This paper sustains the thesis that market research on an international basis is a very different type of operation from single-country research, and that it requires a fund of experience and a combination of skills that is different from that required for research in one country. A researcher who is used to thinking in terms of one country only, or a research organisation - whether part of an international chain or not - that is primarily designed to handle research on a national basis is unlikely to have the adaptability, knowledge and experience for the execution of international research. The execution of international research is a highly specialised operation. It requires a high degree of central control by a group of researchers experienced and specialised in the management of international research.
Pharmaceutical research is market research, just as consumer research is market research, and they are essentially the same type of activity applied to different fields. What this paper is concerned with is the position of pharmaceutical research in the spectrum of market research, and how the technique and skills required for market research in the ethical pharmaceutical field compare with those required for market research in the consumer field. What this paper proposes to examine is the nature of these differences, and the extent to which they are justified by the research objectives and the environment in which the research is being carried out.
I have referred to comparability in a very limited sense, namely the exact replication of research methods across a number of countries. I have done so because comparability is so often discussed in these terms, or because it is felt - whether implicitly or explicitly - that comparability in the sense of comparability of results involves or depends on comparability of techniques. I should, therefore, like to make a very clear distinction between: 1. Comparability at the data-collection stage; 2. Comparability at the interpretation stage.
Company image research is generally thought of in connection with manufacturers of industrial products, air lines, banks and other institutions, and with objectives such as obtaining the attitude of the trade, investors and employees. Relatively little research has been carried out on company images in relation to the marketing and advertising of consumer goods. This is the area with which this paper is concerned.
The contribution that market research can make to advertising it is, of course, important to test finished advertisements, both before and after publication. However, this is not the main contribution that market research can make to advertising. The main contribution that market research can make to advertising is to provide the information that will help in the creation of advertisements . The testing of finished advertisements is only a final - and sometimes unnecessary - stage in this process.
Much of the advertising research being carried out today defines - whether explicitly or implicitly - the effectiveness of an advertisement in terms of memorability , believability or other factors. Such advertising research is based on assumptions that are not by any means proven and which are, in fact, generally false. Assumptions such as that an advertisement that is remembered, liked or believed is necessarily more effective than an advertisement that does not have a high memorability, believability or like-ability.
Satisfactory results that are obtained from good cooperation between advertising researchers and creative men are only possible if there are really congenial partners on either side who respect each other both professionally and personally. It is management's duty to select the right people for the right position. The development in industry automatically involves an increased risk in making investments in the market. We owe a very high degree of responsibility to those who entrust their money to our ideas. We are fully aware of this fact. And this is why we expect our ideas to be reasonably guided and that everything possible will be done to obtain a maximum degree of safety. But to guide ideas does not mean to put a brake to them. And there is no such thing as absolute safety. He who would be able to offer safety that is absolute would have deserved to handle all the advertising accounts in the world.
My belief in interviewer selection and training in the simplest terms t we spend a lot of time in studying the problem before we embark on a survey s we take a lot of trouble over sample design and over preparing and testing a questionnaire! we spend a lot of time on coding and editing the completed questionnaires, analysing them and preparing the tables and sometimes we write a report that is more than 200 pages long: all this work might be valueless if we had not also made sure that the interviewing on which it was based had been properly done.