Part III
Market Research
Stephen never had specific market research training. But he worked very closely with the J. Walter Thompson owned company, the British Market Research Bureau, in developing different research tools that this new discipline of account planning required.
His articles on market research stand as excellent examples of how research should be used. He was deeply sceptical of most of advertising research techniques, questioning their promises of certainty; he looked at opinion research with a somewhat jaundiced eye, wondering in an increasingly fragmented social order, what “public” opinion could possibly mean; and his views about research “for decision making” are genuinely radical and important for decision makers to grasp.
Throughout these writings is the constant search for the right balance between what is measurable and what is not and the need to balance good data with judgement.

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