Global manufacturing leaders are carefully considering the pros and cons of both.

China still leads the world in manufacturing, with close to 30% of the country’s economic output coming from this sector. Many industry experts and leading economists believe that China will no longer be the manufacturing powerhouse it once was within the next five years.

How the pandemic changed the manufacturing industry

The global pandemic caused a notable decrease in manufacturing production in 2020 due to containment strategies in economic and social lockdowns. Both had a significant impact on both supply and demand. 

Consumer demand declined overall due to uncertainties triggered by travel restrictions, remote working, business cessations, and job losses. At the same time, the production of many goods came to a halt worldwide for many months. 

A shift away from Made in China

For some major manufacturing companies, the pandemic spurred a sea-change in where they manufactured their product. The American Chamber of Commerce in Shenzhen, China, surveyed its manufacturing membership and learned that over 30 percent were in the process of moving some of its manufacturing out of China.

In July 2020, Apple announced it was shifting the assembly of its iPhone 11, the most advanced model in its product line, from China to India.

A couple of weeks later, Samsung and several other Apple suppliers applied for the Indian government’s incentive program targeted towards large-scale manufacturers of electronic products, which would see a significant part of these companies’ manufacturing transferred to India.

In recent years, China has attempted to replace the term “Made in China” with “Engineered in China”: the country would no longer be known as the world’s factory, a cheap place for countries to outsource manufacturing. Chinese manufacturers have increased automation and switched to using robots instead. In these instances, up to 80 percent of workers were sent home and replaced with specialized production line workers — typically experts in machine maintenance and machine learning. Mechanized factories boast much higher output with fewer errors and accidents, and a higher dependence on technology and automation meant wage costs were no longer critical.

With these changes, China is slowly losing its foothold in the global manufacturing sector for reasons with nothing to do with costs and output.

Other factors affecting this shift also include; trade tensions between China and the US (along with its western allies), the realization by global manufacturers during the pandemic of the flaw in the supply chain delivery due to over-reliance on one country for production, increased costs, and tariffs, and consumer sentiment of products made in China.

Even so, manufacturing in China is expected to recover in 2021, growing by 9 percent.

The growth in manufacturing in India

By comparison, India is expected to grow by 10 percent, recovering from significant economic strain during the pandemic.

The average age of a citizen in India is 28 years versus 38 years in China. This country has a massive population, and the demand for technology is high. Manufacturing overseas is not always about importing; it is also about global supply. If you have a product that appeals to 20 somethings or 30 somethings, manufacturing locally in India makes sense.

India is a lot less controversial geopolitically, and the Indian government is poised to capitalize on that notion.  

The government of India has launched several policies over the past few years to create a favorable environment and attract investment in manufacturing, with a focus on electronics manufacturing, including mobile phones, industrial electronics, consumer electronics, electronic components, computer hardware, and LED products.

Due to these commercially favorable initiatives, India’s electronics production has more than doubled in the last five years (2015-2020). According to the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information technology, India’s electronics market is expected to reach US$132 billion by the end of 2021.

In China, manufacturing labor wages by location (in USD per hour) is $3.80 compared to India’s 0.70. Even with China’s focus on automation and robotics, labor in India is five times less than in China.

While the shift from solely or wholly manufacturing in China has seemingly begun, China will still be a global manufacturing hub. 

Perception of manufacturing locale 

Supply is synonymous with manufacturing. In economics, the rule of supply and demand states that if all other factors remain equal, the higher the price of a good, the fewer people will demand that good. For most, regardless of generation, price and availability are essential, if not the most important, in buying decisions. 

However, in economics, “movements” and “shifts” represent different market phenomena concerning supply and demand. 

In the past, companies chose to manufacture from an outside country due to price. Now other factors could negatively affect demand and brand perception.

Price, or cost of goods sold, is an easy measurement to evaluate in manufacturing. However, more and more companies see that consumer sentiment is a factor contributing to growth and demand.

