Representative page from MRCA’s 
   diary
                 The development of the DYANA™ interactive 
                 market research tool at MRCA Information Services 
                 in the early 1980s.  Technologies from four 
                 scientific areas are used.
                                 Marketing                  Probability             Computer                 Lasers
                                 & Related                  & Statistics            Science
                                 Theory
                           Innovation         Stochastic           Sampling             Computer               Laser 
                           Diffusion          Models of            Theory               Pattern                Scanners
                           Theory             Purchase                                  Recognition
                                              Frequency
                                              Stochastic                                      Database         Bar Code 
                           Repeat             Models of                                       Software         Technology
                           Buying             Brand Choice
                           Theory                                  Longitudinal 
                                                                   Sampling
                           Demographic                                                    Computer 
                           Analysis                                                       Voice 
                                                    Modern                                Recognition
                           Customer                 Consumer                                  Interactive 
                           Segmentation             Panels                                    Computer 
                           Theory                                                             Graphics
                                                                         DYANA™
       Attempts to measure TV 
       audiences: Nielsen
       – At first, a mixture of mail diaries and in-home devices that 
        recorded the time of day and what channel the TV was tuned 
        to.    Notably,  the  devices  could  not  measure  who  was 
        watching the TV, their degree of attentiveness, or, indeed, 
        whether anyone was in the room with the TV.
       – Next-generation set-top boxes had buttons for each 
        household member, and members were requested to push 
        their own button upon entering and leaving a room where a 
        television was playing.  But the cooperation rate for button 
        boxes was not satisfactory.  
       – Medallions containing personalized radio frequency devices 
        were then introduced – but as the styles of the 1970s passed, 
        people were loath to wear medallions on chains.  
       – Set-top boxes with heat sensors were the next attempt – and 
        the measured TV audience was augmented by dogs, infants, 
        space heaters and toaster ovens.
          Technological Substitution in the Market 
          Research Industry and Attending Business and 
          Social Changes
           (Technological changes are in plain text, business changes are in italics, and social changes are in boldface.)
          1930s  Statistical sampling theory.
          1936   Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr., licenses device from MIT to record the stations to 
             which a radio has been tuned; in 1942 starts Nielsen Radio Index.
          1941   MRCA
             - door-to-door.
             + purchase interviews.
             + cupboard inventories.
             - manual punchcard DP.
          1950s  Urbanization; less response to door-to-door interview sampling.
              MRCA moves to mail diaries.
              Nielsen TV viewership measurement.
          1960s  Trash audits.
              Digital computers; proprietary languages for DP.
              Mathematical models for analyzing market data.
           Continued…
         1970s  Commercial database software used by market research industry.
             Laser scanner technology.
             More women in workplace.
             More divorces; expanding economy; average household size shrinks.
             “Advanced” TV viewership measurement.
            - button boxes.
            - medallions.
            - infrared.
         1979   IRI business plan & IPO; $200 million raised.
            - pod markets.
            * isolated grocery trading area.
            * isolated cable reception area.
            - give away scanners.
            - split-cable experiments.
             IRI starts to take customers from MRCA.
         1980s  IRI expands from pod markets.
             Nielsen emulates IRI model; uses pattern recognition algorithms to recognize what commercial is being received.
             DYANA™.
            Customers return to MRCA due to DYANA, shortcomings of scanner data.
             Increase in unlisted phone numbers; random digit dialing.
             Cheap microcomputers, microprocessors, microcontrollers.
             But reliable voice recognition technology still not cost-effective.
             Survey-on-a-disk for computer industry market research. (Sawtooth, Intelliquest).
             Automated call centers.