Talk:Marketing research/Archives/2018

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History of Marketing Research: Much Older Heritage than Nielsen
Here are a few facts from publicly available and reliable sources which suggest that the history of formal marketing research can be traced back to the early 1800s, and therefore predate Nielsen by more than a century:


 * Prior to 1800  Evidence of commercial research being gathered informally. In 1380, Johann Fugger travelled from Augsburg to Graben so as to gather information on the international textile industry. He exchanged detailed letters on trade conditions in relevant areas. In the early 1700s industrial houses were demanding information, that could be used for marketing decisions. During this period, Daniel Defoe, a London merchant, published information on trade and economic resources of England and Scotland. Defoe was a prolific publisher and among his many publications are titles devoted to trade including; Trade of Britain Stated, 1707; Trade of Scotland with France, 1713 and  The Trade to India Critically and Calmly Considered, 1720 - information used to make business decisions. Source: Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014, p. 21 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf  Also see By Paula R. Backscheider, Daniel Defoe: His Life, Baltimore, Maryland, John Hopkins University Press, 1989 (available via Google Books) Daniel Defoe
 * 1824 The Harrisburg Pensylvannian publishes results of straw poll conducted in Harrisburg, Delaware  Source: Lawrence C. Lockley, Notes on the History of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 733-736 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246952?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents


 * 1895 Advertising agency, N. H. Ayer & Son used telegraph to contact publishers and state officials throughout the country about grain production, in an effort to construct an advertising schedule for client, Nichols-Shephard company, an agricultural machinery company (This has been described as the firs application of research to solve a marketing/ advertising problem) Source: Lawrence C. Lockley, Notes on the History of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 733-736 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246952?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents[Also note that some sources provide an earlier date of 1879 for this event; See for instance Kenneth E. Clow, Karen E. James, Essentials of Marketing Research: Putting Research Into Practice, p. 10] but the first cited source is more likely to be reliable because journal articles are peer-reviewed, while text-books do not undergo rigorous reviewing and as a consequence are more error-prone] Source: Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014, p. 21 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf


 * 1900+ From around 1900 onwards, manufacturers of branded goods began to bypass retailers by advertising direct to consumers. This was a major paradigm shift which forced manufacturers to focus on the brand and stimulated the need for superior insights into consumer purchasing, consumption and usage behaviour; their needs, wants and aspirations. Source: Petty, R.D., "A History of Brand Identity Protection and Brand Marketing," in The Routledge Companion to Marketing History, D.G. Brian Jones & Mark Tadajewski (eds), Oxon, Routledge, 2016, p. 104


 * 1901 Walter B Scott was undertaking experimental research for the Agate Club of Chicago Source: Lawrence C. Lockley, Notes on the History of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 733-736 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246952?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents


 * 1910 George B Waldron was doing qualitative research for Mahins Advertising Agency Source: Lawrence C. Lockley, Notes on the History of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 14, No. 5 (Apr., 1950), pp. 733-736 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1246952?seq=1#fndtn-page_scan_tab_contents


 * 1911 Charles Collidge Parlin was appointed as the Manager of the Commercial Research Division of the Advertising Department of the Curtis Publishing Company - which has been described as marking the establishment of organised marketing research. Source: Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf  See Talk above for mention of Parlin.


 * 1915 Dr. Paul H. Nystrom, was appointed by the United States Rubber Company to manage their newly established Department of Commercial Research. Source: Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf


 * 1917 Dr. Louis D.H. Weld of the Yale University was hired by the Swift and Company to become a manager of their Commercial Research Department.Source: Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf


 * 1919 First major book on commercial research was published, Commercial Research : An Outline of Working Principles by Professor C.S. Duncan of the University of Chicago. Source: Ross D. Petty, "A History of Brand Identity Protection and Brand Marketing," in The Routledge Companion to Marketing History, D.G. Brian Jones, Mark Tadajewski (eds), Oxon, Routledge, 2016, p. 108


 * 1920s+ Advertising agencies, such as J Walter Thompson (JWT), were conducting consumer research on the how and why consumers used brands, so that they could recommend appropriate advertising copy to manufacturers. Source: Ross D. Petty, "A History of Brand Identity Protection and Brand Marketing," in The Routledge Companion to Marketing History, D.G. Brian Jones, Mark Tadajewski (eds), Oxon, Routledge, 2016, p. 108


