Expert Systems provide a means whereby the knowledge, experience and practices of an organisation can be brought together in easily accessible ways. Hence it becomes possible for the less knowledgeable, experienced or practiced people in an organisation to follow the paths by which the more expert practitioners in a field explore their problems and reach decisions.
The Market Research Society has regarded education as one of its major responsibilities ever since it was founded, and each year a major program of activities is organised which range from basic introductory courses in market research generally through to advanced seminars bringing together specialists in particular fields. A second strand of development which has proceeded more slowly has been concerned with the establishment of some form of professional qualification in market research, awarded on the basis of an examination following an appropriate course of study. The scheme which has now been developed, and which is in its third year is unique in bringing together academic institutions teaching marketing and market research, and the Society as a professional body, so that students taking courses approved by the Society, and satisfying the Society's assessors in their normal academic examinations, become eligible not only for their academic award but also for the Diploma of the Society. The main part of this paper reviews the Diploma Scheme as it is now, and considers some possible lines of development.
I think this has been a most interesting Seminar because it has brought together people who are approaching this area of Operational Research in Marketing from a number of different directions, or with a number of different objectives.
In Group 1 the discussion of brand switching was centred first on whether or not Markov chains were a useful concept in this area.
Group 1 spent sometime discussing the LP Model of Profit in the paper by Randall and Farmer, and eventually decided it was precisely what it said it was.