Marketing Research Experience

Decision Analyst Case Studies

Decision Analyst's experts have experience in a multitude of marketing research techniques, data collection methodologies, advanced analytics, and industries. Below is some of our experience.

A Decision Analyst Proprietary Panel of Users

Category: Tanning Products
Methods: Proprietary Panel; Custom Research Panel; Tracking Research; Qualitative Research; Quantitative Research; Attitude, Usage, & Behavior Research

A large consumer-packaged goods company wanted to gain insights into two consumer groups’ attitudes, usage, and behaviors toward tanning products over a period of 16 months. This time period of research was necessary to understand differences in product usage during peak tanning season as well as off-season.

A Fistful of (Electronic) Dollars

Category: Gift Cards
Methods: Market Share Tracking, Consumer Trends, Retail Research, Customer Experience Optimization (Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty Research)

A retailer was interested in better understanding its competitive place in the gift card market, as well as understanding the gift card purchase decision and gift-card redemption experience. Decision Analyst recommended using quantitative surveys among both purchasers and recipients to capture gift card market share, as well as a deep dive into the motivations and behaviors surrounding a gift card purchase.

A Hair-Raising Global Tracking Study

Category: Beauty Products
Methods: Product Awareness and Usage, Global Marketing Research, Product Attributes, Customer Target Profile, Tracking Research

An international innovator of beauty products targeted to women wanted to better understand hair care needs and product usage among females in four countries. This research was conducted to help the company develop targeted marketing initiatives, enhance product offerings, and understand targets for new products.

A Model of Customer Loyalty: A Financial Holding Company

Category: Insurance
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Brand Equity Modeling, Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty, Customer Loyalty Modeling, Customer Loyalty Simulator™, Tracking Research

A financial holding company desired an equity and loyalty evaluation of several insurance company brands. Using an online survey, consumers evaluated insurance company brands on a battery of attributes. Decision Analyst’s Customer Loyalty Simulator™ was integral in empowering the client to make decisions about how to improve the brand.

A Qualitative Approach to Understanding the Path-to-Purchase

Category: Cosmetic
Methods: In-Person Focus Groups, Virtual-Ethnography (Remote Desktop Viewing), Path-to-Purchase, Time-Extended™ Qualitative

A cosmetic manufacturer, was interested in gaining a better understanding consumer perceptions and usage of Amazon.com. Management wanted to identify and understand why cosmetics’ users read reviews, shop and buy online vs. in store and how they might take better advantage of the online channel. To this end, the client asked Decision Analyst to propose an approach to address these needs and find solutions.

A Rose of Any Other Color...

Category: Children's Toys
Methods: Package Testing, Virtual Shopping, Advanced Analytics, Quantitative Research, Shopper Insights

A major toy manufacturer was challenged by its management team to grow sales of its top brand. The brand's marketers faced a big challenge and were considering a bold (and potentially risky) change to help shift the brand's growth trend upward. Consumer research was carefully crafted to understand shoppers' reactions to the revised packages. It also led to some unexpected and very informative discoveries.

Advertising Research: Benchmarking New Ads for a Restaurant

Category: Quick Service Restaurant (QSR)
Methods: Quantitative Research, Advertising Research, Benchmarking

A national quick service restaurant (QSR) chain regularly produced a number of television advertising campaigns that included 15- and 30-second finished ads. The client wanted to understand consumers’ attitudes about the advertisements in order to determine if the advertisements were up to the company’s standards and were communicating the intended messages and positioning.

Advertising Testing Among Hispanics

Category: Retail
Methods: Advertising Research

A large retailer, Retailer B, wanted to evaluate television, print, and radio ads among Hispanics in the United States. Its goal was to grow its share in the Hispanic segment.

Benefit Pricing: Optimizing The Price Point for a Product Line Extension

Category: Health & Wellness Company
Methods: Choice Modeling, Market Evaluation, Name Research, New Product Development, Pricing Research

A leading Health & Wellness Company was planning to add a new product to their existing product line and wanted to ensure that the product extension was a good fit and was priced optimally within the line.

Card Sorting and Concept Testing Among Seniors

Category: Insurance Company
Methods: Concept Testing, Market Evaluation

A health insurance company wanted to grow their marketing share among seniors, but they only had a vague idea of the type of product they needed. Decision Analyst recommended a two-part project: a card-sort survey to determine the market potential and identify the most desired benefits, followed by a concept test to identify the most promising concept and determine the optimal price points.

Changing The Game In The Electric Vehicle Arena: Accelerating Consumer Adoption Of The Electric Truck

Category: Automotive, Electric Vehicles
Methods: Choice Modeling, Automotive Research, Quantitative Research

Our client wanted to know what consumers wanted in an electric truck that would make it more appealing than competitor models. Our client wanted to create more interest, and boost sales of its EV trucks while staying true to the reputation already built by the brand. In order to understand what needs to be improved to increase consideration of thier Trucks in the market, Decision Analyst conducted in-depth choice modeling research.

China: A New World of Possibilities

Category: Skincare System
Methods: Time-Extended™ Online Focus Groups, Global Research, Research in China

A multinational personal-care products manufacturer was interested in expanding its skincare business in China and wanted to identify the unique needs and applications to deliver a pipeline of skincare products specially designed for Asian consumers.

