Marketing Information Systems in United States and British Industry

There can be little doubt regarding the comparative expertise within marketing between USA and UK industry. As Seibert and Wills wrote, “in terms of operational marketing Britain obviously lags”. However, the practice of marketing research in Britain is well developed and equals US standards. “There seems little doubt that the discrete existence of the Market Research Society in Britain has been one of the major factors explaining why UK marketing research is on a direct par with North American standards.” Examination of the relative positions with regard to marketing information systems (MkIS) has been neglected, though, mainly because of the reluctance of British researchers to carry out the necessary investigations. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of investigations into the development of MkIS in British industry so that a comparison between the two countries may be forthcoming. Such research has been carried out in the USA by Amstutz in 1969 and Boone and Kurtz in 1971, and it is information from these studies which makes comparisons possible albeit not on a fixed time point.