Generally speaking, the levels of Trust are based on expectations. Professors such as Barber also argue that the degrees of Trust may vary with universal expectations for the preservation and performance of the natural order or ethical social order, and with exceptional expectations more specifically paying attention to the roles or responsibilities of a human being in social relationship perspective.

Amongst these universal expectations, we must point out that the universal standards of Koreans for the level of Trust are very high. In other words, we can say that Korea has a strong critical tendency compared to other countries. In fact, this critical-oriented mind has been a driving force of economic growth because this tendency of critical thinking requires endless improvements. Nonetheless of constant endeavors of the Korean society to raise the Trust level in many sectors, it appeared to be true that most Koreans do not perceive the consequences to equal to their standards of universal level of Trust.

To start with, the Trust in government and public institution, and the police in particular, are shown very low.

This lower trust level in police seems to have the similar understandings from an annual survey conducted by The Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), the Integrity Index 2019. It reports the 42% of respondents, 14.1% year-on-year increase, believe that there is corruption in the police sector, and also describes significant increases in ‘Corruption rate’ in all industry sector.

Additionally, there had been numerous controversies over the accuracy of the public election polls despite the short Election history in Korea. As such, I’d say that there is also a much room for advancement to the existing research methodology that are taken root as a habitual in our society.

Improvements in integrity of the government and police organization and its members through reformation of their perception to ensure fairness and accuracy, are required in order to increase the Trust in society overall. In the same line, a constant and everlasting development on both technical and methodologies in the political circle, the press, polling agencies, and academia strive is needed, in order to improve the accuracy of public polls to maintain the importance of their outcomes.

Consumers’ Trust in specific companies is based on their “Expectations” that these companies would manufacture them high-quality products, which will further encourages the consumers to imagine the quality of the products or shape their attitudes towards products. Yet, it seems to be insufficient to eventually meet these consumer expectations in the marketing practice of image construction performed by the enterprises.

Moreover, the survey carried out by PMI of the impact of CSR activities on brand value in Korea proves that consumers showing higher interest in not only product functions but also company’s moral aspects including social reputation of the brand, business ethics, and other possible ethical elements of the company. This survey reports that 82.8% of the respondents mentioned that the company’s social reputation can affect their purchase intention. Furthermore, 87.3% believes that companies’ various activities to solve social problems should be taken into account for corporate evaluations. Namely it can be stated that if the corporate evaluations based on their CSR activities increase, contribution of corporates to the enhancement of Trust in society is also expected.

As our society as well as each sector continue to undergo for an unceasing self-reflection, problem-recognizing, and continuous investigation activities aiming for improvements, the Trust in every individual levels will ultimately reach at the high “Expectation level” of their people.

Min Hee Cho

Panel Marketing interactive Co., LTD.

“Familiarity can no longer be a necessary condition for trust. We also confuse trust with familiarity

 Robert C. Solomon Quote

To play their part in building a trusting relationship between the general public & market research, GRBN recently conducted The Global Trust Survey 2020 with many partners globally, including Rakuten Insight. Globally, approximately 10,000 people participated and in Japan, 1,000 participants came from Rakuten Insight’s proprietary panel.

Amongst many highlights was one chart showing Japan standing alone in the category which exhibits very low familiarity of the collection & usage of personal data combined with high concern of misuse.

At first view this can feel contradictory. The Germanic approach whereby once familiar with personal data usage, they start to feel more relaxed can be seen to be more logical. Likewise low familiarity & low concern is easier to imagine.

However, in Japan, although sensitive to data being misused, they seemingly don’t really make any efforts to get familiar with the laws. Two important values in Japanese business culture shed light on this situation – convenience & omotenashi (customer first).

Convenience isa highly regarded commodity in Japan. It’s a society where there is 24-hour shopping, automatic car doors and vending machines selling everything you may need at the push of a button, even opening a door can seem inconvenient! So Japanese consumers expect a convenient solution from companies who use their personal data, and they do not expect to have to understand the regulations themselves.

