A plan for an international market information network (IMIN)

The paper explores how the highly sophisticated market research that has become part of industrialized societies can be suitably adapted to the different socio-economic conditions existing in various Third World countries where much of secondary data is of poor quality. This is followed by an outline of the successive stages in the establishment of an International Market Information Network (IMIN) that combines reliability in base data with the use of information system technology. The IMIN structure suggested can readily cover market research on different types of consumer as well as producer goods. It involves a multilateral structure headed by an interdisciplinary directorate that is linked by electronic means to in-country supervisors who in turn control teams of local investigators. IMIN as outlined here promises to provide high quality international market information in a cost-effective way.