This paper is divided into four parts. The first part describes the dramatic changes which are currently being made to the National Health Service in the UK. Many of these changes affect the hospital service with the formation of an internal market of managed competition. Local Health Authorities are being divided into purchaser and provider functions: the purchaser aims to become the champion of the patient by buying and monitoring services on his behalf. Every household in the UK has been issued with a copy of the Patientâs Charter, which gives details of people's rights. The second part of the paper describes the methodology used to conduct a major study of levels of patient satisfaction in three District Health Authorities located in East Sussex. The methodology was specifically tailored to allow for analysis both at the most general and at detailed levels. After an extensive development phase, a total of over 6000 postal questionnaires were despatched to patients who had recently left the hospital: a response rate of 71% was achieved. The survey is helping the process of change within the health service, by focusing on the needs and views of patients, and by helping the Authorities to move towards the Charter's objective, which is always to put patients first, providing services that meet clearly defined national and local standards, in ways responsive to people's views and needs. The final part of the paper looks at the future, the possibility of a repeat survey in 1993 and the encouragement which the three pioneering Districts are giving to other Districts to follow suit.
In 1990 Readers Digest commissioned a study on the economic and social life of seventeen countries across Europe - published in 1991 under the title Eurodata. The research was offered as a contribution of interest to marketers, government agencies, economic planners and academic researchers. Simultaneous to the European fieldwork, the Gallup Foundation (a trust founded in honour of Dr. George Gallup) sponsored a similar study in the United States. The questionnaire used in the US was virtually identical to that used in Europe - with just the removal of the questions relating to European Community membership - obviously irrelevant in the US. The work highlighted some interesting similarities and differences between the cultures and we believed that the incorporation of information about Japan would provide a unique picture of the three major economic competitors. Consequently the study was conducted in Japan expressly for the purpose of supplying the comparative data required for this paper using a selection of questions from the European/US questionnaire Although there is a time difference of about eighteen months between the European/US and Japanese fieldwork we believe the conclusions we draw are still valid - and certainly interesting. The Japanese economy did not suffer from the same recession that affected both Europe and the US in 1991 and, in consequence, we believe the economic and social attitudes would not have changed greatly in that time.
This paper is a sample of five different approaches from a recent survey that I conducted, under the financial support of the Generalitat of Valencia (Spain), among some world leading experts on international electronic media.The electronic newspaper of the future will be the Screen Paper. Using technology already available, the Screen Paper opens new worlds of possibilities for both advertisers and journalists alike. The Screen Paper, says Roger Fidler, consist in a flat, flexible, touch-sensitive screen which receives digital information (from text or sound to animated graphics), displays it, and lets the user manipulate it according to his needs and interests.
In this paper we will present some results of several studies carried out in Denmark in which different versions of an indicator for environmental concern were used. These results allow to analyse the relationships between different aspects of environmental concern. But, and here lies the primary objective of this paper, they also illustrate the difficulty of measuring environmental concern in a reliable and valid way, given respondents' contradictory answers and disappointingly low knowledge as well as often weak relationships between environmental concern and self-reported behaviour. The interest in this mainly methodological approach is a result of the observed discrepancy between attitudes, intentions, and behaviour: 83% of the respondents in a recently published survey in Denmark claimed to be willing to buy environmentally ethic products (Politiken 1990). But only 2% of the Danish population do so consequently with regard to, e.g., organic foods. And this observation does not seem to be unique for Denmark. After some introductory remarks, the theoretical conceptualization and substantive operationalization of environmental concern is described in section 2 of the paper. The different dimensions and their relationships to each other will be briefly explained. Section 3 is devoted to empirical results from several surveys in Denmark and will discuss the typical difficulties one seems inevitably confronted with in parsimonious survey research on environmental concern. Section 4 concludes with a discussion of the findings and an outlook on the need for further research and refinement of measurement instruments.
