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This article presents a response to a critique by Schuchman and Perry of a study on the relationship of persuasibility and self-confidence from the May 1969 issue of "Journal of Marketing Research." The authors argued in the original paper that people with lower self-confidence were easier to persuade. The original authors, in an experiment with nylon hosiery, believed that the results showed that women with low specific self-confidence were more likely to change their perception after seeing a tape with an alleged sales person. This information appeared to be curvilinear, not linear as previously thought. Schuchman and Perry believe that this particular experiment was a fluke, but one of the original authors believes the data from the original experiment is strong enough to be published.

The quality of a poll/sample survey, specially one which is the final analysis, which determines the effectiveness of the polling organization, depends upon the quality of its interviewer personnel. The interviewer problem is the most typical in entire survey conducting process, as it deals with the difficulties involved in measuring and correcting human aptitudes as well as the physical distance problems between the surveyors and the persons observing and training them. This paper describes the methods of interviewer selection, training, and evaluation. It is assumed that good results are those, which have two qualities--the least number of refusals and the least number of technical errors. After a survey has been completed, a chart of the errors most frequently committed by all the interviewers, considered together, is made called the "Observation Chart". The interviewers mistake is given a mark or weight. For each interviewer, the sum of the weights is added, and the total is divided by the number of persons interviewed. This technique gives each interviewer a chance to judge his own work and compare the quality of his own results relative to those obtained by the other interviewers.

The article discusses methods for measuring uncertainty in business decisions and reducing uncertainty through market research. In industrial market research, personal judgment plays a very important part and the distinction between credence distributions and objective probability distributions becomes especially important. The paper discusses the application of credence analysis to problems of designing market research surveys. Statistical methods for consumer panels, mailed surveys, and sampling are discussed.

The article discusses the use of group interviewing as a marketing research tool. In 1951 a study was conducted to test the effectiveness of the practice. Personal interviews were utilized in the study. Group interviewing was found to conserve both time and money as compared with mailed questionnaires. It was also seen as a more effective way to standardize controls. Group interviews appeared to decrease interviewer bias. Overall the group interviewing tactic proved successful according to researchers.

The article presents an editorial discussing the differences in interviews given on two different mediums, telephone and personal. Many marketing research specialists are opposed to the idea of conducting interviews over the phone as a way to obtain information. A study at Loyola University of the South was conducted by both telephone and personal interviews. The survey showed that students who were interviewed in person gave double the amount of suggestions.

The article presents an overview of marketing research programs being conducted in several universities. In the University of Arizona three research projects are under way in the School of Business and Public Administration. In the one, Tucson businesspeople were studied in regards to their view of student publications. Among the projects dealing with fruit and vegetable marketing now under way at Cornell University, are studies of retail and consumer demand for potatoes. More than four hundred detailed schedules were obtained in the "Consumer Demand in a Cooperative" survey which is being made at Greenbelt, Maryland, by Dr. Victor W. Bennett, associate professor of marketing at University of Maryland.

The article discusses some of the advantages and disadvantages of testing new print advertising using the portfolio method. This type of testing displays a print advertisement in a folder with several other print advertisements and can help determine how an advertisement compares with other advertisements of the same product, advertisements of competitors, and older advertisements. The author points out that while the tests are reliable for comparative data, they very seldom work for their intended purpose. The problems of portfolio tests rest mainly in the recall scoring of the given advertisements.

The article discusses data collection via the use of a consumer panel. The focus is on whether consumer panels become biased over time as a result of repeated questioning. The group used in the study consists of farm families in Indiana. Results are presented from a questionnaire, which was sent to farmers and measured their opinion of farm supply chain stores and retail farm cooperatives. Questions included whether these stores pay enough local and national taxes, the type of financial system they support and whether they were for profit or non-profit. Results do not show a bias resulting from panel participation.

The article discusses challenges and difficulties in consumer research. The goal is to improve the response quality for questions such as 'why do you prefer this brand over another?' Two projective techniques, the picture frustration, designed by Saul Rosenzweig, and thematic apperception test, designed by Henry A. Murray, are presented. Both seek to evaluate consumer attitudes. Both projective techniques involve drawings and the response they elicit. The article uses case histories of a grocery store, a milk company and a chamber of commerce.

The article reports on the growing economic importance of the tourism industry. Surveys and research into tourism related spending, conducted by universities are discussed. The U.S. National Park Service, U.S. National Forest Service, highway departments and even hotels have participated in studies of tourists, measuring volume, length of stay, spending habits, etc. The challenges posed in accurately researching and measuring tourist related data are explained. Sampling techniques and strategies are discussed.

The article presents abstracts of marketing articles related to marketing research. They include "Sampling," by Frederick F. Stephan, "Bias in Mail surveys Cannot Be Controlled by one Mailing," by Robert N. Ford and Hans Zeisel, and "Possibilities and Problems of Group Interviewing," by Mark Abrams.

This article reviews the experimental study of group behavior. The author of this article includes a matrix which shows the levels and interrelations of variables used in explaining social behavior. The matrix presented in this article described three types of systems: the individual, the group, and the institution. Each of these types can be regarded as a problem-solving unit. In discussing group effects upon individuals and institutional effects upon groups, examples were given of how a larger system in the matrix influences a smaller one as an environment within which locomotion by the smaller occurs. The influence of a smaller unit upon a larger one was illustrated in the discussion of individual effects upon groups in terms of the accommodation of the unit to characteristics of its parts.

This article discusses methods in survey research for the study of communities and the problems in the community. The methods in survey research include the use of group interviewing, sociometry, resident observation, and diagnostic interviewing. The most significant procedure used as a method of economy was developed in the area of increased experience in self-surveys. If the research goals involve action developments such problems as entrance, rapport, acceptance, and sponsorship are important, especially at the community level. One of the several criteria differentiating survey research from polling is the use of research design, which involves the selection of the sample, the timing of interviewing, the structure of the questionnaire, development of indexes, and experimental controls.

The article looks at Group Feed-back Analysis (GFA) as it applies to field research. GFA claims to possess a number of advantages over other feed-back methods. The author notes that any method which helps to improve the quality or speed of learning is considered to be part of a change facilitating process. GFA has been applied in various non-training situations to produce action based on research findings. The article discusses the action research application of Group Feed-back Analysis and the theoretical model within which GFA appears to work as a change agent. The author focuses on a description of the method for use in training. The author makes mention of reports which suggest that the trend towards descriptive teaching is due in part to the low quality of the teaching staff utilized in the study.