Global market intelligence from the world's most curious people

October 2009
Money matters: Global survey on money and finance

The year of living dangerously. Synovate surveyed around 11,400 from 16 markets across the world to find out what they had changed about their money management style and attitudes in the year since the global financial crisis hit. And people have changed a great deal. Some use more cash, some less. Many use less credit, but there are still many signing up for it. People have postponed major life decisions; some are living much as they always did. Here's a little more about who's doing and thinking what.

October 2009
Synovate 'check outs' global grocery shopping

Grocery shopping. Most of us do it. Some of us reluctantly, some of us with a sense of anticipation and pleasure. Some of us want it to be social, and some want it over and done with as soon as possible. Some approach it with military precision and others can be heard wailing 'argh, I forgot the milk!' on the way home (ok, that's me). Grocery retailers need to take into account myriad attitudes and approaches and make the experience satisfying for customers and profitable for the company. Like all marketers, to get that balance right, they need to know how people feel, their habits and what they like. Synovate asked more than 6,700 people across 10 markets to spill the beans on their grocery shopping approach.

September 2009
Mobiles 'remote control for life': Global survey

Remember a world without the mobile phone? Me neither. These small-but-powerful devices are so ubiquitous that by last year, more human beings owned one than did not. Mobile Intelligence expects that figure to leap to 70% of all people by the end of 2010. This sheer volume, coupled with enormous marketing potential that is just starting to be realised, means that marketers need to understand as much as possible about how people use their phones, how they feel about them - and what they want more of. Synovate surveyed over 8,000 mobile phone owners across 11 markets to find out.

August 2009
Global research shows there is life after credit crunch

You can't get everything you need to know from a survey. Perhaps not what you'd expect to hear from a market research company, but very much what the 2009 Synovate Economy and Prices survey shows. What you can get from the latest survey is that people are slowly regaining their positive outlook on the economy, becoming more optimistic for themselves and their country's economy. You can also get a sense that if habits were going to change, they have largely already changed. And you can see growing boredom and a creep towards small indulgences.

June 2009
Global survey: Is 'green' set to drive the car industry?

Picture this. A crowded street full of bars and restaurants, gorgeous and wealthy people spilling out of drinking establishments and onto the footpaths. Suddenly the sound of a throaty engine rises above the pumping music and street noise, a prelude to the gobsmackingly powerful, tangerine sports car that pulls up. It's quite simply beautiful. Every single conversation stops. Laughter trails off. And every single head turns.

May 2009
A matter of taste? Global survey "weighs" up the issues

You eat a huge greasy hamburger for lunch then carefully crunch on a few lettuce leaves for dinner. You go for a run and light up that cigarette as you recover. You choose a low-fat meal and wash it down with three beers. Strange? Not really. Perhaps not ideal behaviour... but it is surprisingly normal. Synovate conducted its second global 'Healthy Living' survey in February 2009 on health, weight control and attitudes to food and exercise - and discovered that, when it comes to food and weight - people are not always logical.

April 2009
Global survey 'checks out' hotels'

Ask any regular traveller and you can almost guarantee they will have a hotel-from-hell story and (hopefully) a hotel-from-heaven counterpart. Whether you are travelling for pleasure or business, the place where you park your head at night can make or break the experience. So what matters? Does a hotel need a spa? Toiletries (to take!)? The latest technology? A green policy? How do people decide where they will lay their heads? Synovate asked over 6,300 people across 10 countries to find out.

March 2009
Women of the world... material girls or money managers?

No matter where in this world you are from, the traditional way of managing family finances is: man as breadwinner, woman as homemaker. And all you independent ladies out there, before you get het up, note the word "traditional". While tradition still guides many families, these days there are as many ways to manage money as there are households. Single parents; dual incomes; childfree; and large, multi-generation families... the modern family is much harder to define. So what roles do women around the world play in their household finances? Do they feel in control of their own cash? How many women believe they are financially independent? Are women better with money than men? Synovate asked nearly 4,500 women (and a few men) across 12 countries what they thought.

January 2009
Building a recession-proof brand. Fast.

If money makes the world go 'round, will it spin off course in 2009? It's fair to say that this will be one of the most challenging years on record. The old rules no longer apply. But in times like this, brands should show what they're made of. Some will fall by the wayside, some will survive and others will thrive. To make sure your brand is one of the winners, you first need to know what people are doing, feeling and buying. That's why Synovate asked more than 11,500 people across 18 markets of the world.

December 2008
Professions we're passionate about. And those we're not.

Much of who we are is tied up in what we do in the hours from nine to five (and often way beyond). Asking someone what they do for a living is often the first question you ask them; right after 'what's your name?'. So what are people's gut reactions when you tell them what you do? Synovate conducted a seven-market survey in October 2008, covering 5,500 respondents in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Malaysia, South Africa and the United States (US). We asked people what makes for an admirable job, which professions they trust (or not), who's overpaid - and even which profession they would prefer to marry. Here's what we found.

November 2008
Men: Beauty or brawn, or both?

