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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

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The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world

Tim Harford tells the fascinating stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which have helped create the economic world.

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: Market Research

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Market Research

19/08/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy, Market Research

Market research marked a shift from a producer-led to consumer-led approach to business

Market research marked a shift from a producer-led to consumer-led approach to business.

US car makers had it good. As quickly as they could manufacture cars, people bought them. By 1914, that was changing. In higher price brackets, especially, purchasers and dealerships were becoming choosier. One commentator warned that the retailers could no longer sell what their own judgement dictated – they must sell what the consumer wanted. That commentator was Charles Coolidge Parlin, widely recognised as the man who invented the very idea of market research. The invention of market research marks an early step in a broader shift from a “producer-led” to “consumer-led” approach to business – from making something then trying to persuade people to buy it, to trying to find out what people might buy and then making it. One century later, the market research profession is huge: in the United States alone, it employs around half a million people.

Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon

(Image: Market research, Credit: Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock)

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