Choice Modeling: Testing Product and Service Bundles

Category: Technology Products and Services
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Choice Modeling

A supplier of high-end technology products and services was interested in offering its products and services to a broader group of potential customers. In order to develop an effective sales strategy, the supplier needed to understand which product and service configurations were preferred by the mass market. Choice modeling was required in order to produce a list of the most desired services and bundles of services at attractive price points.

Choosing Advertising Approaches Between Alternative Storyboards

Category: Automotive Parts Manufacturer
Methods: CopyTest®, Advertising Research

An advertising agency representing a major automotive aftermarket parts manufacturer had developed two different approaches to creating a TV advertisement. Both concepts had been created as storyboards, and they were asked by their client to provide clear rationale for proceeding to finished film with just one of the two. Our client asked us to conduct a study that would determine which of the two ads would be the most effective at communicating the message to their target audience.

Combining Survey Choice Modeling With Customer-Database Predictive Modeling

Category: Utilities
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Customer-Database Predictive Modeling, Hierarchical Bayes Choice Modeling

Decision Analyst’s client wished to directly predict the receptivity of its customers and prospects to a wide variety of promotion and pricing features of electricity plans. In particular, a very flexible prospect model was desired to use in targeting specific customers and prospects with specific offerings, based on demographic variables available within their customer database.

Concept Testing

Category: Automotive Aftermarket
Methods: Concept Testing, Purchase Motivation, Brand Positioning, Sales Forecasting, Strategic Research

A leading producer and distributor of aftermarket fluids and additives was considering a reformulation of its top-selling, trademarked product. This was prompted by a national retailer that was refusing to carry an existing, derivative product because it did not feel the product fit in well with the retailer’s existing product categories.

Consumer Health-Monitoring Device Optimization

Category: CPG – Medical Device
Methods: Discrete Choice Exercise, Hierarchical Bayes Choice Model, Price Elasticities, Optimization Model, Sales Forecast

An innovative, customer-driven personal health product company was launching a new, noninvasive health monitoring device. The company wanted to assess and optimize the product’s features and understand the optimal product’s likely performance in the market via a sales forecast.

Consumer Pulse Tracking In The Paper-Product Market

Category: Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG)
Methods: Attitude & Usage, Purchase Behavior, Key Drivers

A leading manufacturer of sustainable household products wanted to better understand consumers’ usage and perceptions across four household categories.

Convenience Store Product Assortment Optimization

Category: CPG–Beverages
Methods: TURF

A dairy product company was interested in determining the optimal assortment of coffee creamer flavors to maximize reach and usage frequency in the convenience store channel.

CopyCheck® of Animatic Ads

Category: Insurance
Methods: CopyCheck®, Advertising Research, Sales Forecasting and Sales Modeling

A large health insurance provider was in the process of updating its advertising messaging. The provider created several new advertising concepts, but didn’t know which one(s) would resonate the most with potential customers. Decision Analyst suggested using its proprietary CopyCheck® system for evaluating and improving advertising concepts, early stage print ads, TV storyboards, and radio scripts.

Determining the Relationship Between Consumption and Household Income

Category: Utilities
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Predictive Modeling, Predictive Analytic Services, Simulated Shopping with Shelf Sets

A major utility company wished to understand the relationship between consumption of their product and their clients’ household income in order to address pricing issues raised by the regulatory authority. Specifically, the hypothesis was promulgated that lower-income households used more of the client’s product. A formal test of this hypothesis was needed.

Diary Research

Category: Personal Care Product Manufacturer
Methods: In-The-Moment Research, Diary Panel, Tracking Research, Market Assessment, Ethnography

A personal-care-product manufacturer wanted to understand and quantify consumers’ personal hygiene routines in order to identify new opportunities or marketing campaigns for an existing product. To obtain this level of detail, Decision Analyst recommended that diary research be conducted “in-the-moment.” Consumers were asked to report on their daily personal hygiene routines over a 90-day period as they related to a specific product in our client’s product line.

E-Commerce Econometric Modeling of Promotions and Media Mix

Category: E-Commerce, Consumer Goods
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Choice Modeling, Econometric Modeling

Our client’s firm had a multiyear agreement with a major retailer to manufacture a set of products. In order to provide action-oriented recommendations to the retailer, our client wished to analyze the retailer’s sales data from multiple channels, focusing on e-commerce. Within e-commerce, the retailer had only recently developed a sustained promotional effort for the prior two years. For this reason, the e-commerce promotional strategy required a solid data-driven analysis to recommend an optimal e-commerce promotional strategy.

Finding That Revolutionary New Product! Using Choice Modeling to Refine a New Product Concept

Category: Automotive
Methods: Choice Modeling, Latent-Class Segmentation, Volumetric Forecasting, Market Simulation

An automotive OEM was in search of that next big new product idea to fill an unmet consumer need. The OEM asked Decision Analyst to design a consumer research program to help them understand the potential for this new product concept they envisioned. It had a list of potential innovative features that was quite long and varied. Our client needed to prioritize the most important features, understand who (among consumers) the product would appeal to, and determine what they could expect in terms of sales volume.

