Summer reading list

Read some books while traveling this summer. Here’s a list along with short comments.

• A Brief History of Time - A book about all the big questions. Where do we come from? What will happen? What is time? Etc.. Very well written.
• How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Gives you an insight on how it’s like to work at a magazine like Vanity Fair. The book got boring at times.
• The Man Who Loved China - Interesting biography about a British scientist who discovered and proved to the world that China invented lots and lots of things.
• Foreign Babes in Beijing - American girl stars in Chinese TV show. Insightful reflections on ordinary people living extraordinary lives in Beijing during the start of this millenia.
• Ich Bin Ein Beijinger - More like a collection of short essays than a book. Witty, fun & accurately reflects on life as a Beijinger.
• The 1 Minute Manager - Short & concise management book. Offers a good lesson.
• Freakonomics - I read Superfreakonomics before reading this. Both are great books written by smart authors.

Still reading:

• What the Dog Saw
• This is a Book
• Speak, Memory
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Market research sucks

I’m not a big fan of market research, but understand that it can be useful in less volatile industries (i.e. FMCG) and also to gauge indications of sentiment change over time in less mature markets (i.e. consumer electronics).

Previously, I’ve helped do market research for a few large Swedish and multinational companies. Last month, however, I had a chance to experience how it was to be on the other side when I participated in a Nielsen survey in China. After participating in the survey, I promised myself to be very careful of spending money on market research if ever faced with the decision in the future.

While walking on the street, a mid-aged lady calls on me, asks me how old I am and then tells me to help her with something. It turns out that she works for Nielsen, the world’s biggest marketing research company. They were helping a Chinese pharmaceutical company launch a new drug. I saw this as an excellent opportunity to gain an insider’s view of how market research really works, and when I heard it was a reputable company like Nielsen my interest spiked further.

Here’s what happened next:

1. I was taken into a room where she told me that I was going to be recorded, and that I had to remember what she was about to tell me, namely that I was 30 years old (I’m 21), married, with a household salary of 3,000-4,999 RMB a month. Despite being there on vacation, I also had to say that I’ve lived in Beijing for 3 years. I tell her that I’ve remembered the details.
2. Another employee comes forth with a tape recorder and asks me the corresponding questions. When I’m hesitant of what to answer, my faithful mid-aged lady friend whispers it to me. The funniest part was the end of the recording, where they ask me if my answers have been affected by anyone. Naturally, I say no.
3. I’m taken up stairs, and realize that we are in an internet café. The marketing research team had booked a few computers in the corner, where I was taken. I first had to call a staff mobile, so that they could get my phone number. After writing it down, they sent it over QQ (Chinese IM) to someone else.
4. Another staff member leads me to a computer a few rows back, where I see that a Nielsen survey is loaded up in Internet Explorer, in Chinese. I tell him that I don’t read Chinese, and after explaining my situation to him he tells me that he’ll help me translate.
5. The first questions were about my sociodemographics, where I had to answer as I was told by the lady before. I also had to state that I was in charge of the household’s purchase decisions.
6. Then I was shown pictures and a description of the product, which I had to rate on different factors. After a while, my buddy got tired of translating and told me to “just tick this row, and add a little bit of randomness,” to which I gladly obliged. Towards the end of the survey where there were many textual questions, he filled them in for me.
7. Before leaving, I was presented with a complimentary 40 RMB (approx. $6 USD) voucher for Holiland (a Chinese bakery chain). I accepted it with a big smirk on my face. As I left, I heard the mid-aged lady saying “What a nice kid!” to her colleague.

Nielsen most likely outsourced the survey work to a partner, but that doesn’t extenuate what happened at all. Sure, this was China, and marketing research is most likely handled better in more developed economies. However, I can not easily let go of this due to 2 things. First, this was conducted by the world’s largest market research company, Nielsen who’ve been doing this for 90 years. This was a huge letdown to their customer who commissioned the survey. Secondly, in our ever globalizing world, the most lucrative business opportunities will be found in markets that are on par with, or even less developed than China’s. What will happen with market research there?

TL;DR: I participated in a survey done by the world’s largest market research company (Nielsen) and was rewarded for it. However, (a) I wasn’t even supposed to be in the survey sample due to totally mismatched sociodemographics, and (b) I didn’t really answer the questions, as I couldn’t read the language they were presented in.