Starting in January 1991 the Dutch single-source multi-media survey SummoScanner has been enhanced with specific TV-viewing data. Within the limits of the telephone interview, it is now recorded which programmes were viewed on the day before the interview. This implies a questioning technique based on recall, as opposed to the people-meter technique applied in AGB-panels (In the Netherlands: Kijk- en Luisteronderzoek KLO). SummoScanner data are not intended to replace AGB-data as the primary' media-planning tool, but to enhance insight into the particular viewing habits of target groups, in connection with other media data. Together with the data provided by SummoScanner and the postal follow-up - the Target Group Survey - the TV-data add to the value of this single-source survey. In February 1992 the first full year's report on the results of these measurements was published. On the whole, the figures, although not completely comparable, seem to be of the same order as the AGB- figures. This underscores the fact that telephone interviewing has little or no bias resulting from loss of memory, provided that the previous day's behaviour is asked for. The business of making these data available for SUMMO-members is still under development - data sets are larger than ever: 32 records per year, each containing 720 variables concerning yesterday's viewing alone. Still, this new database is bound to provide media planners with new means for adding to their insight into the media behaviour of target groups.
In France, radio audience measurement for people 15 years old or more is pre-eminently carried out using Mediametrie's 75000 Survey, whose methodology is generally known and accepted. Mediametrie is both attentive to its market and eager to see progress in the analysis of radio audiences; it has therefore undertaken tests to assess the feasability of radio audience measurement covering children. The tests were principally concerned with children's capacities to understand, identify and remember survey-related material. Carried out at the end of 1991 the study was based on the principles of the 75000 Survey, adapted to take account of children's characteristics. The results produced were very instructive: proportionately more children listen to radio than adults, but they listen for shorter periods. Contrary to popularly held opinion, more children listen to radio on school days than on non-school days, but on school days the time spent listening is shorter.
This case-study describes some of the problems that are encountered when trying to integrate customer survey data in a total quality management process.
In June/July 1990 a sample survey using a single questionnaire was conducted simultaneously In all 12 Member States of the European Community to assess the attitudes and behaviour of the younger generation with regard to tobacco. The survey formed part of the "Europe against Cancer" Programme launched by the Community In 1987. The survey was conducted orally by professional Interviewers at the respondents' homes, parents not being present at the Interviews but having first given their consent. A total of 9 312 young people were questioned (4 778 boys and 4 534 girls), or about 800 per country (250 In the case of Luxembourg). -1 From the age of 15 onwards, approximately 15% of these young people are "regular smokers" (l.e. they smoke at least once a week). The principal aim of the survey was to Investigate the factors which had taken them from the Initiation stage to that of acquiring the smoking habit. Analysis shows that the peer group environment plays a more Important role than the family or school: having a best friend who smokes, frequenting discotheques and according Importance to the social function of smoking all contribute towards the personality make-up of the young smoker. The cigarette represents the Instrument and the symbol of a rite of passage, a means of self-affirmation and of friendly and Informal communication. These are precisely the "arguments" put forward, directly or Indirectly, by the majority of advertIsements for cigarettes. The conclusion Is that health promotion campaigns, of which the fight against smoking constitutes a major element, should fight at the same level as the advertisers by emphasising the quality of life of the non- smoker rather than the dangers of tobacco and by seeking to alter the stereotype Image of the role of smoking In personality development and In social Interaction among friends.
In June/July 1990 a sample survey using a single questionnaire was conducted simultaneously In all 12 Member States of the European Community to assess the attitudes and behaviour of the younger generation with regard to tobacco. The survey formed part of the "Europe against Cancer" Programme launched by the Community In 1987. The survey was conducted orally by professional Interviewers at the respondents' homes, parents not being present at the Interviews but having first given their consent. A total of 9 312 young people were questioned (4 778 boys and 4 534 girls), or about 800 per country (250 In the case of Luxembourg). -1 From the age of 15 onwards, approximately 15% of these young people are "regular smokers" (l.e. they smoke at least once a week). The principal aim of the survey was to Investigate the factors which had taken them from the Initiation stage to that of acquiring the smoking habit. Analysis shows that the peer group environment plays a more Important role than the family or school: having a best friend who smokes, frequenting discotheques and according Importance to the social function of smoking all contribute towards the personality make-up of the young smoker. The cigarette represents the Instrument and the symbol of a rite of passage, a means of self-affirmation and of friendly and Informal communication. These are precisely the "arguments" put forward, directly or Indirectly, by the majority of advertIsements for cigarettes. The conclusion Is that health promotion campaigns, of which the fight against smoking constitutes a major element, should fight at the same level as the advertisers by emphasising the quality of life of the non- smoker rather than the dangers of tobacco and by seeking to alter the stereotype Image of the role of smoking In personality development and In social Interaction among friends.