Consumer sentiment is becoming an essential factor in manufacturing. After all, it does not matter how cheaply you can manufacture a product, whether that is in China or India, if the demand is not there or if consumers will choose a different, competitively priced product based on the manufacturer’s location.

A key question a company should ask is whether consumers would feel differently and ultimately decide to buy a product based on a “Made in India” label versus “Made in China.” 

For Gen Z and millennials, these two generations are much more brand conscious. In one study, 62% of millennials surveyed said buying from brands that support their own political and social beliefs is essential. In another study, Gen Z consumers are more likely to switch brands that meet specific values like sustainability. 

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The role of research in manufacturing 

Moving the manufacture of parts or components to multiple countries is a huge undertaking. Deciding to enter a new market, along with evaluating manufacturers, can be incredibly daunting if “on the ground” knowledge is limited or non-existent. Commissioning a research agency to find out where to direct your attention is a crucial first step. Selecting a research company with direct market knowledge can save time and capital investment.

Understanding how your target audience perceives where your product is manufactured, alongside any impacts on demand, should be researched and evaluated. 

Read case studies from the Manufacturing sector here

Kadence International is proud to be announced a finalist for the 2021 Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards.

Known as the Quirk’s Awards, Kadence learned that placed as finalists under the Best New Product/Service Innovation category. The category honors a research product, tool or service making an impact on the marketing research industry.

The award nominations are open to all researchers worldwide. All attempts are made to ensure the judging is blind so that the judges do not know the name or company they are evaluating.

“Being named a finalist for a Quirk’s award is a huge accomplishment in itself” said Darren Lewis, Kadence International’s UK Country Manager.

“To be judged by your peers in the research industry, who know firsthand what “best in show” research truly looks like, means to be named a finalist is a badge of honor,” he said.

Even so, Lewis and the entire Kadence International team are hopeful of a win. Winners will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony held on November 9, 2021.

“Being a finalist in an award category that acknowledges an impact in the industry is humbling,” said Ramsey Yomen, who leads the Kadence International brand through the 10 countries it operates.

“Kadence has always been about pushing the boundaries in the research data and insight industry. Being named a finalist, and hopefully a winner, will prove we continue to be on the right track and forefront of innovation in research.”

Kadence International has won multiple industry awards in recent years including winning Gold as Consultant of the Year – Agency of the Year Awards, 2021 and Market Research Agency of the Year, Agency of the Year Awards, 2021. The international agency last won a Quirk’s Award in 2019 for Market Research Supplier of the Year.

Kadence International prides itself as a being a boutique, yet global marketing research agency. Whether it be strictly for delivering well-sourced data for company’s research divisions or conducting end to end full data research and insight reporting, Kadence delivers it all. With offices in 10 countries (USA, UK, India, Malaysia, Sinapore, Phillipines, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and China), Kadence is provides research expertise across the globe.

We are absolutely thrilled to be finalists at this year’s AURA Awards for Innovation of the Year in conjunction with Asahi Europe & International. The award nomination recognizes our work using augmented reality to drive innovation in pack and concept testing.

This new approach harnesses augmented reality models, built in-house by our design team, that respondents can interact with at home. The result? Rich, detailed feedback to fuel the innovation and design process without the need for a physical prototype or bringing respondents together centrally.

We conducted a pilot of the technology alongside Asahi Europe & International, which validated a number of benefits over established pack and concept testing methods, including respondents being able to better visualize what the concepts would look like in real life, and spontaneously commenting on critical details of the pack design. Read the full case study to find out more about the pilot.

The AURAs are one of the most respected awards in the market research industry, and are judged by members of AURA, an organization of client side research and insight professionals. Innovation of the Year is a brand new category for 2021 that seeks to recognize solutions that are helping to “deliver better insights or deliver insights better.”

The winners will be announced at the AURA Awards Dinner in London on 19th July.

