There are few brands for which 2009 will be hailed as a classic year and many are now looking at Christmas as a final opportunity to salvage something from the economic wreck of the past 12 months. But it is clear that the majority of retailers and marketers will inevitably feel the effects of the economic crisis this Christmas.
What future does media branding have in the new world of unlimited choices? The need for fast and accurate research into how consumers are thinking and behaving has never been greater. The economic stakes have never been higher. Companies that fail to
change are unlikely to survive. But those who invest now in understanding what their customers want are likely to be best-placed to lead, rather than to lag these changes.
Research by Ipsos MediaCT shows there is an opportunity for 3D TV, but broadcasters and manufacturers face a considerable challenge in convincing consumers, having so recently bought into high definition technology, that they should now invest in 3D.
Jamie Robertson, Director for Ipsos ASI, focuses on how brands can use research to help approach the right choice of sports and evaluate whether it is a worthwhile investment for them.
Pulse Check
Pulse Check delivers key insights from Ipsos' Political Monitor, Political Pulse, and Public Services data, along with reactive polling, to help you navigate the evolving political landscape.
In 2009, Ipsos conducted the first of a series of Staff Engagement Surveys. The main objective of the three-year involvement of Ipsos is "to identify and explore the issues which are important to staff and the impact of these issues on their working life".
The principle purpose of the 2009 survey was to identify and explore the issues important to employees and the impact of these issues on their working life.
Between 2007 and 2010, on behalf of the Scottish Government and General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), we conducted a series of studies testing a range of questions that had been developed for Scotland's Census 2011.
Public services have improved considerably in recent years but, as we know, the public response to this is often to quickly `bank' any improvements and then raise their expectations once again. Meeting - and managing - these expectations is only going to become more important as tighter budgets require services to focus on the priorities that really matter.
The winter edition of Understanding Society, the newsletter from Ipsos's Social Research Institute, considers some of the ways in which central and local government can respond to the challenge of continuing to meet public expectations when public finances face their tightest squeeze for decades.
In the run-up to the 1979 General Election, Labour's Prime Minister James Callaghan lost the election in the "Winter of Discontent". Is Brown doomed to defeat in 2010?
