Abstract:

I want to base on a review of market research expenditure worldwide. It is a notorious truism that the market research industry is among the least well researched of any. Estimates of expenditure are hard to come by and even when found are distressingly subject to errors arising from faulty definitions, misinterpretation or lack of comparability. Nevertheless, persistent souls over the last 10 years have worked away at improving this situation and I want to present to you data which, while I would not go to the scaffold for it, is, I think, sound data and as comparable as it can be made. It is concerned with expenditure on commercial market research. That is to say, it excludes, so far as possible, expenditure confined within academic institutes; or made by agencies, official or otherwise, not involving any commercial market or social research spend; or by companies on internal market research departmental costs. I want to show you data worldwide and for broad geographical areas - for which I have data from 1977 and 1979, and then in a greater detail for Europe, where, because of work done for ESOMAR Congresses, I can show you a longer period.