AURA Innovation of the Year award

We are thrilled to announce that we’re finalists in 3 categories at Singapore’s Agency of the Year Awards. We’re shortlisted for:

  • Market Research Agency of the Year
  • Consultant of the Year
  • Agency Leader of the Year

The Agency of the Year Awards are organized by Marketing Magazine and seek to recognize the country’s best agencies. The awards are judged by an esteemed panel of senior client-side marketers. You can see a list of all finalists on the Marketing website.

In 2019, we were named Market Research Agency of the Year and in 2020, we took home the trophy for Consultant of the Year. Hear the Managing Director of our Singapore office, Phil Steggals, speak to Marketing Magazine about the award win and what Kadence is doing differently.

Find out more about our Singapore office or get in touch, if you’d like to discuss a potential project.

In 2020, we’ll share more reports and short reads to help you get ahead of the latest market research and consumer trends. But, before we do, we’re looking back at our most-read LinkedIn posts of the past year to point you in the direction of our top reports and blog posts from 2019 – covering everything from the future of cars to the booming cannabis market in the US.

The launch of our Urban Mobility study

In February 2019, we launched our Urban Mobility study, a new piece of global research exploring how people across the world commute. Our launch event at the London Transport Museum brought together industry experts from Drivy, Waze and Bloomberg as we discussed the future of travel and transportation and the innovations we expect to see in this space.

Missed the event? You can download the full Urban Mobility report here.

Understanding the Concerned Consumer

From calls for recyclable packaging to moves to eat less meat, we’re seeing the rise of the concerned consumer. But what are the issues that really matter to consumers when comes to food and drink? And what implications do these trends have for marketing and product innovation? Our Concerned Consumer research sought to explore, by understanding the attitudes and behaviors of 5000 consumers across 10 countries which match the global footprint of our offices.

Get your copy of the Concerned Consumer report here.

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What do therapeutic cannabis users in the US look like?

As the legal markets for cannabis expand in the US, we wanted to understand what therapeutic cannabis consumers look like. Are they really that different to the average US cannabis consumer? We found they’re more likely to consume cannabis everyday and are more likely to consume using non-combustive methods, such as edibles and vaping concentrates.

We visualized the full findings in an infographic on our blog. If you want to learn more about cannabis consumption in the US, you can download the full report.

The Best Market Research Agency in the World (probably)!

In December, Phil Steggals, MD of our Singapore office, explored ESOMAR’s Insight Market Development Index, taking a tongue in cheek look at why this must mean that Kadence is the best market research agency in the world … probably!

Read the blog post here.

Kadence is the best Market Research agency in the world (probably).

Admittedly word ‘probably’ in the headline is ‘doing a lot’ – but it does in fact play a lovely dual role. Firstly, to hark back to the glory days of Carlsberg’s branding, a series of fantastic ads that ran for many years, in many parts of the world (have a Google, if you don’t already have a favorite!) – and secondly to ensure that there is not a legal outcry from others. As a diligent researcher, I have of course checked on the Advertising Standards of the claim ‘best’ and so I shall be providing the ‘objective claims’ required.

Earlier this year, ESOMAR released their Global Market Research report – their annual look at the size of market research across the world. For the first time, within this report they released the IMDI (Insight Market Development Index) ranking – an inaugural ‘look at various aspects that affect the industry, and informs the reader about the degree of development of the sector in any country compared to others’.

There are 3 parts that make up the index:

  • The Global Prices study – a biannual report that informs what prices, on average, are to be expected in each country and for a wide variety of projects
  • The Global Market Research Report – the document listed above, a yearly publication that presents in detail the state of the insights industry
  • The Representative Index – an indicator for the representation of the professionals both within the country and at a global scale, extracted from ESOMAR’s worldwide member base

According to this index, there are a ‘group of countries that belong to the High Industrial Development, enjoy a highly developed industry with decent per capita turnover, strong representation of end-clients and specialized workforce and above average price levels’

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The country that tops this list? Singapore. So Singapore is the most ‘developed’ research country in the world. So, we need to look at Singapore, we need to find the ‘best’ agency in Singapore. Well. As it turns out Kadence won the Gold Award at the ‘Agency of the Year’ Awards in 2019 presented by Marketing Magazine – these are the only awards in the country that specify the ‘Market Research Agency of the Year’.