At the same time, Japanese consumers tend to have high expectations from companies that they will both intuitively understand their concern and manage their personal data properly. This expectation is that companies will demonstrate omotenashi or ‘customer first’ mindset.

Omotenashi has been central to Rakuten Insight for over 20 years but there are a broad range of different values contained in the word due to the cultural context of ‘customer service’ itself. In the West, salesmen have followed the mantra ‘customer is king’. In post war Japan, folk singer Haruo Minami coined the phrase ‘okyakusama wa kamisama desu’ or ‘Customers are Gods’. The original intended meaning was that if you imagine your audience are Gods, you will perform better and gain more personal satisfaction. However, this was misinterpreted and used by marketers, evolving to mean that one should worship one’s customers. Values included in omotenashi are a sense of wholehearted, sincerity, customer centric, anticipation of needs, caring touch, dedication, detailed & full attention. Omotenashi would be the expectation towards the collection & usage of their personal data.

When conducting research in Japan, it is a common experience to see the market as an outlier or identify apparent contradictions. However, with the support of those who know the culture, we can usually see that Japanese consumers have more in common with other markets than differences. Trust, familiarity & concern no longer need to confuse.

Neil Cantle

Rakuten Insight

 

 

 

Neil Cantle, Regional Head at Rakuten Insight lived in Japan for approximately 5 years and worked in Japanese companies for another 7 years. He speaks fluent Japanese and also has a deep understanding of the culture. Neil has experience of conducting research in Japan from fieldwork through to reporting for several blue-chip clients including RB, ITG and Amex and helped clients by providing cultural context and cross-cultural ‘translation’ through consultancy during research studies as well as conducting and attending Japan specific workshops. Neil is married to a Japanese national

MEDIA RELEASE

Tuesday 5 May 2020

Australia’s peak body for research rebrands to The Research Society

Australia’s peak body for research, insights and analytics today unveils its new name –The Research Society.

The organisation formerly known as the Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS), has over 2000 members and 80 company and client partners, and has been Australia’s leading research and insights community for 65 years.

Every decision across government, business and not for profit sectors affecting Australians in every aspect of their lives is informed by high quality research conducted by our members.  And never more so than right now when high quality up to the minute information is critical to our community.

The Research Society ensures the industry works to the highest standards and protects the interests of Australians who participate, as well as those who design and conduct research, by setting and enforcing a stringent Code of Professional Behaviour, as well as providing ongoing training to the research sector.

The Research Society’s chief executive Elissa Molloy said the rebrand provides a fresh contemporary look and feel to complement the suite of new ways in which the organisation supports research professionals and partner organisations.

“As the leading Australian research and insights community for over 65 years, we know this is the best time to refresh our look and bring on new services to reflect a changing world and to support our members in their careers,” Ms Molloy said.

“We have some 2000 individual research professional members and over 80 partner organisations that include research agencies and end-client organisations that commission research in commercial and government sectors.

“We provide discounts and benefits to them and include individual membership for their employees. Everything we do at The Research Society is designed to promote, protect, connect and develop members and partner organisations.

“Our rebrand and the raft of new opportunities and services we are introducing reinforces our confidence in the smart creative research industry we support.  New services we are launching over the coming months include:  mentoring, live and on-demand online training, networking and conferences (including digital conferences), accreditation and a new suite of research awards all designed to reflect the dynamism of our industry,” Ms Molloy said.

 

ENDS

About The Research Society: The Research Society is the peak representative body for research professionals, celebrating 65 years of operation in 2020. All members and organisation partners adhere to the Society’s Code of Professional Behaviour, which aligns with Australian Privacy Law. The Research Society has strategic partnerships with 45 research associations across the globe to ensure their members and partners are kept up to date with the latest local and global research, methodologies and trends.

MEDIA CONTACTS: Jackie Hanafie on 0412 652 439 or jackie@fiftyacres.com or Julia Macerola on 0422 337 332 or julia@fiftyacres.com. 

