Males are the main dinner makers in 32 percent of households, make up 43 percent of the ‘passionate foodie’ category and don’t tend to work to such a tight budget.

Chris Vaughan, executive director at Colmar Brunton, says this segment is an emerging phenomenon in household behaviour in New Zealand, with men becoming a real kitchen force and more segment members under the age of 30.

“It’s clear [men] are becoming very familiar with mortar and pestles, shiitake mushrooms and truffle oil. The members of the ‘passionate foodies’ group tend to have the highest income, and the highest expenditure on food. They enjoy trying out new dishes, often inspired by TV cooking shows.”

The survey also found 20 percent of the those most often responsible for cooking the family evening meal have a real passion for it. These people spend time selecting meal ingredients and enjoy visiting farmers markets and specialty stores to seek out quality produce. But they’re still outnumbered by the 25 percent who find cooking dinner a “chore”

Life stages played a significant role in respondents’ attitudes towards meal preparation. Young couples with small children or without families enjoyed cooking dinner and saw it as more of a hobby. Whereas the main meal preparers for larger households that have mostly school aged children spend the least time preparing dinner and eat mince and takeaways more often.

Nine percent of evening meals are takeaways, three in four meals are eaten together as a household or family, 60 percent eat dinner in front of the television, two thirds eat dinner between 5.30pm and 7pm, 76 percent of us don’t follow any recipe when we cook dinner (which takes 54 minutes on average to prepare and half of the time is an old favourite we’ve cooked before) and 50 percent of dinners have some sort of dessert, but very few are ‘home cooked’.

As far as the country’s most popular meals go, roast chicken is New Zealand’s most cooked dinner, ahead of two other traditional dishes, chicken and veges and steak and veges. But a growing taste for international food was reflected in chicken curries taking fourth spot in the top 20 most-prepared meals. Two things that haven’t changed are Kiwis’ love of a traditional chicken roast, particularly on Sunday, and the Catholic-influenced tradition of fish on a Friday night.

“The overriding sense is that whatever is on the table for tea needs to be good value, tasty, filling and acceptable to the whole family and day of the week has a big effect on what ends up on the plate,” says Vaughan. “The easy meal strategies of those cooking for families become more pronounced as the working week progresses and by Friday, many have completely run out of steam, opting for the most basic of meals with the least possible time and effort in preparation (if not giving up altogether on meal preparation and buying takeaways).”

Colmar Brunton plans to carry out this survey twice a year, in New Zealand and Australia.

After some 25 years in the local industry, Hall says she is privileged to be able to leave at the top of her game.

“I have always respected athletes who retire at their peak rather than endure a downward slide, and while I love my work, my colleagues and my clients, I also love my family and personal time, and want to focus more of my energy on them. I am in the fortunate position where I am able to retire early, knowing that the company is in excellent health and that my clients will be well looked after by a highly competent team.”

Hall, one of New Zealand’s most respected, most awarded and innovative market researchers, co-founded Research Solutions Ltd in her Pakuranga garage in 1992. She has been an integral part of the changing face of market research in New Zealand  through her unique combination of intellect, pragmatism, and a willingness to “get off the fence and tell it like it is”.

Hall developed a great match of talented researchers and brave clients, with an unrivalled record in the biannual Market Research Effectiveness Awards. She was made a Fellow of the NZ Market Research Society in 2006, and is currently chairman of the board of the New Zealand Marketing Association.

The strong performance of Hall’s company made it an attractive acquisition for one of the world’s largest market research companies, Synovate, to whom she sold Research Solutions in 2007. Her expertise was highly valued by Synovate’s global operations, who quickly invited her to contribute to the company’s global brand research development team.

Many of Australasia’s best known brands have also benefited from Hall’s research nous, and there will be few people in New Zealand whose consumer experiences have not been improved in some way by Hall’s recommendations to brand and service marketers.

“Debra is the smartest and hardest working researcher I know, but in addition to this she has always placed great importance on training and mentoring other researchers, so she leaves behind a strong, smart and dedicated team,” says Synovate’s New Zealand managing director Ian Mills.

And the strength of that team has been increased with the arrival Stuart, which is a fortuitous coincidence rather than as a replacement for Hall.

