Market Research Survey Research Articles

VOX pop purchasing

Surprising answers came out of East Sussex Health Authority’s market research survey of local people’s wishes, as Richard Ryland reports

The impact of purchasing policy on electronic markets and electronic heirarchies

Markets and heirarchies are two mechanisms used by organizations to coordinate steps through the value chain. For the last twenty years information technology has been used to enhance both of these coordination structures. It has been suggested (Malone et al.) that the improvement of information technology price/performance will have a more profound effect on markets leading to an increase in transactions coordinated by markets. This paper investigates the feasibility of electronic markets in light of the purchasing policy dictated by corporate strategy. Specifically, we will discuss principles of purchasing which would impede or prevent the adoption of electronic markets. We have supplemented our discussion with results from a market research survey which sought impressions of issues involved with an electronic market.

Market segmentation analysis of potential inter-city rail travelers

This paper reports on one aspect of a study conducted to support the analysis of the performance of a proposed intercity rail passenger service in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. In particular, this paper describes a market segmentation study of potential rail travelers on the basis of the responses of 333 participants in a computer-based, mall-intercept, market research survey.

Market research surveys in the marketing of consumer products

To achieve commercial success, any skin care product having given functional properties will on the consumer market also depend on a high degree of attraction, comfort and effective marketing. To accomplish this, consumer surveys are necessary in the various stages of product development and the marketing process. A brief description of the latter is given and of the various types of related surveys. To illustrate certain product tests, examples are given of the relaunch of HTH in the nordic markets.

INTEGRATING USABILITY AND MARKETING ACTIVITIES

Although the practice of user-centered design is advocated in many organizations, engineering management issues may prevent early focus on system usability. Within the usability engineering cycle, practitioners consider task analysis and customer needs assessment a high priority. Market research activities occur early in the process, but usability information is not collected or passed to system developers. To improve and to accelerate the design process and to validate user preference findings, task analysis and market research surveys were performed concurrently during the design validation phase of a data communications product. The basic process steps included: forming a multidisciplinary team, identifying data sources, collecting data via interviews and event record review, transforming data into task models and product opinion matrices, and using the models and matrices to design a sample product. A number of benefits were observed using this method: improved economies of research and analysis time, increased strength of product opinion data, early product improvements, increased customer understanding of the product, and an improved product engineering process.

Using Geodemographics in Market Research Surveys

Using Geodemographics in Market Research Surveys

Misuses and Abuses of Statistical Techniques in Market Research Surveys

(1990). Misuses and Abuses of Statistical Techniques in Market Research Surveys. CHANCE: Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 18-23.

The significance of the lead in opinion polls

This article presents results concerning the significance of sample leads and illustrates their uses. They enable the analysis of one party over another in political polls, one product over another in market research surveys, market share in industrial studies, etc. They enable the calculation of confidence intervals and required sample size, testing of hypotheses, etc. Sampling from infinite and finite populations with overlapping classifications, stratified sampling, optimum allocation to strata, etc., are considered. Derivation of the results is given in a set of Appendices. Some of these are rather complicated, but their uses are straightforward.

Aids survey in Croydon — attitudes, knowledge and opinions

A MARKET research survey in Croydon produced 510 completed questionnaires. Fifty three per cent of respondents were female. Just over a third of respondents wanted more information on Aids, although 85 per cent claimed to know enough to protect themselves against the disease. Only six per cent of the sample answered the knowledge question incorrectly, and 60 per cent spontaneously identified homosexuals as a risk group. The sample was div ided in half by the statement "It's a person's own fault if they get Aids", with more men and more old people agreeing with the statement. There was fairly general agreement that society is prejudiced against people with Aids (82%), with young people and women tending to perceive more prejudice. Of the 15 per cent who do not know enough to protect them selves against Aids, half say they do not want more information, suggesting a small group that is resistant to health education. The main conclusions were that although respondents were very knowl edgable on Aids, there is still a great deal of preju dice. The main issue facing health education is changing attitudes, not increasing knowledge.

A Bayesian Approach to Calculating Sample Sizes for Multinomial Sampling

Bayesian rules are developed for the determination of sample sizes for sampling from multinomial distributions. We develop rules based on the concept of a tolerance region R, such that a vector of parameters of interest, 0 say, is contained in R with a specified probability 1 -a which holds on average over all possible samples. We consider two classes of region (i) ellipsoids which are centred at the posterior expectation of 0 conditional on a sample matrix X and whose shape and orientation are determined by a given symmetric matrix A, and (ii) hyper-cubic regions consisting of intervals which are symmetric about the individual posterior means 6i the elements of 0. These procedures are applied to the sizing of market research surveys, for which the multinomial distribution is an appropriate model.

32—AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE ATTITUDES OF UNITED KINGDOM CONSUMERS TOWARDS CLOTHING MADE IN VARIOUS OTHER COUNTRIES

Many previous studies have established the potential effects of a nation's stereotype image upon consumers' attitudes towards its products. This study takes ‘country-of-origin’ research a stage further by specifically investigating effects in the U.K. clothing market. By employing depth interviews and market-research surveys, consumers' attitudes towards products made in various countries are revealed. Similarly, a survey of retailers' policies is included. Various attributes of clothing, including value for money, fashion, and quality, are compared for clothing originating from different countries. Country of origin is established as an information input that consumers may use in making purchasing decisions, clear-cut differences in consumer attitudes towards various countries being revealed. The implications for the U.K. clothing industry are discussed with particular emphasis on the need for more attention to and investment in consumer research, design, and marketing.

The Communication of Results: The Neglected Art in Market Research?

This article addresses itself to the need for the market research profession to develop greater skill in the presentation and communication of the results of market research surveys. It contains general advice and detailed guidelines to develop such skills.