Food Ingredient Consumer-Opinion Research

Category: Food Manufacturer
Methods: Online Consumer Survey

A manufacturer of food and beverage products wanted to gauge consumer reactions to various nutrition and ingredient labels listing different sugars, fibers, and starches. Specifically, the ingredient manufacturer wanted to:

Forecasting: Alternative-Fuel Vehicle Research

Category: Automotive
Methods: Advanced Analytics, DecisionSimulator™, Market Segmentation

Since the costs of gasoline and diesel fuels are expected to increase over the long term, our client wished to project the potential consumer demand for several alternative-fuel technologies within five vehicle segments. Because the demand for alternative-fuel vehicles depends heavily on the form and availability of infrastructure to support the new fuels and the relative price at retail, a market simulation capability was required in order to produce a variety of forecasts with varying assumed market conditions.

Fueling Up: International Advertising Research

Category: Retail Automotive Fuel Products
Methods: Global Marketing Research, Advertising Research, CopyTest®, SellingPower™ Analytical Model

The client company is known globally to consumers through its three key brands of automotive fuel products and patented additives. These brands have achieved very high customer satisfaction and trust ratings in the United States and around the world. While the company enjoys high satisfaction rankings among consumers who are aware of and use their brands, the firm tends to lag behind some competitors in some markets and regions in terms of overall brand and advertising awareness. This is true for both of their core fuel brands and their premium additives.

Games People Play

Category: Electronic Games
Methods: In-Person Focus Groups, In-Person Depth Interviews, Projective Techniques, Motivational Research

At the dawn of the digital age, a major international manufacturer of electronic systems and components assigned a team of engineers to develop digital games for the new electronic devices then emerging. The engineers viewed this as an opportunity to convert checkers, chess, and similar board games into electronic versions. Consumer research revealed a far vaster realm of opportunity, a fantasy world beyond the imaginations of the engineers.

Getting Carded

Category: Gift Cards
Methods: Customer Loyalty, Awareness and Usage, Customer Satisfaction, Tracking Study

A multinational food and beverage chain wanted to measure over time the awareness and usage of its frequent user/gift card program and its impact on customer loyalty. This research was conducted to provide strategic direction for improving the overall effectiveness of the program as a customer relationship tool—to drive customer acquisition and retention, and to grow revenue.

Global Celebrity Index—: An International Star Search

Category: Health and Beauty Aids—Cosmetics
Methods: Global Online Survey, Custom Indexing Methodology

A major multinational cosmetics manufacturer set out to identify a universal celebrity spokesperson who would best represent its brand across various global markets. Decision Analyst was tasked with designing the methodology that would determine the ideal spokesperson for the company. Decision Analyst developed a comprehensive index score based on more than 15 distinct variables, such as personal attributes, familiarity, and fit with the brand that helped to differentiate between the celebrity candidates and to select the best representative.

Global Messaging Optimization Research: for a Vision Product

Category: Lens Manufacturer
Methods: Message Testing, Choice-Task, MaxDiff, International Research

A lens manufacturer wanted to measure unbranded preference for potential messages (including both current messages and potential new messages) across two key products. They also wanted to optimize messages for each product when branded.

Hospital System Advertising Testing: Better And Faster With Big Qual

Category: Hospital System
Methods: Sequential-Monadic Testing, Big Qual, Qualitative Research, Advertising Testing, Medical Marketing Research

A hospital system was interested in assessing four advertising concepts at the storyboard (post-scripts) phase before moving into final television production of the winning ad.

Hospital System Improvement: Qualitative Research Among Hospital Customers

Category: Hospital System
Methods: Customer Research, Qualitative Research

A hospital system was interested in conducting exploratory qualitative research among past-5-year customers and potential new customers to understand their hospital-selection process, perceptions of each hospital, and associations and gaps among 3 hospitals within their system and competitor hospitals in the area.

Hotel Services Innovation Program

Category: Hospitality
Methods: Qualitative Research, Ideation, Quantitative Research, New Product Concept Development & Refinement, Advanced Analytics, MaxDiff Latent Class Choice Model

A major hotel chain was interested in developing relevant and actionable new products and services designed to target the business traveler, and to project potential market appeal for each concept. We addressed these needs using Decision Analyst’s Qualitative Research and Innovation Team to identify and develop new product and service concepts. Once the new product and service concepts were developed, Decision Analyst then used quantitative research combined with advanced analytics to identify the new concepts with the best potential for success.

I Beg Your Pardon? (The Value of Unexpected Research Results)

Category: Business-to-Business (B2B) Electronics
Methods: Profiling, International Research, Business-to-Business (B2B) Research, Attitude/Awareness/Usage Research, Diagnostic Research, Problem Solving, Teamwork

A leading device manufacturer discovered that previously held beliefs about the philosophical differences between U.S. and Italian office workers that were driving marketing simply weren’t accurate at all. The research that was originally designed to identify how to penetrate a market was ultimately used to identify how to encourage switching from a competitor’s product.

Improving Customer Satisfaction for a Utility Company

Category: Utility
Methods: Customer Satisfaction, Customer Segmentation, Business-to-Business Research, Consumer Research

A major national utility company was suffering from low customer satisfaction ratings and needed a plan to identify problems and address the issues in a timely manner.

Ingredients for Success: A Global Look at Health- and Beauty-Care Ingredients

Category: Health and Beauty Care
Methods: Global Marketing Research, Analytical Modeling

A major multinational consumer health-and-beauty product manufacturer wanted to determine and anticipate the next big “ingredient” that could revolutionize its segment of the health-and-beauty industry. Leveraging the American Consumer Opinion® panel an online survey was conducted across several countries. Qualified respondents were asked to rate and rank an extensive list of ingredients, while assigning them into the different categories of personal-care products to which they were best suited.

