Based on her research on empathic skill levels of 464 professional advertising communicators and 515 students of advertising and marketing, this author believes that lack of empathic skill training is one of the âvoidsâ in marketing training today. In cooperation with Professor Elizabeth Williams trained counseling and clinical psychologist on the faculty of Suffolk University, Auer is currently conducting what is probably the first known pilot experiment in a U. S. university designed to train graduate marketing students in empathic skills. What the implications of this experiment may be for consumer oriented, socially responsible marketeers is explored by the author.
Many factors have influenced magazine publishing and circulation strategies, particularly the emergence of commercial television. These have lead to the development of special interest publications and an emphasis on selective circulation marketing. Formerly regarded as primarily a physical distribution function, circulation management is now emerging as a real marketing opportunity and, as such, it is expected to "sell" magazines to the "right" reader and to make a contribution to profits. The application of the computer to subscription maintenance and sales has probably had the greatest single impact on circulation management. Presently under development is an "information system" capable of collecting, analyzing, and reporting the principal elements that influence subscription sales profitability. Several computer models have been constructed to assist in the analysis of the multitude of interrelated variables impacting optimum circulation marketing. One of these is a model of the complete publishing operation incorporating components for sales, manufacturing, and distribution. This system is used to evaluate the long-term financial impact of alternative publishing opportunities under varying constraints.
Improved knowledge of the characteristics of consumer change agents, opinion leaders and innovators, can provide the fashion marketer with an informed basis for tactical and strategic decision-making. The research project reported in this article focuses upon an empirical determination of the characteristics of innovators and opinion leaders in the fashion diffusion process.
Data files developed by the government are frequently very large consisting, in some cases, of many millions of logical records. The needs of those who would do secondary analysis of these data have not necessarily been a factor in determining either the content of the data collected or the physical form in which the data are made available. As a result, much of this potentially useful data tends to be incomplete for many research purposes and inadequately documented for others. These are not problems unique to data generated by the government. However, the size and the complexity of many government-produced files makes solutions more difficult and more expensive. This paper uses the 1970 United States Census of Population and Housing as a means of illustrating both the benefits and the difficulties of utilizing government data bases for secondary analysis.
Since 1965, there has been rapidly expanding utilisation of surveys of the general public for knowledge about crime, law enforcement and criminal justice in the United States. This paper presents some results of an inventory completed in 1972 covering 400 separate surveys which asked one or more questions involving these topics. Of the surveys inventoried, 218 were conducted by one of another major public opinion polling organisation as part of periodic surveys; the remainder were special studies.
The procedure described in this paper shows one way of dealing with an intricate system as well as giving preliminary ideas of the development of population control. In this paper I shall describe some of the first steps in this scheme and show how a theory of conditions of population policies can be developed through the analysis of secondary data.
This paper focusses on the changing nature of new product test marketing. Perhaps first, it is appropriate to discuss the reason behind test marketing. The paper describes a survey of test marketing practice covering major American grocery, drug and household products manufacturers. It is based on a sample of both major national advertisers and smaller marketers. It describes the length of time and the scope of today's test markets. And, it describes the changing techniques and how they are viewed by the manufacturer. Finally, the paper discusses the reasons behind the changes taking place, particularly the changes to controlled store testing.
Considerable research is being conducted in the United States directed toward obtaining a better understanding of Negro and white attitudes towards problems and progress in race relations in America, Opinion Research Corporation has conducted a number of studies for its own research arm, the Public Opinion Index, for a governmental agency and for Columbia Broadcasting System, one of America's television networks. This paper draws from these studies.
In recent years newspaper headlines have been shared by two groups which have sought to break out of traditional and spiritually outworn molds, but with this difference - modernizing clergymen want to become more worldly and hippie youth less so.
The following discussion points out that much research is unusable because it is conducted out of context with marketing problems. This in turn is linked to the historical development of the research function. Re-organization and integration of the research function is identified as a potential source for making research more actionable. In this context, the dual role of the researcher is described. Another problem discussed deals with the over-enthusiasm for, and thus misuse of research. Finally, the "feedback" provided by research is described as the means by which the consumer - and not the corporation - orders the marketplace. In the last five years, two apparently contradictory themes have emerged in the dialogue concerning marketing research and its contribution to marketing in the United States. On the one hand, there is a growing cry for more research, and on the other, a growing concern that much of it is unproductive. The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of unproductive research and the conditions that promulgate it.
Motivation research took root in American merchandising only a decade ago. Yet today, it is the most discussed specialisation in consumer work. The novel insights and methods of motivation research have been aired in many media â not only in the "trade press" of advertising and marketing, but in more widely distributed magazines.