Stuart previously he worked as an independent researcher with his own firm Kudos and was the first market researcher in this country to be elected by his profession as a Fellow of the Market Research Society of New Zealand. Last year was elected as a Life Member in recognition of his contributions to the wider profession, including professional development sessions. In 2003 and 2004 he served as a judge in the NZ marketing Awards, and since the mid 1990s has won numerous awards at conferences.

“I’ve enjoyed 15 years as an independent researcher and have used those years to focus on personal professional development; exploring new ways to conduct and analyse research and better ways to push the value frontier for clients. Markets and media have changed radically in the past two decades, but I believe most researchers have not kept up.”

He says he was initially committed to remaining independent. But two things lured him to Synovate: clients that demonstrate bold thinking and the company’s desire to be the best around.

“They want to be the rock stars of research. I think their awards demonstrate that.”

Mills says Stuart’s role description is suitably loose, and is part the company’s flexible style in which expertise can freely flow.

“Classic research firms have a silo structure and that’s no way to get the best thinking for the client. Duncan joins a highly interactive team of top talent. His mission is to extract as much insight as possible from any given project; to work the data in fresh ways. We can learn things from him to help us lift our game, but at the same time we’ve got the environment where he can lift his. That’s the idea: we want to push each other to new heights.”

Outside of research, Stuart is committed to the running and support of a school he helped build in Cambodia in 2005.

With a keynote speech from Lee Ryan, the regional head for qualitative research for Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Latin America at TNS, a couple of interactive panel discussions and leaders debates featuring all the big agency boffins and some fresh papers on the new face of advertising evaluation, why Kate Moss will drive the future of market research and how technology and innovation are keeping research relevant, there’s plenty on offer.

And, as well as the expected intellectual stimulation, you’ll also get to feast, dance, be entertained by post-dinner guest speaker Barry Soper and have some extra fun in the VIP Basement Lounge. Ooooh errr.

Find out more about the speakers, topics and tickets here.

“We don’t anticipate any big local changes, especially as Synovate New Zealand is performing well and there is no current Ipsos arm here,” he says. “As with the sale of Research Solutions to Synovate four years ago, it mainly means access to a wider range of research techniques and a bigger network of other researchers to liaise with. All good.”

Debra Hall, Synovate’s executive director research, who sold her New Zealand business Research Solutions to Synovate four years ago says it’s a very exciting development both locally and globally.

“Together Synovate and Ipsos are a formidable force. While our immediate focus is to continue to support our great local people delivering great research to our clients, this move will no doubt further enhance our competitive strength as NZ’s most effective research partner. Not looking forward to having to learn French, mind you.”

The Aegis board has recommended the deal be accepted but the majority of shareholders must approve it at a vote in August before it goes ahead.

Didier Truchot, Ipsos co-president, said in a statement the deal will see Ipsos jump from no.5 on the list of the world’s largest market research companies to no. 3.

If the sale goes ahead, Aegis, which recently bought Mitchell Communications Group for A$363 million, will be solely focused on media buying and digital marketing, as this article in Ad Age states.

Members will complete market research surveys and earn reward ‘dollars’ that can be used to purchase tickets to any Ticketek event, from major sports matches to international concerts, as well as buy magazines from the ACP media range (Ticketek and ACP are part of the Nine family).

Of course, there are already plenty of popular points-based loyalty schemes in operation already (semi-related: check out the Fly Buys Flats extreme trolley challenge that was held recently in Dunedin), but Stuart Robertson, Ticketek New Zealand’s sales and marketing manager, says it’s the first scheme of its kind to focus solely on New Zealanders’ love for entertainment.

“Kiwi households spend almost $4 billion every year on activities such as sports games, movies and concerts. That’s more than they spend on their clothing or footwear. We’re hoping to tap into that passion and build a panel of people who are keen to offer their insights. For our part, we’ll be focused on getting Kiwis doing more of the things they love, whether that’s watching rugby, reading magazines or listening to chamber music.”

There is some debate in the research community as to the legitimacy of paid-for online panels and the reliability of the data, but Robertson has high hopes and says the goal is to “become the country’s most representative online consumer survey panel”. This, he says, will be driven by the strength of the Ticketek brand in New Zealand, and the extensive range of rewards people can earn.

“The real difference is what you can get out of being a Nine Rewards member. Forget the clock radio or flights to Hokitika. If you participate in our surveys you will get free entertainment. It’s that simple.”

Ticketek already boasts the largest online panel in Australia, with more than half a million members from cities, regions and rural areas. And Robertson is certain the success of the scheme in Australia will be repeated in New Zealand.

