Marketing Research

Marketing research is all about forecasts. Professionals will say that crystal gazing is unscientific. Unfortunately human brain has so far not been able to find a foolproof method of guessing the future. Statistical methods or whatever never yield 100% correctness and the worst is that the degree of incorrectness is understood only after the occurrence of the event or the passage of the time.

Some people have tremendous faith in professionals who have excelled in their own fields. Like you can ask Sachin Tendulkar about the future of cricket in the sub-continent and then decide upon how many cricket bats you should manufacture in a year. Sounds reasonable.

Given below is a list of famous predictions made by people or corporations or publications of world repute.

• “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” [Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM in 1943].
• “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” [Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles in 1962].
• “There is no need for any individual to have a computer in their home.” [Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp, in 1977].
• “No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer. 640K ought to be enough for anybody.” [Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, in 1981].
• “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” [Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949].
• “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” [Lord Kelvin, ca. 1895, British mathematician and physicist].
• “Radio has no future.” [Lord Kelvin, ca. 1897].
• “Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value.” [The Boston Post in 1865].

Contributed By:
Prof. P. Guha
(Globsyn Business School)