Editor’s note: Les Harris is managing partner of Mature Marketing & Research, Boston.

The European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) held its 50th annual congress and exhibition in Edinburgh, Scotland, from September 7 to 10. Thirteen sessions were scheduled during the three days with a total of 44 presentations; 1,218 participants from 65 countries attended. In addition to the presentations and social events, over 60 exhibitors took part in an agency fair, which included market research agencies, suppliers of syndicated reports, software companies and consultants.

Many of the attendees I spoke with felt the conference contained a number of high quality presentations. Networking was a second important benefit; the congress provided ample opportunity to meet and talk with people from other companies and other countries.

The conference’s them was "Learning From the Future: Creative Solutions for Marketing Research." Linda Caller, international planning director of Ogilvy and Mather in the U.K., and chairperson of the program committee, said the theme was chosen to reflect market research’s changing role from a data and information supplier to more a part of the strategic decision making process. Research must use information creatively, transforming it into knowledgeable and usable data which can then be applied to new ways of solving business problems.

Following are some of the themes and topics which were discussed at the conference.

The new millennium - Many presenters focused on examining how the world will be in the future so that market researchers can prepare themselves. Sir Michael Angus, chairman of Whitbread PLC, believes that market research should be a support system for innovation and growth. The title of his presentation was "Back to the Future, Lessons from the Past."

Rowan Gibson, creative director, Europe RSCG, commented that we have to shape the future before it shapes us. His topic, "Rethinking the Future," looked at the idea that we can, to some extent, control, order and predict the future with a new mindset based on the concept of discontinuous change.

Hazel Kahan from the U.S. addressed the changing beliefs, values and attitudes of consumers, and how the market and opinion research profession should respond. She spoke of the intensification of socio-psychological responses as the end of the millennium approaches. She concluded with the belief that a growing spirituality will become one of the more striking changes in the new millennium.

Susan Holder and David Young of U.K.-based Future Featuring Ltd., offered the hypothesis that the core competence of understanding the consumer is now being under-utilized; researchers aren’t respecting the consumer as an equal partner in the research process. The researcher must reach beyond his or her current knowledge and identify the unsatisfied needs of consumers to work with the consumer’s agenda, not their own. The market research industry must improve its ability to help clients identify new markets and create real product differentiation to fit the future market.

Creativity and market research - Andrew Dexter, managing director of U.K.-based DVL Smith Ltd. Cognition, addressed the issue of creativity and market research by noting that it is necessary to take an empirical, rather than only a qualitative and impressionistic, view of creativity. His paper demonstrated that research’s role as a creative tool can be improved by more effectively using and classifying the range of mindsets that exist among respondents.

The Internet - The future use of the Internet by market research was addressed by David Pring, executive vice president of CLT Research Associates in the U.S. His discussion centered on the increasing growth of the interactive medium and the role market research will have in the on-line environment. If on-line is to become a dominant form of data gathering in the coming millennium, market research must decide the role it wishes to have, and, more importantly, the legitimacy and relevance of this method of data gathering.

Use of laptops - Lorna Tee, director, U.K.-based Intimations Ltd., and Steve Bather, U.K.-based ISP Limited, spoke on the use of computer software supporting consumer group discussions. Although this technique, in which a laptop computer is given to each respondent, creates a very different environment to a group session, the use of computer software can help stimulate respondent interaction in groups and reduce negative group dynamics. The result can be more creative and constructive sessions, particularly with some sensitive discussions and among young people who are sometimes reluctant to express their thoughts.

CAPI - Bill Blyth and Greg Smith’s paper about computer-assisted interviewing looked at one technology in particular, the pen computer, and its applications. Blyth is research director, and Smith is development director, with U.K.-based Taylor Nelson. They noted that parallel applications of pen against paper resulted in fuller questionnaires being received and increased use of the extremes on semantic differentials. They also reported that proficiency of interviewers with the equipment substantially increases speed and ease of use compared with paper, which may result in more responses on some questions.

Innovations in techniques - In their presentation, "It Is Time We Started Using Statistics," Jeremy Wyndham, managing director, Public Attitude Surveys, U.K., and Richard Goosey, chief statistician, Research International, U.K., addressed the issue of using basic statistics to improve the operating and analytical efficiency of quantitative market research. For example, the use of basic statistical formula to optimize sample size and the replacement of random sampling techniques by quota sampling. Executives, according to Wyndham and Goosey, have focused their attention on computer technology and ignored the use of basic statistical procedures. They further added that although most research executives have an initial understanding of the application of basic statistics, they infrequently use this knowledge when interpreting research findings.

Developments in multi-country research - Andrew C. Gross and W. Benoy Joseph of Cleveland State University’s College of Business Administration identified three sources of global market information: national governments and international agencies; private sector companies and non-profit groups; and selected individual experts or groups. During the past 25 years, Gross and Joseph have concluded that historical data describing the size and nature of national, regional and global markets for specific products have become more available; conversely, the data has become more difficult to analyze and forecast. Although more data is now available from multiple databases and on-line services, and more sophisticated techniques and faster computers accelerate the collection of the data, evaluating and forecasting the information so that it is both accurate and meaningful is often more difficult because of the complexities of national and global markets.

Finding a future - In her paper, Roberta Chicos, vice president, Stratford Associates, and owner of U.S.-based Thinking Cap Productions, focused on the use of future-oriented approaches by market research to reduce uncertainty in decision making. Three case studies were presented: forecasting the future sales of a new product, concept and product development of new services and the possible effect on a company’s brand image and future advertising message. Chicos concluded that by incorporating future scenarios and traditional market research, uncertainty about the future can be reduced.