13 Danish magazines are looked at as branded goods with perceptions and images that can be measured among the consumers. They are competitors, although the editorial content varies between women- family- and TV-magazines. Can these magazines be positioned along some dimensions in the same perceptual map? In 1986 AIM conducted interviews, based on associative question technique and correspondence analysis, the media profiles on 10 editorial attributes were plotted in one perceptual map.
Editorial Research carried out on behalf of a single publication or some publications belonging to the same publisher is well known. Syndicated research for advertising purposes - media planning and selling media space - is well known too, but the combination has only been tried in Denmark. Why? Presumably because the editors and the advertising people do not speak very good with each other, even when they are working in the same organisation and both dependant upon the total revenue of the publication(s) concerned. In Denmark syndicated media research has been carried out since 1968 and I tried rather early to declare to the editors that they might make use of the results too.
Abroad the economic conditions of Denmark are considered to be favourable, compared with many other European countries, a truth with many modifications, participated in the general economic growth of the western societies, bringing the standard of living of the ordinary household up to a level, being almost unique in the world. However, the first and especially the second oil crisis brought Denmark to the edge of the economic catastrophy. A deficit in the balance of payment of 20 billions, a foreign debt of almost 300 billions, a deficit in the Government budget of more than 50 billions per year, and an enormous Government debt, totally at 420 billion D.cr. placed Denmark in a position, where there were no degrees of freedom in the economic policy. Therefore, for the last few years, a tight economic policy has been executed by the Government. The automatic regulation of salaries in accordance with prices has been abandoned, wage negotiations have been restricted to 2 per cent increase per year, new taxes have been introduced, and in 1987 a total new tax system will be introduced.
As the Danish provincial papers are aware of the competition from the national dailies as well as from the magazines and the electronic media they have been willing to pay rather big amounts of money to be included in the syndicated media survey in a way comparable to the national media. When the editorial research is done in connection with the readership survey it can be done in a cheap way but the disadvantage is that we have to use the same questions and wordings for all the newspapers included .
In 1977 we had in Denmark a labour dispute giving stoppages in the publishing of dailies for a period of 3 weeks and irregularities in the publishing of weeklies. This happens every second year, but in 1977 it was a special situation as the greatest publishing house in Denmark had a close down for 141 days, from the end of January to the end of June, when the summer holidays are starting. The publishing house in question, Det Berlingske Hus, was publishing the greatest popular dally, the greatest quality daily, the greatest Sunday paper and the greatest weekly (a programme magazine) together with a smaller weekly. Through different investigations we have found that the loyalty of the Danish readers is very big. In the 1977 the loyalty of the readers of the publications from the house in question was put to the test as they could not get their daily for more than 4 months, and this was the case for the readers of the greatest weekly too. We found a very great loyalty. As soon as the quality paper was printed again nearly all the readers were subscribing or buying it again, and they renewed their subscription the first time after the conflict.
My notes relate to the introduction of Alt om Mad in Denmark in the Autumn 1977. Comprehensive analyses were preceding the introduction, ensuring a minimal risk by the launching. We carried out the following test programme: 1) Test of potential and editorial line; 2) Revision of editorial line; 3) Test of new editorial line. The tests were effected as country-wide covering interview tests with a representative section of housewives. The number of respondents per test were 750. The potential of the magazine proved to be very big, but the original editorial line did not fulfil consumers' requirements. We measured a clearly higher degree of acceptance of the magazine by the test effected after having changed the editorial line. In addition to the interview tests we carried out a mailing test. On basis of the tests we estimated circulation and/ total number of readers.
The present paper describes a sampling procedure, which has been especially developed with the purpose of having local daily newspapers with widely different circulation represented in a study which can also be reported as a national probability survey, covering readers of magazines, national newspapers , etc. The sampling plan has been developed in Denmark in co-operation between the Danish Media Committee (DMK) and AIM Research.
The Danish National Consumer Union was formed in 1946. On this background the present project has been carried out. The major tasks were: a) Identification of major dimensions along which consumers perceive consumer policies and consumer tactics; B) Measurement of the extend to which various tactics and political views are adapted among different groups of consumers; C) Identification of different combinations of views on consumer policies and consumer strategies; D) An examination of the acceptance of various political views and tactics among consumer union officials, politicians, and members of local consumer groups.
Implementing social indicators is a new approach to estimate the well-being of a population. One of the focal concerns is the public security and administration of justice. The number of reported crimes is declining in Denmark more people are afraid of going out in the evenings and walking alone. The argument is that the statistics do not indicate the real level of crime because not all crimes are reported to the police. Studies of victims of crime can help estimating the dark figure of crime and identify groups with high and low victimisation rates. Two victim surveys have been carried out with representative samples of the Danish population aged 15 years and more.
Most case stories are. written when the success is an established fact. This paper is a case where part of the story was written in advance, in the form of objectives. To be precise, it is a case story the outcome of which is not yet known. The story concerns the introduction of Pall Mall cigarettes in Denmark, launched in September 1964, after marketing preparations and testing were accomplished for the initial ad campaign. We are now in the process of seeing whether or not the market responds as our tests predicted. To the extent that it did not, we shall be grateful to those readers who can help by telling us why.
In the spring of 1963 a pending general labour dispute caused a slowdown in marketing research activities in Denmark. When this dispute was brought to an end there was a revival resisting in more market research work than in any preceding year. The total turnover of professional market research exceeded 5 mill. Dkr in 1963. The Danish Marketing Research Association continued to work according to its objective during 1963.