A history of research

Sheila Keegan

A concise history of market research, from its beginnings in the 1940s with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, to Vance Packard's Hidden Persuaders in the 1950s and George Gallup's influential work in the 1960s, through the rise and rise of qualitative research in the 1970s and 1980s, focus groups in the 1990s and behavioural economics in the noughties, to some predictions for the coming decade.

A history of research

Sheila Keegan traces the history of market research, from its beginnings in the 1940s with Maslow's pyramid, through the rise of qualitative research in the 1970s, focus groups in the 1990s and BE in the noughties, to some predictions for the future

1941The 'focused group' is invented by two sociologists, Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld, at Columbia University.They are trying to devise effective ways of evaluating audience response to radio programmes and are worried that highly directed interviews could bias research findings. They pioneer the 'focused interview' as a way of gathering richer consumer input...

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