Ipsos Update - July 2017
Welcome to the July edition of Ipsos Update – our monthly selection of research and thinking from Ipsos teams around the world.
We start with our African Lions report – a major Ipsos study carried out in collaboration with the University of Cape Town Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing. It charts the dynamics of the 100-million-strong urban middle class, and covers a range of ground: living conditions, media consumption, relationships with brands and aspirations for the future.
Our team has been crunching the numbers to explore What Worries the World, and the findings are available in a new Ipsos White Paper. Michael Clemence and Harriet Fowler find that, around the world, unemployment is the main concern. But there are marked differences by region and by country. For example, healthcare is a top issue in the United States, while crime is a particular worry in several Latin American countries.
There’s a near consensus around the world that the “world is becoming more dangerous”, a sentiment shared by 88% of respondents in a new international Ipsos poll. Which countries do people look to as a “positive influence” in world affairs? We find Canada and Australia out in front, with the US and Russia trailing behind China.
“Disruption” is a phrase often used to describe the current political environment in many countries, and our new Understanding Society report brings together a range of influential voices to explore the major political and social shifts around the world. Our team concludes that populism, as its currently discussed, is more of a political strategy than a political ideology.
To understand the rise (and fall) of political leaders, we often turn to the opinion polls for the latest evidence. Henri Wallard explores the role that polling plays in modern democracies and sets out some of the challenges – drawing on recent experience in the US, UK, France and the Netherlands.
Behavioural Science techniques are now being applied across the discipline of market research, and in our new white paper Colin Strong explores how they can be used to improve the quality of questionnaire-based surveys.
Meanwhile, Andrew Green and Mario Paic explain how data science is being used in media measurement to provide clients with better quality information, while keeping the burden on respondents to a minimum. And in Reality Check, Keith Glasspoole goes on to underline the importance of understanding the context in which these respondents live their lives - and how they actually make their decisions about which brands to choose.