This study is of very much wider interest than the title might suggest. Although the study was in fact a critical investigation of the methods currently used in the National Readership Survey conducted in the United Kingdom by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, it also represents one of the most important and insensitive investigations ever undertaken into the structured personal interview, the basic technique of most market research.
My purpose is to show that, in public opinion research, we must find the right formulation of questions and derive the right conclusions. Let me explain this with a few concrete questions. In Germany there is a lot of talk about prosperity, but attitudes vary greatly.
The purpose for which discriminant analysis was developed, and for which it tends to be used in practice, is to obtain a function discriminating between individuals belonging to two or more populations, which can then be used to allocate further individuals to one or other of these populations when it is not known to which population these new individuals do, in fact, belong. The purpose of the discriminant analysis reported by Mr. Squirrell clearly differs from this, and further explanation of its purpose is asked for. In particular there seems to be the danger that an attempt might be made to "interpretâ the coefficients or weights of the discriminant function, despite the difficulties of doing so already referred to by Dr, Meer and pre-echoed in the paper itself.
The brand image ie to-day an established concept, and most marketing men are veil aware of its immense importance. Consequently brand image studies are now carried out to a great extent in most Western European and the North American markets. Much consideration is also given to the problems of such studies. As Mr. Squirrell has put it, the main purpose of some of these studies nay be said to give a picture as complete and many sided as possible of the brand's position on the market. Their aim is a "diagnosis of the brand situation", as Just described by Mr. Squirrell in his paper. Others have mainly an experimental purpose; they aim chiefly at measuring the effect of certain changes of the factors which are known to determine the brand image.