Press release

IC-Agency launches a new generation of market studies

For Baselworld 2005, IC Agency unveiled a new type of market study, its WorldWatchReport, developed using cutting edge tools that crunch through of millions of Internet searches to offer innovative semantic analyses on consumer behavior. Canvassing the 5 major export countries for 12 of the most coveted luxury watch brands, the WorldWatchReport extracts and analyses consumer expectations from more than 25 million individual Internet user searches.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  The « must » of this report lies in the unbiased, exclusive and comparative nature of the information, which allows decision-makers to predict new trends by observing proactive and precise consumer requests for specific models or attributes.  Given the omnipresence of Internet in today’s global consumer’s purchasing decisions, this report highlights online multi-brand performance indicators that provide measurable competitive advantage both on- and off-line.

2005: 1 billion Internet users

With the foresight that Internet could no longer remain neglected by the luxury industry as a marginal consumer channel, for years IC Agency has been forging online consumer behaviour tools which track and analyse online intentions (defining the most influential purchasing motivations and impulses, deciphering of cultural and regional search patterns, measurement of advertising impact, conversion rate optimisation for clients and prospects, etc.). IC Agency refines this real-time, non-biased data to offer its clients innovative and empowering perspectives on the latest trends according to actual demand for their products and services.  Measured, not forecasted, demand means reliable indicators that provide competitive edge and reliable internal benchmarking points of reference.
A far cry from traditional market studies, the WorldWatchReport proves that true consumer expectations and desires can now be detected with precision and incomparable reactivity. Several consumer goods groups (of which Nestlé) have already tested and validated IC Agency’s hypotheses.  "The elimination of researcher bias is the most important advantage of the WorldWatchReport over traditional studies" stresses David Sadigh, Partner at IC Agency. "By observing real consumer-induced searches, we can gather extremely precise information concerning their desires, expectations, tastes and preferences, purchasing impulses and opinions on specific brands and models. Knowing the watch industry as well as we do, we make sense out of this mass of information by transforming raw statistics on millions of searches into strategic indicators for companies eager to engage high-potential prospects and turn them into future loyal customers.”

The researcher doesn’t ask for information, the consumer offers it 

In such a volatile market, most traditional market studies are already obsolete as soon as they become available. They reflect information from the past based on data extracted from panels interrogations about brand recall and notoriety. They attempt to discern preferences and predispositions using biased questions which tend to lead panelists to confirm the assumptions of the client which commissions them to perform the study. "We practice a type of "reverse engineering". We start with fresh, actual observed consumer requests from Internet users. This “real” data is then used to comprise, by aggregations, regroupings and correlations, a reliable and impartial knowledge base " explains Flavio Quaranta, Partner at IC Agency. "We are very in tune with our clients’ business", he adds, "which is why we can boil down raw data into immediately actionable and profitable strategic indicators".