Abstract:

The basic themes of this paper are firstly that the idea of 'comparability' in relation to multi-country surveys needs to be examined specifically in relation to the market situation, and secondly that achieving comparability in this sense depends greatly on developing the right functional relationship between the client company and the organisations conducting the research. The problem of comparability is a very real one to anyone working in a truly international company such as B.A.T. which operates in more than fifty countries all over the world and carries out marketing research on a number of international brands as well as a great many local brands manufactured in over 100 factories. Working on the manufacturer or client side, I will naturally be emphasising the solving of marketing problems rather than the achieving of 'comparability' as an academic research exercise.