Since the Treaty of Rome, there has been a considerable number of marketing studies concerning Europe: six countries were sometimes concerned, during the sixties. Nowadays respondents quite often represent twelve nationalities. The development of national studies was important also during the last 35 years. At one time, a local piece of research was exhaustive, at another time it was reduced to basic essentials. In this second case, Paris and Lyon often are the organ of France; London and Edinburgh quite often represent Great Britain; Rome and Milan can be the ambassadors of Italy; Frankfurt, Munich and the newcomer Leipzig sometimes represent Germany. Mutatis mutandis, in international matters, Belgium could be the most favoured country to represent Western Europe or better the neighbouring European countries; Belgium could be used a.o. to carry out European guidance research and European market tests. This point of view is attractive also when considering management, time and cost quite often consumed by international research which has to cross co-ordination difficulties, modifications and oppositions. This prospect is consistent too with the thoughts of several famous marketing researchers who betoken substantial similarities are often greater than superficial differences in Western Europe. It is clear all these considerations are necessary to get Belgium accepted as an area for European experiments. Such arguments, however, are not sufficient and, of course, must be confirmed in practice. Fortunately, several actual cases are in line with our belief. This paper, with prudence, describes all these aspects of the theme.
The present article will not attempt to present an exhaustive analysis on the problem, but rather to describe the situation of electronic payment in Belgium, where three networks are developing in parallel, and the strategy adopted by the Mister Cash banking network and the part played by CIG, the systems and services organisation which manages the Mister Cash network.
The present article will not attempt to present an exhaustive analysis on the problem, but rather to describe the situation of electronic payment in Belgium, where three networks are developing in parallel, and the strategy adopted by the Mister Cash banking network and the part played by CIG, the systems and services organisation which manages the Mister Cash network.
The following papers describe two experiences in the field of marketing education. Both programs were initiated by the Center for Productivity and Research from the University of Ghent. The first paper comments the program in which public officers have been confronted with the marketing philosophy and the marketing-management approach. The second paper provides information and program principally conceived for top-managers. Both papers have the same structure. They start with a description of the underlying ideas and philosophies from which the programs were built up. Objectives, target groups and methods are commented next. The promotion and the programs are described as detailed as possible. Finally, the evaluation of the program and the possible (or already executed) follow-up initiatives are presented.
The market research organisations in Belgium generally recognise two types of clients: Belgian companies and foreign companies. It is difficult to estimate the number of business transactions coming from each of them. However it is true to say that as in previous years an important part of the activities of the market research organisations can be attributed to the demands made either directly from abroad or by companies whose business policy is determined largely by foreigners.