If we are going to be successful in our marketing it is necessary to achieve certain standards of profitability. The further removed the customer is from the producing company, the more difficult it is to promote products and services to him without waste . We want, therefore with segmentation analysis, to reduce waste because our efforts in product design, promotional effort and distribution are directed at a clearly defined segment of the market. In marketing we should know that it is impossible to be all things to all men.
This paper is concerned with the quality of the data derived from the personal interview. The possible sources of error at each stage of the interview are examined. Error arising from the selection of respondents by the interviewer, and from faulty questionnaire construction are also included. Relevant research findings are discussed. Suggestions are made as to how error in the personal interview can be minimised. Finally a plea is made for more attention to be paid to the raising of fieldwork standards.
ESOMAR has carried out a survey of the scope and the organisation of market researchers in Europe. This was not a field survey, which, on grounds of cost, could not be contemplated, but a series of interviews by experts. The experts were ESOMAR's national representatives in 19 European countries.
The need for research in Europe could thus fall into one (or a combination) of the following clearly defined important groups. A. Single country projects in order to establish first of all if there is a potential market in the country and possibly secondly how this potential should be exploited. At this stage a list of possible acquisitions could be a major objective.; B. Single country studies where the overall potential is already known but data is required on how to exploit it profitably; C. A multi-country project looking at the total European market in order to establish in general terms how a company should plan: 1. its overall investment strategy. 2 . its detailed marketing plans. d . A multi-country project where the overall potential is already known and where data is needed on how to exploit the markets profitably.
Market research is defined as the collection and the systematic analysis of the factors that have an influence on the market, its development, and, more generally, on the environment of the enterprise, in order to produce, in a realistic manner, decisions and actions.
The management of an undertaking conducted on marketing lines must at all times be in a position to survey the whole multiplicity and complexity of the events occurring in the market. It is the task of market research to obtain information on the market for the formulation of marketing policy. Market research produces the basic material for marketing, points out the strengths and weaknesses of the undertaking, indicates gaps in the market, defines market segments and so forth. Marketing policy has to proceed on the basis of this knowledge and to guide the aptitudes of the undertaking on the lines of what is taking place in the market. Market research and marketing bear the same relation to each other as does diagnosis to therapy. Market research would be pointless if it did not find its logical continuation in marketing operations. On the other hand marketing without previous market research is nothing more than trading by intuition.
Factors influencing buyer's behaviour may be grouped into three main classes: 1) the individual, 2) the environment and 3) the situation. Up till now especially factors from the two first classes have been included in the study of buyer's behaviour.