Jaroslav Cerha

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Jaroslav Cerha was a Swedish market and media researcher, whose origins were in the former Czechoslovakia.

Early life

Cerha was born on 29 July 1926 in Šarbov. His father was a border guard. He was educated at the University for Political and Social Sciences in Prague 1946 – 1948. He defended his doctor's thesis “Selective Mass Communication” at the Umeå University on January 20th 1968.

Career

Jaroslav Cerha defended his doctor´s thesis, “Selective Mass Communication”, at a dissertation at Umeå University in 1968, with the legendary professor Paul Lazarsfeld as the first opponent.

As part of his professional life with his own market research companies, Cerha developed several unique market research methods and projects. Many of these were groundbreaking and some even perceived as controversial and threatening to the established “state of the market research art”.

One particular idea was a new concept for the execution of readership surveys in Sweden, which, in 1969, was launched as ORVESTO (an acronym for organizational and popular magazines and dailies). The ORVESTO surveys created considerable turbulence in the market. The design was questioned and they came under several serious commercial attacks over the decades, by competitors and media owners alike.

Due to its unique construction, based on proven research and inventive thinking, ORVESTO has survived ever since its start in 1969. Today, as far as is known, it’s the oldest readership survey worldwide, still based on its original methodology. Over the years it has been continuously updated to match the development of new media and is today one of the few true single source multi-media surveys in the world.

Chronology

1926: Jaroslav Cerha was born July 29th, in the village of Šarbov near Dukla in the Prestov province in today´s Slovakia, the son of a border guard.

1932 – 41: Cerha attended elementary school in 1932-36 in Cop (today´s Belarus) and 1936-38 in Stara Lubovna near the Polish border.

1938: The family moved to Prague after the Munich Agreement, which permitted the German annexation of Western Czechoslovakia. Cerha went to school in Prague until 1941.

1941 – 44: Cerha left school and moved to Zlín in Moravia, where he worked as a tannery apprentice at the Bata shoe-factory. While under the German surveillance, the apprentices were trained to be partisan soldiers.

1944 – 45: In August 1944, a national Slovakian revolt against the German forces began. Cerha joined Russian partisan forces.

1946: Cerha enter the University for Political and Social Sciences in Prague. He studied sociology, psychology, statistics, economy and politics. In parallel he worked as a freelance journalist and member of the Czechoslovakian Institute for Opinion Research.

1948: Following the February 25th putsch, the Communist party took power in Czechoslovakia; Cerha and his wife crossed the border to the American sector of Germany on March 12.

1948 – 54: On July 15, 1948, they arrived in Ystad, Sweden. Cerha survived the following years on a variety of jobs; as a dishwasher, metal and textile worker and in the printing works of the Stockholm morning daily Dagens Nyheter newspaper. He learned Swedish and attended evening classes at the Stockholm University.

1954: On June 15, Cerha took his M.Sc. degree.

1955: Cerha completed his studies at IHR – the Institute for Advanced Studies in Advertising (todays' Stockholm Business School).

1955: Cerha started his first market research company.

1957: On October 1, Cerha defended his dissertation “Forty Nights With Team Four” and took his Licentiate of Philosophy. In the beginning of the 1950´s he had secretly made detailed notes of the daily relations between members of the Dagens Nyheter printing staff. He then analyzed these data against the production results of the printing works, which resulted in the participant-observation study used in his dissertation. He collected the necessary basic data for this dissertation some three years before taking his M.Sc. degree.

1966: Cerha started writing on his doctor´s thesis “Selective Mass Communication”, which is, to a great degree, based on findings from research studies made possible via his company´s regular surveys. The main purpose of the thesis was to prove that the so called “two-step hypothesis” of ´top down´ information flow launched in USA in the 1940´s, had to be abandoned. Instead Cerha advocated the theory of shared information between interested equals.

