The experiment proposed by Direction Generale des Telecommunication to 180 advertising companies ended in January 1983. Such a first experiment is heralding others more or less ambitious of the same kind, which is why it is now interesting to draw some conclusions from the points of view, reactions and criticism of the users who had accepted to explore and consult the proposed services. The conclusions one may draw are interesting first because of the varied research techniques involved and also because of the existing previous studies which allowed to measure the differences between what the users were honing for and what they got. It is possible to see that if some expectations were disappointed entailing the abandonment of the system in many households, most users were really interested, according to the kind of services they used and depending on their being easily reached, quickly and clearly executed. So the precise and concrete lessons we can learn will then in the following experiments allow us the better to place Videotex, to improve the performances which were already well received, create new ones, and, with the help of professional communications people, search for some different ways of using this new medium.
The experiment proposed by Direction Generale des Telecommunication to 180 advertising companies ended in January 1983. Such a first experiment is heralding others more or less ambitious of the same kind, which is why it is now interesting to draw some conclusions from the points of view, reactions and criticism of the users who had accepted to explore and consult the proposed services. The conclusions one may draw are interesting first because of the varied research techniques involved and also because of the existing previous studies which allowed to measure the differences between what the users were honing for and what they got. It is possible to see that if some expectations were disappointed entailing the abandonment of the system in many households, most users were really interested, according to the kind of services they used and depending on their being easily reached, quickly and clearly executed. So the precise and concrete lessons we can learn will then in the following experiments allow us the better to place Videotex, to improve the performances which were already well received, create new ones, and, with the help of professional communications people, search for some different ways of using this new medium.
Flavour plays a key role in the market acceptance of all food and beverage products, and especially in the market acceptance of beer. This paper describes a program of research being undertaken by a major international brewer to develop an integrated set of mathematical flavour model describing consumer preferences for beer products and to create an associated decision support system so marketing and brewing personnel can make effective use of the models. The research is presently in progress so the paper reports on the work completed to date and outlines the direction that future work is expected to take. Four models are to be developed. The paper gives considerable detail about the first model as this model has been implemented and there is some experience with it.
The paper describes a comprehensive programme of research to explore the psychology of radio listening and its subsequent and potential uses. It is possibly the first study anywhere to explore comprehensively the integrated communication processes of radio, with applications to a wide range of decision-making as regards corporate station positioning, radio programming and advertising. Broadly, it should provide all users of the medium with a better understanding of radio.
The emotional and financial upheavals occasioned by separation and divorce have lasting effects in many areas including peoples' behaviour and attitudes as consumers, even after they are re-married. Some of these changes are essentially functional as women find they are forced to play a part in traditionally male dominated categories like banking, insurance and household maintenance. A second set of product and service categories is affected by the needs of people in their mid-thirties building new social lives and establishing new household and family units. However, there is also a more general and wider range effect in the way that housewives who have been through these traumas take a less tolerant view of brands and their advertising. They have experienced real emotions very sharply. They resist the trivialisation of emotion, or the association of emotion with brands or decisions that they see as increasingly trivial.
This paper describes the methodology, and outlines some of the findings, of an ongoing programme of political research. The focus is the recently formed UK Social Democratic Party. The SDP, in collaboration with its Alliance partner, the Liberal Party, achieved a 50% voting intention figure within 6 months of its formation early in 1981. This support slumped to 20% during 1982. However, the Alliance attained 26% of the votes cast at the June 1983 UK General Election, compared to 44% for the Conservative Party and 28% for the Labour Party. The research programme has been based upon creativity and projective techniques. In the research reported here they have been used to explore the values, motives and attitudes underlying voting behaviour and intention. The findings to date illustrate both the diagnostic and also the predictive value of creative qualitative research approaches.
A panel approach was adopted by AGB to solve this research information problem. The paper outlines the pilot stage of the Index panel and describes how this pilot led to major modifications both to the data collection processes and the data collected. The data usage is also illustrated by examining two particular areas, market segmentation using the standard panel data and, using the panel as a data collection medium, the use of banks and other financial institutions as a means of obtaining cash.
The following paper reports on a dialogue held between the President of the German Constitutional Court and the author. This dialogue was set in motion indirectly by an article the author published in 1979 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the reactions of the German population to the divorce legislation reform which came into force in 1977. At the time, several law suits had already been filed with the Federal Constitutional Court about the new rulings. In December 1981 the President of the Constitutional Court, Ernst Benda, presented a paper entitled "Consensus, Opinion Research and the Constitution" in which he investigated the contribution opinion research can make to the work of the Federal Constitutional Court, and in particular toward ensuring a basic consensus of views, e.g. that a certain minimum level of agreement be attained, even in the present difficult situation of rapid social change. In this paper, the President described how the survey results reported in the Frankfurter Allgmeine Zeitung helped the court understand why it had been so difficult for the new divorce legislation to gain acceptance in practice.
The following paper reports on a dialogue held between the President of the German Constitutional Court and the author. This dialogue was set in motion indirectly by an article the author published in 1979 in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the reactions of the German population to the divorce legislation reform which came into force in 1977. At the time, several law suits had already been filed with the Federal Constitutional Court about the new rulings. In December 1981 the President of the Constitutional Court, Ernst Benda, presented a paper entitled "Consensus, Opinion Research and the Constitution" in which he investigated the contribution opinion research can make to the work of the Federal Constitutional Court, and in particular toward ensuring a basic consensus of views, e.g. that a certain minimum level of agreement be attained, even in the present difficult situation of rapid social change. In this paper, the President described how the survey results reported in the Frankfurter Allgmeine Zeitung helped the court understand why it had been so difficult for the new divorce legislation to gain acceptance in practice.
Two of the export organizations, each acting on its own responsibility, commissioned a wide scale survey in 1982. The purpose of this survey was to establish which bottlenecks are encounted by exporting small and medium-size companies in their export activities, as well as their contacts with export organizations, in order to find ways of contributing to solutions. The research scheme consisted of one survey among smaller exporting companies and another among export organizations. This paper shows that this type of research in which one is attempting to influence policy at Government level by confronting policymakers with research results, conclusions, and recommendations, is a correct and desirable intermediate phase in a research project.
Elements of the design and operation of large scale surveys introduce sources of error not adequately dealt with in normal textbook formulae. Nevertheless, it is often possible by comparing the results of replicated surveys to arrive at objective and empirical estimates of accuracy and lack of bias in such surveys. Further, it is necessary to do this to convince our clients of the reliability of our work. Apart from the reliability of a survey, it should also be sensitive to changes in the situation. Examples of the sensitivity of opinion polls are given indicating how substantial variability and unpredictability in the way people's views respond to outside events implies that predictive models, especially in the course of an electoral campaign are fraught with danger. The unpredictable electorate reigns supreme and the opinion polls can only reflect, with as short a time lag as possible, the present rather than the future state of public opinion.
The Allensbach investigation on the impact growing scepticism toward technology has upon the choice of engineering as a field of study at first glance seems to represent a case where the original question is already outdated by the time the results have been published due to new developments in the interim; upon closer examination it is shown, however, that a short-term positive change in the situation only serves to conceal a long-term danger. The Allensbach study shows that the information campaign on job opportunities in technical occupations that was originally planned by the Baden-Wurttemberg state government was not necessary because the message had already reached younger people facing the choice of an occupation. One effect of the overall change of values since the early 1960s, however, has been that the study of engineering and the engineering profession do not fit into the general trend of the times, and that the basic expectations of young people run counter to these fields. Important consequences for educational policy result from this fact, as do suggestions for measures that appear to be suited to promote an attitudinal change in the long run.