Censydiam for Kids, or Storm in the Merry Mermaid's Coffee Bar
People sometimes say that children are no longer children. Concerned parents will tell you that. Well, yes, concerned parents will always be concerned. Parents do not recognize their children anymore, but children . . .
During an interview with mothers and their children, we asked a mother: what sort of apples does your son prefer to eat. Mother was sure: green, of course. When the child picked an apple from our basket, he picked . . . a red one.
"Mom will have told you that I prefer to eat those golden ones," the boy said. No, children may no longer be children, but they seem to know their parents better than their parents know them. Would that be the reason?
Well, fortunately children are not "yet unfinished" adults. For projects with children, we must look at children from a different angle. Not as an adult in an embryonic state, but . . . as children.
When we started to work with kids, Censydiam for Kids had given its market research homework a second try. Not to put kids into new pigeonholes-which we never did with adults anyway-but to see what drives them. And here the adult world comes in again. Some children want to grow up fast; others want to stay small like Peter Pan.
Then we have the influence (or let us even say pressure) of the peer group. And then . . . but that would lead us too far. Just remember that there is Censydiam and Censydiam for Kids-two completely different visions of marketing and market research.
In a book that Censydiam gave as a present to its clients with products for children-and their children-an enterprising young boy in a Mediterranean seaport town is given the care of the Little Mermaid's bar, but his marketing is less than conventional. Who will best recognize himself or herself during the Storm in the Merry Mermaid's Coffee Bar?
During an interview with mothers and their children, we asked a mother: what sort of apples does your son prefer to eat. Mother was sure: green, of course. When the child picked an apple from our basket, he picked . . . a red one.
"Mom will have told you that I prefer to eat those golden ones," the boy said. No, children may no longer be children, but they seem to know their parents better than their parents know them. Would that be the reason?
Well, fortunately children are not "yet unfinished" adults. For projects with children, we must look at children from a different angle. Not as an adult in an embryonic state, but . . . as children.
When we started to work with kids, Censydiam for Kids had given its market research homework a second try. Not to put kids into new pigeonholes-which we never did with adults anyway-but to see what drives them. And here the adult world comes in again. Some children want to grow up fast; others want to stay small like Peter Pan.Then we have the influence (or let us even say pressure) of the peer group. And then . . . but that would lead us too far. Just remember that there is Censydiam and Censydiam for Kids-two completely different visions of marketing and market research.
In a book that Censydiam gave as a present to its clients with products for children-and their children-an enterprising young boy in a Mediterranean seaport town is given the care of the Little Mermaid's bar, but his marketing is less than conventional. Who will best recognize himself or herself during the Storm in the Merry Mermaid's Coffee Bar?
Corporate days in the Big Apple
1997 . . . our tenth birthday. All together, we went to New York. Our European staff members took up half of a plane. Hustle amidst the bustle of Schiphol airport. After seven hours flying, more hustle and bustle in Newark. At immigration: "You belong to that Censydiam group, too? Move along, please . . . " Now where is the famous skyline? We are not in the right spot to see it yet, but never mind: America, here we come . . .
Corporate Days are always a joyous affair, but now it is just simply euphoria. Our American Managing Director is waiting for us, so we are "home." He is being introduced to our Asian staff; those from Europe he already knows. A multicultural-or should we say cross-cultural?-meeting.
Some go shopping along Fifth Avenue. Others are having a bite on the sidewalk in Greenwich Village. Others still have a beer at the Harley Davidson Cafe. Still others walk down to the Lower East Side, to the famous shopping mall on the Pier.
Where are the Europeans going and where are the Asians? The Germans, the Spaniards, the Italians? They all feel at home here, in the most multicultural town of the world, in the big melting pot.
Is this, for us, the mirror of tomorrow's society? Is this the ideal image of globalization?
Some went to the Empire State building to see the famous skyline. The Twin Towers were still standing. For most of us, it was the last time we saw them. The next time-almost exactly four years later to the day, on September 11th, 2001-we saw them on T.V. We saw them collapse and we at once understood that New York, and the world, had definitively changed.
Some might think that the United States has changed multiculturalism into "he who is not with me is against me." We refuse to believe that.
Corporate Days are always a joyous affair, but now it is just simply euphoria. Our American Managing Director is waiting for us, so we are "home." He is being introduced to our Asian staff; those from Europe he already knows. A multicultural-or should we say cross-cultural?-meeting.
Some go shopping along Fifth Avenue. Others are having a bite on the sidewalk in Greenwich Village. Others still have a beer at the Harley Davidson Cafe. Still others walk down to the Lower East Side, to the famous shopping mall on the Pier.
Where are the Europeans going and where are the Asians? The Germans, the Spaniards, the Italians? They all feel at home here, in the most multicultural town of the world, in the big melting pot.
Is this, for us, the mirror of tomorrow's society? Is this the ideal image of globalization?
Some went to the Empire State building to see the famous skyline. The Twin Towers were still standing. For most of us, it was the last time we saw them. The next time-almost exactly four years later to the day, on September 11th, 2001-we saw them on T.V. We saw them collapse and we at once understood that New York, and the world, had definitively changed.