This paper analyses the findings of a survey evaluating Ihe nature and exlent of poverty in Britain, and compares them with the results of a similar survey conducted in 1983. It provides readers wilh insight into social change under the premiership of Mrs. Thalcher, based on an original survey methodology. In February 1983 Market & Opinion Research international (MORI) conducted the first explicit national survey of poverty for fifteen years, as the basis of the award-winning television series lireaiiline Britain, made by London Weekend Television (LWT). This survey developed the pioneering approach of Professor Peter Townsend, which argued that poverty is a relative phenomenon which is most appropriately measured by variations in living standards and styles. The two significant developments made in the Breadline Britain survey incorporated the first attempt to reflect the publicâs own criteria by evaluating which items - from a wide-ranging list covering diet, heating, household amenities, social activities, and clothing - the British public consider to be necessities to which everyone, regardless of economic status, should be entitled. Second, it differed from Townsendâs work by distinguishing taste from deprivation per se. In 1990 the survey was updated. This new survey formed the backbone of a series of television programmes entitled Breadline Britain 1990s. transmitted in April and May 1991. There were three important methodological developments in the 1990 study. First, the list of items was extended, to include a number of luxury goods. Second, the survey explored the adequacy of provision of public services, and the quality of the environment in which respondents live. Third, we included a booster sample of people living in deprived urban areas in order to be able to analyse the findings of particular demographic sub-groups in more detail than the national sample would permit. The findings reveal a high level of agreement about minimum living standards across all sections of the community, and that the upward trend in living standards in the 1980s has led to higher expectations of what people should be entitled to expect. The survey also establishes the extent of deprivation in Britain today. In a country with 55 million people some 7 million go without essential clothing, while around 10 million cannot afford adequate housing, due to financial hardship. One person in five lacks three or more of the items which most people consider necessities. The paper describes how the findings have been publicised and have fed in to the debate on the inner cities, and concludes by showing how survey research can play a valuable role in the field of social policy.
Although marketers have historically been willing to write off consumers (and their disposable incomes) when they reached their fiftieth birthdays, the TRUE potential of this population segment has finally been recognized. The Yankelovich MONITOR, now entering its third decade as the leader in tracking social values and trends, has investigated the consuming trends of the United States Mature Market and determined that this segment of the population is a difficult one to ignore. This presentation will examine and describe the attitudes, lifestyles and purchasing habits of the U.S. Mature market, based on the findings from the Yankelovich MONITOR (2,500 personal interviews with adult Americans ages 16 and over, including 800 with adults ages 50 and over, conducted annually since 1970) and the Yankelovich Senior MONITOR (a special look at the 50-plus market in the U.S. 1,3 personal interviews conducted in 1988). Topics covered include perceptions of self and aging, social relationships and the family, leisure/travel behavior, health/medical issues, money and financial attitudes as well as how to market and communicate effectively to the crucial segment of the U.S. population. By looking at the U.S. Mature Market not only in terms of demographics and behavior, but basic attitudes and values as well, we will begin to explain how these people see themselves and the world around them. We will discuss what is important to them in the current environment and what they believe in and how all these values change over time. Finally, we will show how marketers who share this focus will have a substantial advantage in dealing with this key American market of the future.
New Product Development in the FMCG market is well documented and there are a number of volumetric forecasting models available. However since most of these rely on measures of trial and repeat purchase they are of little use in markets where the purchase cycle is long and sporadic. This is obviously TRUE of the travel and tourism market. The theme of this paper will be that whilst the travel and tourism market is so different and diverse that traditional NPD techniques may not be appropriate, nevertheless there are general principles that can and should be observed. The paper will look at a number of ad hoc new product development projects in the travel and tourism markets and two particular case histories will be covered in detail. Both studies were designed to assess the potential of new products in these markets using very different techniques. The first was a purpose-built submarine that was designed to enable tourists to go on a trip below the waves and view in the sea life. Similar tourist submarine trips have been operating successfully in the Caribbean and now the Mediterranean was being considered. The research technique was used to present the concept in two forms to potential Mediterranean holidaymakers in the UK and Germany. Respondents were given a written description, promotional material and a were shown a video. Since the capital outlay for the project was significant it was also important to ascertain the optimum price that tourists would be prepared to pay in order to calculate over what period the investment would be liquidated.