By: Ekrem Dupanović
She is considered the first lady of the Slovenian marketing scene. The entire regional industry respects her as a top professional and research specialist. Her high ethical and professional standards have provided her with a reputation in international research circles and organizations. She has achieved great successes in the past quarter of the century, since she ventured into entrepreneurial waters. There were also major crises because of dishonest attitude of people towards her. She pushed through all the crises, keeping to the motto “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Not even for a moment did she allow the problems she faced compromise the quality of research Mediana delivered to its clients.
She is Janja Božič Marolt, President of the Institute for market and media research Mediana, based in Ljubljana. Today we are talking amid the 25 years since the founding of Mediana. Twenty-five years is a long period, so this interview is long as well.
MM: You started your career in research at the Studio Marketing Delo, agency which unlike others paid more attention to research as the foundation of all campaigns. How do you see those beginnings from where you stand now?
Janja Božić Marolt: Today I have even more admiration for the then Studio Marketing Delo, and I have great respect for Jernej Repovš and his team. They were all world-class professionals, they created new products, and even back then they were creating brands that are still powerful thirty years later. I dare to argue that they mastered not only advertising, but marketing in general. Their work was based on deep and time-consuming research. They were a source of knowledge and a spring of ideas.
I came to Studio Marketing Delo looking for literature for my graduation thesis, because there was no literature about advertising at the University or at the University Library. They first offered me a survey across the whole of Yugoslavia. I remember that these were clients like Meblo, Union, Fructal, Radenska, etc. Then Zlatko Jančič offered me a job that I refused on the grounds that I would join them in half a year. To my last vacation I packed seven of their books on media planning into my backpack, diving into the glossary which, after that, I first began to introduce. I’m not sure, but it seems to me that in 1987 I had the first presentation in Yugoslavia on the topic of GRP, TRP, PUT, etc. Five people were involved in the technical preparation: typist Mira, designer and photographer Vine, then Stane who developed the slides, a translator and proofreader of the Serbo-Croatian language, the then correspondent of Sarajevo’s Oslobodjenje from Slovenia. And the final content was confirmed by Jernej Repovš.
MM: 25 years ago, you decided to launch your own company. You founded the Institute for market and media research Mediana. Why did you opt for such a step? Why did you leave the security of one of the best – if not the best – agency in Yugoslavia, and ventured into the unsteady waters of entrepreneurship? Slovenia had just gained its independence, it lost the market, wars were being waged…
Janja Božić Marolt: I was bursting with knowledge about the use of media research. Twice a year I was sent abroad for education, and the people there were amazed that we, in a communist country, have TV channels that showed advertisements along with other content. I rose to the position of the media director and from this position I was persuading the media that they needed independent research in line with international standards, and that there shouldn’t be a situation where everyone is presenting themselves as the best of their own accord. Little more than five years after that, when I was getting attractive job offers twice a week, and when I did not manage to convince a single media to enable us full professionalism with independent research in the agency, I was attracted by the idea of Janez Damjan to collaborate on the first independent media research in Slovenia, and Studio Marketing, in return, would get the right to free use of data. The Mediana BGP sucked me in. At the same time, I unconditionally believed that transparency was good for society, the economy and the state, so I jumped on this new challenge. I was pregnant. I admit, I had no idea what an enterprise is. When it came to balance, I only knew the one on a bike, but not in financial reports. The largest group I led before that was a scouts unit. And despite all that, Jure Apih trusted me and became my first client.
MM: Mediana today is one of the most relevant companies in the field of research in the Adriatic region. What guided you through all these 25 years to reach such reputation in this very demanding industry, in which everything is constantly changing? Research goals are changing, as we are no longer talking about target groups but target individuals. The media industry has drastically changed in this quarter of a century.
