Consumer Research Priorities For the Msi Research Competition on &Quot;Using Marketing to Serve Society&Quot;

Citation:

Paul N. Bloom (1993) ,"Consumer Research Priorities For the Msi Research Competition on &Quot;Using Marketing to Serve Society&Quot;", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 20, eds. Leigh McAlister and Michael L. Rothschild, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 436.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 20, 1993      Page 436

CONSUMER RESEARCH PRIORITIES FOR THE MSI RESEARCH COMPETITION ON "USING MARKETING TO SERVE SOCIETY"

Paul N. Bloom, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This paper provides an overview of the special topic session with the title listed above. The session was designed to communicate information to ACR members about a Marketing Science Institute research competition on the topic of "Using Marketing to Serve Society." The competition was organized to support research in public policy toward marketing and social marketing. The hope of the session was to encourage ACR members to submit proposals to the competition, which was approaching its submission deadline of December 18, 1992. By the time this paper appears in print, the winners of this competition will have been announced. Plans were to award as many as four awards for up to $9,000 of research expenses. The top three proposals were to receive prizes of $5,000, $2,500, and $1,500.

The competition was co-founded by the Marketing Science Institute and the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Paul Bloom served as the competition chair. Ten companies provided financial support, with Anheuser-Busch and Quaker Oats serving as sponsors, and BurroughsWellcome, Kellogg, Leo Burnett, Miller Brewing, Polaroid, Porter/Novelli, Glaxo, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco serving as affiliates. An Advisory Board consisting of representatives from the supporting companies, leading academics, and MSI management guided the development of research priorities for the competition and the selection of winning proposals.

The session during the ACR Conference had short presentations made by Paul Bloom, Richard Staelin, William Wilkie, and Michael Mazis. All were members of the competition's Advisory Board. Bloom went first and described the history of the competition. He covered how the idea for the program originated and how the fundraising and priority-setting were completed. He stressed that he hoped the competition would serve as a first step toward establishing a more permanent funding source for research on public policy toward marketing and social marketing. Staelin then discussed the Marketing Science Institute's role in the competition. He talked about how this competition fits with other MSI competitions and programs.

Wilkie provided some historical perspectives on research in public policy toward marketing and social marketing. He offered the opinion that there was considerable room for making valuable research contributions in these areas. Next, Mazis reviewed the specific research priorities of the competition under the heading of public policy toward marketing. He pointed to topics and questions that might be particularly appropriate for ACR members to address. The presentations concluded with Bloom discussing specific research priorities in social marketing. Following the short presentations, a question-and-answer period took place in which audience members made inquiries about a variety of aspects of the competition.

Readers interested in further information can contact MSI at 617-491-2060 or Paul Bloom at 919-962-3222.

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