Belk is a department store chain founded in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, today part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After the founding of the first Belk store, the company grew in size and influence throughout the South via the chain in the USA,[1] with its stores primarily located in the Southern USA.
The chain has four flagship locations:
SouthPark Mall, in Charlotte, North Carolina, houses the chain's largest store, with more than 330,000 square feet (31,000 m2). The store was built in 1970 as one of the mall's original anchor stores. The mall was co-developed by the Belk and Ivey families.
Crabtree Valley Mall. in Raleigh, North Carolina, is where Belk built a similarly elaborate 251,000-square-foot (23,300 m2) store in 1972 (subsequently expanded to 320,000 square feet (30,000 m2) in 2007) in North Carolina's high-tech Research Triangle.
The Summit, in Birmingham, Alabama, houses the third flagship, built in 1997, which opened as a Parisian store and one of the lifestyle center's original anchors. Its intended conversion to a Belk flagship was officially announced on April 25, 2007, with the reorganization complete by September 2007.
Phipps Plaza, in Atlanta, Georgia, contains the fourth flagship, which also opened as Parisian, part of a 1992 expansion of the mall in which the store became the third mall anchor. Like the store at The Summit, it converted to a Belk by September 2007, although its conversion to flagship wasn't officially announced until November 2, 2007.

With so many languages to work in, accurate translation is a major component of successfully conducting IBM’s tracking study. For consistency purposes, RONIN uses two translation firms, one for European languages and another for Asian languages. In addition, IBM personnel in the respective countries review the questionnaire to ensure proper translation of technical terms.

Large-scale global or international studies require a simple and straightforward translation process. Prior to starting the translation process, approval and finalization of the questionnaire are essential to avoid repeated translation, project delays and added costs. RONIN typically conducts an English language pilot test to identify what, if any, changes must be made to the questionnaire before translation occurs. Clients attend these tests and changes are made to the CATI program in real time, allowing for immediate testing of new question or response wording.

McNair offers these tips to keep in mind when conducting international research:

Thoroughly investigate potential sample sources to make sure they are able to provide a representative sample of the universe to be studied. Request documentation from each sample source about the demographics of the file, and verification steps performed to ensure proper coverage. A few questions to ask include: Does it cover all regions/cities of the country? Are all vendors represented? Are all size companies and industries included? What proportion of the universe is covered? Are there any biases in the companies which are covered or omitted? How is the sample source assembled? How is it updated?
Interview length varies by language and country and is typically longer than studies conducted in the U.S. For example, a 20-minute English language survey could take 18 minutes in Italian due to the speed of the spoken language. The same survey would take approximately 23 minutes in French due to respondents’ tendency to elaborate on their answers. Japanese interviews would be even longer.
Use native language interviewers to enhance the comfort level of respondents and to increase cooperation rates. RONIN has found that by using native language speakers, respondents from those countries are more willing to participate and also find it easier to converse. This is particularly important for qualitative open-ended questions, or questions such as awareness and brand image, where subtle nuances must be identified.
Use a single call center for a given geography to provide a single point of contact and consistency of results across countries and languages, with rapid turn-around. "We maintain maximum control over the project, always knowing precisely where it stands in all countries, and are able to expedite any changes or special instructions that are to be implemented worldwide. Briefings, training, and pilots can be conducted and monitored simultaneously," McNair says.
For analysis and reporting purposes, remember that a few select countries are not representative of Europe as a whole. In many cases, research is typically conducted in France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. However, countries such as Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or Poland are typically left out of the mix. Consequently, the data should only be interpreted for the surveyed countries.
Quite cooperative
Hogarty says that because the survey, now in its fourth year, is widely viewed as the most comprehensive in the industry, respondents are usually quite cooperative about participating. They’re offered the incentive of a summary of the results, which gives them a chance to see how they compare to the rest of the world. "In order to keep the response rate up, we send a feedback report to those who participate. That’s helped out quite nicely. We also put a variation of that report on-line, for our executive customers. The goal is to get them interested in the results and get them willing to participate."

