Recently, in conjunction with Ulster Business magazine, we conducted and published a major survey of business opinion.

Optimism was shown to be high last month, at least for the short term, which is further reflected with the highest ever-recorded long-term optimism, with 3 in 4 feeling at least quite optimistic. Almost 1 in 5 were very optimistic. This reflects the generally strong performance of Northern Ireland's private sector over recent years. Despite well-publicised crises concerning the ship-building (Harland & Wolff) and clothing (Desmonds and Ben Sherman) industries, there are clear signs of vibrancy in many sectors, where the professionalism of management teams has greatly improved over the past ten years. In particular, the philosophy and practice of marketing is at last being better understood and adapted and in this context, the drive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing has been impressive.

Most, 7 in 10, of the sample felt the performance of the Northern Ireland Economy had been at least fairly good over the last 12 months and believed it would perform well over the next 12 months. This was reinforced with a clear majority, nearly 9 in 10, rating their own company's performance as at least fairly profitable. Around 6 in 10 claimed this performance was achieving and in some cases exceeding targets. Expectations for their own companies for the following year have also been optimistic with almost 3 in 10 projecting an increase in employment and more than 6 in 10 expecting their volume of sales to increase. Few felt either would decrease.

Despite this apparent optimism, the earlier set of findings showed lack of capital to be one of the key obstacles to company growth so it was interesting that less than half of respondents rated government policy as being effective in encouraging capital investment. Virtually no one (1%) gave the government clear approbation. In fact two-thirds deemed the Northern Ireland Economy too reliant on the public sector. To this end it was not surprising that lower interest rates (45%) were top of the economic wish list for the business community in Northern Ireland. This was followed by pleas for lower corporation tax (19%) and a weaker pound (18%).

If given the choice, the business community (61%) in Northern Ireland would be most likely to prioritise public spending in the area of health. Following that, others (18%) thought the priority should be education. Interestingly, both of these issues emerged well ahead of grant and other direct assistance for industry and business. The survey clearly reveals that the business community would much prefer non-interventionist Government support via interest rates and fiscal adjustments, than by grants and inward investment.

In the August edition the survey demonstrated strong support for remaining part of the EC although support for becoming part of EMU was divided. Unease with further EC intervention was also reflected in the opinions of respondents about the amount of say the EC has in the economic affairs of Northern Ireland, with 45% indicating that it had too much say, while only 14% thought it had too little.

Again in the last edition a shortage of skills was seen as an obstacle (but not the biggest) to company growth so it was not unanticipated that some (31%) were dissatisfied with the present educational system producing the skills required. Respondents were reasonably satisfied that GCSE's (74%) and A levels (80%) provided a meaningful test of academic or vocational ability. Most (70%) were also satisfied with the way universities teach our students and although many (32%) claimed to not have had occasion to interview graduates for positions in their companies, satisfaction with the standards amongst those who did was high, with some 80% at least fairly satisfied.

However, respondents generally expressed themselves as only fairly satisfied with educational provision rather than very satisfied: this implies a degree of equivocation and suggests that the business community can see considerable scope for improvement, particularly in the provision of business and industrial skills rather than academic achievement.

Finally , there were opposing schools of thought on the future of the port of Belfast in terms of privatisation with a third agreeing that it should be privatised, a third against and the rest having no view.

This research was carried out through the medium of the UMS Business Omnibus Survey. Interviewing was conducted at Ulster Marketing Surveys' Belfast-based 35-station Telephone Research Centre between the 24th and 28th July 2000.

By breaking the traditional link between airline and travel agent, easyJet avoids commission payments, cutting the cost of sale and therefore fares.

It also, however, cuts off the channel through which many airlines glean the majority of passenger information - profiles, feelings about the airline service.

Add to that the fact that low fares make people behave differently - geographical catchment areas widen and the passenger base becomes diverse across the business and leisure sectors.

The need to understand passengers therefore becomes even greater for a low-cost airline, there is no benchmarks amongst traditional airlines, and the vehicles to glean this understanding must be sought outside the travel trade.

Hence easyJet's use of quantitative and qualitative research on an ongoing basis.

Research has been used by the airline to test reaction to new policies, to profile passengers and to 'mystery shop' easyJet.com, currently taking 75% of all Belfast route bookings.

EasyJet is the world leader for proportion of seat bookings regularly taken online. Achieving that in Northern Ireland market with lower internet connectivity than the UK average demands a clear, easy to use, transparent shop window.

Research will help easyJet to consolidate easyjet.com as not just a cost-cutting distribution channel but an active reason for flying with easyJet as opposed to other airlines because of ease and convenience of booking.

A research programme has been built into the airline's decision-making for Northern Ireland and supports the case for regional marketing and service development within the company.

In the Northern Ireland market where there is now real choice for air passengers, the need to understand passenger needs has never been greater.

In addition, easyJet has just announced a November floatation which will commit the airline to demonstrable growth targets in coming years.

