Automated Market and Marketing Research

Market and marketing research have both undergone remarkable change during the last 50 years. Early thinking and practice in both areas were shaped by the arrival of the research surveys, and more specifically the mail surveys that guided marketers’ advertising efforts. More recent additions to the intelligence gathering inventory include correlation analysis, experimentation, the advent of focus groups and motivation analysis, the establishment of research departments and specialised courses teaching these two subjects. Many current practices of research, data acquisition and analysis with which we are familiar appeared in the early to mid-twentieth century. Of interest to this discussion, though, is the boost that market and marketing research experienced following the earlier noted shift in marketing from the production concept to the marketing concept.1 The boost that research experienced back then reflected a move from an internal focus in many companies to a position best described as externally oriented. Research was now viewed as key to decision-making – it linked business thinking with external developments.