Sylvia Rose Ashby

Sylvia Rose Ashby (8 June 1908 – 9 September 1978) was a British-born Australian market researcher and founder of the Ashby Research Service. A pioneer in the field, she was the first female market researcher in Australia and the United Kingdom, and the first person to conduct an Australia-wide public opinion poll. Mentored by two of the finest market researchers of the day, she used her experience to great effect and steadily grew her business.

During the Second World War her company experienced hardships due to a public that was suspicious of inquisitive representatives who would poll public sentiment about the war and the prime minister; in addition there was a reluctance among companies to spend money on market research, which they felt was unnecessary in a time of rationing. Nevertheless, she came to the attention of Sir Keith Murdoch, who offered her the opportunity to set up Australia's first public-opinion research subsidiary. When Sir Frank Packer made a counter-offer she accepted, and made Ashby Research Services a subsidiary of Australian Consolidated Press.

Ashby employed mainly women to survey housewives, who she considered to have great purchasing power, despite her view that most housewives were timid and shy creatures beholden to their husbands. After the war she continued innovative research, establishing the Ashby Consumer Panel, in which households maintained regular diaries that enabled her to gather continuous market research data. Toward the end of her life, Sir Frank Packer sold her back her company for the same price as he purchased it, before ailing health caused Ashby to sell her company to Beacon Research.

Early life and career Ashby was born on 8 June 1908 at New Sawley in Derbyshire, England to married couple Bertha Ashby and Walter Bertrand Ashby, who was a brickmaker.