Janja Božić Marolt: Thank you for the compliment. Several factors had to be met. First and foremost, continuous learning, learning and learning, so we could always be a step ahead of others. Good results, research that clients trusted, even when they showed them that they were neither first nor the best. We did not sell out to politics, we remained objective. We did not sell out to any client so they could be the best trader, the best pate or the best TV channel. We have preserved quality at all levels of research, despite great and constant pressure on prices. We introduced every new method of research even before they hit the mainstream, thus retaining the advantage it had from its own experiences. We are constantly learning, we are members of the most renowned world associations Esomar, Emro, Win. We are a reliable partner and, when necessary, we are a trusted implementer. After a year, Kantar Opinion ranked us among its best partners. We have been working with Kantar Media for 17 years, with AGB Nielsen a year longer than that. We have a great core of top associates, and in the last year we boosted our staff with young people who have fresh ideas and are ready for new challenges. Market diversification and consumer fragmentation is greater than ever, not only in the media industry but also in other areas. Shopping malls, brands, e-commerce, online banking services, virtual means of payment, food supplements, eco awareness, long-term development, population aging and many more things, all the way to populism in politics, these are all subjects of Mediana’s research in recent times.
MM: TGI represented – if I’m right – the flagship in the previous growth and development of Mediana, as the most attractive product you offered to the market. Is this still true today?
Janja Božić Marolt: That’s correct, the Mediana TGI is our most recognizable product and our most useful service for media and advertising agencies in the region. You, the Media Marketing, undoubtedly contributed to this, and thank you for that. Also thank you Mitja Tuškej, who is our great ambassador. With his rich knowledge of specific examples directly from the Mediana TGI, he wrote a large portion of his book No Friends, No Brands. His greatest success is the contribution he has made, also from Mediana TGI data, to the first WARC award in the region for Spar Slovenija’s Start it Up Slovenia campaign, for. As far as revenues are concerned, TGI has never represented the bulk of Mediana’s revenues, nor were the public opinion surveys and accurate forecasts on comparative elections that we are most recognizable for in Slovenia. At the beginning, the main elements were research of readership, viewership and audience, the Mediana BGP, which was copied in all markets of the former Yugoslavia. In Macedonia they even did it with our own logo, and even today some in Slovenia are boasting with “original” research, which is, in fact, a copy of ours. An important development moment was the research Mediana IBO – investment of brands in advertising. In Croatia, we named it adex, although it was also known there as IBO. All these studies have greatly influenced our image, among other things because we invest in them ourselves, and then sell them to all potential customers. Our main trump cards are studies in which we seek solutions for traders, food manufacturers, automotive industry, banking and insurance providers, content research for the media, social research, the environment, etc.
MM: When you look back at the previous 25 years, what do you remember most fondly? What represented the greatest excitement and experience for you?
Janja Božić Marolt: It’s as if you’re asking me who I love better: my daughter or my son. Or who contributes most to Mediana, the oldest, the first associate, or the youngest and the newest. It’s really difficult for me to answer this question. But, if I’m going to answer it, then let it be in alphabetical order, and only from the past. I can’t list the latest names and clients.
AGB – Dr. Colussi, the then owner of AGB, sought me out at a conference in Paris to establish telemetry cooperation.
Mediana BGP – International Award for Best Practices in Prague for Mediana BGP. Jane Perry of Y&R Media Edge presented our international publication in three languages at Esomar, and we hadn’t even met before.
The Advertising Person of the Year – Slovenian Chamber of Commerce award I received as the first person in the field of research, as the first woman, and as the youngest winner at the time.
Team buildings with all the associates so far, especially the last ones on Soča and in the Gorizia Hills.
TGI – Jenny Davis from the BMRB approached me at a conference in Florence to start collaborating in the TGI area.
Each new brand in the market that is the result of our research.
The conversations we each year have with long-standing loyal clients: directors of advertisers, media, advertising and media agencies.
Elections – all thirteen times we have correctly predicted the presidents, the parties, the mayors, the names of the European deputies.
The pleasure of being able to look anyone straight into the eye is worth more than all the billions and the awards because we work exclusively professionally and correctly.
MM: Amid the marking of quarter of a century of Mediana, you invited PhD Howard R. Moskowitz to Ljubljana, one of the world’s most famous psychologists and researchers, who talked to Mediana employees about innovative research for anticipating desires and needs of consumers. What was it all about?
