Market Research Studies Research Articles

Marketing research by a small industrial firm: A case study

There is a growing need today for industrial marketers to conduct marketing research and use the results in making profitable business decisions. This paper describes a marketing research study conducted by a small industrial firm and discusses the nature and extent of its impact on the firm's operations. Several implications and practical guidelines are derived for industrial marketers in general, based on the firm's marketing research experience.

Four Subtle Sins in Marketing Research

T ODAY'S marketing manager finds himself faced with a growing accumulation of research data that he must read, interpret, and translate into policies and programs. This information is provided by a variety of sources, including the firm's own marketing intelligence group, independent marketing research and consulting firms, advertising agencies, trade associations, and a wide range of research studies reported in the professional literature. The usefulness of this information is often diminished because of poor communication between researchers and managers. At least two factors contribute to this situation. First, there is the problem of semantics. Terms such as significant, correlation, variance, and random have statistical meanings that vary from their vernacular usage. A second factor is carelessness. Data seldom, if ever, speak for themselves; they have to be interpreted. The purpose of this article is to present a clear, basic treatment of four common sources of misunderstanding in conducting and interpreting marketing research studies:

Research Methodology—How Much Emphasis?

Is there a trade-off between breadth of coverage and depth of treatment in reporting the results of marketing research studies?

A computerized matchmaker that is capable of learning

This paper describes a self-adaptive, learning system which, beyond the humorous task environment presently placed into, can be made use of in a variety of personality tests. Possible applications range from market research studies to quasioptimum game playing programs. It is hoped that Women's Libbers will recognize the tongue-in-cheek approach. Phase I of the learning program MATER aims at discovering the terms of the evaluation function to be patterned and computes the weights of importance of its features approximately. Phase II adjusts further these weights, if needed, to match those of the subject imitated.

Soviet Research on Audience Reaction to Motion Pictures

➤Marketing research studies in Communist countries are not altogether new. The motion picture industry in the Soviet Union has been conducting such studies for decades. Consumer opinion has always been important to the Soviet film business. Open discussion and anonymous questionnaires are used to ascertain consumer reaction to the products of the Soviet film industry, as a guide to future output.

WILL CHEMICAL HISTORY REPEAT ITSELF?

A HERE is SHARP DIVISION OF OPINION as to whether too much ammonia capacity has been added. The 1957—58 business recession and a wet spring seem to confirm the belief that the industry is over-expanded. We doubt, however, that old and new manufacturers have built up facilities without first conducting exhaustive market research studies. Ammonia is a basic chemical building block. A number of newcomers have risked temporarily unsettled conditions to get in on the ground floor, and their long-range optimism appears justified. Strong support for such optimism is supplied by a searching analysis of future markets by R. P. Westerhoff, vice president of Ford, Bacon and Davis, New York management and engineering consultants. Westerhoff estimates that the synthetic ammonia industry will have to increase its capacity by about 80% to meet farm and industrial demands by 1975. At today's costs this would require capital investment of $400 million, he says. In an era of ...

Market research in tourism: The American travel pattern

Market research studies are far more common in America than in Europe. In the United States every year hundreds of surveys are made either to explore public opinion on certain political issues, or to investigate consumer opinion and preferences with regard to certain products or specific brands. New products with a nationwide appeal are seldom promoted before their main features (use, quality, price, packaging, etc.) are carefully examined and checked against the results of special consumer surveys and a general analysis of the competitive conditions of the market.

The Candy-Consumer-How Much Will He Buy in the Postwar Period?

W HO candy? Is it the rich, or is it the poor? Is it the young, or is it the old? These questions have perplexed many in the candy industry in the pre-war days, but this quandary is relatively simple when compared with that currently confronting the industry. Now the question is: How candy is the unknown rich or poor, young or old, candy-buyer going to consume after the war? Under the stimulus of the wartime demand, candy production in the United States has reached an all-time record high. Per capita candy consumption rose from an average of I3 pounds at the bottom of the depression (I932-33) to i9 pounds in I94I, at which level it remained in I942 and I943. Higher consumption would no doubt obtain were it not for the restricted cocoa and sugar supplies. An appraisal of postwar markets could be facilitated by a thorough knowledge of the factors affecting candy purchases in the past. Whereas the candy industry in co-operation with the Department of Commerce has done an excellent job of compiling over-all production and merchandising data, less attention has been given to the candy-consumer. Economic and market research can do to provide answers to the buys and the how much questions, which, in turn, can be used as a basis for anticipating the postwar development of the industry. This paper summarizes the result of a market-research study conducted at the University of Chicago, which sheds some light on who the candy-consumers are. The anticipated postwar takings of these consumers are discussed in the light of the findings of this survey.