Justin Sargent

  15 min 39 sec to read

‘Social Research has a Huge Scope in this Part of the World’


 Justin Sargent

Justin Sargent

Managing Director-India

Nielsen

 

Justin Sargent is the Managing Director for Nielsen India's Consumer Business. He is leading Nielsen's consumer businesses (Retail Measurement Services, Consumer Research, BASES, Advance Analytical Consulting) including Client Leadership, Client Service and Product Leadership initiatives. He graduated from Warwick University, England with a BSc in Mathematics, Operational Research, Statistics and Economics. Langer has held a number of senior positions at Nielsen across the globe, including the position of RMS Executive Director - Australia, and most recently Managing Director - UK & Ireland.

 

He is currently based in Mumbai, India and focuses on the strategy of listening to the consumers to get more consumers' insight. The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications. It is planning to continue growing its business by applying its strategies of driving more consumers' insights and generating a more complete understanding of consumers. In an interview with New Business Age, Langer talked about importance of Nielsen numbers and major plans for its Nepal operations among a host of other issues. Excerpts:


Justin Sargent


Please give us an overview of Nielsen’s business in this region that includes Nepal and India.

The Nielsen’s South Asia operation covers countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. It’s quite a sizeable region for Nielsen in this developing part of the world. Like multinationals, we view countries like India, Nepal and other parts of South Asia as areas of priority where our clients are investing to find out their consumers’ size. Nielsen has been in India since 1960s and in Nepal since early 1990s. We are increasingly focusing on these two countries as our clients are seeking growth here.

Nielsen in Nepal has a full range of services. It is mainly known for measurement services. Most of our clients are particularly from the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector and hence they demand to understand how they are performing, in comparison to their competitors. We also do a lot of work with NGOs and help them understand factors that can help them promote and influence the country’s growth. We work for AED, PSI and some other USAID-funded projects in Nepal in addition to a host of multinational companies like Coca- Cola, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter & Gamble to name a few. 

A huge part of our business is dedicated to these two services. Our business is growing well in Nepal and the clients seem increasingly interested in this market. It seems to be the right time for us to consider how to elevate to the next level and how to potentially bring in further expansion. Maybe, we could bring some new analogical products that have worked well elsewhere, in other developing markets.

Social research has a huge scope in this part of the world. In India, we also work in sectors including government organizations and the NGOs, for example, UNICEF. We also work with projects on big, important sectors like health and education. FMCG is an area that Nielsen tends to put in a lot of time and energy into. Nielsen is a global company so we are constantly looking for the climax in different countries, and Nepal is now in its climax. It has many centers of attraction and the GDP growth of the country is four per cent which is still pretty attractive compared to a lot of western economies.

We developed the social research practice that works right across South Asia. We have experts that tend to work across the different countries. For example, we utilize the microfinance expertise from Bangladesh in other countries. We have a team on the ground here in Nepal that lives by the company’s principles. However, we are bringing in more expertise to the Nepali marketplace to see what we can do in the social research sphere as a whole.

 Justin Sargent

 

Could you please provide us some insight on the topline retail and consumer trends from the perspective of the Indian market?

India has a huge population and big traditional trade. We have seen a lot of growth in that country, especially in the rural areas. Though modern trade is still small – only six per cent – compared to traditional trade, we have started observing changes in trends. It’s growing fast and more consumers are looking for convenience and choice. We have started to notice a lot of trading for more branded products. We notice a lot of use of technology including social media and smart phones. Consumers have grown a lot savvier and their expectations are increasing. This might be helpful in changing people’s perspectives, packaging perspectives and value perspectives. One thing which is very consistent in India is the value. We do service right around the world and India always comes top in terms of value consciousness. A lot of consumers increasingly shop around for promotion to make sure they can remain value conscious and still satisfy their increasing aspirations.

Our clients’ business and even the Nielsen’s business both saw this high trend basically three to four years ago. GDP growth is a little lower this year, which is forecasted now at six percent. However, global manufactures and local Indian multinational companies alike, are pretty positive about the future.

Yours is a privately held company active in approximately 100 countries, with its headquarters in New York, USA. How big an advantage is this when you deal with global clients?

When a global client is working with us, they may know Nielsen already. We assure the country manager of a global client locally that we will share our best practices with them and suggest that the service is worth exploiting. Our local teams are mostly in the field, visiting local clients to relate to them and understand their perspectives. Nielsen’s methodologies are globally consistent; however, we do tend to tailor them in order to meet specific needs of the marketplace. For example, when we spoke to our clients in Nepal, they expressed that they wanted us to represent certain regions and towns in more detail than we might have for others. We don’t have this service in other countries but developed it to match their demand of covering some of the towns in greater detail. We believe that the best global practice methodologies should be open for local customization.

Listening to a client’s need is a critical process and an important element of our strategy because clients know best where they are going and with what strategy. They can naturally express their needs. Therefore, listening is a critical part of our job while delighting clients is our aspiration. However, different clients have different needs so we need to balance between occasions and between realities. We have to bring the realities from a commercial firm with the right product to the market.