 * 1923 Arthur Nielsen founded market research company, A C Nielsen and over next decade pioneered the measurement of radio audiences. He subsequently applied his methods to the measurement of television audiences. Source Arthur Nielsen


 * Late 1920s/ 1930s Daniel Starch developed measures for testing advertising copy effectiveness, and these subsequently became known as Starch scores (and are still used today) Source: http://marketresearchworld.net/content/view/3754/49/ Also note that Starch has a bio on Wikipedia Daniel Starch


 * 1921 First text-book on marketing research published entitled Market Analysis, by Percival White was published. The popularity of the work is evidenced by the fact that the book went through a number of editions.  Source: Kenneth E. Clow, Karen E. James, Essentials of Marketing Research: Putting Research Into Practice, Thousand Oaks, Ca, Sage, 2010 p. 10  and also see Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014, p. 22 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf


 * 1930s [New York] Ernest Dichter pioneered the focus group method of qualitative research and, has been described as the 'father of market research."  Source: American Marketing Association (AMA), https://www.ama.org/resources/Best-Practices/Pages/Father-of-Research.aspx. Also note that Dichter has a bio on Wikipedia Ernest Dichter


 * 1932 George H. Gallup (1901-1984) rose to national prominence after helping a relative during her election campaign in the state of Iowa. He is credited with developing the method of opinion polling (also known as Gallup polls). Gallup subsequently founded the American Institute of Public Opinion.   Source: Five Founders of Marketing Research, http://www.quirks.com/articles/5-founders-of-marketing-research. Note that George Gallup has a bio page on Wikpedia George Gallup


 * 1930s First courses on marketing research taught in universities and colleges Source: Kenneth E. Clow, Karen E. James, Essentials of Marketing Research: Putting Research Into Practice, Thousand Oaks, Ca, Sage, 2010 p. 10


 * 1937 Market Research and Analysis by Lyndon O. Brown became one of the popular textbooks during the 30s Source: Suja R. Nair, Market Research: Text and Cases, 2nd ed., Himalaya Publishing House, 2014 Online: www.himpub.com/documents/Chapter873.pdf


 * 1939 - 1946 Ernest Dichter begins working on campaigns for major brands including Chrysler, Exxon/Esso where he employs research methods from pyschology and cultural anthropology to gain consumer insights. These methods eventually lead to the development of motivational research. Source: Karmasin, H., "Ernest Dichter’s Studies on Automobile Marketing," in Schwarzkopf, S. and Gries, R. (eds.), ''Ernest Dichter and Motivation Research: New Perspectives on the Making of Post-war Consumer Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, p. 109-125


 * 1946 US Department of Agriculture enacted legislation to provide increased support for research, especially marketing research  (on the back of the depression of the 1930s and with the aim of supporting primary producers who had suffered so much during the late 1930s and early 1940s)   Source: Harold Carl Knoblauch, E. M. Law, Werner P. Meyer, State Agricultural Experiment Stations: A History of Research Policy and Procedure, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, 1962  pp 175-176


 * 1946 In 1946 Ernest Dichter founded the Institute for Motivational Research in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, later named Ernest Dichter and Associates Source: Jones, D.G.B. and Tadajewski, M., (eds), The Routledge Companion to Marketing History, Oxon, Routledge, 2016, p. 72.


 * 1930s- 1940s General comment: A number of different published histories point to the period 1930s-1940s as a time when many of the data collection methods, probability sampling methods, survey methods, questionnaire design and key metrics were developed. Some historians refer to this period as the "Foundation Age" of market research. In any case, it should be clear, even from this brief timeline, that modern market research evolved organically rather then owing its origins to a single individual such as Nielsen (as might be inferred on this page as it currently stands).

I hope that this information helps someone to expand the history section, and correct the omission which tends to give Nielsen greater credit than is probably his due.

BronHiggs (talk) 21:35, 26 October 2016 (UTC)
 * This is an amazing collection of insights. Most or all of this belongs in the article. I am unable to add this content myself just now, but thanks a lot for sharing here. Your posting this here makes it easy for someone to edit this.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  03:13, 27 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Yep,, 'amazing' is the word, and it would seriously augment that otherwise slightly one-sided section. I would do it myself, but I think that you should do the honours! Cheers, Muffled Pocketed  15:40, 27 October 2016 (UTC)