Catherine Toner, Research Director

The huge growth in the use of qualitative research that has taken place over the last decade is underpinned by the ability of this technique to lend insight and diagnosis to how the consumer approaches so many marketing issues. By far the most common tool in the qualitative research repertoire is that of the focus group or group discussion.

Just 10 years ago, the use of focus groups was limited to the most sophisticated marketers, this technique is now deployed to assist in decision making in all aspects of life. With a team of 7 qualitative researchers, UMS has Northern Ireland's greatest concentration of experience and skills in this arena. The context in which our skills are deployed is as varied as the market, with research being undertaken to understand how:

• The public reacts to political initiatives/ personalities?
• People wish to live their lives:- in this increasingly time-poor world, which technologies will people deploy to optimise their free time?
• TV viewers respond to the increasingly fragmented media market?
• lifestyles are changing and which health messages are being assimilated and acted upon?
• Should health service resources be prioritised and in which areas are most vulnerabilities in delivery perceived?
• Consumers approach the plethora of brands within a market sector?
• New advertising campaigns will work and which creative treatments best meet the communication objectives of the brief?

Typically a qualitative project will involve 6-8 group discussion sessions with each group being recruited to share a common demographic profile. In this manner the dynamics of the group may be enhanced by ensuring that individuals are readily put at their ease by mixing with others from a similar background. Imagine the difficulty in generating an insightful discussion on TV viewing for example, if those attending the group ranged from the 17 year-old Hollyoaks fan to the 60 year-old Newsnight viewer.

As a diagnostic tool, qualitative research takes us beyond the hard facts, beyond the terrain of quantitative research (surveys), beyond the conscious, the logical and the rational. As a complementary tool qualitative research examines the emotional, the private and the intuitive aspects of how we approach a myriad of life and consumer situations. Qualitative research borrows from the principles of humanistic psychology, anthropology (beliefs and relationships) and semiotics (signs & symbols) in assisting consumers to interpret how they react to a situation, whether that be their response to a politician, a public policy initiative, a new brand of fmcg or a proposed advertising campaign.

The skilled qualitative researcher plays the role of:

• Interpreting the client's needs, and designing a programme of groups that covers all the likely demographic or experience - based variables that might impact on how the consumer will approach the subject - gender, age, socio-economic background, regionality.
• Moderating the groups through an unstructured discussion in a non-judgmental manner and at the same time facilitating the group members to identify and verbalise their emotional responses by the use of projective or enabling techniques.

The Social Omnibus
You can ask questions and explore issues of current or ongoing significance to a representative sample of the Northern Ireland and/or Republic of Ireland population twice a month. Our social omnibus has included questions on volunteering, public services priorities and political preferences. In Northern Ireland the sample is 1100, reflective of the population structure and in ROI the sample is 1000 - 1400.

The Youth Omnibus
As well as reaching the general population, you can target a sample of 200 young people in age band 8-15 (broken down into two sub groups at 8-11 years and 12-15 years) twice a month through our social omnibus. The Youth Omnibus has explored young people's attitudes to and experiences of mental ill health, life style choices and much more. We have recently completed a piece of research for Cinemagic that will be used for their 'What's the story?' conference on the 30th November and the 1st December.

No commands are issued, no one is evicted but we are keeping an eye on the NI public. At the beginning of this year Ulster Marketing Surveys launched its new qualitative viewing facility - The UMS Qualilab at 94 University Street. These new premises give us a custom designed facility, with a suite of rooms for clients to view group discussion sessions. Like the Big Brother household there are one-way mirrors, TV and audio links to the room where the groups are conducted. The space available has allowed UMS to provide full boardroom conditions for clients viewing the groups.

Many of our clients want to avail of the opportunity to hear and see for themselves what consumers think about their corporate image, their brands, their advertising and communications. Viewing focus groups adds such depth to the understanding of how consumers approach brands and markets. These new facilities allow all senior managers, a project team, the quality circle, or any other grouping of managers to simultaneously view a group in progress and to interact with one another, developing scenarios/ strategies/ tactics to meet the needs of customers as they emerge. No longer is the viewing of group discussions an opportunity that has to be limited to one manager, sitting quietly in the corner and under strict instructions to neither correct nor react and not to take notes.

Anniversaries and birthdays share the same daunting effect - as they get bigger they can instil both pride and dismay. On the one hand 'I've made it this far!' and on the other 'Where did all the years go?'

Accordingly, in a spare 2 minutes between writing a report and taking a group discussion, I sat down to enjoy a lengthy meditation on the past 35 years since Ulster Marketing Surveys was set up in 1965. (Not that I've been involved all of that time!)

Images meandered through my mind - the client do's, staff salvetes and vales, big jobs won, small jobs lost, defections, management buy-outs, Brighton conferences, births, deaths, the 'Troubles', Agreements, disagreements, we've had 'em all and done it our way.

But how extraordinarily the business of research has changed in those 35 years - consider the undernoted chi-squared disjoint analysis: