ABSTRACT

The work that market research companies conduct on behalf of their clients is often understood in terms of market intermediaries that help clients identify both marketing strategies and new marketing opportunities. This article challenges this understanding by interpreting market research work in terms of detachment from the market. Drawing on the example of an experimental market research test town in Germany, the article identifies the role of market researchers as that of slowly taking new product concepts out of the hands of their clients and transforming these concepts into test objects. Market researchers who use consumer panels in the test town apply various detachment and immunization strategies that help absorb products into their own test systems. From the perspective of research clients, the detachment from their product concepts is of an ascetic nature as it involves an exercise to give up control in order to master the world.

摘要

市场研究公司代表客户开展的工作通常被理解为帮助客户确定营销策略和新营销机会的市场中介。本文通过将市场研究工作从与市场。本文以德国的一个实验性市场研究测试城镇为例，将市场研究人员的角色确定为慢慢地将新产品概念从客户手中夺走，并将这些概念转化为测试对象。在测试城镇使用消费者小组的市场研究人员应用各种分离和免疫策略，帮助将产品吸收到他们自己的测试系统中。从研究客户的角度来看，脱离他们的产品概念是一种禁欲主义，因为它涉及一种放弃控制以掌握世界的练习。