Over the past few years, the author has frequently been featured on radio and television, presenting and commenting on the results of political opinion polls. The polls of May 16th and 17th as conducted by Inter/View, as well as those organized by the Nipo and the NSS indicated that the CDA and the VVD stood a considerable chance of not being able to maintain the majority (less than 75 seats in parliament). In the election of May 21st, however, the governing coalition ended up with no less than 81 seats. This discrepancy could be attributed in its entirety to the results of the CDA, the party of the popular Prime-Minister Lubbers. For 11 of the 12 parties, the election results were virtually identical to Inter/View's minimum predictions. Only the CDA scored considerably higher than the predicted maximum. It can be demonstrated that these changes took place within the last few days before the election. Voters switched to the CDA from all other parties. The polls, published before the election, rank as one of the main factors that influenced these major changes. In particular the threat of the coalition losing their majority and Lubbers consequently being unable to "finish the job" (CDA's election slogan), produced these changes.
Japanese municipalities still lack a full understanding of marketing: to them marketing means developing and promoting regional specialties or going into business with private sector capital and for-profit corporations. In these circumstances, the Japan Marketing Association conducted a mail survey of a total of 733 persons - the governors of all 47 prefectures of Japan, mayors of cities and the headmen of Tokyos 23 wards - to determine headmen's marketing orientation. Findings based on the 478 valid questionnaires returned (65% response rate) are summarized below. 1) Municipality heads overwhelmingly agreed with statements not opposed to the ideal state of municipalities, that is, the importance of communication with citizens and of reflecting citizens views in policies adopted. 2) However, regarding matters difficult to put into effect or those far removed from traditional bureaucratic thinking, respondents "can't say either way" answers surpassed the number of answers in agreement with the statements, indicating a negative attitude toward, in other words, performance evaluation measured by objective standards, the use of outside specialists or organizations, orientation toward an open administration, and the introduction of the principle of competition. 3) Results of factor analysis showed that the most important factors, in terms of forming headmen's orientation to marketing, were a) planning based on analysis: the approach of planning policies through environment or SWOT analysis; and b) communication with citizens: the approach of improving communication with citizens and reflecting their views in policies. In addition to the six factors extracted, a total of eight factors were used to create indicators of the marketing orientation of each municipalitys headman. These were shown on radar CHARTS and fed back to the municipalities which answered the questionnaire.
The votes of slightly over 9,1 million Dutchmen for 2 out of 27 parties turned out different from what the samples of all pre-election surveys had told the researchers. All interest had been focussed on whether the governing coalition would keep or loose its small majority. The nearest any Dutch institute approached the actual vote was 75 out of 150 parliamentary seats. The voters gave the coalition partners 81 seats. Although there had been indications of "hidden strength" of the Christian Democrat coalition partner, only an "electronic" NIPO-survey late on the eve of election day detected clear indications of a last minute-swing toward that party. (It caused joy and rising share prices on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange immediately after its publication very early on May 21st. Several of the "hidden strength"-data will be presented. Finally we discuss some of the problems caused by the increasing effects of television electioneering.
Virtual reality, artificial intelligence, nano-technology, automated interviewing, the list is complex and changing by the day. So whats hot and whats not? Whats about to come screaming out of the starting gates taking all of us by surprise?
The digital revolution has transformed the way that media is provided and people are now viewing content on their TVs, tablets and mobiles. These shifts have huge implications for advertisers, media planners and research companies who all need to understand what this means for media measurement. How is this being managed, what are the implications and who are the new players?
German auto engineering, Swiss chocolate, French perfume - this month's issue looks at which countries are in the Top 20 of the 'made in' index and why. Which are the world's most valuable brands? How much do consumers really care where a product is produced? And are there some types of products where 'made in' matters more?