Key Drivers of Store Sales

Category: Retail
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Predictive Modeling, Sales Predictive Modeling, Simulated Shopping with Shelf Sets

Decision Analyst developed a predictive model of store sales per square foot from customer-satisfaction surveys, 9.4 million records of store transactions, shopper demographics, employee/staffing data, and store-a-graphics (format, size, age of store). The model was used to identify key drivers of sales and indicators of store performance, enabling the client to prioritize stores for improvement initiatives.

Look Before Leaping

Category: Salty Snacks
Methods: Concept Testing, Product Testing, In-Home Usage Testing, Pii® Product Improvement Index, Volumetric Forecasting, Sales Forecasting, Conceptor® Forecasting Models

A salty snack manufacturer worked with a subcontractor to develop a completely new salty snack product and Decision Analyst persuaded the manufacturer to evaluate the new product with consumer research. Decision Analyst immediately conducted a large concept test, followed by in-home usage product tests for each major flavor of the new salty snack, and forecasted in-market sales volume with its Conceptor® forecasting models.

Market Evaluation

Category: Automotive
Methods: Market Evaluation, Quantitative Research, Market Overview

A multinational automotive manufacturer (OEM-Original Equipment Manufacturer) with no previous experience in the U.S. market was considering whether or not to attempt to introduce an all-new vehicle into the U.S.

Market Mix Modeling: Measuring Return From Advertising in the Fresh-Food Industry

Category: Fresh Food Manufacturer
Methods: Advertising Research, Promotion Research, Marketing Mix Modeling, Econometric Modeling, DecisionSimulator™

A major manufacturer of a fresh food product sold in grocery stores had spent $250,000 in the previous two years on advertising and $1.2 million per year in promotion allowances. The company believed it understood how to manage promotion allowances and how much return to expect in terms of sales. However, there was a question about the return on advertising expenditures; that is, how much stimulation of sales could be expected per Target Rating Point (TRP) of advertising?

Market Needs Assessment: Qualitative Research Among Physicians

Category: Pharmaceuticals
Methods: New Product Development, Qualitative Research, Physician Research

A pharmaceutical company was interested in developing a new product for the treatment of a chronic disease. Exploratory research was utilized to understand current treatment patterns and needs among primary care physicians and specialists who treat the disease.

MaxDiff Modeling: For Healthy Snack-Food Flavor Optimization

Category: Health Snack Food Manufacturer
Methods: MaxDiff Analysis, Analytical Consulting, Choice Modeling

A U.S. manufacturer of better-for-you snacks that contain no artificial products or flavors offered its product line in a select few flavors. The manufacturer wanted to evaluate a variety of permanent flavor-line extensions and seasonal or limited-time only (LTO) flavors, as well as to optimize their mix of flavors. Decision Analyst partnered with the manufacturer in designing and implementing research that provided insights among three key groups of consumers: heavy users of the manufacturer’s brand, light users of the manufacturer’s brand, and product nonusers who were positive towards trying it.

Maximum Difference (MaxDiff) Scaling

Category: Cooking Oil
Methods: MaxDiff Analysis, Analytical Consulting, Choice Modeling, Hierarchical Bayes Estimation, Claims Testing

A client was interested in presenting a cooking oil product as a key ingredient in table spreads and needed to conduct research to determine what table spread products consumers would like to see cooking oil as a key ingredient. During an online survey, respondents experienced eight shopping exercises and made purchase decisions based on the available products.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction Among Preowned Vehicle Buyers

Category: Vehicle Dealer
Methods: Customer Satisfaction Tracking, Online Survey, Preowned Buyer Survey, Quantitative Mail Survey, Tracking Research

As a premium automobile retailer with multiple locations, our client has a very strong customer service culture; you might say that customer satisfaction excellence is built into this company’s DNA. For years the automobile retailer conducted their own in-house customer satisfaction study to carefully collect information from its preowned vehicle buyers.

Millennial Imaginators®: Ideation and Concept Refinement In the Hotel Industry

Category: Hospitality, Tourism, Innovation, Millennials
Methods: Concept Refinement, Millennials, Imaginators®, Innovation

A leading, global hotel chain wanted to engage creative, forward-thinking Millennials to cocreate some distinct urban-hotel concepts with them.

Mother Knows Best

Category: Childcare Products and Accessories
Methods: Concept Testing, Product Testing, In-Home Usage Testing

A niche company specializing in childcare products and accessories tasked Decision Analyst with conducting multiphased research in order to gain a better understanding of the target market. The research was designed to help diversify, expand, and improve the product line, and, ultimately, to refine and optimize the growth strategy that would allow the company to develop into a global brand.

Name Generation

Category: Healthcare System
Methods: Name Generation, Ideation, Name Testing

A large healthcare system was in the planning phase of developing several new types of outpatient facilities that would each provide a different set of services. This research was conducted to generate, iterate, and then quantitatively test names for each new facility type in order to select a final name for each facility.