So, if Kadence is the Agency of the year in Singapore – which is the most developed market in the world for Kadence – it is quite clear that Kadence is the best agency, in the best market in the world.

So there we have it. Proof. I am privileged to run the best research agency in the whole world.

Although, if I am honest (and I am hoping you have picked up on the tongue in cheek nature of this post), there is no such thing as a ‘Best Agency’. There is a huge collection of brilliant people, working for brilliant research companies. I have often said that as an industry we are too hard on ourselves – always looking over our shoulder and proclaiming that AI, Big Data…the Internet…will change everything! As an industry, market research is here to stay – and the successful companies of the future will embrace the new – as well as adapting the old. For Kadence, much like the focus of Carlsberg in 2019, we will be starting this next decade by looking to do what we do….only better. No probably about it!  

Have a great Christmas and New Year all!

P.S. If you want to hear some of the reasons why we made it to Agency of the Year in Singapore – check out this video.

As Greenbook endeavors to expand its presence within Asia, Kadence International identified with that desire to spread innovative market research practices across the world, for the betterment of the industry. With that in mind, Kadence International stepped up and became Title Sponsor for its third IIeX Conference in Dec 2019.

The two-days conference brought together both clients and agencies in Thailand and within the region, and the Kadence booth was at the center of all ‘buzzworthy’ interactions and conversations, discussing what interesting methodologies are being carried out, and what kinds of possibilities and potential the future can hold, when clients and agencies achieve perfect synergy.

To that point, Kadence’s presentation at the conference was great proof of that: it worked with Bloomberg on a project, the first of its kind in Asia, by marrying neuro-centric measures of respondents and traditional quantitative surveys, to understand consumer reactions to the same ads placed on different platforms. Results of the study will be released in the public domain in Q1 2020, but the study proved how traditional research methodologies, in the face of evolving technologies, can still play a complementary role in enhancing outcomes and strengthening gained insights 

The presentation was part of a larger series of sessions that covered other interesting subject matters: from Google’s sharing of what makes a fad a trend (or, when does a ‘thing’ actually become a THING) and the commercial potential that brands can tap into when thinking about the urban phenomenon of loneliness, to why the over-60-year-olds are brands’ best bet for market growth in Asia and how visual communication partially explains chat platform Line’s success in Thailand, there were food-for-thought aplenty, and many topics that sparked discussions during lunch and networking breaks

Kadence also noticed 3 phenomena during the conference, which it believes is evidence that a larger trend is taking shape:

  1. Greater willingness to appreciate research from a multitude of angles – Google’s own study on the formation of trends highlights how data analytics, however advanced and wide in reach, can only explain part of the story
  2. Greater access to research respondents outside of traditional channels – on top of reaching out to online panels for respondents to complete online surveys, there’s increasing experimentation to access data from a brand’s own users (e.g. True Mobile in Thailand and its millions of subscribers), or new vendors that are using different platforms to offer agencies that reach (e.g. crowdsourcing, social media, etc.)
  3. Distinction vs. differentiation – precisely because of the plethora of new partners for both agencies and brands to work with (e.g. in the space of accessing respondents for studies), the ones that work well understand the classic marketing notion of ‘distinction’: what they offer may not be different to their competitors, but they are at least clear about what it is that allows them to stand out from the crowd
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In summary, that larger trend is the notion of ‘connections, not alternatives’; this is at the heart of Kadence’s strategy for 2020, as it believes in order to raise the impact of research within the region, through meaningful insights and business-relevant recommendations, it will benefit by playing that ‘matchmaking’ role, working with partners who’s business is in making sense of cutting-edge research technologies, and deciphering that to put it together with traditional research, in service of answering clients’ strategic questions. Kadence is certain that the industry will certainly benefit from the notion of ‘this-AND-that’, rather than ‘this-OR-that’

