Ipsos Update - August 2017

Latin America and Canada are under the spotlight in this month’s edition. We start with the former – an area that’s half the size of India but twice the size of the U.S. in terms of population. Using Global Trends data, we explore LATAM public attitudes and behaviours for an insight into what’s going on in the region.

Moving onto Canada, we feature a special report marking the country’s 150^th birthday that examines public perceptions on progress, culture, identity, racism and immigration. In a nod to Canada’s beautiful outdoors, almost four in ten (39%) Canadians picked nature and landscape as the best thing about their country, while 23% say it’s the people and diversity, and 17% say it’s Canadian values.

In the current era of customer-centricity, delivering a consistently positive customer experience is crucial. This handy new seven-step guide sets out how to design a smarter mystery shopping programme and achieve success.

Still on the subject of customers, this social intelligence thought piece reminds us that it’s consumers, not industries, who are defining today’s markets. We look at the advantages of using social intelligence as a means for developing market structures, over relying solely on traditional survey approaches.

Meanwhile, brands are the subject of a recent study on trust carried out by Ipsos for publisher Trinity Mirror. The results suggest brands are in for a tough time with 69% of people distrusting advertising and 58% not trusting brands until they have “real world proof” that their promises are delivered.

Exploring the impact of the digital age on the financial industry, we present this new Point of View on robo-advisors and the rise of automated financial advice. Drawing on recent research and analysis, it looks at what’s happened since robo-advisors came on the scene five years ago, and what lies ahead.  

Reflecting public opinion across 24 countries, the figures from the latest Global @dvisor monthly monitor shows consumer confidence is on the rise. The largest increases over a three-month period are seen in South Korea (+8.1), France (+3.8), and Poland (+3.3). Only South Africa records a notable drop (-3.3).

Finally, we examine how improving economic development across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is driving the healthcare industry’s development in this new white paper, and how the region’s strong growth potential continues to attract attention from global businesses.