A manufacturer who is aware of each Multiple's company philosophy is in a good position to present new products in the light of that knowledge, and to emphasise those aspects that will most readily attract a favourable response. But a company philosophy is by no means the most powerful of the influences that will determine the eventual acceptance or rejection of a new product. Other key factors involve the category into which the new product falls and what it can do for the multiple's position; the support factors such as the manufacturer's standing in the market; his relations with the trade, the presentation of the new product, the advertising support, and the packaging; and the deal itself, in particular, the price which tends to reflect the importance of the launch. Only the right combination of all these will secure retailer acceptance and what is 'right' will obviously vary from retailer to retailer.
Our purpose in writing this paper is to rise above the level of technique and to begin a discussion of what makes market modelling work. What is being achieved with this field of technology, what is possible, and what form is modelling likely to take in companies just beginning to use it? What are the trends, so that we can avoid re-creating the past and move on to develop a future.
In the course of preparing a paper that would do justice to the chosen title, one becomes conscious of how broad and relatively unexplored the subject is. The issue of how to get market research used by decision makers has not been a popular topic among researchers. In such a situation, one might forgive the writer who chose to shake the conventional wisdom by putting forward his own prejudices, following this with a debate that merely revealed the prejudices of others. But this would not be progress and will lead to no action. I have chosen, instead, to approach the subject by investigating two areas in market research where some researchers have made substantive progress in implementing market research. The two areas are those relating to continuous market research - panel and audit data, and ad hoc research.