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While most marketers now have a good idea of their customers -

where they live, what kind of jobs they do, and how much money they earn

- the burning questions remain about what people actually think and

believe.

What are consumers’ ambitions and worries, and their reasons for

consuming what they do? These questions don’t get asked in many of the

standard joint industry media research models.

BARB will tell you how many people have tuned to a certain TV channel,

but it won’t tell you if the couple sitting in front of the screen have

just had a blazing row because he wanted to watch the football and she

didn’t.

Rajar might tell us what radio stations people are listening to, but the

way they relate to radio and their attitudes to advertising won’t come

out.

And that is why leading media companies are now coming together to

develop research that goes beyond empirical data and looks at these

attitudinal questions. Last week saw the launch of the latest addition

to this growing school of research; Very Important People - Exclusive

Research - or Viper for shorthand.

The research, co-funded by Channel 4, Classic FM, Conde Nast, Times

Newspapers and media agency Mediapolis, will look into the AB social

group. ABs are higher or intermediate managerial, administrative or

professional types with commensurate salaries and earning potential. But

both advertisers and media owners want more information than this.

Research efforts

According to Martin Hayward, the Henley Centre’s director of consumer

consultancy, ’the greatest brains in the industry are working on coming

up with a better system’.

Viper hopes to be one of the new research models adding to the pool.

By September it will have a batch of information on ABs garnered from

the first of three, 1000-strong panels of people who fit the AB

profile.

Initial focus groups, have, says Stuart Corke, strategic planning

manager at Times Newspapers, revealed that this group liked the fact

that their views are being listened to.

’The questionnaire will be heavily branded by the collaborators,’ says

Corke.It will be as stimulating as possible, because ’these are people

who like to think about issues like the millennium and what it means, or

to give their opinions on genetically modified foods.’

With 56% of Times readers and 52% of Sunday Times readers fitting the

AB1 profile, it’s vital, says Corke, to put more meat on the bones. ’How

do they consume media and branded products? That’s the gap at the

moment,’ he admits.

While two-thirds of Classic FM’s five million listeners are ABs,

marketing manager Yvonne O’Brien wants to know the sub-divisions: ’We

want to know about their motivations and feelings about key issues.

These are people at the cutting edge of new media, with strong feelings

on social change and government.’

Sean Kelleher, commercial marketing manager at Channel 4, says: ’We have

data on our AB viewers in terms of how they relate to, say, a drama

series like Psychos, but what we need is to be able to blend that with

brand preference data.’

The Viper data will give Kelleher and colleagues quantitative and

qualitative data on ABs, ’so we’ll know that if they make a Channel 4 or

BBC selection say, they’re more likely to opt for a certain banking

service or spend so-much on their holidays’.

Yet, according to Hayward, continuing to base research on AB breakdowns

will blur the picture of how fundamentally society has changed in the

past 30 years: the average household is 40% better off than in 1986.

’Chris Evans is a multi-millionaire entrepreneur who acts like ’one of

the lads’. Is he an A or an E?’ asks Hayward. And while Hayward himself

would be a natural A, he is as likely, he confesses, to eat at TV chef

Gary Rhodes’ place as McDonald’s. ’We need to group people in terms of

needs and behavioural segmentation, not class and profession.’

However, Peter Bowman, Mediapolis’ research head, says this is precisely

why the Viper report will be so revealing. ’These AB people with status

tend to have money and sophistication. And within that band, seen

traditionally as rich and conservative, there are all sorts of people.

These two things give them freedom to embrace new choices. It’s not just

about money; that’s where the traditional demographic system has more

mileage than people think.’

WHO ARE THE ABS?

- ABs are responsible for between 35% and 42% of annual expenditure on

cars, holidays, computers and wine.

- There are two million adults in the UK with incomes over pounds

50,000, a 77% increase on 1993.

- Among ABs, those earning over pounds 100,000 has increased by 133% in

the past five years.

- The UK currently has 100,000 millionaires, five times as many as a

decade ago.