Kadence Singapore has recently completed refurbishments to the office, with new spaces for relaxation and optimal collaboration, to celebrate our 15th anniversary in Singapore. To further commemorate the occasion, Kadence Singapore brought together our clients and strategic partners to join us in an office warming party last month. We took the opportunity to showcase the new office space, some strategic partners we work with, as well as the innovation-led methodologies and studies we do here in Kadence.

To mark our 15th year in Singapore, we showcased 15 innovative research tools and techniques used in Kadence during the Open House, including virtual reality, neuromarketing, eye-tracking, Emotional Connection Matrix, etc. We also invited some of our partners, Dynata, Sight-X, and Outside Voice, who shared how research can be enhanced by some of their latest tools. These 15 innovations are grouped into 6 different zones in the office, which allowed our clients to learn about these initiatives, while exploring the new areas around the office.

The half-day event has sparked many interesting ideas and conversations on the future of market research, and how innovation and traditional research methods can work hand in hand to enhance insights.

In addition to great food and drinks, Phil Steggals, MD of Kadence Singapore, also gave a speech thanking everyone for coming, clients and partners for supporting us through the years, and the Kadence team for delivering insights worth sharing to our clients. After the event, $15 per guest who joined us at the event, was also donated to SPCA on their behalf.

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Looking forward to 2020, we are optimistic to establish closer relationships with our clients, and utilize more innovations, coupled with traditional research, to deliver insights addressing their needs.

We are delighted to announce that Kadence has been Highly Commended for the Global Agency of the Year award at the 2019 Market Research Society Awards.

The Market Research Society Awards are the most prestigious awards within the UK research industry. They recognize the key achievements of individuals and organizations within the market research sector. Kadence was also a finalist in the Young Researcher of the Year category in recognition of the accomplishments of Kadence employee, Carolina Starkhammar.

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Kadence has been recognized by awarding bodies in all three regions that it operates in this year. In May, Kadence was named Market Research Agency of the Year at Marketing Magazine’s Agency of the Year Awards in Singapore. In September, it was Highly Commended for the Best Training and Development award at the Market Research Society’s Operations Awards in London. Finally, in November, Kadence was named Market Research Supplier of the Year (revenue under $10 million) at the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards in New York and Kadence employee Carolina Starkhammar was named Outstanding Young Researcher.

Commenting on the award successes, Miki Igarashi, Group CEO of Cross Marketing Group, Kadence International’s parent company said “We are delighted to see Kadence’s successes being recognized at a global level. It’s testament to our commitment to delivering work that raises the impact of research and empowers decision-making.”

We are thrilled to have been recognized as Market Research Supplier of the Year (<$10m) at the Quirk’s Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards in the US. Kadence was also awarded the Outstanding Young Researcher (supplier) trophy, in recognition of the achievements of our very own Carolina Starkhammar.

The Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards recognize the individuals and companies adding value and impact in the industry and are powered by Quirk’s, the leading market research publication in the US.

“We are thrilled to be named Market Research Supplier of the Year at the Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards in the US, one of the key markets for Kadence globally” said Miki Igarashi, Group CEO of Cross Marketing Group, Kadence International’s parent company. “It’s our mission to raise the impact of research – and this award is testament to the fact that this is being recognized within the industry.”

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The award win in the US means that Kadence has now been recognised as market research supplier of the year by awarding bodies in two of the three regions it operates in. In May, Kadence was named Market Research Agency of the Year at Marketing Magazine’s Agency of the Year Awards in Singapore. We are also a finalist for Global Agency of the Year at the Market Research Society Awards, the leading industry awards in the UK. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 2nd December so we’ll be keeping our fingers tightly crossed!