1968: On January 20, Cerha was the first to defend his doctor´s thesis Selective Mass Communication” at the new University of Umeå in northern Sweden. In the presence of some one hundred clients and a group of academics, Cerha defended his work during five hours with no less than five opponents. Professor Paul Lazarsfeldt, who was to be the first opponent and who had been involved in the creation of the “two-step hypothesis”, was rightfully puzzled over the quite bizarre proceedings. Cerha had obviously stirred up strong feelings during his career by challenging established market research methodologies. One reporter wrote that “…it was a five hour dispute, sometimes as pungent and depressive as a divorce case…”. In the end, the thesis was unanimously approved, even though a professor in statistics, against all academic rules, tried to convince the Examination Board that it should be rejected.

On July 12, Cerha re-visited his home country during the so called “Prague Spring”, only to experience the Russian re-occupation of the country on September 21st Since he was on the list of “most wanted” persons after having fled in 1948, he was in immediate danger of being caught. With his Swedish passport, he and his family managed to cross the border to Germany two days later, probably also thanks to the general initial confusion.

1969 – 73: Cerha expected that his doctorate would provide acceptance in the academic world, but he was probably regarded as too radical to be welcomed. Instead he started his new company “Redema – Refinement of the Decision Making Process” in the hope that his new status would lead to various high level consultation projects. This unfortunately did not turn out successfully. Doctor´s degree or not, his research business remained unsuccessful.

1973 – 74: On November 21st, 1973 Cerha was awarded the “Prix Marcel Dassault” for his paper “The Limits of Influence”, awarded by the French minister of Finance at the time, Giscard d’Estaing, at a ceremony in Paris.

Death & memorials

Cerha had for many years suffered from a rare heart disease, inherited cardiomyopathy, which became very aggressive at the end of 1973. He passed away on April 12 1974 and was buried at the Hammarby Kyrka in Upplands Väsby, Sweden.

Papers & publications

1957

”Forty Nights With Team Four”; Dissertation for Lincentiate of Philosophy.

1963

“Basic Research – An Undeveloped Factor In Marketing”, IAA Congress, Stockholm.

1965

“Efforts To Measure The Effects Of Advertising”, IAA Congress, Paris, 1965

1967

“Bringing Opinion Leadership Back To Realities”, Admap, April – September 1967.

“TEM´s Operational Theory Concerning The Possibility Of Manipulating The Effect Of Advertising”, Admap, October 1967.

“Why The Smiling Tiger Did Not Sell In Sweden”, Admap, June 1967.

1968

“Selective Mass Communication”, Doctor´s thesis, University of Umeå. Published in 1967 by Norstedt & Söner, Stockholm, Sweden.

1969

“The Fourth Power”, Futures/Elsevier, Vol 1, No. 5, September 1969.

“Peoples Interest A Basic Criteria In Market Segmentation And The Integration Of Research”, paper at the ESOMAR/Wapor Congress in Amsterdam, September 1 – 4, 1969.

1970

“Inventing Products To Fit The Future Market”, paper at the ESOMAR Seminar on Research for New Product Development, Neu Isenburg November 4 – 7, 1970.

“A Theory Of How Advertising Works”, In Fisk G (1970): Essays in Marketing Theory, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, Massachusetts.

Anche il marketing ”può frenare il suicidio planetario”, Il Millimetro Diciembre N.28, Milano.

Parte seconda: “Il ruolo delle università nella formazione di marketing”. Il Millimetro N.28 speciale, Milano.

“Marketing Activities In The Context Of Social Development”, IMF-Seminar in Geneva, June 13, 1970.

1973

“Order Without Authority”, Markedskommunikasjon 3/1973.

“Opinion Leadership Revised And Finalized”, paper at the AMA (American Marketing Association) seminar in Madrid, February 1973.

“The Discovery Of The Division Of Information Labour In The Technological Society By Means Of Secondary Analysis”, paper at the ESOMAR/Wapor-congress in Budapest, September 9 – 13, 1973.

1974

“The Limits of Influence”, European Research, July 1974. Prix Marcel Dassault, award-winning paper, 1973.

“The Limits of Influence”, Interview with Jaroslav Cerha in European Research, Volume 2, Number 2.

References

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