SECURITY AND ITS LARGER MEANING

Feb 1, 2005 12:00 PM, LARRY ANDERSON, Editor

If we have enough security, then we can feel free to get on with the other parts of our lives.

In other words, security equals freedom.

That's one of the insights to be gained from a worldwide series of focus group meetings convened by security equipment supplier ASSA ABLOY. The Stockholm-based company sponsored the meetings last year at 16 venues around the world, including Paris, Moscow, Rio De Janeiro, San Francisco and New York. Each group was made up of eight people, both genders represented, mainly homeowners.

ASSA ABLOY does business in the home security market as well as the commercial markets, so a goal of the so-called Future Security Study was to enable the company to understand the needs and desires of its global consumer base.

It is surprising that, although there were some cultural differences among the focus groups at various locations, the major findings were repeated internationally, according to Roy Webster, the company's project manager/group brand manager.

For its part, ASSA ABLOY sees the results of the study as suggesting a different approach to marketing security and locking hardware equipment to consumers, Webster says. “Our industry has traditionally based its communications on product features and the negative elements of security threats,” he says. “We have identified that consumers are not really inspired to act by this approach and are more open to softer and more personal messages, emphasizing the positives gained from having adequate security.”

Beyond the marketing implications of the study, it is interesting to think about how security is perceived by the public at large, and to ponder the connotative baggage the term carries in all situations — even the presumably less emotion-driven world that our readers find themselves in every work day.

When dealing with the minutiae of our everyday tasks, let us not forget the big picture of security and what it means to our companies, our co-workers and our bosses. What we are really providing is freedom for our companies to do business.

YOUR THOUGHTS

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© 2012 Penton Media Inc.

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