It is my great privilege to speak about the corporate culture and design management of Shiseido on the occasion of this international meeting organized by ESOMAR. In the course of its 114-year history, Shiseido has built a unique corporate culture on the Japanese market. Today, it is the largest cosmetic manufacturer in Japan and the third largest in the world, with an expanding domestic and overseas network. My attempt will have been rewarded if it succeeds in conveying to you some of the philosophy and thinking of the company during this period. There are three main elements: 1. High Quality Products; 2. Advanced Marketing Techniques; and 3. Avant-grade Creativity which constitute the pillars of management at Shiseido. Since the theme to which I must address myself today is corporate culture and design management, I will have to confine my remarks to the above and therefore am unable to refer to the broader aspect of the company's other activities.
Founded in 1850, Levi Strauss is now the largest clothing manufacturer in the world. The historical development of the Company is traced, and the astonishing growth in the blue jean market from the 1950s onwards. The way that the Levi Strauss Company has organised itself to stay ahead is briefly described. Social trend information is used to provide forecasts of likely volume on a one and five year basis. Typical trends that are taken into account are discussed. The role of social trend information in the development of advertising is then discussed, with emphasis on the researcher's role as a link between the target market and the creative people. Advertising for Levi's is shown to illustrate the need for this understanding of the audience.
Unilever is a multinational in every sense of the word, operating in 75 countries, employing over 300,000 people. In 1978 Unilever's sales to third parties reached £9,842 million worldwide. It is the 12th largest commercial concern in the world, according to its sales rank, and is the largest in the field of consumer branded and packaged goods which form the major part of its total business.
One of the main problems concerning marketing research is that of the effective use of the results and their integration into the decision-making process. Although much effort has been devoted to the improvement of research methods, one has in general paid much less attention to the gap which might exist between research and decision-making. This often results in a considerable loss of potentially useful information. Identifying and measuring the usefulness of studies constitutes one of the main difficulties in the examination of this problem. Measuring the efficiency of research by their ability to improve decisions indeed poses considerable problems. Another possible approach consists in measuring this usefulness in terms of the user's satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) level ; this factor may determine the effective use of the results. The object of this paper is to set forth the results of an inquiry into the use of marketing research in the largest French firms, as well as into the attitudes toward them of marketing heads in these companies.
One of the main problems concerning marketing research is that of the effective use of the results and their integration into the decision-making process. Although much effort has been devoted to the improvement of research methods, one has in general paid much less attention to the gap which might exist between research and decision-making. This often results in a considerable loss of potentially useful information. Identifying and measuring the usefulness of studies constitutes one of the main difficulties in the examination of this problem. Measuring the efficiency of research by their ability to improve decisions indeed poses considerable problems. Another possible approach consists in measuring this usefulness in terms of the user's satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) level ; this factor may determine the effective use of the results. The object of this paper is to set forth the results of an inquiry into the use of marketing research in the largest French firms, as well as into the attitudes toward them of marketing heads in these companies.