Still, it’s a struggle to get busy people to take time to complete the survey. "The feedback report helps, but it’s a constant challenge to keep the response rate up. We’re always looking for new ways to make it easier for the customer to take the survey. But we’ve found that most customers are interested in trying to help."

IBM article sidebar:
Enabling interviewers to quickly navigate through thousands of similar-sounding brands and models has been a long-sought "holy grail" for the research industry. Likewise, enabling interviewers to add new models to a choice list, without incurring the time and cost of post-interview coding, had historically hampered the process of keeping such product lists up-to-date. When conducting global research, these problems are greatly compounded by the mix of languages, remote geographies and country-specific needs.

IBM and RONIN overcame these difficulties through the use of the database-oriented "brand-list" question found in Results for Research, the CATI system used for IBM’s global research project.

By storing the model list as an external Results database, new models can be added to the list from within an interview. This way, new models can be instantly available to all other interviewers without requiring a separate coding step. Because the same database of models can be accessed from multiple-language questionnaires, models added in Germany, for example, can be instantly available to Spanish, Italian and Japanese interviewers.

It is also possible to identify specific attributes to each model (or record) in such a brand-list database. By adding performance-related information on each pre-coded model in the database, it was possible to base the questionnaire branching on the computing power of each model selected — ensuring IBM the detail it needed on its customers, while reducing overall interview length.
The main promotion and advertising objective of the business is to be able to spread the Grace’s Cuisine word without allotting too much on marketing costs. After all, what works well and what does not work at will depend mostly on the business, the product and service accompanying it, the community, the competition and the skills in how the marketing director will promote the business. As soon as possible, the new restaurant sign will be put up (including the name, type of shop, hours of operation and the opening date) in order to promote the business well before its opening. When the employment ads are posted in the local papers, the business will make sure to include Grace’s Cuisine’ name and location,
 
Belk is a department store chain founded in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, today part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After the founding of the first Belk store, the company grew in size and influence throughout the South via the chain in the USA,[1] with its stores primarily located in the Southern USA.
The chain has four flagship locations:
SouthPark Mall, in Charlotte, North Carolina, houses the chain's largest store, with more than 330,000 square feet (31,000 m2). The store was built in 1970 as one of the mall's original anchor stores. The mall was co-developed by the Belk and Ivey families.
Crabtree Valley Mall. in Raleigh, North Carolina, is where Belk built a similarly elaborate 251,000-square-foot (23,300 m2) store in 1972 (subsequently expanded to 320,000 square feet (30,000 m2) in 2007) in North Carolina's high-tech Research Triangle.
The Summit, in Birmingham, Alabama, houses the third flagship, built in 1997, which opened as a Parisian store and one of the lifestyle center's original anchors. Its intended conversion to a Belk flagship was officially announced on April 25, 2007, with the reorganization complete by September 2007.
Phipps Plaza, in Atlanta, Georgia, contains the fourth flagship, which also opened as Parisian, part of a 1992 expansion of the mall in which the store became the third mall anchor. Like the store at The Summit, it converted to a Belk by September 2007, although its conversion to flagship wasn't officially announced until November 2, 2007.

With so many languages to work in, accurate translation is a major component of successfully conducting IBM’s tracking study. For consistency purposes, RONIN uses two translation firms, one for European languages and another for Asian languages. In addition, IBM personnel in the respective countries review the questionnaire to ensure proper translation of technical terms.

Large-scale global or international studies require a simple and straightforward translation process. Prior to starting the translation process, approval and finalization of the questionnaire are essential to avoid repeated translation, project delays and added costs. RONIN typically conducts an English language pilot test to identify what, if any, changes must be made to the questionnaire before translation occurs. Clients attend these tests and changes are made to the CATI program in real time, allowing for immediate testing of new question or response wording.

