Yesterday Was One of  Those Sad Days that comes Once or Twice in a Lifetime

Approximately 35 years ago, as a young project manager at Procter & Gamble, I found myself in the Atlanta Offices of Retail Credit Corporation.  I was about to discuss a dream I had for consumer research with two of Retail's vice presidents, Ray Kenny and Ken Kennedy.  My dream was to utilize their 1,200 offices throughout the U.S. as consumer research centers.  My dream was to have a system in place where I could be presented with a research task on a Tuesday, put it in the field over the weekend, and have the results to the client by the following Tuesday (8 days from start to finish).  Following the meeting and within the next four months, Retail Credit created their "Market Research Department" headed by Mr. Mike Hardin.

My first project for this new organization came about approximately two months later.  It involved an over-the-weekend study in 10 cities with a base of 600.  In eight cities the research was conducted exactly as planned.  We had problems in only two cities which were easily corrected.  We never did develop the ability to utilize the vast network of Retail Credit Offices and Staff.  Also we never did set up and over-the-weekend data delivery system.  Instead we set up a series of E&L Offices throughout the U.S. and followed the more traditional time-oriented delivery system involving weeks, not days.

Over subsequent years, Retail Credit's Market Research continued to grow to become "MIS," Market Information Services.  In later years, MIS bought out and took the name of Elrick & Lavidge.

My work with Retail/MIS/E&L continued as a client until April of 1991 at which time I retired from P&G only to sign on as a consultant for E&L (just a few days a month).

I look back on all those years with fond memories.  I got to know a lot of people at E&L, however, most of the ones involved in the memories have since retired.  As of July 1, 1999, I will no longer be a consultant for E&L.  As a result of their significant loss of revenue during the past year, belt tightening was called for.  I really leave with a great deal of sadness and wish them luck in the future.  But don't think for a moment that I plan to hang it up.  Fate has a way of dealing some strange hands in this card game we call life.

About five years ago, some friends at General Mills, namely Steve Garthwaite and Dianne Altman-Weaver, encouraged me to make contact with a fellow by the name of Herb Sorensen.  During the last 15 years at P&G, I was pushing what I called "Assessment in Context" which meant doing research in the consumers' homes and in stores.  It turned out that Herb's Company did almost all their research in the supermarkets, not for the reasons I wanted to do research there, but for other important reasons.  As a result of our first meeting, I became a consultant for Sorensen Associates Inc (again only for a couple of days a month) and Herb became the sponsor of the Views from the Hills of Kentucky.

Remember that dream I had of over-the-weekend results?  My first meeting with Herb was in his office on a Tuesday in Portland, Oregon.  while we were meeting, he got a call from a client with a project they wanted to conduct over the weekend (base 800/10 cities).  Herb's reply was, "We can do it and you will have the da your desk by next Wednesday."  He took a different route than I had planned, but then he made it work.  It is their norm to collect and deliver within a week on spot tests (attitude, package and sensory type studies).

I have been lucky, my associates with both E&L and Sorensen Associates had been very pleasant experiences overall.

A WEB SITE YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING AS WELL AS HELPFUL

Frequently I get calls about Views that I had written in previous years.  I usually direct the requester to a web site sponsored by Sorensen Associates, the sponsors of my Views.  They have a web site that includes all the Views I have ever written.  Recently one of the requesters called back to thank me for directing her to the site.  She found many of the linkages very helpful.  You may also find the site of interest.  the site contains as expected, mostly sections on marketing and market research, ranging from news, education, meetings and management.  For your information the side is "www.mr-online.org."