“As a country we love our entertainment, and that’s going to be the kicker for a rewards scheme like Nine Rewards.”

UPDATE:

“The reliability of paid vs unpaid panels lies in response rates and the quality of the response,” says Kelvin Kirk, general manager of Nine Rewards. “Surveys are more likely to get a wider variety of responses/people by demographic and socio-economic backgrounds and therefore more representative of the population if they are incentivised compared to unpaid surveys. People are more likely to provide their opinion if they are rewarded, even for small amounts or prizes for their time.”

Edentify’s clients in New Zealand include OMD, Arnotts, JWT and Mediacom and in Australia it works with Bankwest, Saatchi & Saatchi, ACP, Coca Cola, Sanitarium and Telstra. So, despite some lingering doubts about the quality of online research and panels (she says it has a paid database of 6000 people and calls it more of “a community”), it’s fair to say it’s a pretty well-regarded research house. And, according to ex Colmar Brunton senior account manager and research consultant Jane McKellar, who is taking up sole charge of the office, Edentify’s main competition will be Perceptive, which has been hugely successful in the New Zealand market.

She has 12 years of market research experience working client side in the UK in media and higher education and since she moved to New Zealand she has worked with Pernod Ricard, Heinz Wattie’s, Cadbury, Lion Nathan, as well as Mercury Energy, The University of Auckland and PwC, often working in partnership with them and their media and creative agencies to influence strategy and product development. And she’ll now be doing that for Edentify after the company’s founder, who started off as a software developer for Emap, decided it was time to stop travelling to service the trans-Tasman clients when he could set up an Auckland outpost instead.

She believes the company’s main advantage is its speed of delivery (most recently, she says this took the form of a poll about Charlie Sheen to see if consumers would buy products that he endorsed. Turns out alcohol and condoms were deemed to be the most appropriate) but she says the company also helps advertising, creative and media agencies win business through pitchinsight.co.nz by turning around insights from brief to results in a few days.

McKellar can be reached 09 950 2839 or at jane@edentify.co.nz.

CBYouth’s Spencer Willis says one of the most interesting sections of the study, which was based on 493 interviews (52 percent female/48 percent male, average time taken to complete was 12 minutes and the survey was completed online with respondents incentivised with the FlyBuys reward system), was the brands they like vs brands they love question.

The first surprise is the lack of premium high-end, aspirational brands in the love lists and the second is the similarity between the loves and likes, with Sony and Apple sharing the honours.

Brands 20 somethings like

Brands 20 somethings love

“Is this a case of growing up and love no longer being mystical?” writes Willis. “It’s now about relationships and 20 somethings want a relationship with a brand, or at least an attachment. How else does Wattie’s and Homebrand appear on the same list as Apple and Karen Walker?”

When asked what they would spend $10,000 on, aside from paying off debt, 49 percent of respondents said they would spend some of it on a holiday or travel, 27 percent would spend some of it on a new house or improvements to their current house, and 18 percent would spend some of it on a new car or improvements to their current car.

Only one female in the entire sample said she would invest some of the money, while 16 males said they would and our ethnic minorities would be more likely to spend it on education and investments, while only 27 percent would spend some on a holiday or travel.

17 percent of New Zealanders with Maori or Pacific Island heritage would give some of it to family and friends, in keeping with the fact that those with low incomes are significantly more likely to donate some of the money to charity.

As far as motivation goes, being rewarded in the work place, be it by being given a pay rise or simply by being complimented, is enjoyed more than sporting victories. And professional endorsement is far more important for young women than young men.

Being financially rewarded for work is regarded as being better than sex  for the young’uns. And, in what could be seen as a sad indictment of the future of New Zealand romance, chilling on the couch is deemed just as good as indulging in carnal pleasures.

When it comes to the environment, one third of the respondents stated they consciously change their behaviour to do whatever they can and close to two thirds said they’re aware of the issues but only do the basics.

Download the full study here. CB Youth 20 Somethings Presentation FINAL

Respondents cited the following Kiwi companies when asked to name one business they felt was the most dedicated to providing the customer with the best possible service:

• ASB
• Air New Zealand
• Kiwibank
• Westpac
• BNZ
• National Bank
• New World
• ANZ
• TSB
• Vodafone

Interestingly, New Zealand Post, which came in on top of the 2010 Corporate Reputation Index survey conducted by AMR Interactive, doesn’t feature on this list.

