Business Consulting, Marketing Services, Market Research & Market Structure Studies in Houston, TX

Whether a company has a need for Exploratory Research (i.e., literature search, experience survey, group interviews or analysis of selected cases), Descriptive Research (i.e., longitudinal studies including true panel and omnibus panel and cross-sectional sample surveys) or Causal Research (i.e., true experimental and quasi-experimental), A. B. Clark Marketing has experience with ALL types of marketing research and thus handles test market programs, performs brand switching studies, and even builds sophisticated sales forecasting models that reduce inventory holding costs. By assessing marketplace changes and needs and by identifying growth opportunities, A. B. Clark Marketing helps to ensure the long-run success of its clients.

A. B. Clark Marketing Analyses Both Primary & Secondary Data to Assess Market Changes, Needs and Growth Opportunities, and Make Its Clients' Businesses More Profitable

Since its start in 1994, A. B. Clark Marketing has been engaged in a number of studies. The Secondary Research Programs have included using existing sources of internal corporate information as well as locating existing external (i.e., published and commercial) sources of intelligence. Many times a client receives solid business insights from such efforts and can eliminate the need to spend extra money on Primary Research, as shown by the below situation.

How A. B. Clark Marketing Helped Client Lower Costs and Improve Sales Using Data It Planned to Discard

In one case, A. B. Clark Marketing found out that a mid-sized client was going to dispose of individual salesperson data that it had for the last three years. However, A. B. Clark Marketing convinced the client that it would be wise to analyze it.

The reason was that this moving industry client felt it did not have "seasonality." However, an analysis revealed that the business was indeed seasonal. Sales at the end of the year and beginning of the year were similar to those in the summer due to its typically adding new customers in the early fall and losing clients at the end of spring. Yet, its corporate clients had lower end-of-year and beginning-of-year demands. Thus, the additions of corporate customers in the early fall months were "washing out" the lower end-of-year and beginning-of-year average demand numbers. Similarly, the end-of-spring loss of clients pushed summer sales lower than they would have otherwise been.

When a sales forecasting model was built on the deseasonalized sales, it was found that two of the ten sales representatives would, with a 99% confidence, have decreasing performances in the upcoming year. However, the remaining eight were projected to have stable or increasing performances.

Since adequate sales training and numerous pep talks had been held in the past, the company decided to apply the principles found in the New Testament parable of the talents (i.e., in Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:11-27). In other words, they terminated the two poorly performing sales representatives and reassigned their accounts to the remaining eight representatives.

The result was that these eight representatives were invigorated since the "deadwood" was gone and since they were now receiving higher commission checks. Similarly, the company saved money by paying 20% less in base salaries to its sales force. During the next year, overall revenue went up by 28%, which was a record high increase.

Nevertheless, because there are cases where Secondary Research does not provide adequate insights, A. B. Clark Marketing often conducts primary studies. These studies in some cases involve interviewing customers over the phone and at stores to solicit their suggestions on how to improve merchandising activities.

A. B. Clark Marketing also surveys individuals via postal mail, facsimile and online transmittals, as well as by observing actual shopping behaviors. In some cases, work is done to learn more about the demographic and psychographic characteristics of specific radio station listeners, readers of publications and the like, as shown by the below summary sheet:

Besides studies conducted on behalf of retailers, service providers and media outlets, A. B. Clark Marketing also solicits and screens testimonials regarding products and in some instances it even performs focus group and mystery shopping types of studies.

Moreover, A. B. Clark Marketing handles new product sample distributions and provides feedback on attitudes. In fact, it did this for Frito Lay in Houston. Similarly A. B. Clark Marketing collected data about travel patterns of those who were dining at International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurants to determine where to locate two new restaurants in Houston. This particular study was done to spot locales where most individuals were patronizing IHOP's competitors and relatively few were making special trips to an IHOP facility due to the travel distance being too great. Depending on the situation, A. B. Clark Marketing can use each of the three approaches (i.e., gravity, analog, and regression techniques) to determine where to locate new sites.

Due to its high level of expertise, A. B. Clark Marketing is uniquely qualified to handle the entire marketing research process. Explained differently, A. B. Clark Marketing can perform the following tasks on behalf of its clients:

Regardless of whether your company is large or small, A. B. Clark Marketing desires to help. Moreover, because A. B. Clark Marketing has very low overhead, it is able to tackle the most complex tasks at extremely competitive prices, while not pricing itself out of the small and mid-sized marketplace.