Word: bucks
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Customer (or market) research is a technique of consulting the buyer on his tastes before making a product. In "Buck" Weaver's words, it is "finding out what people like, doing more of it, finding out what people don't like, doing less of it." A logical operating philosophy, it is nonetheless given scant consideration by U. S. industry. Most businesses rely solely on dealers, advertising agents and only occasional surveys to keep apprised of public preference...
Wave-Lengths. Buck Weaver likes to remark. "For years businessmen have used the expression 'The customer is always right,' but it never occurred to any one to try to find out what it was that the customer was right about...
...Changes. GM began customer research during the teapot tempest over freewheeling. Every executive in the industry had positive ideas on the subject; Buck Weaver, then on Alfred P. Sloan's personal public relations staff, wondered what the public thought. On his own he sent a questionnaire to a few hundred automobile owners. Some 60% voted for freewheeling. Then a few months later a second questionnaire showed that only 50% wanted it on their cars. GM abandoned freewheeling. It still took Weaver some time to persuade the company that a regular customer research department was warranted. Allowed...
...this, Buck Weaver stoutly maintains, does not impair the scientific value of his findings. Some other market research experts disagree: and though they give him credit for doing more to popularize market research than anyone else, they declare that he could find out just as much without as much fuss...
...over himself and his ideas with the same technique he uses on the public-a steady flow of booklets, memos and "Thought Starters" (little Aesop-like homilies pointing up sound sales morals) circulated within the organization. Pretty far down the line on GM's organizational chart, Buck Weaver gets only about $20,000 a year salary...