Some might think that the United States has changed multiculturalism into "he who is not with me is against me." We refuse to believe that.
Tintin in the Congo
One of the famous Belgian cartoonist Hergé's first albums, Tintin au Congo, has been adapted several times. The original edition dates back from the time that the Congo still was a Belgian colony. After the independence, Tintin in the Congo was considered colonialist, if not downright offensive to black people.
You will surely understand the problems we have when we do market research in our old colony, and especially given that Cis Paelinck-who "explored" the Congo for us a second time-was born there.
Cis barely recognized the land of his youth. He and all Europeans with a colonial past are up against the idea that if we do not come back as neocolonialists, we should at least behave like well-meaning missionaries.
Cis can tell you tall stories of the new Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo. He can tell you how he has been, much to his surprise, the invited guest of President Kabila. Neocolonialism turned upside down? Who was colonizing whom? Will we ever be able to understand each other? Are both sides biased? Are both sides playing with loaded dice?
We decided to establish our African headquarters in Nigeria and staff it with people from Holland whose ex-colony lies safely at the other side of the world. For them, it is truly "virgin territory."
Our men and women in Nigeria can face the Dark Continent uninhibited. Our people in Nigeria-Sabine and the others who are too young to have known a colonized Africa-will not lapse into the stereotypes that another generation created. Of course, Cis has helped them, since you have to know where mines have been laid before you can clear them.
Our people in Nigeria have to deal with a new Africa, with the Africa of violent military regimes as well as Nelson Mandela.
You will surely understand the problems we have when we do market research in our old colony, and especially given that Cis Paelinck-who "explored" the Congo for us a second time-was born there.Cis barely recognized the land of his youth. He and all Europeans with a colonial past are up against the idea that if we do not come back as neocolonialists, we should at least behave like well-meaning missionaries.
Cis can tell you tall stories of the new Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo. He can tell you how he has been, much to his surprise, the invited guest of President Kabila. Neocolonialism turned upside down? Who was colonizing whom? Will we ever be able to understand each other? Are both sides biased? Are both sides playing with loaded dice?
We decided to establish our African headquarters in Nigeria and staff it with people from Holland whose ex-colony lies safely at the other side of the world. For them, it is truly "virgin territory."
Our men and women in Nigeria can face the Dark Continent uninhibited. Our people in Nigeria-Sabine and the others who are too young to have known a colonized Africa-will not lapse into the stereotypes that another generation created. Of course, Cis has helped them, since you have to know where mines have been laid before you can clear them.
Our people in Nigeria have to deal with a new Africa, with the Africa of violent military regimes as well as Nelson Mandela.
Life stories in America: from Newark to Saint Louis
The United States is very unlike Europe. Since the European Union now moves at full speed with the euro-the "European dollar"-everybody will tell you that. European pride has taken a big step forward. In world politics we dare, now and then, contradict the United States and make our "European voice" heard.
Our first research on American soil was done in Newark-so not in New York, but almost.
It was, regrettable, a disappointment, but we were not completely dejected. Our client did not allow us to use our "European" way of doing things; it had to be the "American" way-whatever that might have been. We had to let their moderators run the show and follow everything quietly-and rather respectfully?-from behind the two-way mirror.
Things have changed now. We have grown more self-confident-which we have always been anyway-and get more, if not total confidence from our American clients.
Americans are nice people. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, which does not mean that they always do that during a marketing interview. Tineke experienced that in Saint Louis, years after our painful beginnings in Newark. She was interviewing a young woman about salad dressing. A subject on which women can talk inexhaustibly with other women? No, not in this case. Yet, Tineke had done her homework well: reassurance first, then every research technique in the book . . . The young lady from Saint Louis remained cold and impassive. Until the word "father" cropped up.
Then the young woman turned out to be inexhaustible, not only on salad dressing but also on her inner life, seen-projected-through the eyes of her father. Tineke, as she told us later, got the shivers: had she been promoted from market researcher to shrink? Is that American, too, or not?
Our first research on American soil was done in Newark-so not in New York, but almost.
It was, regrettable, a disappointment, but we were not completely dejected. Our client did not allow us to use our "European" way of doing things; it had to be the "American" way-whatever that might have been. We had to let their moderators run the show and follow everything quietly-and rather respectfully?-from behind the two-way mirror.
Things have changed now. We have grown more self-confident-which we have always been anyway-and get more, if not total confidence from our American clients.
Americans are nice people. They wear their hearts on their sleeves, which does not mean that they always do that during a marketing interview. Tineke experienced that in Saint Louis, years after our painful beginnings in Newark. She was interviewing a young woman about salad dressing. A subject on which women can talk inexhaustibly with other women? No, not in this case. Yet, Tineke had done her homework well: reassurance first, then every research technique in the book . . . The young lady from Saint Louis remained cold and impassive. Until the word "father" cropped up.
Then the young woman turned out to be inexhaustible, not only on salad dressing but also on her inner life, seen-projected-through the eyes of her father. Tineke, as she told us later, got the shivers: had she been promoted from market researcher to shrink? Is that American, too, or not?