User:Smk50/sandbox

.==External links==

• MSI website

Marketing Science Institute

member companies

Founded in 1961, the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) is dedicated to bridging the gap beween marketing theory and business practice. MSI is a corporate-membership-based organization. In addition, leading researchers from universities worldwide participate in MSI research programs.

As a nonprofit institution, MSI financially supports academic research for the development—and practical translation—of marketing knowledge on topics of importance to business. Issues of key importance to business performance are identified by the Board of Trustees, which represents MSI corporations and the academic community. MSI supports studies by academics on these issues and disseminates the results through conferences and workshops, as well as through its publications series.

MSI headquarters are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The primary governing body of MSI is the Board of Trustees, which is made up of representatives of each of MSI’s member companies. In 1972, MSI established the ... In addition, its research efforts are guided by Academic Trustees.

History

In 1961, Scott Paper Company President Thomas B. McCabe founded the “Institute for Science in Marketing” with input from leading thinkers John Howard, Albert Wesley Frey, and Wroe Alderson. Twenty-nine companies responded to his membership appeal, establishing MSI as a nonprofit organization that would “contribute to the emergence of a definitive science of marketing” and “stimulate increased application of scientific techniques to the understand and solving or current marketing problems.” Offices were established in Philadelphia near the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and Wendell Smith became its first president.

The world of marketing was dealing with an exploding mass market, driven by pent-up demand from the war years restrictions on production of consumer goods, and an explosion in population growth. There were also significant infrastructure developments for distribution (such as the interstate highway system), a shift to suburban living (with implications for the retailing sector) and the development of television and a national audience for advertisers. Its founding coincided with the arrival of mass marketing dominance adn a period of booming growth in the U.S. marketing systems. "The study of marketing as an interesting subject to think about and reflect on gave way to a much more action-oriented view of the training of potential marketing managers."

The 1960s was a decade of tremendous intellectual ferment among marketers. Key marketing concepts, such as the “4 Ps” (product, price, place, promotion) of marketing were introduced. Management science theory, methods, and tools were infused into marketing, and consumer behavior emerged as an area of study within marketing.

In its first decade, MSI supported the development of new tools for marketers, such as multidimensional scaling, stochastic modeling, causal modeling, and decision calculus marketing. It also provided the foundation for advances in new product development.

In 1968, MSI moved to Cambridge and begain a 15-year association with the Harvard Business School.

In the 1970s, MSI launched and managed the Profit Impact of Marketing Strategy project, which in conjunction with General Electric, created and analyzed a cross-sectional database that described marketing strategies and profitability across hundreds of business units. This initiative revealed new insights about the drivers of profitability, and sparked a large number of studies. The financial consequences of marketing continue to be an area of

Often it did so by funding research, but sometimes it did so by supporting ventures that developed the ideas. For example, MSI brokered the multi-company PIMS (Profit Impact of Market Strategy) database, assembled teams to shape policy at the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, conceived of and nurtured a Research Priorities process, and sponsored the Consumer Odyssey, a summer-long road trip that was foundational to the rise of qualitative consumer research. By the 1980s, services had become an important source of growth and profitability for many firms. The role of marketing in strategic planning received increased attention. MSI research introduced key concepts, such as market orientation and marketing capabilities.

The conceptualization and measurement of brand equity originated in MSI-sponsored research in the early 1990s. MSI also played an important role in introducing qualitative research methods to help marketers better understand consumers. MSI took an early interset in physiological measures, and has more recently turned its attention to understanding how theory and methods from neuroscience can be used to understand consumer thinking an behavior.

Recently the role of marketing has shifted due to globalization of marketing systems, technology advances, and unanticipated shifts in consumer preferences, behavior and values.