Trends in Breast-Feeding

Starting from very high levels in the 1940s, breast-feeding declined steadily to low levels in the early 1970s, and then began an upward trend which has apparently continued until the present (Fig. 1). In the 1940s, breast-feeding was more common among disadvantaged women. The subsequent decline was also more rapid among the disadvantaged, however, so that by the early 1970s, disadvantaged women were considerably less likely than others to breast-feed. Because the increase since the early 1970s has not been so pronounced among the disadvantaged, they continue to have relatively low levels of breast-feeding. The causes of these trends and differentials are not well understood. These are the principal conclusions drawn from a review of statistical studies of trends and differentials in breast-feeding in the United States. The studies included national health surveys conducted by the federal government, market research surveys conducted by infant formula manufacturers, and infant feeding surveys conducted by medical researchers. The studies differed markedly in their methods—a fact that affects their validity, reliability, and comparability. The first section of this paper discusses these data sources and their limitations. The next two sections discuss the downward trend in breast-feeding from the 1940s to the early 1970s, and the upward trend since. Each of these sections examines demographic differences in these trends. A short section that addresses possible causes of the trends and differentials follows those two sections. SOURCES AND LIMITATIONS OF THE DATA The principal sources of data on trends and differentials in breast-feeding are national fertility surveys, market research surveys, and special purpose infant-feeding surveys.

Comment

The coating industry's growth sector, namely the production of market research surveys, has come up with two more contributions this month. A report from IAL Industrial Aids Ltd., 14 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W OQP, covers aqueous emulsions of synthetic polymers. It states that this is one of the markets in Western Europe showing considerable growth potential despite the recession. These products — which overcome the toxicity risks and expensive evaporation wastage inherent in the use of solvent‐based systems — are steadily gaining ground in paints, floor coverings, adhesives/sealants, paper/board and many other fields of application.

Measuring Influence in Organizational Purchase Decisions

The authors report findings bearing on the reliability of measures used in industrial marketing research surveys to identify the structure of buying groups. Results obtained in a pilot study of the purchase of lithographic plates by small printing firms reveal a lack of consensus about purchase influence between pairs of informants from the same organizations. Further, the ratings appear to differentiate among roles but not stages in the decision process.

Measuring Influence in Organizational Purchase Decisions

The authors report findings bearing on the reliability of measures used in industrial marketing research surveys to identify the structure of buying groups. Results obtained in a pilot study of the purchase of lithographic plates by small printing firms reveal a lack of consensus about purchase influence between pairs of informants from the same organizations. Further, the ratings appear to differentiate among roles but not stages in the decision process.

Recherche et urbanisme commercial

Research on commercial urbanism In the course of the last twenty years, commerce has undergone substantial changes as is demonstrated by the appearance and spectacular spread of new forms of retailing, by economic and financial concentration, by intensified competition in connection with an increasing use of advertising techniques. These changes are closeley linked to the process of rapid urbanization that France witnessed in the same period, to increased consumption by households and to changes in ways of living. As a result, the problem of the place of trade in the urban context has been raised in entirely new ways. The article reviews recent studies and research efforts concerning the evolution of commercial facilities and its relationship with the problems of planning and town development. Up to 1974, most of the research work consisted of studies on the specific pre-operational installation of commercial facilities in areas of urban expansion, or market research surveys relating to the peripheral implantation of super or hypermarkets. As of 1974, there has been a new emphasis on drawing up policies relating to commercial facilities at the level of the urban agglomeration, and on gaining a better knowledge of the development of the distribution sector and its underlying causes. In general, these researches, too descriptive and normative, suffer from a considerable poverty of available statistical sources. To overcome these weaknesses, the Délégation générale à la recherche scientifique et technique (DGRST) has been organizing, since 1977, a research program concerning the commercial apparatus, viewed in its town-planning dimension ; concerning its development in relation to the transformation of the cities and changing consumption patterns ; concerning structural changes in the distribution sector and the financial and economic concentration to which it is subjected ; and, last but not least, on buying behavior. Number twelve of the Annales de la recherche urbaine presents the results of some of the research carried out in connection with this program.

The Statistical Analysis of a Disparity Test

A market research survey was conducted using a Disparity test to measure the change in preference for four consumer products, as the products became progressively worn through use. The results were analysed to see if the deterioration in average preference for a product was uniformly less than for another product, in order to see if longer lasting claims for this product could be made for one of the dimensions measured in the test. By fitting a suitable statistical model to the data using weighted least squares estimation it was possible to infer that it was reasonable to make such a claim for one of the products.

Item Nonresponse in Mail Surveys: Extent and Correlates

Item nonresponse, an often overlooked source of error in survey research, arises when a person returns a questionnaire with some questions unanswered. The authors examine the extent and correlates of item nonresponse in a series of marketing research surveys. The principal findings are that the extent of item nonresponse appears to be independent of questionnaire length and to vary systematically with age and education, and that AIO items are less likely to contain item nonresponse bias than other types of questions.

Ascorbic Acid in Orange Juice

To the Editor.— The article Bioavailability of Ascorbic Acid in Orange Juice by Horowitz et al (235:2624, 1976) gives some useful information on the amount active and inactive ascorbic acid in fresh, frozen concentrate, and pasteurized orange juice. However, the authors should have indicated that the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of ascorbic acid for adult men and for nonpregnant and nonlactating women is 45 mg. 1 Therefore, the 39 mg/100 ml of active ascorbic acid in the pasteurized orange juice, though substantially less than the values found for the fresh and frozen concentrate forms, provides almost the recommended intake of ascorbic acid per day if 100 ml is consumed. A diet that would include other fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, and leafy vegetables, together with the pasteurized orange juice, would certainly provide the recommended intake of ascorbic acid. Furthermore, a recent market research survey indicated that orange juice remains the most popular