Abstract:

Five years ago, when there were heated discussions on emerging new electronic media in Japan, I wrote an article for a Japanese trade journal, in which I discussed possible use of new media for marketing research. The new media I discussed in the article included facsimile, videotex, video teleconferencing, two-way CATV and some others. When I was given this opportunity to make a presentation before the ESOMA International Conference, I selected 'without any hesitation "Marketing Research in Japan using Mew Electronic Media" as my topic. I was out of the country for three years after writing the earlier article, and I was very much interested in knowing what has happened in the past five years in this arena. So, I started to gather information and made some interviews. The initial result was not necessarily promising. A major reason for this is that the diffusion process of new media has been slower than expected. However, some experimental projects are being undertaken, especially in the area of facsimile, videotex, and teleconferencing. I believe that learning from these experiences will give us some valuable insight about what marketing research will look like in the