Janja Božić Marolt: It is a well-researched, tested and proven method that has yielded real results and great profits to brands like Dr. Pepper, Campbell Soup, General Motors, Goodyear, Kraft, Pepsi, etc. only if used in the most modern way. It’s fundamentally based on the conjoint analysis, and the advantage is in the use of the latest technologies, online panels, tablets and smartphones. Of course, this novelty does not mean that we will neglect all the other methods. We will be able to tell the trader concretely, based on data, what to offer their buyers, and what to advertise to them to achieve maximum effect, instead of having situation where all traders are doing the same thing.
For a food manufacturer, we will sovereignly choose the flavor that will succeed and the packaging that will be convincing. For suppliers of banking and insurance services, we will be able to create optimal offers for their existing and new customers. And, finally, politicians will be able to persuade voters with the topics most relevant for them. Bearing in mind that we have access to top decision-makers in the region, it will be an opportunity for them to use the novelties from our small markets and reinforce their positions in their corporate headquarters. I was most attracted to Howard and his methodologies by the proven successes and results of his research and the combination of social sciences with intelligent mathematical models. There, in the interpretation of the results, there is no space for “I think”, but “I know”. Also important for me was his directness, when he says: most of the employees, because of the fear of losing their job, mostly do things using well-known paths, they are not responsible for creativity and development, they don’t dare to make decisions, etc. In this case, he talked about the practice from the US.
MM: You agreed collaboration with Moskowitz. What will you be doing together?
Janja Božić Marolt: Ha, ha, ha, you don’t actually expect a detailed answer.
MM: It’s difficult to predict the future in an industry that is changing rapidly, but still, how do you see the development of market and media research in the next five years at least? What will be researched and how?
Janja Božić Marolt: It’s true, it is difficult to forecast. Depending on whether Google will buy Nielsen, or vice versa? Will Amazon buy Alibaba, or vice versa? Will Zuckerberg soon develop a more emotional robot than the Japanese Pepper? Or will Musk work from the space, or in space? Will the Microsoft’s empire be shaken due to constant intrusions into their systems, as it happened recently with the breach in the WPP’s network, whose consequences were felt in Gray, Mediacom and Kantar? Will Trump and Putin be allies or adversaries? Will we stop wars, or set barriers to migrants? Will the former Todorić’s empire collapse or will, at least indirectly, Šolak continue to conquer different industries in strides?
Last year Esomar for the first time included in the world’s $68bn worth research cake the fields of internet analytics, consulting, IT research, sales reports and research, internet traffic measurements, social network research, so we rightfully wonder if everyone is a researcher today. The biggest competition for market researchers today are all the Internet companies and social networks where users unconsciously leave traces, so today we are no longer talking about survey participants, but data subjects. Depending on regulations and legislation, the role and importance of research companies will grow. There are strict ethical standards that protect the citizens and consumers and their rights, and we ensure complete anonymity even without their permission to survey them. On the other hand, these same citizens generally press “I agree” each time they confirm the terms and conditions of using online applications.
Consultancy firms are increasingly engaged in research. As long as they’re trying to implement US or German data in the region, we don’t need to be scared of them. Big Data cannot satisfy, if only internal data is analyzed.
I have said many times before that I am not for this world. Among other things, because at this point I believe that all the classical knowledge of logic, mathematics, modeling, statistics, economics, psychology, sociology and anthropology will only be updated with new technologies, and that market research will continue to work. Multinational companies such as Coca-Cola are already commissioning specialized localized research. Giant Google is using classic methods to get data from the Slovenian market, although it probably represents traffic that is measured in promilles for them. Huge fragmentation of the market requires micro-targeting, which requires micro-research. Lean startups, even such as Brewery Dog, help themselves with classic market research.
The unique answer would be – we will research everything, in all possible ways. There is no single method. The right combination of wits, knowledge, courage and emotion will win, on both sides, in cooperation between the client and the market researchers. The only scenario in which we’ll no longer need research is if we go back to being naked root pickers, or if were gone altogether.
