Newsletter

By Marty Carroll

We’re looking at the global picture in our latest issue – the international customer experience scene.

Paul kicks off proceedings by confirming our intent to expand Foviance into new territory. Find out more about our ambitions for our latest venture – Foviance Asia. You can also read the thoughts of Frank Ma, the man that will be heading-up our exciting new Shanghai office. Staying on the global theme, Amanda Roach provides an insight into the mechanics of international surveys, while Mariana cautions businesses thinking of taking short-cuts on the road to online localisation.

We also regularly update our blog with our consultants’ thoughts and opinions which you may enjoy reading and commenting on.

As always, I’m also very happy to hear from you directly with any feedback.

Marty

In this issue:

Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’

Surveying international opinion

Localisation is required when lost in translation

Introducing the Asian Experience

“Never try, never fail, those are the words I live by”, or so says Drew Carey’s character Crank in the animated kids film ‘Robots’. I heard these words coming from the back of the car a few days ago as I headed off on holiday with the family for a week in North Devon. You could run a business by that motto but I’m not sure it would last long or be an exciting place to work.

On the contrary,  it is the belief of both my team and I that we must try, that sees Foviance opening for business in China this quarter, with a new office in Shanghai. Read more about: Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’

There are obvious attractions to conducting international surveys as conduits of quantitative research.

Not only will they extend your reach and influence geographically, but they also expand the size of your potential samples, while reducing costs considerably compared to securing a similar scope of respondents locally. Surveys do have obvious limitations against one-to-one qualitative studies, but with skilled questioning and efficient organisation, excellent results can still be gained for far lower overheads. Read more about: Surveying international opinion

As geographically separate regions of the earth are brought ever closer together by the pervasiveness of the World Wide Web, it is only natural that businesses attempt to extend their reach beyond national boundaries via their online presence.

However, ‘internationalising’ a site is a far more involved process than merely translating it, and without intelligent international research with native users, it is not possible to truly localise a site. Read more about: Localisation is required when you’re lost in translation

I’m delighted to be able to share a recent conversation I had with Frank Ma, a close associate in China for the last two years now, and the man who will be responsible for ensuring the success of Foviance’s exciting new venture in Shanghai – Foviance Asia.

Frank, can you tell me a bit about your background and what attracted you to research?

I started out in research over 13 years ago right out of university. Like many fresh graduates I had little clue of what I wanted to do except that I wanted to get exposure to a number of different industries. This is what the research offers – a chance to work with a broad range of companies and learn how they do things. Read more about: Introducing the Asian Experience

By Marty Carroll

This is the first Foviance newsletter of 2010; a year we believe will be remembered for the true emergence of the mobile internet as a mature, ubiquitous, mainstream technology.

I offer my reasons for this optimism with a round up of the key factors which will be driving mobile internet adoption and development in the year ahead. Paul suggests that the signs all around us indicate that mobile customer engagement is already gathering impressive momentum. Xavier looks at the shape the evolving mobile internet will take and offers some insight into for businesses planning their own strategy in the light of instantly popular app technology. And finally Clare looks at the impact all this will have for more traditional content publishers and how they are evolving to embrace rapid mobile innovation and adoption.

You might also enjoy reading and commenting on some of our consultants’ thoughts and opinions on our regularly updated blog page.

I’d also be very happy to hear from you directly with any feedback.

Marty

In this issue:

• 2010: The year of mobile
• The ‘Determined Creep’ of mobile customer engagement
• Mobile websites versus mobile applications
• An all-consuming interest in mobile content

By Marty Carroll

Well, is this finally it? Is 2010 really the year of mobile? Each year since 2001 has been heralded as the year when the mobile internet would become a pervasive reality. After so many false dawns is there more reason to be optimistic this year?At Foviance we think there is. We’re pretty excited about it and here’s why: Read more about: 2010: The year of mobile?

Blink and you might miss it – The Tipping Point for mobile customer engagement might be upon us quicker than we thought.If, like me you are reading Malcolm Gladwell’s brilliant new book ‘What the Dog Saw’ you will have come across the term ‘creeping determinism’, a concept attributed to psychologist Baruch Fischhoff who first came up with it thirty five years ago. The principle states that as time goes by we start to convince ourselves that what has now happened was in fact always going to happen. Furthermore, through this process of enlightened hindsight, we convince ourselves so entirely, that any doubt we may have had upfront diminishes and is lost from our memory. Read more about: The ‘Determined Creep’ of mobile customer engagement