Never Trust an Engineer

Category: Electronic Calculators, Mathematics Training
Methods: In-Person Focus Groups, In-Person Depth Interviews, In-Person Ethnography, Telephone Survey

A large, worldwide manufacturer of electronic components and devices developed handheld calculators and mathematics training program for children in the first, second, and third grades. Field visits by the engineering team confirmed that the new calculators were terrific, and that the children were deeply engaged and emotionally involved with the devices. Senior marketing managers wanted to know how to market the new calculators and training program, and hired Decision Analyst. The research revealed some surprises.

New Car Clinic

Category: Automotive
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Discrete Choice Modeling, In-Person Focus-Group, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Static Clinic

A multinational automobile manufacturer sought to introduce a new vehicle into a segment of the market that technically did not exist at that time. Since the automobile market is intensely competitive, the rewards for being one of the creators of a new segment are large. However, because the investments required to develop, manufacture, and market an all-new vehicle are also very large, the ability to reduce risk and accurately forecast sales is crucial.

New Employee Onboarding: Measuring Training Satisfaction

Category: Package Goods Company – Human Resources, Employee Retention
Methods: Online Quantitative, Employee Research, Tracking Research

A large packaged goods company that employs tens of thousands of employees in the United States on their frontline workforce was experiencing very high turnover (40%-50%). The company was implementing new training methods in an effort to better understand employee engagement with the onboarding process and to improve employee retention.

New Product Concept Test: Discovering Key Drivers of Product Preference

Category: Consumer Health & Beauty Products
Methods: New Product Concept Testing

A leading global manufacturer of consumer health and beauty products was considering adding a new product to its current line.

New Product Development

Category: Medical Devices
Methods: New Product Development Research, Concept Testing, Physician Research, Needs Assessment Research

A leading implantable device manufacturer was interested in bolstering its new product development process by conducting unmet-needs research among implanting physicians. Additionally, several new product concepts were tested among these physicians to gauge overall appeal, patient type best suited for, and barriers to use.

New Product Positioning and Name Testing Among Professionals

Category: Medical Devices
Methods: New Product Development, Positioning Test, Name Testing

A global healthcare company that develops products and systems for in-home use and testing was planning a new product introduction. The new product would give patients a faster way to do in-home testing. The company wanted to determine the best product name and to identify a compelling positioning statement to use in marketing the product.

New Therapy Development & Optimization Research

Category: Medical Device
Methods: Feature Optimization, Conjoint Modeling, Choice Modeling, Multi-Phase, Multi-Audience (Consumers & HCPs)

A cross-functional team of academics, scientists, and researchers from a private research university received an NIH grant to develop a new medication. To help the new medication be successful and widely adopted in the marketplace, research was conducted to decide which features needed to be included in the product. Results were used to inform the scientific team in the development of the product features that would be used to meet market needs.

New Vehicle Launch Evaluation

Category: Automotive OEM
Methods: Automotive Research, Quantitative Research, Intender Survey, New Buyer Survey, Competitive Buyer Survey

A global automotive OEM was launching a redesigned version of its best-selling vehicle in the U.S. The vehicle was among the leaders in its segment. Because of the importance of its role within their portfolio, our client was keenly interested in how the redesigned vehicle would perform upon introduction. In order to provide a holistic view of the market reaction, Decision Analyst partnered in designing and implementing a research program that provided insights from among three key groups of consumers: in-segment new vehicle intenders; buyers of the new vehicle; and buyers of key competitive vehicles.

Niche Market Opportunities Research Among Healthcare Professionals

Category: Health & Wellness Product
Methods: Market Perception Study, Needs Assessment Survey, Healthcare Professionals Survey

A leading maker of health and wellness products wanted to identify barriers and opportunities in a niche market in order to improve its market position in the industry.

Not-So-Secret Identity

Category: Premium Packaged Goods
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Brand Evaluation Research, In-Person Depth Interviews, Motivational Research, Packaged Goods, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Survey Research

During the economic boom of the mid-1990s, sales rose for new and old products alike. Marketers were benefiting, especially in the premium packaged goods industry. Our client’s brand was among the first of its kind, had been on the market for decades, and had maintained market share, yet our client wanted the brand to do more than just survive. They saw the booming economy and consumers’ growing interest in premium packaged goods as an opportunity to refresh and strengthen the brand’s identity. Our consumer research identified “key pillars” for the brand, which have helped propel it far beyond previous success and into new markets around the world.

Omnichannel Shopper Experience: Multiphased Qualitative Research

Category: Beauty Products Manufacturer
Methods: In-Person Focus Groups, Qualitative Research, Remote Desktop Viewing, Screen Sharing, Time-Extended™ Online In-Depth Interviews, Virtual Ethnography

A large global manufacturer and marketer of beauty products wanted to understand beauty shoppers’ motivations, perceptions, and usage of various stores and websites.

On the Right Track: Consumer Packaged Goods Brand Tracking

Category: Consumer Packaged Goods
Methods: Advertising Awareness, Advanced Analytics, Attitudinal Research, Brand Awareness, Key Driver Analysis, Tracking Research

A new, domestic manufacturer of hand and power tools wanted to measure and track awareness, attitudes, and usage of brands within the tool category over time. An online survey was conducted to establish baselines for awareness, ownership, and general attitudes for the client’s brand (as well as competitive brands), and then it was repeated once a year at the same time as the benchmark study in order to measure changes in the category over time.

