Abstract:

Out of the total population of Weedkiller buyers (defined as householders with garden/drive areas) only 30-40% actually buy Weedkillers. Accordingly 60% or more of property owners pave a maintenance problem for which Weedkillers should logically offer an economic and time-saving solution. It is possible that this untapped market exists because there are barriers to usage which marketing and advertising to date have failed to overcome. If this is, in fact, the case, there could be problems of communication between Manufacturers and potential Buyers involving the choice of media and the types of messages, treatments and language used. Additionally, the actual product concepts may not coincide with potential buyers' ideals and it could, therefore, be that new expressions of Weedkiller concepts are required. Qualitative research was therefore required in order to draw up a preliminary model of why more property owners do not use Weedkillers in their gardens, and how they can be persuaded to do so. 

About this collection:
Peter Cooper (1936-2010) was co-founder of Cooper Research & Marketing, later CRAM International, with his wife Jackie French. Cooper studied Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester where he became a Lecturer in the early 1960s. He became involved in conducting commercial Motivational Research and by 1968 opened Cooper Research & Marketing in Manchester. Cooper was one of the key pioneers of what we now know as Qualitative Research. CRAM opened its London office in Wimpole Street in 1970 and moved to 53 St Martins Lane, WC2N 4EA, in 1972 where it remained until Peter's passing in 2010. The company changed its name to CRAM International in around 1985/86, reflecting the increasingly international nature of its work. The CRAM/Peter Cooper Archive Collection, which includes commercial research reports and early academic papers, has been preserved by Peter's children, Diana, Helen and Jonathan, and his colleague Simon Patterson. The scanning of the Archive has been supported by ESOMAR, AMSR, Peter's colleague Dr Alan Branthwaite & family, the Cooper family, and QRi Consulting. The CRAM/Peter Cooper Archive Collection is managed by QRi Consulting. The CRAM logo and CRAM International name are Registered Trademarks and the property of QRi Consulting.