Overall, the survey showed personal customer experience in New Zealand has improved in the past five years, mainly because of a significant reduction in negative customer experiences to 59 percent this year from 72 percent in 2006 when the survey was last conducted.

But a bad customer experience can still be dangerous to corporate reputations and earnings: respondents are twice as likely to tell others about a bad experience than a good one. They also have more tools to do so with the proliferation of social media.

“The adoption of social media means that consumers are sharing their experiences, good and bad, through a forum which lives on well after the original incident has been forgotten,” Dick Brunton, the joint founder and executive chairman of Colmar Brunton says. “The stories, and detail that respondents offered when explaining their negative experiences, demonstrates a real viral danger, as stories take on more meaning than the initial experience as they are passed along. Still, New Zealanders are reasonably forgiving of a problem with customer service, but what really matters to them is how it’s handled and resolved.”

Brunton says the survey shows companies that make the commitment to improve the customer experience can turn things around. For example, banks contributed 37 per cent of all particularly good experiences cited by the survey respondents this time around, but five years ago, that figure was just 24 per cent.

The study showed that phone companies contributed one-third of all bad customer experiences and particularly bad telco experiences outnumber particularly good ones by four to one.

“Banks and airlines have done a great job of ‘onlining’ and automating the service experience in a way that feels both personal and customised,” says Brunton. “But businesses should be wary of going down the automation track without considering how it feels to the consumer. Telcos are widely criticised for automating their phone systems in a way that is cold, impersonal and actually makes it harder for consumers to interact with them.”

Brunton believes how companies handle the transition to online and telephone customer service is increasingly key to how consumers perceive them. He says ASB has been a leader in this area, as evidenced by the nation’s—and perhaps the world’s—first virtual bank branch via Facebook.

There is also strong evidence a customer-driven approach is better for a company’s bottom line than a purely profit-driven one.

“Organisations that authentically put the customer first build more brand value for their shareholders than those who put shareholders first,” he says.

The study, which was designed to help understand the differences but more importantly, the similarities and commonly held beliefs Baby Boomer males and Gen Y males hold, asks questions of 150 dads and 150 sons on a wide range of topics, including what kind of media they consume and how often, who they’d rather be stuck in a lift with, who their idols are and who’s hotter, Pippa from Breakfast or Samantha Hayes. But more topical and probably more useful right now is the question about what they want for Christmas. And, surprisingly, it doesn’t matter how old the man in your life is, they all want the same thing: cold, hard cash.

The top three gifts for dads and teenage boys alike, in order, are: cash, hobby/sport related stuff and cash for travelling with. Willis was surprised to see the differentiation made between cash, with non-specific cash presumably for someone to pick up what they want, take advantage of January sales, get clothes they actually want etc, while cash for travelling with is about designated monies and the long term plan of holidays.

“For the teens I think that may include summer holiday road trip stuff, whereas for adults is probably more about ‘my spends’ while we’re away. The thing that bonds both responses is independence; the power and freedom of choice,” he says.

The only real difference between our Kiwi men and their sons is that after they’ve counted the cash falling out of the Christmas cards and put away their new golf clubs/soccer boots, the dads want a lie in or more sleep, whereas the boys are wondering where their new iPhone or Blackberry is.

For the record, Pippa is hotter than Rachel Hunter for dads but, surprisingly, Rachel Hunter is at the top for the teenage boys, with Gin Wigmore second and Hayley Holt from The Crowd Goes Wild third.

The favourite TVC of Baby Boomer dads is the Lotto (Wilson) campaign, with ANZ second. For boys it’s the L&P campaign followed by Lotto.

45 percent of dads claim to be ‘always doing’ the grocery shopping and 17 percent of boys say the same. And they actually seem to enjoy being part of the weekly shop.

The three companies that sons and dads would be proud to say are ‘A real New Zealand’ brand are: Air New Zealand, L&P and TradeMe.

Some of the oldest generational divides still exist, with both parties disagreeing about how ‘kids today don’t respect their elders’, but they both agree that life is more complicated for today’s generation.

Overall, it’s surprising to see how much the generational divide is closing in some areas of beliefs and attitudes, while it is also refreshing to see some stereotypical behaviour remains. By the way, socks and undies still made the top ten wish list for dads.