Online Qualitative, Time-Extended™: Achieving Deeper Insights After Quantitative Research

Category: Casual Dining
Methods: Casual Dining Positioning, Menu Evaluation, Online Depth Interviews, Time-Extended™ Online Qualitative Research

With dinner being a key strategic opportunity for a major casual-dining restaurant, scores from quantitative data were significantly lower for the restaurant than its main competitors, and the company used online qualitative and ethnographic research to uncover current perceptions of the brand, menu choices, food, and service. Time-Extended™ online depth interviews were conducted to provide an intimate understanding of the consumer relationship with the brand and its current menu offerings.

Package Testing With A Shelf Set

Category: Packaged Goods (CPG)
Methods: Online Survey With Shelf Set, Package Testing, Shopper Research

Our client, a national consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturer, is one of the top brands in their sector of the larger home improvement industry. This client had developed several new package designs for their aging, but very successful, product line and wanted to determine which design, if any, should replace the current design on store shelves.

Paving the Path to Purchase: Identifying the Decision-Making Process for B2B Customers

Category: Manufacturer
Methods: Business-to-Business Research, Key Driver Analysis, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research, Path to Purchase, Time-Extended™ Online Research

A manufacturer of products for household and workplace usage wanted to increase its knowledge about the path to purchase—how and why business customers buy their products—in order to effectively reach them with the right content at the right place and time.

Physicians Insurance Brand Equity Segmentation

Category: Insurance Company
Methods: Physician Research, Brand Equity, Market Segmentation

A well-known company that offers a variety of insurance products to physicians recently partnered with a new carrier. The company was interested in leveraging the new carrier’s significant experience in product marketing to strengthen its business.

Plush Perceptions

Category: Retail—Toys
Methods: Qualitative Research, In-Person Focus Groups

An American video production and distribution company had been marketing a line of plush toys to accompany its popular children’s television show; however, sales were not as brisk as management had expected. Therefore, the company needed to explore consumer attitudes, usage, and perceptions of this type of toy, in addition to how well it fit with the characters and storylines from the well-loved television show.

Predicting and Optimizing Website Lead Generation

Category: Online Lead Generation
Methods: Correlation/Cluster Analysis, Predictive Modeling, Cross-Validation, Simulation Modeling, Advanced Analytics

A large U.S. military service branch uses websites to attract young men and women as potential recruits. By providing a form to be completed by those interested in a military career, data is captured that helps the military branch with recruitment. Predictive analytics was applied to data obtained from forms filled out on the website, page views, and lead generation. The resulting predictive models were used to adjust relative spending on different clusters of web pages, maximizing ROI in terms of lead generation.

Predicting Patient Noncompliance Based On Geographic Location

Category: Healthcare
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Logistic Regression, Predictive Modeling, Random Forest™

Decision Analyst explored the use of self-reported behavior from surveys to develop predictive models of noncompliant patients (those who have been told to take a prescribed medication for a chronic illness, but are not currently taking the medication).

Point of Presence Research

Category: Telecommunications
Methods: In-Store, Digital Display Testing, Customer Experience Optimization, Promotion Testing

Decision Analyst’s client was introducing informational and advertising-oriented, digital display kiosks in its stores nationwide. Prior to rolling out these free-standing digital fixtures, management wanted to test the overall impact of their digital display screen content, as well as the effectiveness and operations of display orientation, sound, and interactivity. To this end, the client asked Decision Analyst to propose an approach to address these needs and determine the optimal setup of these digital displays.

Positioning Test With Segmentation

Category: Kitchen Appliance System
Methods: Positioning Test, Market Segmentation, Latent Class Cluster Analysis

A major consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) company and a large appliance manufacturer have jointly designed a system to deliver a superior finished product, compared to traditional ways of preparing the product. The client wanted to know how to position the new appliance system against their competition.

Product Line Extension

Category: Over-The-Counter Medicine
Methods: Choice Modeling, Advanced Analytics, DecisionSimulator™

An over-the-counter drug manufacturer was interested in understanding the market implications of offering a new, higher-strength product to supplement their product line.

Product Line Optimization Using a DecisionSimulator™

Category: Personal Care Manufacturer
Methods: Product Line Optimization, Choice Modeling, DecisionSimulator™

The specialty person-care product category is dominated by one brand. When that brand’s manufacturer decided to make significant changes to its product line—including changing product names, graphics, package counts, and pricing—market competitors needed to get an early read on consumer reaction by testing potential strategies for their own brands.

Proprietary Panel for Customer Satisfaction

Category: Managed-Care Company
Methods: Customer Loyalty Optimization, Private Online Panel, Tracking Research

A large managed-care company wanted to optimize its customer satisfaction levels among its Preferred Provider Network (PPN). Decision Analyst created, managed, and hosted an online survey panel for the managed care company. The panel allowed easy access to representatives in the PPN and provided a mechanism for feedback on a variety of planned changes and improvements in the ways that providers interact with the company.

Purchase Probability Modeling: Lead Classification System for a Cloud-Based Product

Category: Prepaid Services Industry
Methods: Qualitative Research, Hispanic Research, In-person In-Depth Interviews

An international, high-tech software company wanted to boost sales of its business-to-business hosted software service. A logistic regression model was developed that predicted the likelihood that a prospect would consider subscribing to the hosted service. The model was incorporated into an interactive scoring tool that allowed the sales force to enter prospect responses for each of the model predictors and forecast the likelihood of prospects to accept an offer of service. After the model was validated by the client company, the model was implemented across its sales force.

