This paper will demonstrate the improvements to the user achieved by switching from centralised data-processing to decentralised processing, using Personal Computers.
Sanoma bought Tecnopress in the beginning of 1983 with the aim of broadening its range of publications, which consisted largely of family and women's magazines. Negotiations between Tecnopress and Sanoma produced agreement to the effect that there was beginning to be room on the market for a home computer magazine, and because Tecnopress had the editorial resources to publish one more magazine, we decided in January 1984 to launch a basic magazine aimed at home computer users.
Among many stereotypes, one is central: the primordial role of young people and children. They are supposed to have no difficulty grappling with computers from the outset, to be naturally enthusiastic and to learn easily. So, they will be initiators. From a research, based on group discussions and polls on teenagers (aged 12-18) and adults, we tried to know to which extent those stereotypes are relevant. The reality seems to be a far cry from any impulsive, unrestrained attraction, from passionate enthusiasm. Teenagers look at computers as a difficult technique, which is dry and tedious to learn, and of purely utilitarian interest, confined to school or work. Their attitudes are furthermore very diverse, ranging from passionate interest to rejection: a segmentation is necessary, in order to find potential targets. And what in fact leads them to take an interest is an internalised realisation of the necessity of computers, first at school, later on at work. So strategies presenting the computer as a game or as a household aid don't fit their expectations. An international comparison, with Italy, The Netherlands and Sweden, draws more or less similar conclusions.
Australian tourist information, from four separate surveys, is being assembled on disc on interactive computers in Melbourne and New York. It can be accessed with the IMS computer programs, which allow you not only to reproduce tables already formed, but also to do any extra cross-tabulations you wish. The tourism industry provides great scope for using computer systems to combine separate data banks for one or more nations, and then analyse the combined data. That, however, largely depends on the achievement of international unity in questionnaires and tabulating.
Interactive videotext is a system enabling the user to obtain information by telephone, this being connected to an information-providing service by means of a small terminal with screen and keyboard. The procedure is interactive in that it implies user-participation, in the form of "dialogue with the computer. The keyboard contains letters and figures, as well as special keys for the purposes of dialogue. When a connection has been established with a server, the user states his request by means of the keyboard. The information requested then appears on the screen, along with instructions as to how to proceed further with the search. The dialogue keys serve to pursue this search.
Interactive videotext is a system enabling the user to obtain information by telephone, this being connected to an information-providing service by means of a small terminal with screen and keyboard. The procedure is interactive in that it implies user-participation, in the form of "dialogue with the computer. The keyboard contains letters and figures, as well as special keys for the purposes of dialogue. When a connection has been established with a server, the user states his request by means of the keyboard. The information requested then appears on the screen, along with instructions as to how to proceed further with the search. The dialogue keys serve to pursue this search.
It is interesting to note that computerized information retrieval is both the source of the problem and its solution. By this I mean that the availability of vast quantities of information is made possible by the databanks while, in turn, methods of on- line retrieval and other sophisticated computer technologies provide the means to organize the data in a systematic fashion, thus providing for marketing management not only information, but information systems. I propose to demonstrate this thesis by depicting a day in market research in September, 1989 a decade after the XXXII Congress. In the course of this description, the impact of several new on-line technologies which constitute the backbone of marketing management information systems will be noted selective dissemination of information (SDI), point-of-sale terminals, cable television feedback, automated reports, and conference modelling.
Without wishing to be openly critical of current methods of research analysis I would like to suggest that data is often accepted at face value because it is thought to be uneconomical or inconvenient to subject the data to more critical testing. This paper suggests that the problem is either an historical one in that quick stabs at the computer used to be very expensive, or that the users are a little wary or even ignorant of the benefits or possibilities of interactive computing. By putting interactive survey analysis into perspective I hope merely to generate some reappraisal of analysis methods. By illustrating ways in which terminals can be used profitably I hope to generate the need for a reappraisal.
The paper discusses the application of modern programmable pocket calculators (PPG) in the analysis of marketing data. It first shows the main difference of the two basic 'languages' of programmable pocket calculators, viz. Reverse Polish Rotation (RPR) advocated by Hewlett- Packard and the natural 'Algebraic Operating System' (AOS) by Texas Instruments. Then the paper explains Solid State Software libraries containing the equivalent of a 25 card library in one small module not greater than a postage stamp.
Data Transmission will enable large and powerful computers to operate and exercise control over distances and, with switched networks, to intercommunicate with one another. Though public opinion remains sceptical the combined strength of the technical developments of the computer allied to communication links raise intriguing possibilities for mankind, including a move from an industrial society to an information society, allowing a fuller life. The paper therefore details the marketing research effort which has already gone into this problem both in the past, and recently, for the United Kingdom and in pan-European studies. An account is given of two very large scale market surveys, firstly the Scicon study which covered the United Kingdom in 1968, followed by the PA investigation carried out in 16 European countries during 1972.
The use of high speed computers enabled us to improve survey analysis along three basic lines: - flexibility of use, and wide range of facilities; - fast turnover; - low costs This has been possible due to the utilisation of a "Hardware" plus "Software" set, but principally due to the sophisticated Software which is oriented towards surveys analysis, i.e. the DAPHNE language. The system can be organised in the way which best suits the users' needs.