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WINNER

Client: McLaren Automotive

Agency: Interbrand

COMMENDED

Client: Shell

Agency: TNS

WINNER The McLaren brand is known for its long association with Formula One racing - but it wants to be more than that. The company plans to build on its racing heritage by moving into the sports car sector. It launched a research project to study the attitudes and lifestyles of sports car buyers, their perceptions of McLaren and the sort of car consumers would expect from the brand.

McLaren's road car will target less than 1% of the population, so the recruitment criteria had to be strict. The research was limited to consumers in the three major sports car markets - the UK, Germany and the US - who had bought a Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari or Lamborghini in the past three years.

Ten consumers from each market were recruited for in-depth interviews, to find out why they drove sports cars and what was important to them. Four consumer types were identified: pragmatists, collectors, the image-conscious and hot-rodders.

The findings suggested McLaren could compete with the existing manufacturers on several specifications and price-points. The results were fed into McLaren's development project through Top Trump-style cards detailing the different types of buyer.

These were distributed among staff to remind them for whom they were designing the car.

The judges were impressed that the research was brought to life in this way, ensuring that the findings had a practical impact, rather than being left as an intangible.

COMMENDED

Shell's forecourt staff are crucial in transmitting a positive image of the company to customers.

To keep them motivated, the company launched a £125,000 staff satisfaction/commitment programme across 26 markets in Europe.

This sought to establish an index of staff commitment and track it over time. The challenge was to employ a standardised approach while retaining the flexibility to conduct in-depth local research. Almost 17,000 employees received questionnaires and 69% responded.

The results were analysed by country to allow managers in each market to draw up plans to boost staff motivation. The results will be tracked using Shell's staff commitment index.