Introducing the Asian Experience

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. Later on you might even influence the way they do things. That is exactly what I found and still exciting and motivating about research. In terms of specialism, I have always tried to train myself and build my research career into a multi-disciplinary one. When I first started I did both qualitative and quantitative research and even stretched into macro economic / industry research. I have covered a wide variety of topics including communications, branding and retail strategies both online and offline. Of course I do find certain areas of research much more interesting, particularly new product development and digital research. After all, I believe the future of our global society lies in the online world.

You’ve been working with Foviance for a few years now but what interested you about opening up ‘Foviance Asia’?

My interests in digital research first attracted me to working for Foviance. Once I started I found the experiences more and more enriching, especially Foviance’s innovative approaches to cross-channel user experience. I see real potential for Foviance in Asia. Let us just look at Mainland China alone: by the end of 2009, the fixed internet subscriber count had already reached 384 million, with mobile subscriber count at 633 million, of which over 100 million are expected to be 3G subscribers by 2011. Not only that, based on our on-the-ground research in China, we know that internet users spend an average of at least five to six hours a day online, doing anything from playing games, searching, reading up on information, watching entertainment programs, or shopping. Knowing this, many companies and brands we provide research services for are already in the process of exploring new ways in which to reach target consumers online. However, they have yet to truly understand the impact online has on their offline offerings, and just as importantly, how to achieve balanced online and offline offerings that yield real benefits without over-spending on one or the other. As such, they have a genuine need for consultancy in the area of cross-channel management (online and offline) and this will significantly increase in the future.

Can you comment on the current competitive landscape in China (or wider Asia) for user experience and data analytics consultancy? Do Chinese businesses focus much on the customer experience in developing their web presence or in any other channels such as call centre or mobile?

While I foresee a significant increase in the need for cross-channel management consultancy by businesses in China, this area of consultancy is still relatively embryonic at the stage. I am referring to the successful incorporation of online offerings to businesses’ traditional offline offerings, which also includes user experience and data analytics. There are very few companies specializing in this area of research, and those that do are not very well known in China. As far as I know, the big research agencies have not yet devoted much effort into developing research solutions in this area either. I believe this has a lot to do with businesses themselves not paying a great deal of attention in this area of research. They have devoted budget to developing online offerings, but this has largely been based on gut feelings rather than hard research data. Given this, our biggest challenge in launching Foviance Asia, particularly in China, would be educating our clients on the value of implementing regular research effort in this area, thereby ensuring that each step they take along the way is the right step for them in order to yield significant results. I believe regular research effort is particularly important here, since the online landscape changes so rapidly.

Where do you think the greatest immediate and long-term opportunities exist for Foviance?

I believe the biggest immediate opportunity for us here in Asia, particularly China, is also our biggest strength, cross-channel management consultation. Clients here are already implementing online offerings but have yet to find an effective way to incorporate their online offering into their offline offerings to ultimately enhance their profit potential. This is where we can come in. Besides that, I believe our immediate opportunity lies in web experience consulting. To date very few companies have conducted research in this area, mostly because they do not see the value in devoting budget to this type of research. Again we can come in and show our clients its true value. In the current online environment, the web front-window of a company does serve a purpose for common consumers, whether it is about providing information, marketing, or even selling the product directly. It ensures ideal online experiences for consumers that yield significant benefits in maintaining customer loyalty and acquiring new customers. As for longer term opportunities it is quite hard to say at the moment, given the rapidly changing landscape of the online arena. However, I do believe that we will continue to move from the fixed line world into the mobile world, while consulting our clients on how to successfully incorporate a mobile internet strategy into their already existing online offerings.

Finally, how do Foviance customers in Asia or the West get in touch with you?

I would love to talk to any clients who are interested in what we offer here in Asia. It would be wonderful for me to hear from anyone interested either by telephone, e-mail, online chat engines, or even face to face if they find themselves in downtown Shanghai!

Here are our Foviance Asia contact details:

29/F Kerry Center
1515 Nanjing Road
East Shanghai
Telephone: (86 21) 6103 7190
Email: frank.ma@foviance.com

This article was written as part of our February newsletter