Resumen
AbstractIndustrial marketing research is generally speaking a low priority item for industrial companies in South Africa. However, marketing research should form the basis of most marketing planning. Marketing research budgets in industrial companies are usually small because management feels that most projects are either too expensive or too time consuming. The objective of this article is to show that industrial marketing research need not be expensive or time consuming. Industrial marketing research has failed to receive much attention in standard marketing books and journals, in spite of the fact that the size of the industrial market is larger than the consumer market in South Africa. The author discusses a simple method which can be followed by people in industrial companies with little or no marketing background. The scope of industrial marketing research and the planning of an industrial research project are discussed; besides a report on a field study undertaken among 20 industrial plastics manufacturers on the Witwatersrand to establish the 'state of the art' as far as their marketing research was concerned.