The study we were asked to carry out was related to a specific promotional strategy that the interested company had developed for a product included in its line. Objective of the study was to test by experiment the efficiency of this strategy in view of its large scale application.
The telephone as a mean of conducting market research is of course not new. For many years it has been used when approaching consumers, or radio listeners, or television viewers, and these respondents have accepted the telephone voice asking questions with more or less good grace. But the great disadvantage of this technique in consumer and allied research has always been the fact that telephone ownership has nowhere spread far enough among the population as to yield a complete cross section.
The use of retail panels for measuring, the impact of a new brand on the market, is an invaluable and indispensable method. A new brand must, if successful, make a measurable difference to the existing market, though how far test market results can be used to forecast national sales is a matter for some conjecture. However, test markets are used not only for assessing the performance of new brands but are frequently used in an endeavour to measure the effect, on established brands, of advertising promotions, couponing and sample operations, advertising weight tests, media tests and so forth. I hope to demonstrate, in this paper, that natural and apparently fortuitous variations occur in over-counter sales, which, in some cases, far outweigh those to be expected from promotional activities.
For some years - and in many countries - an attempt has been made to become acquainted with the financial aspirations of individuals and to measure their psychological needs. In order to do this, the same question is regularly asked of samples of the population and the responses, which become meaningful through a comparison of the results of repeated surveys, are studied. But the answers thus obtained are difficult to analyse. Actually, a diversity of factors determine them and it is a tricky job to isolate their respective effects. Also, the availability of such a long series of statistical data such as those which IPOP has is bound to provide a great deal of information to those studying problems of this kind.
It is clear, that the semantic differential technique enjoys a great reputation with research workers. A social psychologist using one of the many other rating scale techniques in the field of attitude and/or brand image research, is rather often reproached but why didnât you use the semantic differential to and does get involved in complicated theoretical discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of different scaling techniques, dome-times the discussion gets rather confused because of the composition of Osgood's standard-text. We can discern three major parts of this book: A. A theory about the meaning of words (meaning as a mediating response; B. Discussion of a measuring-technique, the semantic differential proper; C. Analysis of data, obtained with the instrument under application of factor-analytic techniques.
As it is well known, the input-output analysis is a tool of forecasts for inter-sectorial requirements, bused on the hypothesis of the independent development of the final demand. The demand is, therefore, influenced only by exterior elements connected with the change in tastes, in.the economical and techno logical progress, and by the specific targets at which the Government aims in an economic system more or less controlled . So, the matrix is, basically, a tool of economic planning. How could then input-output analysis be suitably applied to a problem of micro-economy such as the survey of the specific branch of plastics materials? Starting from an already aggregated and accepted scheme of Italian matrix, made for the year 1953, the "Chemical sector" can be divided into the various types of plastics materials; the chemical field is thus split up into two branches: the former including the whole of chemical products - plastics materials excluded - and the latter subdivided into the different productions of plastics materials. Since the branch concerning "Other manufacturing industries" is also interested in plastics materials, as a manufacturer of the same, an analogous division has also been made in this sector.
It would therefore seem possible to arrive at what we have called the optimum insertion schedule, by means a simulation technique and with the help of a computer, which are both classic tools of Operational Research. But in spite of all the respect that this science merits, we ought not to forget that the value of the solution produced by Operational Research depends on the value of the data and hypotheses on which it has been put to work. There, is no question of pretending that the problem of optimising a media schedule is nearly solved by the simulation technique suggested. But it would still be an important step forward to be able to analyse a schedule in terms of coverage and frequency of opportunities to see...this is why we think that the possibility of applying this technique is worth consideration.
The market researcher depends, for much of the information he needs, upon the respondent's memory of his/her own behaviour, particularly buying behaviour and behaviour relation to the mass media. Amongst other things, the market researcher may need to know; when specific kinds of buying occurred; the frequency of such buying, what brand was bought, the quantity bought. He may want to know about the respondent's recent exposure to press, television, radio, cinema, posters and possibly certain things about the nature of that exposure. These and other of the things he may want to know depend in part upon the respondent drawing upon memory - and doing so, moreover, under the conditions of the survey interview.
The choice of a channel of distribution, the selection of the points of sales or even of areas commercially of interest are questions which are asked when starting on a new or a bad-known market. The target of the following communication is to plain: 1) A method for the observation and analysis of the different elements briefly enunciated above; 2) The practical exploitation of this method, in order to rationalise the distribution efforts and increase the efficiency of the sales teams.
I have been asked to discuss the papers delivered in this session, and find myself in the difficult position of having to elaborate on what was said this morning. In trying to remain as positive as the speakers have been, I will attempt to use some of the points that were made as a platform for some personal ideas I have, with regard to the whole field of Advertising Research.