3 min read Brian Carruthers, WARC
Market research is today a £4bn industry in the UK. A new book taps the recollections of those who have worked in it since it took off in the 1970s.
Reading a potted history of social and market research over the past 40-50 years , what’s striking is how little has changed.
The qual/quant divide is still there. Agency concern over the encroachment of management consultants into their territory is not wholly new, nor is an agency desire to push beyond research and into more of a partnership/advisory role. Digs at procurement have a long history and cultural differences within business persist:
WHETHER you were for or against the decision to remove the Upper Shoreham Road pop-up cycle lane, surely we can all agree that it was wrong for the decision to be taken by just one councillor. And he didn’t even represent Shoreham. That’s simply not democracy. The problem is that West Sussex County Council is run by a cabinet clique of just nine people. The other 61 councillors don’t get a vote at the top table where the big decisions are made. And in the case of the cycle lane, just one councillor had the final say. When you exclude different viewpoints, you get too many things wrong.