ESOMAR has sought ways to help standardise some of the procedures used in market research surveys. This does not in any way imply that we are seeking to treat Europe or any other part of the world as single homogeneous markets. On the contrary, our aim is to look for ways in which the tools we use in research can be made more comparable from one country to another so that the true diversity of the marketplace can be more readily identified. This chapter reports work carried out over a number of years. It represents an attempt to develop a common system for assessing the social and economic standing of the populations in the various countries of Europe. The system is designed for Europe, but we believe that it may also have applications in other parts of the world, either as it stands or in a modified form.
Information about events which happen with great regularity are, individually, of such small importance that no individual could be relied on to list them accurately from memory. But each individual event, when added together, can have very important implications from a marketing point of view. In order to collect data related to such events, we have used a diary technique - asking an individual, generally the housewife, to ensure that a complete record is kept of each event over a limited period - not only for those events for which she, herself, is responsible but also for all those involving other members of the household. In this paper, we shall-refer to some cases where this technique has been used successfully, and also discuss briefly, some of the pitfalls which might occur. We shall emphasize that this is an ad hoc technique, but it does not replace the more usual ad hoc surveys using normal aided or un-aided recall methods. It is a slightly more expensive tool to be used for problems where memory failure is likely to be acute, and where data are required from all household members, rather than from an individual within the household.
The purpose of the first pilot study was to establish that an enquiry into attention levels of the type envisaged would be practicable and that meaningful results could be obtained. 200 interviews were completed with housewives in I. T. V. homes in this study and the interviews took place in the latter part of June and early July 1960 in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow. Quota sampling methods were used with a social class control. During the interviews, housewives were questioned / about their activities during the preceding 30 minutes from the time at which contact was first established. 100 interviews began at some time between 5.30 and 6.00 p.m., and 100 between 9.00 and 9.30 p. m. All the interviews took place on weekday evenings.