Polling Consumers: The Rise of Market Research Surveys in Canada, 1929-1941

Consumer sample surveys, the predecessor of opinion polling, emerged in the late 1920s as a response to the marketing problems of lacklustre demand and inefficient distribution. In conjunction with Dominion Bureau of Statistics marketing data, consumer surveys were conceived and championed as the demandside corollary of rationalised manufacturing methods. By providing quantitative measures of buyer wants and behaviours, they could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of advertising, thus boosting aggregate consumer spending. Chief among the early promoters and practitioners of consumer surveys were advertising agencies, market research firms, and newspaper and magazine publishers. While some US historians of mass marketing have characterised the phenomenon as a democratic leveller of consumption, Canadian consumers, as represented in market surveys, were not a facsimile of the general population. They were disproportionately married and female, urban and English-speaking, and, most of all, drawn from middle-to-upper-income ranks.

Comparative Research Approaches

In the minds of many people, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics appears as a kind of factory producing data. It is more than that. This paper shows that the Bureau is taking new leads in the field of developmental and analytical research bearing on revised and new statistical series.

Statistics: A Time Accounting System

This article outlines a system of statistics currently used by the Occupational Therapy Department at the Montreal Childrens Hospital. This method was one of the results of a Health Systems Engineering Project conducted in the Occupational Therapy Department by the Montreal Joint Hospital Institute in 1975. The article outlines the problems in maintaining statistics which led to the evolution of the current method. A basic description of the procedure is given, samples of the forms used are included, and 3 sample days are calculated to illustrate the method. However, it is felt that the principles may be useful as a guideline to any type of Occupational Therapy Department. This method adheres to the recording requirements of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, but also provides a careful breakdown of time and effort in all areas of the department's functioning. Some benefits of maintaining complete, standard statistics are also outlined.