Ipsos Update - March 2018

This month we start with the middle class in Africa – a thriving demographic that has experienced much growth over the past two decades. But who exactly are they? And how can we understand more about them? Our African Lions Ipsos Views paper paints a picture of the continent’s consumer landscape, exploring topics including household finances, shopping, nutrition, brand relationships and media usage.

Next up, Measuring Women’s Economic Empowerment shares some of the methodological findings from our impact studies for corporate Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) initiatives. Drawing on a number of case studies, the paper suggests that the private sector is uniquely positioned to impact women’s participation in the economy, with the capacity to reach all corners of the world via global employee networks, supply chains, and customer bases.

Staying on the topic of gender, a majority of people want their country to do more to protect and support transgender people, with those in Spain (70%) and Argentina (67%) most supportive, according to a Global @dvisor study examining the attitudes of citizens across the world toward transgender people.

Another global survey, this time focused on the 2018 Winter Olympics, found concerns about global affairs impacted public opinion ahead of the recent Winter Olympics, with many suggesting that the games have become too nationalist and too corporate.

Looking at global concerns more generally, our latest What Worries the World survey finds that many people believe their country is on the wrong track, with Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Hungary the most anxious. In comparison, China and India remain the most positive; 92% of Chinese people surveyed believe their country is going in the right direction, as do 72% in India.

Meanwhile, a new paper about launching successful innovations asks whether the principles of Byron Sharp’s theory on how to grow brands can be applied by marketers to new product development as well.

Turning the spotlight to healthcare, adherence is one of the biggest challenges facing the industry today. In this paper, Adhering to Adherence, we provide a framework for thinking about adherence through patient behaviour – exploring motivation, ability, and physical and social context.

Finally, there was extensive commentary on the Super Bowl adverts following this year’s recent game. However, few take an internal view of the consumer psyche when it comes to responding non-consciously. In this paper, a Neuro take on the Super Bowl ads, we presents the results of our live audience Super Bowl party/study where a theatre full of football fans were equipped with biometric technology to capture their emotional reactions to the game’s adverts in real time.