LAFAYETTE HILL, PA, June 22, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Alfred E. Goldman, PhD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Goldman celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Goldman's pursuit of a career in psychology began at City College of New York, where he received a BA, Summa Cum Laude, induction into Phi Beta Kappa (1949) and in the graduate program, an MA and Certificate in Clinical School Psychology (1950).
Dr. Goldman's career in Clinical Psychology initiated with an internship at the Veterans Administration, Psychiatric Hospital, Coral Gables, FL. (1952).
His entry into teaching began when he accepted an Assistant Professorship in the Psychology Department of Northeastern University in Boston. Following his role as educator were professional positions conducting government supported psychiatric research at the School of Public Health, Harvard University and later providing psychodiagnostic and psychotherapeutic services in various federal and state psychiatric hospitals and clinics.
In addition to clinical work, Dr. Goldman and Dr. M. Powell Lawton, his colleague at Norristown (PA.) State Hospital, with assistance and encouragement from the American Cancer Society, published research on the personal smoking behavior of an international census of lung cancer surgeons. This research was of sufficient merit and relevance to be cited in the monumental 1972 report of C. Edgar Koop, U.S. Surgeon General, on smoking and cancer.
Dr. Goldman's clinical career took an abrupt turn when he accepted an appointment as Director of Research Development with National Analysts, a highly regarded Marketing Research firm in Philadelphia. He later became President and CEO of National Analysts, a role he held for a decade. When NA was acquired by Booz, Allen and Hamilton he was promoted to Senior Vice President of that firm.
National Analysts, the first marketing research organization (1911), was known as rigorously quantitative. Its clientele was mainly departments of the Federal Government. Data sought were quantitative (e.g. how many, how much, how often, when).
Recognizing that he could enhance NA's research repetoire most effectively by exploiting the psychological insights acquired in a clinical environment he sought to develop qualitative research techniques that could explore motivation – the why of decision making behavior.
Accordingly he developed a method in which multiple respondents are interviewed together at the same conference table. Respondents were selected to increase disparity of viewpoints to expose motivational differences.
This group interviewing technique emerged from the clinical management of Group Psychotherapy. After years of trial and modification this research procedure was introduced in an article in the Journal of Marketing (1962) titled "The Group Depth Interview" ("widely considered a classic" according to the Sage Handbook of Marketing Theory) and was later expanded into a book with the same title co-authored with Dr. Susan Schwartz McDonald, an NA colleague.
Dr. Goldman is acknowledged by the Sage Handbook as the "most prominent" qualitative marketing research professional of his generation.
Over time qualitative research has proven to be a useful addition to the market research armamentarium. The following are illustrations of its utility:
On April 25, 1985 Coca-Cola announced introduction of a change in the Coke taste formula that would alter the most widely marketed soft drink in the world. The announcement provoked a public relations maelstrom, in what was referred to as an "epic marketing blunder" ("The Real Coke, The Real Story" by Thomas Oliver).
Shortly after the public announcement of the taste formula change, Dr. Goldman received a call to take the first plane to Coca-Cola headquarters in Atlanta to assist in resolving the massive negative response of Coke loyalists. The choice of a research procedure demanded immediate response and guidance to contribute to a resolution designed to maintain dominance of the soft drink market and to retain the enviable brand image of Coke.
The immediacy of a response ruled out quantitative procedures, such as survey questionaires. However, the hundreds of telephone calls from outraged Coke drinkers to Coke corporate headquarters provided data for qualitative inquiry. A team of NA qualitatively trained research professionals were flown to Coke corporate offices. Their task was to listen to, and take notes of, the calls from upset Coke devotees.
This was an ideal opportunity for application of qualitative research technique. The callers conveyed their outrage, anger, sadness and feelings of betrayal and of bereavement at the loss of a treasured friend. After discussions with the research team Goldman met with Coke marketing management, at which a collective resolution was found.
The insights that emerged from qualitative studies of beverage marketing led to many consulting assignments with virtually all of the leading brewing companies, providing opportunities for trial of innovative research procedures.
While the utility of qualitative research procedures was confirmed in studies of products requiring small investment, it became evident that qualitative research techniques are equally productive in market research studies of large dollar purchases. Dr. Goldman provided research consultation to the major U.S. auto companies and occasionally to foreign auto firms, focusing mainly on styling and image (e.g. assembly of foreign autos in Mexico for the US market).
Toward the latter years of his career he launched NAs involvement into the most challenging product arena-Health Care Marketing Research. Providing useful guidance to pharmaceutical clients requires of the research professional, knowledge of the disease domain or the diagnostic or surgical instrumentation involved. At times, presence in the operating theater was required to observe new surgical procedures and then debrief the surgeon on the perceived assets and deficits of the innovative instrumentation (eg. Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy).
Pharmaceutical companies serve the needs of physicians in all parts of the world. Marketing management questioned whether doctors use drug products according to prescription instructions or do they modify usage in accordance with their own clinical experience in response to perceived idiosyncratic needs of their patients. Does prescription of pharmaceutical products vary by country? If so, why? To address the issue of underlying motives of national variation in prescription practice, a pharmaceutical client convened an "International Conference on Hypertension" that was held in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, in southern France. Physicians from Europe, Asia, North and South America attended. The conference was conducted and hosted by Dr. Goldman with client market and scientific management in attendance.
As anticipated in this qualitative research project, useful marketing and product development insight was provided not only at the conference table, but at the conference dinner table as well.
An implied endorsement of the applicability of qualitative research in medical marketing research was reflected in an assignment from another pharmaceutical company to explore the choice of cancer medications by oncologists in Japan using individual depth interviews in doctors' offices, conducted by Dr. Goldman.
Health Care marketing research proved to be so absorbing to Dr. Goldman and so useful to clients that it became the sole focus of his research practice until his retirement (1991). The value of qualitative research to the pharmaceutical industry is reflected in the subsequent exponential growth of its application.
Dr. Goldman is especially pleased that qualitative research is estimated, by Sage, to account for 30% of the approximately one billion dollars spent on market research services per year and that there are now about one thousand focus group facilities in the US and abroad.
Asked about his legacy to market research, Dr. Goldman cites as his most notable contributions, not only methodological innovations, but more importantly his contributions to the profession of Marketing Research, the founding and leadership of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and the many colleagues that he worked with and trained and the professional culture of intellectual integrity and commitment to client need that he nurtured. He feels that his principal legacy, following retirement, is inherent in the outstanding professionals that accepted leadership of the company he served for over a decade.
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