What makes a good-looking man? Is he clean-shaven, confident, and sexy? (Sounds like a good start!) Where is he more likely to come from? Are men using beauty-enhancing products or leaving their looks to nature? And do men and women see eye-to-eye on male beauty? Synovate took a long, lingering look at male beauty in 12 markets across the world, speaking with nearly 10,000 people about beautiful blokes and what makes them that way. In our analysis, we discovered cultural differences as well as some surprises (do two-thirds of French men really believe they are not sexy?).

September 2008
The ups and downs of air travel

Put 300 plus people in a really small space for a number of hours; expect many of them to sleep upright; feed them en masse (or not at all if it's budget); subject them to each other's snores, coughs, laughter, slurps and worse – and you're going to have a hard time keeping everyone happy. Sounds quite tough when you put it like that. Indeed, airlines face a considerable customer service challenge...keeping us all happy in the skies. Some of them rise to the challenge and some fail. Sometimes the difference can be a smile, sometimes it needs a lot more than that to create loyalty. Airlines with strong brands are invariably forgiven more, but do passengers even care about branding when all they want to do is get from A to B?

August 2008
Social networking myths and facts

Online social networking. It's huge. More than 132 million people visited Facebook in June of this year and 117.5 million landed on MySpace. And that's merely two of the English-language social networking sites, albeit the most popular ones. With Asia now the world's most connected continent and other emerging markets coming online fast, the mind can barely wrap around just how many people out there are connected with others in myriad languages courtesy of cyberspace. Marketers are constantly urged to get their brands on these sites... and fast.

July 2008
Is 'green' the new black?

Assuming you're not a green activist, you could be forgiven for being a little - dare we say it - bored of climate change. That's not very PC, but over the past twelve months our over-heating earth has consistently hit front pages across the globe, a multitude of green products and marketing campaigns have debuted and governments have been elected or ejected on the back of their green credentials. Yawn, right? Wrong. Not only are people worried about the state of the planet, they are acting on their concern in big numbers.

June 2008
Global survey: What would you do to be beautiful?

Beautiful things give us great pleasure. Art, music, landscapes... it goes without saying. But where do we stand on beautiful people? It's a tougher proposition because, frankly, we're not all 'Brangelina' or Aishwarya Rai. Of course many of us would say people are beautiful within. Synovate tackled a range of beauty issues in a global survey... how do people define beauty? Where do people from different cultures see themselves on the beauty scale? And would they want to do anything to change their looks? Over 7,000 people in nine markets across the world spilled their beauty secrets and here's what they told us...

May 2008
Global healthcare survey looks at patient power

From doctors' waiting rooms to 'Dr Google', homeopathy to homemade remedies, healthcare has many different guises around the world. With economic and cultural factors shaping healthcare attitudes and behaviour, this sector can be seen as a microcosm of society. Synovate surveyed 9,642 people across Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, India, Malaysia, Netherlands, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and the United States about all things healthcare. Here's what we found...

April 2008
Young Asians fit 38 hours of activities into one day (but still manage eight hours sleep!)

Multi-tasking, media-rich lifestyles are the norm among 8-24 year olds in Asia, with these on-the-pulse consumers fitting 38 hours of activities into every 24 hour period. The recently-released third annual Synovate Young Asians study looked at what is in the hearts and minds of the region's youth, revealing their media consumption, purchase habits, attitudes, favourite brands and heroes. It covers 11 markets across Asia Pacific, including Australia for the first time.

March 2008
Cents and sensibility: Global attitudes to cash

Whether you have a lot of it or a little; whether you think it buys happiness or is simply a necessary evil; whether you are a marketer, or consumer (or both!)... money is universal. Understanding consumers' attitudes to money is a good starting point for anyone trying to sell something (and that's most of us in one way or another!) and becomes even more important in times where money and markets are a little uncertain.

February 2008
Revealing consumers' jeans joys and denim blues...

Originally, jeans were sturdy, practical items made to withstand hard work and wear and tear. These days they are near-ubiquitous global fashion items, found in most wardrobes of the world and capable of inspiring anything from a quiet love of comfortable 'old favourites' all the way through to long searches for the perfect pair and tear-your-hair-out trips to the fitting room.

January 2008
Three obvious facts about the world's emerging markets (and the less obvious... what they really mean for your brand)

Emerging markets are all about big numbers and big opportunities. Not a day goes by without press articles about China's 1.3 billion consumers, the new affluent in Russia, India's enormous emerging middle class and countless other such opportunities for your brand. That's all very well, but numbers are just numbers unless you know what they really mean about people.

January 2008
Fast food addiction, obesity and other weighty issues

From obesity to home gyms, from fast food addiction to herbal supplements, Synovate today released data that shows that across the world people have conflicting attitudes and behaviours when it comes to managing their weight.

November 2007
The Olympic Games... Greatest show on earth or five-ringed circus?

With the countdown clock in Tiananmen Square registering 254 days to go, the eyes of the world are swinging towards China and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The Games are arguably one of the most important global events for marketers... and the Beijing Games even more so, as they provide an 'in' to the world's biggest marketplace. But have the world's consumers even registered it's happening yet?