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5 Aug, 2014

GfK Urges Undergraduates to Experiment with Cutting-Edge Market Research Lenses

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 04, 2014–With its fourth annual Next Generation Competition, GfK is encouraging undergraduate students in North America to use a variety of cutting-edge market research “lenses” to understand what makes brands successful. The winning team will receive a trip to GfK’s North American headquarters in New York City (for two of its members and a faculty adviser) and a $1,000 cash prize.

The competition is open to undergraduates in marketing, market research, the social sciences, and other disciplines. Teams need to submit a proposal for their research project by October 24th, 2014; GfK will then select several finalists to complete their research and submit a report in January 2015.

To learn more about the competition, click here.

The 2015 competition asks students to explore what constitutes brand success in today’s world of digital, targeted marketing. Entrants will use at least one of the following lenses to look at whether brands are indeed connecting with consumers:

  • Digital: Define whether digital ad campaigns are achieving traditional brand goals such as awareness and purchase intent.
  • Mobile: Use consumers’ mobile phones and tablets to capture their interactions with and feelings about brands “in the moment.”
  • Purchase behavior: Record consumers’ actual purchases in select categories and use surveys to understand what might have led to those buying decisions.
  • User experience: Observe consumers’ actual experiences in using key brands in one or more categories, learning what matters most to people and which brands deliver.

As they develop their proposals and projects, entrants will have access for the first time to GfK MRI’s University Reporter database, which makes thousands of insights into consumers’ behavior and attitudes available through an easy-to-use interface.

Selected members of the winning team will visit GfK’s North American headquarters in New York City, presenting their findings, working with mentors in their areas of interest, and getting firsthand experience of research as a profession.

Past winners of the NextGen Competition – from Chatham University, Aurora University, and Purdue University (Calumet) – focused on topics such as social media, Hispanic consumers, and crowdsourcing.

For more information, please visit www.GfK.com