The systematic use of opinion and market research is relatively new in France. In summing up the most important development to be seen is the ever increasing variety of the objectives of opinion and market research. The reason for this lies generally speaking in the recognition of the necessity of studying the great collective problems which are posed by the demographic and economic development of the country. On the level of individual companies which are part of this expansion interest in the economic and marketing problems is increasing and in the minds of management they are becoming as important as the purely technical and financial problems. With regard to methods the continuous purification of the tools of market research bears witness to the scientific techniques employed.
With very few exceptions, empirical social research methods are being used primarily for purposes of predicting future events or behaviour. Sociological and economic analyses, even where on their face they appear to be nothing but fact finding or studies in methodology, generally intend to establish links between past and future developments. Obviously it cannot be the purpose of this paper to cover a general area, of this scope.This paper deals with the much narrower, question to what extend survey methods can be helpful in predicting future economic behaviour, in particulars how survey methods can be applied in forecasting future, sales volumes.