In 1976, Woolworth's management were given a clear indication that a problem existed when MORI presented the findings of a major study they had carried out on the attitudes of Woolworth employees to the company. Although the main objective of the survey was not to probe staff-customer relations, the survey did demonstrate that many sales staff had an unfortunate "them and us" attitude towards customers. In total, MORI interviewed just over 9,000 employees throughout the company, and it became clear that, although there was a considerable amount of loyalty to the company, there was also a certain amount of dissatisfaction.
In this paper I will attempt to do two things. First, I will tell you a little bit about strategic planning and how we have approached this extremely difficult subject. Second, I will attempt to position Marketing Research within the context of the strategic planning process and the consequences this has for enhancing the importance and thus the status of the research process.
In spite of the fact that shareholders can, collectively, wield a great deal of power over the destinies of private companies, research into their attitudes is a relatively uncommon event. Where it does occur it rarely extends beyond a focus on reactions to the company's annual report, or accompanying mailed literature. Companies are prepared to spend money on surveying attitudes of customers, the general public, employees and 'opinion leaders' but much less commonly the views of those who actually own them - even though they can number tens of thousands.
The joint paper is given by the then European Marketing Manager of a major brewery company together with an Italian Qualitative Research Consultant who has worked closely with this client over a period of several years. The paper describes the generation, development and evaluation of a new product - Twyford Amber Ale in the Italian market. The work started in 1977 and the product launch was in 1980. This paper traces how an opportunity for a new product was identified from on-going monitoring-type qualitative research on the company's main brand - Guinness Extra Stout. Similarly subjective data from the local sales company
The central thesis of the paper is that the profitability of research companies is hindered because market research is not perceived as a profession, either by those who sell research or by those who buy it. The most significant expression of this lack of professional status is that market researchers are not compensated, and do not demand compensation for their primary assets: their time and their thinking. The paper concludes with a presentation of the research company's undervalued assets and offers prescriptions for the professionalisation of market research. These prescriptions are intended to encourage a more rapid evolution of professionalism as the means to greater profitability.
All designing a controlled experiment should begin with the design of the ideal experiment. If the ideal experiment cannot be executed because of financial, factual, moral, or legal obstacles, we should make a systematic effort to save the controlled character of the experiment by redesigning its objectionable features. As a rule, the redesigned experiment will be less powerful than the ideal one, and we must then decide whether we want to live with that loss or move to quasi-experimental designs. The review in this paper of redesign strategies that have saved controlled experiments in the past should help us to be prepared and inventive the next time our ideal experimental design runs into a roadblock.
The study provided measures of the standing of W.H. Smith and its competition on specially-collected attitude dimensions. It also identified which aspects of the staff or the service they provide matter most to customers, and showed how the intensity of demand, and the relative priorities, varied between the company's major merchandise types. The immediacy of the use-of-store study revealed the rationalisations of the more detached consumer studies, and assisted overall interpretation. The staff study allowed the company to note discrepancies in perceptions of service and priorities between customers and staff, and revealed staff feelings about their need for both specific training, and time in-store. The company revised staff training and career-planning, and introduced diploma level qualifications and cash awards to incentivise staff to participate.
The papers themselves will be of interest and value to delegates. The scene will be set by a careful positioning of research within strategic marketing planning - a paper from an experienced international researcher corporate planner in an American multinational. This will be followed by a paper on the profitability which can result from research in marketing - using research to develop and launch a successful new brand Into a European market. There are three papers on profitability from research within the company and again, we have two speakers here from the user side. Profitability from research for researchers is covered with a thoughtful paper on the value of thinking by a researcher from New York. Research to improve the profitability of government and social policies will be covered in a joint ESOMAR/WAPOR session, which will include papers from Germany, France and the United States. Profitability from research in advertising will be covered both from the technique side with a paper from Holland and by looking at a major corporate advertising research project for a multinational British-based oil company - again a paper which involves two people from the user side of research. The penultimate paper looks at our investment in research and casts an eye on what we should be doing - this is a paper from an agency researcher, a statistician - but a statistician who thinks about the implications of the way research is, and should be, approached.
This paper emphasises methodology and subject matter. The latter serves to illustrate the former. The paper discusses an investigative assignment from the German Federal Ministry of Commerce which, in order to stimulate the rate of economic growth, proposed a campaign that would encourage people to set up their own businesses. We were to develop an instrument that could identify the groups of people who would perhaps like to become self-employed. Next we were to determine which media could best be used to reach those groups.
This paper emphasises methodology and subject matter. The latter serves to illustrate the former. The paper discusses an investigative assignment from the German Federal Ministry of Commerce which, in order to stimulate the rate of economic growth, proposed a campaign that would encourage people to set up their own businesses. We were to develop an instrument that could identify the groups of people who would perhaps like to become self-employed. Next we were to determine which media could best be used to reach those groups.