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...