TheBuzz
TheBuzz
When a merger
is not a mergerThey didn't "have" to merge, the way some people "have" to get married.
Ogilvy Mather Hawaii and market research company Market Trends Pacific have established a joint venture called New Markets Institute.
The company will offer its clients research, strategy development, account planning and communications management -- a melding of each company's services.
It did not start out as an acquisition proposal but as an intention to pool expertise, she said.
"We saw a need and what we're trying to do is really focus on the consumers," said Emi Anamizu, managing director and chief executive officer at Ogilvy.
New Markets will focus on the baby boomer, ethnic, women's and youth markets, said co-founder and director Wanda Kakugawa.
Through the Ogilvy connection, New Markets will have access to the global marketing trend data generated by Ogilvy parent WPP.
Kakugawa believes New Markets will also be a valuable resource to Ogilvy offices and sister companies around the world because of Hawaii's diverse population.
Both believe Hawaii is a natural laboratory for researching niche markets.
They will look at marketing from a different perspective, Anamizu said, viewing consumers as individuals and not just demographics.
"When you think of a consumer, they don't think of themselves as a 45-year-old female with two children and $50,000-a-year income. They are people that wake up, buy certain brands and have different lifestyles and values all affecting how they buy. The more we know about that the more we can target our message."
Neither Anamizu nor Kakugawa sees the new and separate company as creating any conflict, since they are run separately -- although New Markets' office is in Ogilvy's environs in the Amfac Tower.
Wishing for wish lists
Now that he's the new president and chief executive officer of Kaneohe Ranch Co. Ltd., Mitch D'Olier wants to know what Windward women want."I'm really trying to determine what lady shoppers in Kailua and Windward Oahu would like to have in downtown Kailua so that they don't have to go over the Pali to shop anymore," he said.
But wait, isn't over the Pali where he just came from, as CEO of Victoria Ward Ltd.?
He sought similar input for that place over the hill and wound up with more than 100 lists.
"When I started to see a pattern, that was a good way for me to figure out what would work," he said.
Lists can be mailed to or dropped off at the ranch office at 1199 Auloa Road, Kailua, 96734.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com