Abstract:

I have recently become aware of, and concerned with, the special problems facing market researchers and advertisers . Like many of you, I came to this conference a bit skeptical about the role that academic ideas and "models" could play in market research and advertising. However, I think that my skepticism was somewhat different than yours, for my concern was not with the question of whether "academic models" could contribute to an understanding of consumer behaviour, but with whether such "models" could be given a "fair test" by the business community. While most of you were justifiably skeptical about whether an academic with no practical marketing experience could say anything about consumer behaviour, and while most of you questioned whether models developed to account for "racial and political attitudes and behaviour" could be applied to "common" behaviours such as purchasing instant coffee or cigarettes , I wondered whether you would be willing or able to do the kind of research necessary to test a model's utility in a given content area.