, according to the Roper Reports Worldwide study, suggesting consumers just aren’t willing to put their own needs before other peoples’ (or to admit to doing so).

While it’s clear that people will queue, it’s important that companies don’t take advantage of this tendency toward civility. Queuing to vote, or to get tickets for must-see concerts is one thing, but when consumers have a choice of vendors available to them, one with a swift checkout and better customer experience will win through. When a queuing procedure is deemed to be poorly organised or people are left unsure where to queue, this can damage overall satisfaction and reduce chances of a return visit.

And of course, queuing doesn’t stop at the shop door. Numerous horror stories abound about hours spent on hold to speak to people at call centres, while good experiences can encourage loyalty and recommendation. I recently called a customer service line where I was given a choice of hold music to make my wait less frustrating. Small touches like this may not cost much but can be worth a lot. Time spent in a queue is time spent in the care of your brand, and regardless of how good the purchase might be, the overall experience matters, too.

* If you’re unsure who or what a ‘metaller’ is, check out the Urban Dictionary definition!

It seems that traditional gender roles around food are changing in the sub-continent.

By David Crosbie

One of the highlights of my recent trip to India was sampling what is surely one of the world’s best-loved cuisines in its natural setting. As well as giving my taste buds a treat, the exercise should help me to judge, and thereby wax lyrical to my friends about, which of my local Indian restaurants offer truly authentic dishes, and which serve up ersatz fare that is more geared towards the jaded British palate. Yes, I will become even more of a globalisation bore.

However far more interesting and relevant than the quality of my local takeout’s Bharwan Aloo, particularly for global food marketers, are the changes that are taking place in Indian kitchens, particularly with regard to who does the cooking and why.

Big news in India at the moment is that the nation’s favourite chef, Sanjeev Kapoor, is planning to launch a 24 hour satellite TV cooking channel this summer. That such a channel is being contemplated is acknowledged by Kapoor himself, quoted in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, as a reflection of Indian consumers’ changing relationship with cooking, as they see it less as a chore and more as an enjoyable leisure activity.

“Twenty years ago if you said you cooked, people would ask what was wrong with you. Now it is the opposite,” he says. “For the moment it’s [just] the new middle class, but the beauty of India is that things spread very fast.” Even more interesting is the growing interest of men in the topic, with Kapoor also revealing that 49% of visitors to his website are male – a 20% increase on two years ago.

Apropos of the interest that Kapoor’s activities generate, one Indian market researcher is quoted as saying, “No one had any idea there were so many people interested in cooking as a hobby and as a creative art.” Roper Reports Worldwide data show that 40% of Indian consumers say they cook for fun at least once a month. What is particularly interesting however, and ties in with what Mr. Kapoor has found in his web traffic, is that the proportion of Indian men who claim to cook for fun monthly or more often has increased from 14% in 2007 to 24% in 2009.    

All this suggests that, as in many Western markets, the culinary dynamics of Indian families are changing, with men becoming more and more interested and involved, and marketers in related categories should bear this in mind in their NPD and marketing communications. Oh, and if any of them are looking for a culinary-astute male to taste-test their latest Indian creations for the UK market, just send them my way… 

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Traditional rice harvesting

On the contrary, Japan’s latest green innovations are right on trend.

By David Crosbie

Suzuki san, an elderly Japanese gentleman of my acquaintance, used to recount the following anecdote. In years of poor harvest, the Japanese government has occasionally, and rather reluctantly, imported some rice from abroad. The country normally prides itself on being self-sufficient in this staple food, and domestic production is staunchly protected. During one such year my friend received a packet of rice from Thailand which, he was proud to say, he threw out uneaten. While some (particularly Thais!) might find this mildly offensive, he felt he was doing his patriotic duty by eschewing non-Japanese rice.

General Ambrose Burnside, circa 1860-65

Consuming Nostalgia in Sips

By Diane Crispell

What are the odds that two e-mails simultaneously passing in cyberspace between colleagues would mention mutton chops? It happened to me last month.

It all started when a colleague in London sent our team a link to an article about retro-socialising, setting off a flurry of comments on this side of the pond, as well as another link related to retro-fashion.

Consumer power is here to stay in 2010

By David Crosbie

Perhaps it’s a telling indictment of my general apathy and lack of moral fibre, but I was not one of the half million Britons who helped to strike a blow for creative diversity by buying a copy of an expletive-ridden 1990s rock song in the run up to Christmas.

Allow me to explain. As you may be aware, the race for the coveted ‘Christmas Number One’ in the UK music singles chart was enlivened this year by an online campaign run through Facebook. For the past four years, the Christmas Number One slot has been taken by the winner of the popular TV talent contest X Factor, which is similar in format to American Idol and shares a judge in the form of Simon Cowell.

Jon and Tracy Morter, a regular couple from just outside London, decided that they had seen enough of this dominance and therefore started a campaign on Facebook encouraging people to buy the 1992 track ‘Killing in the Name’ by Rage Against the Machine instead of X Factor winner Joe McElderry’s cover of Miley Cirus’ ‘The Climb’. Their selection of this track may have had something to do with the recurring lyric, “I won’t do what you tell me” as well as the liberal sprinkling of offensive language. The campaign, begun on 13 December, was successful – particularly after Cowell branded it as “stupid” and “cynical” – and ‘Killing in the Name’ gained the top slot on 20 December.

Besides the schadenfreude to be gained from seeing a powerful media mogul being taken down a peg or two, this incident was just the latest and most striking example of consumers around the world using the power of online social networking to influence events. During 2009, this power was exercised in more serious circumstances by Iranian citizens, who kept the outside world informed via Twitter when traditional media were suppressed during a period of instability.

Another example from the UK was the reaction to a column by journalist Jan Moir in the right wing Daily Mail newspaper. In commenting on the death of singer Stephen Gately, who announced his homosexuality a few years previously, Moir made comments which were perceived to be homophobic. A campaign orchestrated via Twitter led to the UK’s Press Complaints Commission being inundated with over 25,000 complaints – a record number by some margin – in a very short space of time. One interesting aspect of this incident is that it gave rise to a new (if perhaps short-lived) verb, to be janmoired, which has been defined by media commentator Roy Greenslade as being, “condemned by a collective of tweeters demanding censorship.”

All of these examples underline the speed and ability of online campaigns to make a big difference very quickly. They relate to the Consumers in Control trend – the tendency of consumers to harness the power of the internet and word of mouth to inform their purchase decisions and brand choices – which GfK Roper Consulting has been tracking for a number of years. What these latest examples suggest is that the ability of individual consumers to influence many others is set only to grow during the new decade. While this force has been harnessed in many positive ways in the past few years through viral marketing campaigns, it is more important than ever to be careful not to incur the “rage” of an increasingly empowered and demanding global consumer. Particularly given that, according to annual global consumer study, Roper Reports® Worldwide, fully 64% of global consumers say they complain when products or services are not of expected quality. Happy New Year!

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