 

 

How do you explain the importance of Nielsen numbers?

Nielsen numbers tell our clients what their market share is, how fast the market is growing, and where they are in the competition. We are proud of being an independent company. We focus on using the Nielsen’s number to guide the expertise’s planning. We invest a lot of time in quality management, ensuring that we have got the right field management practices and the right amulets to interpret those numbers because we know how much our clients rely on the Nielsen’s number. Before I joined Nielsen, I used to work at Procter & Gamble as a category marketing analyst many years ago in the UK. Every week a Nielsen’s number used to come around and that is when I first realized how much weight these numbers carry.

The way in which people used the number were for making investment decisions, judging their performances in the market or looking after factors like distribution, product prices and level of competition. We tend to advise companies a lot in terms of what the distribution strategies should be and the likely pricing strategy they should adopt. Nielsen’s number is the bed rock for a lot of the decisions being made in the marketplace.

 

What are the major plans for Nielsen Nepal?

The main purpose of my visit to Nepal is spending time with the management team and deciding on the next steps to be taken for the development of business in this country. Nepali clients’ expectations are increasing, so we are looking into the areas where potential improvements can be made. One area that we are considering is whether or not to expand coverage of measurement products into rural areas. We have not decided whether it is the right measure to take. We are also looking at a particular social research base to elaborate more expertise and bring in some more technical capabilities into Nepal in order to improve the level of understanding. We are also looking forward to introduce other services that we also have in other countries, for example, analytics. This could be an advantage for Nepal because they know how to go to the next level, to expand the distribution and to improve their competitive businesses. We have a number of analytics with capabilities in consideration. We are looking forward to listening to our clients’ view point. We would certainly like to build more presence in Nepal because our clients are demanding it.

 Justin Sargent

You joined Nielsen way back in 1993 and have held senior positions across the globe since. How do you assess this association over the period of almost two decades now?

From a personal perspective, Nielsen has provided me with lots of opportunities. When I joined Nielsen, I didn’t think that I would still be here 20 years later. Fortunately for me, I was given increasingly challenging assignments throughout which has allowed me to travel across different continents like Europe, Australia and Asia. Currently, I am working in India. Working in different countries engaging with different people, thinking about and understanding the clients’ needs and facing business challenges, has been very stimulating indeed. Nielsen has come across a lot of transformation in 20 years’ time including its ownership.

Nielsen focuses on shifting developments and as I mentioned before, moving people around is a big part of our strategy. Moving people to the developing market is good for learning about what works for a developing market. We can then reverse, innovate and take the best of practices to the developing market. But it also means you can look elsewhere, may be in the US or Europe, that could be a relevant market like India or Nepal. Nielsen’s strategies on talent developments and moving people around the world are incredibly one of the great things that it wants to share with other companies.

 

Could you please elaborate on why is transferring talents so important?

The general principal of moving people around is either for different jobs within a country or across different countries. It provides people with different experiences, perspectives and learning opportunities that eventually lead to career building. It is equally important from a company’s perspective as transferring people is also about transferring ideas, embracing innovations and sharing the best skills within and beyond boundaries. A big part of Nielsen’s strategy is to be a company exporting talent around the globe. We are fortunately one of the beneficiaries of that as we get to carry out a number of different assignments in different countries.

 

Could you highlight the integral components of a transparent communications culture?

This is something that I have always strongly believed in. You have to be very candid, honest and open to both your peers and clients. When you communicate very frankly, you recognize people better. It is a fundamental philosophy of mine to lead a very honest communication because it is the only way to build trust and loyalty in general. It’s about celebrating and recognizing people. The transparent communication culture is not limited among the colleagues, rather it also extends to our clients by being very open with them.

 

What are your recommendations to organizations for building a ‘client first’ mindset?

‘Client First’ mindset is all about thoughtfulness. Instead of offering Nielsen’s products immediately, I first inquire about what my clients need and how we can satisfy them better. Once you build a ‘client first’ mindset it will eventually benefit your business strategies because then you are developing your products and services according to the clients’ needs. It improves your client’s service because your clients can relate to and make use of them. Besides, at the end of the day, it ensures that our services are up to the mark. ’Client First’ mindset is something that I have passionately believed in during my entire career. Even if we talk beyond Nielsen, the same philosophy rules the most successful companies. From a marketing stand point, it is necessary to listen to the customers. Since there are new technologies emerging, we should utilize them to listen to the customers’ voice. For example, the social network and blogs could be powerful tools. Even the CEOs of many companies have started going out on the streets to understand customers’ needs.

Things are rapidly changing in countries like India and Nepal. If you are constantly in touch with people, you could know more about them particularly the way in which people adopt technology. You have to constantly engage with customers to understand what is important for your brand and how could you keep it desirable for them. Understanding technology and customers to flourish your brand is something that can certainly be achieved by building a ‘client first’ mindset.


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