Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

A Year in Review

1995 was a good year from my perspective. My working relationship with Elrick & Lavidge was very favorable in many ways. They not only sponsored the Views from the Hills of Kentucky, but in many cases sponsored my lectures.

Another benefit of our working relationship was the introduction of RealTest into the market. RealTest is an improved version of the Disposable Test Market method I had previously created. This method removes simulation from market potential assessment and replaces it with realism. RealTest utilizes REAL purchases among real shoppers in real stores making real purchasing decisions between real market brands. It's realism not simulation and approximation. I believe this method is a major step forward in the market research profession.

A second offering by Elrick & Lavidge to the consumer research profession is their SCOPE product introduced in September. This research tool is modeled after a program I was involved in developing in my early years at P&G. In 1952 it was obvious that the R&D community needed to get closer to the consumer to understand how they used and evaluated brands in a very economical manner. This objective led to the creation of an extensive program of monthly CLT's. Now SCOPE has the same objective but instead of being a resource for one company, it has been designed for utilization by multiple companies (not an easy task). SCOPE is a prescheduled CLT consisting of two visits of 400 panelists per month across four cities. The panelists are available for an hour each visit to do spot tests such as flavor and odor evaluations, household use tasks, personal interviews by the client, and finally take home tests where the users can be interviewed face-to-face on the next visit. The potential uses for this type of resource are too numerous to cover in this paper. The costs of the study are shared by the multiple users making it very cost effective. Since each participant is utilized in multiple studies the cost per interview is minimized. I believe this type of research brings a great deal to the table for the R&D community and the Marketing People that want to answer the WHAT IF? questions. SCOPE is basically an exploratory and experimental research tool.

If anyone is interested in further discussing either of these two products feel free to call me or contact your Elrick & Lavidge representative.

I'd also like to thank my friends in the 12 companies that invited me to share my views with their employees during the past year. Many of these visits were sponsored by E&L.

The new year is starting off well. My wife and I will be revisiting two companies from last year in January. In February we will again spend time with Dr. Richard Fox and his "Masters of Marketing" students at the University of Georgia. We have been their guest for the last five years.

In January I will be presenting a new talk on concept development and evaluation. The presentation will include what I believe will be some new methods such as SPACE, Negative Brand Share, Acceptability and Theme Support, and In-Home Group Discussions. I will also explain the SCOPE resource and how it can be effectively utilized in this area.


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