“Good research is more than just responding to the brief”.
 
We have used every method known to market research. Not every time, and only when the project demands it.
 
We have worked in industries as diverse as government training and education, urban regeneration, magazine and publishing work, publication auditing, private health and maritime industries.
 
Speciality Foods - remember when no-one had heard of balsamic venegar? Or cherry tomatoes? We do. Click through to the foods research page here.
 
Large private hospital – The board of the hospital had ideas about how they wanted to develop the facilities. But we found that many of the consultants who worked there felt that money could be saved by not necessarily investing in new equipment and improving patient tracking and monitoring processes. They wanted “soft” facilities that made life easier for patients and staff instead.
 
Large IT company - Our research led the owners to break-up the company. After years of selling IT products to consumers and businesses, our research into what customers actually wanted lead to our recommending that the company divided into a consumer operation, a discount parts outlet and a business computing division. Good research lead to not one re-energised profit centre, but three.
 
Global navigation products company - This organisation has been producing charts and maps for seafarers for over 200 years. We were commissioned to undertake their largest-ever market research project, a global customer satisfaction survey lasting from 2003 to 2007.  We interviewed thousands of shipowners, ships at sea and chart sales agents, tracking customer feedback and product innovation. But we also solved a 30-year old mystery, free of charge, clarifying the acceptability of their charts to the world’s most powerful maritime enforcement agency, the US Coast Guard.
 
IT hardware and solutions company – Customer satisfaction, new product development, channel distribution – we researched it all, in the UK and USA, by telephone and face-to-face. The new product worked well and the target market appreciated the technical benefits. But talking to them showed there was an entire USP they didn’t know about; a US Legal requirement that meant their product moved from being a nice-to-have to a must-have. All from talking to people. Listening. And telling the client what it meant, instead of just sticking to the brief.
 
Satellite communications company - As an NGO they weren’t allowed to talk to the people who actually used the service, whether they were government agencies, ships at sea or their owners and crew. When airtime traffic peaked we talked to the crews onboard ships to find-out their attitudes towards the service but also to quantify a market that didn’t yet exist – the Crew Calling initiative. We identified price-points and market sizes, but more importantly, by working off the brief with the client’s permission, and by looking at the results intelligently, we determined whereabouts onboard the crew communications equipment should be located. We estimated the market could increase by 30%. We were wrong. Using our recommendations, our global research programmes throughout their distribution channel and our global marketing communications initiatives, within five years crew airtime revenues had increased by a factor of 40.
 
IT channel distributor - This company wanted to increase market share. They didn’t need new products. They needed someone to make a phone call. The thing customers most wanted was simply to know when the delivery lorry was going to be late, so staff didn’t waste time waiting for it. Simple – yes. Obvious – no.
 
Market-leader IT training company - This company had generated a host of copy-cat competitors. Our interviewing and analysis programmes showed that not only were the people who made the purchase decision not the people our client thought they were, but we also showed that in the face of the competition they could put their prices up, not down. Which was nice.
 
Publishing company - After extensive direct-interview High Street computer magazine reader research it was clear that home-PC owners wanted a magazine that spoke the way they did – understandably. Using our feedback and direction the publisher commissioned an six-month NPD programme using group discussions, quantitative telephone interviews and hall tests, evaluating the concept, the product, the price line and the advertising. The step in the dark became the journey into the light. The client’s first sector venture became the most successful part work in the world, EasyPC.
 
Shampoo Manufacturer – The makers’ of this effective natural anti-headlice shampoo wanted to know if the market demanded expensive medical testing. Our research showed that the company could save around £250,000 by launching without medical approval, by saying the product “helped,” not “cured.” If you think that’s a trifling issue of semantics, ask an accountant.
 
 
 
Clients & Case Studies
  • Acuma

  • Allen & Overy

  • American Life

  • Audit Bureau of Circulations

  • BAA

  • Blue Ocean Wireless

  • Byron Group

  • Canada Maritime

  • CAST

  • Centaur Publishing

  • Chalmers University

  • CMP Information

  • Connexions by Boeing

  • Dimensions PR

  • Games Workshop

  • Herald Communications

  • ICL-Fujitsu

  • Inmarsat

  • Jeppesen

  • Learning+Skills Council

  • Leaseplan

  • Mathieu Thomas PR

  • MCA

  • MoD

  • MPH

  • National Dairy Council

  • NCVQ

  • Nutricia

  • P&P

  • Paul Dwyer PR

  • QA Training

  • Quadrangle Communications

  • RTI

  • Salvage Association

  • St Ursula

  • The London Clinic

  • Transport for London

  • UK Hydrographic Office

  • VNU
These are not all of our clients, nor all of our methods. But it gives you a clue of the kind of clients and results we work with.
 
So - how do you like them apples?
Return to Index                                                  Contact us: