Fisons have available a wide range of basic quantitative data on the use of fertilizer on grassland, covering a period of 20 years. But such data is largely restricted to analyses by size of farm and region. To gain a deeper insight into the grassland market, a study of farmers behaviour and attitudes in relation to grassland management was undertaken. In particular, our objective was to seek to identify segments of the population having similar patterns of behaviour, in order to give guidance on the marketing and promotion of Fisons fertilizers to grassland farmers. Following extensive preliminary work, a questionnaire was devised and administered to a quota sample of 200 farmers. Certain problems of questionnaire design and analysis are discussed.
Measuring the effectiveness of the Irish Tourist Board's promotional activities is a continuing process, because of the need to: 1. Justify enough financial support for the organisation's work, and 2: Maintain improvement of effectiveness. Ireland's over-all performance should be seen in the context of two basic considerations: a. Competition; b. History, our progress from year to year. Investment in development shows, unfortunately, only long-term returns, and this is true of much marketing expenditure too. Rising national receipts from tourism in any year cannot be attributed entirely to larger appropriations in that year, or indeed in any one previous year. Indeed, the problem of measuring effectiveness has so far proved insoluble to any national tourist organisation which has attempted its solution anywhere in the world. What follows gives some illustration of the persistent concern of the Irish Tourist Board to measure the results of its activity, and of progress to date.