Abstract:

GFM-Hamburg has introduced and tested the panel method in entirely different fields and segments of industry during the last years. The results led to deeper and original insights and aids for the thinking, drafting, planning, and acting of industrial firms. Market size and market developments as well as the competitive situation in fields as special as these can now be made visible, both in the sense of the transparency of the markets and a well-founded prognosis. Sales concepts, objectives, and plans can be refined with the aid of branch panel results. At the same time, precise ideas about the development and further refinement of products and techniques can be gained. All this means, summarily, that, in the area of industrial marketing, it appears worthwhile to explore in detail the possibilities which the branch panel is offering already today and which it can possibly offer in the future with refined techniques.