An experimental study on attitudes towards time and on the behavioural implications of such attitudes was conducted on 46 staff members of an Italian bank. The methods used were a Semantic Differential (SD) composed of three stimulus words (the past, the present and the future) and twelve adjectival scales, as well as in depth interviews aiming at providing a character-profile of the subjects. The results indicated that the largest grouping of subjects could be considered past-oriented. The second group fell into the category of future-oriented and the third group was made up by present-oriented individuals. For a minority, time dimensions were blurred and no specific orientation prevailed. Other SD measurements permitted to obtain a more articulate picture of the nature of attitudes toward time.
This paper deals with people's attitudes toward nations and vacations. Attitudes were detected and measured in terms of the affective meaning of concepts. Such issues are not trivial, since people may evaluate highly (or poorly) a given country, and yet not evaluate highly (or poorly) the idea of spending their vacations in that country. The terms evaluation, potency and activity are to be understood in the specific sense given to them by Osgood et al. in the Semantic Differential (SD) technique. In our case, the SD technique was applied in 1982 to two different, and yet comparable, groups of Italian and Dutch individuals (students between 20 and 25 years of age) with regard to the following nations, and vacations in such nations: Belgium, Holland, West Germany, Italy, Spain, France, USA, USSR.
If one wishes to study the effect of advertising, a concise definition of the concept of advertising is essential. In business-circles, the function of advertising is often defined: advertising must sell. Although it cannot be said that this definition is incorrect, it is certainly inadequate. Quality, presentation, distribution, merchandising, etc, should also be of a kind that stimulate sales. This particular definition therefore does not adequately describe the concept of advertising. Advertising should influence the attitude of the consumer towards a product or service in such a manner, that he is not only favourably influenced with regard to such a product, but also wants to acquire it. A very attractive definition, which in turn provides the market researcher with a workable framework, is Martin Mayers: "Advertising, in addition to its purely informative /unction, adds a new value to the existing values of the product or service". The merit of this definition is that its elements not only give an almost complete description of the task of advertising but the terminology used also defines exactly the scope of its field of activity.
This paper deals with the concept of time perception and with specific research carried out to assess and measure some of the problems related to the temporal orientation of a city. Unlike chronological time, which is based on a universal, independent-of-life concept of time, the subjective perception of time is a cultural phenomenon based on the awareness and feelings that different people, groups and communities manifest in relation to the flow and duration of time. The research was conducted in 1977 on a sample of 259 adult citizens of Palermo. The technique adopted was the Semantic Differential, to find out the cognitive meaning of several concepts, including "the past", "the present" and "the future". Measurements of the direction of judgements, their intensity and their distances from other concepts provided a sufficiently broad framework for an analytical approach to the problems.
Combining a battery of semantic differentials you will obtain an instrument called "Polaritatsprofil" in Germany. This has been used for years as a standard instrument for solving image problems in market research as well as in university research. Applied to various objects the respective means can be correlated and then factor-analysed mainly by means of the Q-technique or the R-technique. The images of firms and products can be related by means of correlations with a great deal of other objects which are studied in wide-spread research at the German universities and in institutes for market-research. After factor-analyzing these results P. Hofstatter e.g. constructed a semantic space defined by the ordinate F and the abscissa F2. The axis can be interpreted as independent factors, i.e. "efficiency" and "emotion".
Combining a battery of semantic differentials you will obtain an instrument called "Polaritatsprofil" in Germany. This has been used for years as a standard instrument for solving image problems in market-research as well as in university-research. Applied to various objects the respective means can be correlated and then factor-analysed mainly by means of the Q-technique or the R-technique. The images of firms and products can be related by means of correlations with a great deal of other objects which are studied in a wide-spread research at the German universities and in institutes for market-research. After factor-analysing these results P. Hofstatter e.g. constructed a semantic space defined by the ordinate F and the abscissa F2 . The axis can be interpreted as independent factors, i.e. "efficiency" and "emotion".
Osgoods holds that concepts, situated in space, can be defined by means of three dimensions - evaluation, potency and activity. He determines this geometrical construction by applying factor analysis to the results that he obtains with his fifty semantic differentials. The increasing use of computers has had the result that his method is at the moment undergoing a revival.
When formulating any kind of market research, many phases need to be programmed. First of all one must set the objectives of the research and from these will immediately spring the problem of selecting the sample. This will be followed by the interview, the evaluation and interpretation of the data in accordance with: A. a statistical criterion (evaluating the reliability of the results); B. a marketing outlook (drawing operative conclusions from verified data). We shall be dealing here with the problem of sample selection only.
This paper has two objects. One of these is to present some examples of research based on the semantic differential technique. The other is to make some general observations about the use of the technique, based on our own experience. The semantic differential has already been quite widely used in market research, but we believe that our use of it in media research has some novelty. At. the same time, we think that our conclusions about the use of the technique may apply in other branches of consumer, and possibly retailer, research. The paper starts with a description of the semantic differential technique. We then present two case studies of the use of the semantic differential in media research. In presenting these case studies we outline the research problems involved, describe briefly the research design, and give some indications of the findings. After this, we discuss methods of analysis and briefly review some technical problems. The paper ends with a summary of our research methods and some concluding remarks.
If one wishes to study the effect of advertising, a concise definition of the concept of advertising is essential. In business-circles, the function of advertising is often defined: advertising must sell. Although it cannot be said that this definition is incorrect, it is certainly inadequate. Quality, presentation, distribution, merchandising, etc, should also be of a kind that stimulate sales. This particular definition therefore does not adequately describe the concept of advertising. Advertising should influence the attitude of the consumer towards a product or service in such a manner, that he is not only favourably influenced with regard to such a product, but also wants to acquire it. A very attractive definition, which in turn provides the market researcher with a workable framework, is Martin Mayers: "Advertising, in addition to its purely informative /unction, adds a new value to the existing values of the product or service". The merit of this definition is that its elements not only give an almost complete description of the task of advertising but the terminology used also defines exactly the scope of its field of activity.