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ARC: Etc: History: References: The First Marketing Research
 areas: methods: history
ARContribution by Ronald Bush
This is a modified version of an ELMAR posting of 29 Jan 2007. Ronald Bush was helping to track down a story that the first marketing research had been done on the market for potatoes.
I've never heard of the story your professor told you about the pototo producers. Here's what my research has uncovered: while there were undoubtedly many marketing (or market...there's a difference) research projects that are not recorded in history, the first CONTINUOUS marketing research is said to have been conducted by Charles Coolidge Parlin (1872-1942). He did marketing research for the Curtis Publishing Company to gather information about customers and markets to help Curtis sell more advertising in their magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. He is recognized today as being the "Father of Marketing Research."
You can learn more about him at www.advertisinghalloffame.org. Go to "Members" and search under the "p." Now back to the potato example: while I've not heard of the potato producers example, your professor's example is certainly consistent with what we know about the early U.S. economy at the time research began. Commodities...potatoes, corn, wheat, coal, etc. dominated trade. It is very likely that, as producers sought more distant markets, they wanted to know more about these markets. Marketing research studies were undoubtedly commissioned for commodities producers/brokers during this time period. Good luck to you in your studies! |