MEDIA RELEASE

14 October 2019

RESEARCH INDUSTRY GRANTED ACCESS TO INTEGRATED PUBLIC NUMBER DATABASE (IPND)

For over eight years, AMSRO has been actively lobbying the government on behalf of the market and social research industry to obtain access to the IPND for appropriate research purposes.  Established in 1998 the Integrated Public Number Database (IPND) is a centralised database containing records of all Australian telephone numbers and their corresponding name and address information.  AMSRO is pleased to advise that our advocacy efforts have been rewarded. In addition to the access researchers already had to the listed public numbers stored on the IPND (mainly fixed lines), under special conditions researchers are now able to access the IPND’s unlisted mobile telephone numbers along with the associated postcode information.

IPND access is permitted for research that is:

• relevant to public health (for instance for state-based health surveys)
• public policy research by or for the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth entity, and
• related to electoral matters conducted by or for a registered political party, a political representative, or a candidate in an election for an Australian parliament or local government authority.

At this stage, use of the IPND for commercial research purposes is not permitted.

Authorisations for access can cover more than one research entity and access can be for a period of up to 12 months.  Applications for access need to be made to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), with a fee payable to the IPND manager, Telstra.

AMSRO applauds the Minister for Communication and the Arts’ decision.  Access to the unlisted mobile phone numbers listed on the IPND will enable researchers to conduct telephone surveys more efficiently, with greater accuracy, at lower cost to clients and with less impact on the public – because mobile phone numbers can now be geographically targeted.

AMSRO President, Craig Young said: “One of AMSRO’s key roles is to lobby government to advance the interests of the whole research industry.  This excellent result is a testament to the tenacious advocacy and lobbying efforts of AMSRO representatives over many years, especially individuals who have served on our Government Relations Committee.

“The new regulations allowing access to the IPND for health, social policy and electoral research will ensure that researchers and the Australian community benefit from more cost effectively conducted research and significantly less unnecessary contact with respondents, while also safeguarding respondents’ privacy.  AMSRO recognises the desirability of obtaining access for commercial research purposes and will continue to advocate for this.

“The new access arrangements also ensure that researchers and government can access high-quality telephone samples to support critical business and government decisions for today’s Australia and help plan for the future.”

Presenting last week at a Telephone Surveying in the Post-Modern Era workshop, convened by The Social Research Centre, Chris Jose from ACMA, advised delegates of the processes for accessing the IPND Scheme and Regulations, and said that researchers can apply to the ACMA to access IPND for permitted research purposes, for both one-off and ongoing use.

AMSRO would like to thank the following people for their time and expertise for helping bring about these changes; Darren Pennay, The Social Research Centre; Martin O’Shannessy, OmniPoll; Szymon Duniec, ORIMA Research; Mark Zuker, JWS Research and many others who have contributed their time and efforts to this cause over many years.  AMSRO also appreciates the support for our lobbying efforts provided by key government research users.

As researchers and clients start to use the IPND, AMSRO will monitor progress, keep members updated and provide support where required.

For more information regarding access arrangements please see the ACMA IPND site.

For more information please contact:

Rochelle Burbury                                                                             Sarah Campbell

Third Avenue Consulting                                                              Executive Director, AMSRO

0408 774 577                                                                                     0417 665 144

rochelle@thirdavenue.com.au                                                   sarah@amsro.com.au

About AMSRO

The Association of Market & Social Research Organisations (AMSRO) is the peak body for the market and social research, data and insights industry. AMSRO works in partnership with its company members, plus privacy authorities, business, government and the community to protect and promote the industry and uphold the highest ethical and privacy market and social research standards. Since its establishment in 1989, AMSRO has grown to more than 90 members, who employ over 5,000 people, representing 70% of the industry’s annual (data collection) turnover.  In 2003, AMSRO pioneered its own privacy code for members which won an Australian Privacy Award in 2009.  www.amsro.com.au