Two South African women were honoured at the 7th International Esomar Automotive Marketing Conference and Exhibition in Switzerland, last month.
Two South African women won an award at the 7th International Esomar Automotive Marketing Conference and Exhibition in Lausanne, Switzerland, last month for presenting the best research paper predicting the market penetration of a specific model.
Jeanette Deetlefs, a research director at marketing research company Proactive Insight, and Carrin Merkel, Volkswagen South Africa marketing research manager, co-authored the paper on the application of Proactive’s proprietary Brand Value Index (BVI) in determining the value and ideal positioning of the Jetta brand when the current model was introduced two years ago.
Deetlefs and Merkel had to determine the effect that dramatic design changes and an international name change would have on the marque’s market positioning.
They were almost spot on, with their predictioin of actual and predicted market penetration in South Africa. The market share that Jetta had was 3,75 and the pair predicted 3,81.
Proactive applied a combination of traditional research techniques, including a vehicle clinic and focus groups, in conjunction with their BVI to recommend the ideal vehicle positioning, the name to be used for the new product, and accurate forecasting of market share given the recommended positioning.
"The BVI allowed us to predict the impact of the design changes and appeal of the new VW Jetta on its market share. It furthermore suggested how the new Jetta could maximise its volumes based on the recommended positioning," Deetlefs explains.
Deetlefs has a degree in marketing and began her career with Toyota in 1986 working with customer satisfaction research. She helped start Proactive Marketing Research in 1989. The company established the Competitive Customer Satisfaction Index in the motor industry in 1991.