March 2013

Cambridge University and the Microsoft Research Centre have discovered that Facebook Likes can be used to predict a variety of personal attributes including religion, politics, race and sexual orientation. Their research involved 58,000 Facebook users in the US who completed a …

It’s easy to forget that social media is only around a decade old. Its phenomenal growth in that time has changed our lives in many ways – not least when it comes to how we shop. It also continues to evolve and staying close to its innovation is vital for marketers. The path to purchase now …

At GfK Consumer Trends, we find that price isn’t the sole motivation for many consumers, and that perception of value is a key factor that drives purchase decisions.  Simply put, it can’t just be cheap – consumers want affordable products yet don’t want to compromise too much on quality or …

Until recently, the targeted ad was the only example of contextual technology experienced by most people. Invented in the mid-90s, it attempted to match adverts to people by analyzing their search terms and frequently visited websites. However, the algorithm fails to take into account the type …

Finding new ways to get the most out of shopper insights is a perplexing issue for today’s retailers and manufacturers. Most feel they have plenty of data and information (almost to the point of overload!)—but many still grapple with how to get the most out of the insights they have invested …

In February, a host of our experts attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, one of the world’s biggest and best exhibitions for the mobile industry. Arndt Polifke, Global Director for Telecommunications, and Reg Cox, Data Partnerships Director, were among our representatives at …

At GfK, we have been following consumers across their online and offline purchase journeys in various industries. From the initial trigger right through to the final purchase, we track online and offline paths to purchase for a vast variety of products. This delivers a distinctly comprehensive …

It is fair to say that television is undergoing significant change. Consumers can choose from an ever-growing wealth of content, and the ways this content can be consumed are constantly evolving. The success of BBC iPlayer and Netflix are just two examples that highlight how we no longer have …

As user experience (UX) researchers in a volatile market, we often discuss return on investment (ROI) of UX research. A recent study showcased this ROI when a simple design recommendation led to substantial monetary gain for one leading e-commerce organization. The e-commerce organization …

We hear a lot about traceability and the provenance of the food we eat these days, and I’ve recently discovered a ‘cracking’ example of how an Australian company has responded to consumers’ desire to know where their food comes from. Sunny Queen Eggs is a well-established company which …

The growth of technology has been viewed in numerous lights over the years. Writer Aldous Huxley once said that, “technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” The GfK Roper Reports Worldwide survey of attitudes and behaviours show that this is …

The internet has become an integral part of the shopping experience for a very large proportion of the population. At first this was through researching products at home on the shared home-PC, however with the launch of the modern smartphone in the early 21st century the internet is now …