Qualitative Research Among Unacculturated Hispanics in U.S.

Category: Prepaid Services Industry
Methods: Qualitative Research, Hispanic Research, In-person In-Depth Interviews

A large U.S. company believed that unacculturated Hispanics might represent a viable target market for its services, but marketing efforts to this segment had largely failed. Decision Analyst proposed and conducted a series of in-depth personal interviews in Texas and California. The learning from this one study helped the company completely reshape and reorganize its marketing and sales strategies for the unacculturated Hispanic market.

Reaching Young, Tech-Savvy Investors

Category: Financial Services, Investing
Methods: New Product Development, Qualitative Research, In-Person Focus Groups, Depth Interviews, Quantitative Surveys

A mutual fund provider wanted to refine its product offering and related messaging targeted to younger, tech-savvy investors for a line of online-only investment products. Decision Analyst executed a two-phase research program, including quantitative concept screening as well as qualitative discussions, designed to help refine the final communication strategy. Ultimately, this initiative helped identify an optimal communication strategy to better position this line of modern investment products and services.

Real Estate Site Selection: With Predictive Modeling in the Open-Source R Language

Category: Retail
Methods: Advanced Analytics, Decision Tree, Linear Regression, Predictive Modeling, Random Forest™, R Language, Real Estate Site Selection

We explored the use of the open-source R Language to develop alternative types of predictive models for retail-site sales forecasting. Alternative model types included decision tree, linear regression, and Random Forest™. The study found that a straightforward linear regression—when developed using best-practice, cross-validation techniques to select variables from a large variety of store, customer, and trade-area predictor variables—can be developed rapidly and cost-effectively using open-source, free software.

Rebate Offer Ad Test

Category: Optical Product
Methods: Promotion Testing, Marketing Communications

The manufacturer was considering offering a rebate, but first wanted to understand the market implications of this offer to ensure the offer increased sales enough to offset the revenue decrease from the rebate.

Retail Point-of-Sale Tracking Research

Category: Retail
Methods: Point-of-Sale Surveys, Tracking, Customer Satisfaction Monitoring

A major retailer needed a way to better understand the experiences of their customers in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Retail Sales Forecasting: Using Geographical Analytics to Identify New Market Opportunities

Category: Fashion Retailing
Methods: Retail Store Location Analysis, Spatial Analytics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

A national retail apparel chain sought help from Decision Analyst in identifying new market opportunities. The chain felt that major metropolitan areas offered limited growth opportunities, and wondered if smaller towns might be viable for its retail stores. Decision Analyst combined survey research, competitive analyses, and geographic analyses and modeling to forecast sales of new stores in smaller markets.

Taking Advertising to the Next Level

Category: Discount Retailer
Methods: Quantitative Research, Brand Awareness, Advertising Awareness, Tracking Research

A large discount retail chain wanted to measure company brand and advertising awareness as well as consumer attitudes over time. This research was conducted to help the company identify ways to make their advertising more effective in driving store visits and sales.

Time-Extended™ Online Qualitative Research

Category: Vehicle Loan Financing & Services
Methods: Time-Extended™ Online Qualitative, Online Qualitative Research in a Bulletin Board Format

An industry-leading, Web-based company that specializes in financing and servicing new and used vehicle loans wanted to develop a targeted advertising campaign with their primary customers. Online, Time-Extended™ depth interviews were conducted to provide an intimate understanding of the consumer relationship with the service and reveal key drivers in the auto loan decision-making process. The learnings from the interviews have been used as a foundation in forming messaging for television advertisements, as well as for exploring new communication strategies to better suit changing customer needs.

Time-Series Econometric Forecasting: Global Forecast of the Price of a Raw Material

Category: International Manufacturer
Methods: Autoregressive Time-Series Regression, Decision Tool, Economic Analysis, Ensemble Model, Model Validation, Time-Series, Forecasting, Variable Selection

An international manufacturer) had experienced unprecedented volatility in the price of a primary raw-material input for several of its products. The client desired to build a forecasting model to forecast the price of the raw material input, for 1 to 12 months into the future. A time-series dataset was constructed, including monthly data for the price and approximately 1,200 current-period or lagged potential predictor variables. An ensemble of Autoregressive Time-Series Models were developed to predict future prices.

To Launch, Or Not To Launch: What Is A Marketer To Do? Leveraging Concept Testing for Optimal “Payback”

Category: Organic Food Manufacturer
Methods: Concept Testing, Brand Name Testing, Packaging Research

A large organic-foods manufacturer had a number of decisions to make about its new, healthier product formulation targeted to moms with young children. Specifically, the marketer had to decide how to package, name, and introduce the product. R&D was making great strides on a new and innovative package design that would not only make the product more fun and convenient but would also generate a significant “splash” in the market. However, this new package design still needed some fine-tuning, while the production line was already set up to manufacture this product in traditional packaging.

Too Much Of A Good Thing Costs Too Much: Choice Modeling for Health Insurance Products

Category: Health Insurance
Methods: Choice Modeling, Concept Testing

A large health insurer sought to increase profitability for a specified group insurance segment by reducing the number of insured health products and the overhead and low profit margins associated with them.