McNair offers these tips to keep in mind when conducting international research:

Thoroughly investigate potential sample sources to make sure they are able to provide a representative sample of the universe to be studied. Request documentation from each sample source about the demographics of the file, and verification steps performed to ensure proper coverage. A few questions to ask include: Does it cover all regions/cities of the country? Are all vendors represented? Are all size companies and industries included? What proportion of the universe is covered? Are there any biases in the companies which are covered or omitted? How is the sample source assembled? How is it updated?
Interview length varies by language and country and is typically longer than studies conducted in the U.S. For example, a 20-minute English language survey could take 18 minutes in Italian due to the speed of the spoken language. The same survey would take approximately 23 minutes in French due to respondents’ tendency to elaborate on their answers. Japanese interviews would be even longer.
Use native language interviewers to enhance the comfort level of respondents and to increase cooperation rates. RONIN has found that by using native language speakers, respondents from those countries are more willing to participate and also find it easier to converse. This is particularly important for qualitative open-ended questions, or questions such as awareness and brand image, where subtle nuances must be identified.
Use a single call center for a given geography to provide a single point of contact and consistency of results across countries and languages, with rapid turn-around. "We maintain maximum control over the project, always knowing precisely where it stands in all countries, and are able to expedite any changes or special instructions that are to be implemented worldwide. Briefings, training, and pilots can be conducted and monitored simultaneously," McNair says.
For analysis and reporting purposes, remember that a few select countries are not representative of Europe as a whole. In many cases, research is typically conducted in France, Germany, Italy, and the U.K. However, countries such as Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or Poland are typically left out of the mix. Consequently, the data should only be interpreted for the surveyed countries.
Quite cooperative
Hogarty says that because the survey, now in its fourth year, is widely viewed as the most comprehensive in the industry, respondents are usually quite cooperative about participating. They’re offered the incentive of a summary of the results, which gives them a chance to see how they compare to the rest of the world. "In order to keep the response rate up, we send a feedback report to those who participate. That’s helped out quite nicely. We also put a variation of that report on-line, for our executive customers. The goal is to get them interested in the results and get them willing to participate."

Still, it’s a struggle to get busy people to take time to complete the survey. "The feedback report helps, but it’s a constant challenge to keep the response rate up. We’re always looking for new ways to make it easier for the customer to take the survey. But we’ve found that most customers are interested in trying to help."

IBM article sidebar:
Enabling interviewers to quickly navigate through thousands of similar-sounding brands and models has been a long-sought "holy grail" for the research industry. Likewise, enabling interviewers to add new models to a choice list, without incurring the time and cost of post-interview coding, had historically hampered the process of keeping such product lists up-to-date. When conducting global research, these problems are greatly compounded by the mix of languages, remote geographies and country-specific needs.

IBM and RONIN overcame these difficulties through the use of the database-oriented "brand-list" question found in Results for Research, the CATI system used for IBM’s global research project.

By storing the model list as an external Results database, new models can be added to the list from within an interview. This way, new models can be instantly available to all other interviewers without requiring a separate coding step. Because the same database of models can be accessed from multiple-language questionnaires, models added in Germany, for example, can be instantly available to Spanish, Italian and Japanese interviewers.

It is also possible to identify specific attributes to each model (or record) in such a brand-list database. By adding performance-related information on each pre-coded model in the database, it was possible to base the questionnaire branching on the computing power of each model selected — ensuring IBM the detail it needed on its customers, while reducing overall interview length.
The main promotion and advertising objective of the business is to be able to spread the Grace’s Cuisine word without allotting too much on marketing costs. After all, what works well and what does not work at will depend mostly on the business, the product and service accompanying it, the community, the competition and the skills in how the marketing director will promote the business. As soon as possible, the new restaurant sign will be put up (including the name, type of shop, hours of operation and the opening date) in order to promote the business well before its opening. When the employment ads are posted in the local papers, the business will make sure to include Grace’s Cuisine’ name and location,

Hey netra, i am really impressed after reading all your article or report on Belk and must say that it is going to be useful for many people. Well, if you do not mind then i have also got some information and would like to share it with you. So please download and check my presentation on Belk.
 

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