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

Assessment in Context:

The past few months have been interesting and enjoyable. It seems that the principle of "Assessment in Context" is being utilized. I don't know how many companies are using the In-Store or In-Home approaches to problem solving, but I do know some are. During the past few months I have been working with four major consumer products companies on studies conducted in supermarkets. These studies have included:

  1. The introduction of a new brand.
  2. The assessment of a new brand, the potential store locations, and three pricing profiles. Of interest to me was that this new brand created a new product category and its acceptance varied by store location and of particular interest, the pricing acceptance varied with location.
  3. A repositioning of a current market brand
  4. An evaluation of a new plan-o-gram
  5. The introduction of a new line extension Because of brand distribution, the company could not locate the new line extension in the store where they thought it to be ideal. We designed a study to evaluate the desired location vs. the location they could easily obtain. Importantly, we discovered that the easily obtainable location generated the greater interest and trial.
I'd like to hear from other companies utilizing the In-Store test protocols. Even though I am not working on the projects, I'd like to hear about successes, failures (hopefully there aren't many), and watch-outs.

Topics:

These memos are not meant to be one-way correspondences. I'd like to hear from you about topics you would like to see addressed. I hear from a few people but not as many as I would like.

Help! Help!:

Dr. Rich Fox, University of Georgia/Masters of Marketing Program, and I are working on ways to improve the forecasting model utilized in theDTM protocol. One study we need to conduct involves assessing the ability of the consumer to accurately communicate purchase history. If you are planning any studies that involve the collection of factual purchase data such as Behavior Scan or Purchase Diary results, we would like to hear about it. We would like to conduct a separate panel where we collect purchase memory data and compare the results with the factual data. Naturally we would share the results with you.

New Presentation:

I am currently working on a new presentation for 1995 to go along with the "Researching Research" presentation. The new presentation has been requested by a number of people with whom I have been working. This presentation will deal with the "10 Steps in Brand Development (from Idea Generation to Market Introduction)." It will also include what I perceive to be Unique Methods in each Step. If you have any interest in the presentation, give me a call.


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