New research tool rates consumer intentions

The product, called IntenTrack, tracks and identifies consumer actions that reveal intentions that drive sales.

IntenTrack is the culmination of 16 months of research and development that has so far tracked consumer responses to 200 brands across 30 product categories in 28 countries. It is still growing in scale.

Ravi Kiran, CEO for Southeast and South Asia, said that in the future, the scarcest resource in the world would be consumer attention.

"At Starcom, our vision is to be the leaders of the consumer-attention economy," he said. "In March 2006, we embarked on a journey to become masters of the art and science of consumer attention, advancing a forward view of consumers and the communication landscape. We create and activate transformative ideas that connect brands to consumers and predict and quantify consumer outcomes."

Since the beginning of last year, Starcom MediaVest has been running IntenTrack studies in all of the world's major advertising markets. Asia accounts for about one-third of those markets.

The study first identified all consumer interactions with a brand via traditional and non-traditional media. At the same time, consumers' intent behaviour towards the brands was captured. These ranged from low-level behavioural shifts, such as a change of attitude towards the brand, to those more directly related to purchasing, such as seeking information, talking to others and visiting a store to experiencing the brand and, finally, to purchase.

"Intent moves us beyond engagement and gets us closer to predicting and assessing a measurable behavioural reaction on the part of consumers." said Ranga Somanathan, vice president for insight and analytics in South Asia.

"The consumer's response to a message can range from consideration, or deep curiosity, to validation (seeking an opinion), expression (giving an opinion) to exploration, maybe actively searching on the Web. It can ultimately encompass a consumer's desire to purchase or recommend a brand."

Over the past 16 months, in development of IntenTrack the company's researchers have spoken to more than 2 million consumers about the media they use, their intent behaviour and their purchasing habits.

"The global investment we have put into IntenTrack is testament to our belief that capturing consumer's attention can be measured, predicted and related back to sales," Kiran said.

Meanwhile, Starcom Thailand CEO Atipol Ithivatana said the local advertising industry was expected to be stagnant or, at best, achieve only slight growth over the Bt95 billion spent on advertising last year.

"Many business clients have delayed their advertising spending, due to the slowdown in the economy. They're also turning to spending money on below-the-line activities like event marketing, sports marketing and entertainment marketing, as well as new media like the Internet," Atipol said.

"All media agencies must work harder, because the market is more competitive. Every agency must find the unique qualities that help each client plan his or her media spending, so it reaches target customers."