Turning Providers Into “Patient Satisfiers” Measuring Satisfaction Using Mail Surveys

Category: Health Insurance
Methods: Automated Reporting, Mail Survey, Customer Satisfaction, Tracking Research

A health insurance carrier wanted to incorporate patient satisfaction measurements as a quality outcome indicator when recredentialing each member of its large network of physicians and hospitals.

Uncovering the Paramount of Grooming

Category: Personal Care and Grooming
Methods: Time-Extended™ Online Forums, Home-Usage Product Testing, Online Journaling, Global Marketing Research Services

A multinational personal care manufacturer had developed a revolutionary home grooming product. A pilot version of the product had already been successfully launched in the French market the previous year, and preliminary results were promising. Realizing the great potential of this product, the manufacturer decided to develop a newer, more sophisticated and user-friendly version of their grooming product. Decision Analyst was tasked with designing and conducting a two-phased research approach that would meet this goal.

Using a MaxDiff Analysis to Make Decisions

Category: Insurance Company
Methods: MaxDiff Analysis, Message Evaluation, Marketing Science, Analytical Consulting, Concept Testing

The changing healthcare environment has created confusion among consumers. Our client, a health-insurance provider, wanted to know how best to communicate with their customers about the Affordable Care Act and what messages they need to use. Decision Analyst conducted a MaxDiff analysis on the proposed message statements to determine which messages consumers preferred.

Using Automated Reporting: Tracking Restaurant Performance Across the U.S.

Category: Restaurant Industry
Methods: Automated Reporting, Tracking Research

A regional restaurant chain with locations in 8 markets across the Southwest asked Decision Analyst to conduct quarterly tracking studies for each of its 50 eateries. Automated reporting technology was used to efficiently and accurately create the reports for the multiple markets, taking into consideration the local competitors for each unit.

Using Exploratory Research to Formulate Quantitative Research and a Discrete Choice Modeling Design

Category: Auto/Captive Financial Services
Methods: Exploratory Research, Quantitative Research, Discrete Choice Modeling, In-Person Focus Groups, Simulated Shopping with Shelf Sets

The captive finance arm of a global auto manufacturer had historically relied on a traditional approach to developing new business, utilizing the value of its automotive products as the primary conduit for attracting customers. The client was looking for new ways in which to grow and add value to its business.

Using MaxDiff to Understand Investors’: Decision to Hire A Financial Advisor

Category: Financial Services
Methods: Maximum Difference (MaxDiff) Analysis

A financial advisory firm wanted to understand the reasoning behind investors’ decisions to hire (or to not hire) a financial advisor. Decision Analyst conducted an online quantitative survey featuring MaxDiff analysis to determine the attributes that have the most impact on potential customers’ decision to hire (or not hire) a financial advisor.

Virtual Shelf-Set Research Among Children

Category: CPG Manufacturing
Methods: Online/Virtual Shelf Set, Research with Children, In-Store Display Research, Advertising Research, Analytical Consulting

A manufacturer created a new product line that was targeted to children aged 6 to 12. For this new product line, they created several merchandising-display options and wanted to know which one would resonate most with children and their parents. Thanks to the research conducted by Decision Analyst, the manufacturer was able to determine which display option would appeal to both the children and parents as well as maximize sales.

Volumetric Concept Testing

Category: Toy Industry
Methods: Volumetric Concept Testing, Latent Class Choice Modeling, Calibration, DecisionSimulator™, Simulated Shopping with Shelf Sets

A toy maker developed several toy concepts and wanted to know which of them should be taken to market. During an online survey, respondents were taken through two shopping exercises and made purchase decisions based on the available toys. Several latent class choice models were developed, measuring price and product utilities. Calibration to external sales data was applied to improve the reliability of volumetric estimates. After calibration the total volume estimates were loaded into a DecisionSimulator™ that enabled the client to make toy selections based on potential units and revenue.

What Do The Members Really Need? Customer Needs Assessment

Category: Health Insurance
Methods: Focus Groups, Affinity Diagramming, Multivariate Analysis, Needs Assessment, Loyalty Measurement, Medical Marketing Research

A health insurance carrier sought to get closer to its members by understanding more about their needs related to the consumer experience and the employer experience. They also wanted to know how well they were meeting the needs they identified versus how well their competition was meeting similar needs for its customers.

When Customer Service Needs A Boost: Measuring Consumer Expectations of Customer Service

Category: Health Insurance
Methods: Focus Groups, Telephone Survey, Nonlinear Regression Analysis, Quadrant Mapping

A national health insurance carrier established a task force to optimize consumers’ experience with its customer service operation. Prior to developing a change plan, it was important for the task force to understand the customers’ expectations and needs.

Why Can’t We Compete? An Ethnographic Evaluation of the Brand Image

Category: Automotive OEM
Methods: Ethnography, Extended Drive Experience with In-Vehicle Mounted Video Camera, In-Depth Post-Drive Interview, Online Follow-Ups, Qualitative Research

A premium division of an OEM was struggling to understand why it did not compete more effectively in the prestige automotive landscape. They needed to understand from a marketing and product standpoint what to do to improve. Decision Analyst conducted a multistage qualitative study to determine their position relative to the competition and to identify action steps for tangible improvement.