Research Objective

• A US-based manufacturer of personalized gift items with markets in more than 10 countries across North America, Europe and Middle East needed SKU-level demand forecasting to ensure all orders are met while maintaining optimal inventories.
• Over 3000 SKUs across 8 product platforms with a 3-month lead time needed to be tracked.

Scope & Methodology

• A framework was developed to accommodate weekly re-forecasts based on SKU-level actuals-to-date for repeat customers, varied product platforms, new products, etc.
• It was designed to learn from historical trends and project future demand.
• A weekly ‘Early Warning System’ to predict excess and stock-outs was also built.

Value Delivered

• The forecasting tool helped reduce obsolete inventory at the end of the year which freed up working capital and reduced waste.
• It also reduced ‘out-of-stock’ rates leading to increased customer satisfaction and revenue, in part due to preventing unnecessary attrition.

Check out other case studies

• Fine Tuning New Personal Care Products with JAR Analysis – A sensory IHUT case study
• Modeling a Consumer Response Hierarchy to Guide Brand Strategy – A personal care survey analytics case study

Research Objective

• A personal care Brand Manager needed to re-define their communication strategy to further enhance their brand equity.
• They needed to understand the best way to improve brand equity among their target consumers.

Scope & Methodology

• Based on survey data, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to understand key equity themes in the category and the consumer importance hierarchy.
• We then identified which brands in the market owned the key equity themes and were most relevant to consumers.

Value Delivered

• The model gave the brand manager a clear sense of how to:
  • Fine-tune communication strategies and differentiate themselves vs the competition
  • Identify the most desired product attributes
  • Optimize the brand portfolio to promote consumer relevance & response.

Check out other related case studies

• Increasing Customer Acceptance For Controversial Pet Food Format – A survey case study
• Improving Sales by Understanding Pain Points of Sales Reps – A home appliance survey case study
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Campaign with Brand and Message Recall – A consumer media survey case study

Research Objective

• An FMCG client needed to assess the operations and revenue effectiveness across their company. They needed to evaluate their key performance indicators and understand their organizational maturity.

Scope & Methodology

• An online questionnaire was launched to 500 business leaders to measure the KPIs and derive the stages of organizational maturity.
• The analysis showed that about 72% of leaders expressed some governance and control of global operation while 42% described some local office independence. 30% are strongly controlled at headquarters with no local independence.
• For operational maturity, about 80% showed high levels of maturity by deploying technology, extensive automation, dedicated roles in operations, and using AI in delivering services. Top success criteria included: Improved brand/customer engagement, staff efficiency, and agility. The success criteria “improved brand/customer engagement” is considered most important for content strategy.

Value Delivered

• The client was able to better understand their operational effectiveness as well as their organizational maturity. As a result of the research, they identified operational areas needing improvement.

Check out other retail case studies

• Optimizing Trade Promotion Spends with a Pricing Simulator – A food business analytics and price simulator case study
• Consumer Perceptions Towards Online Ordering – A retail survey + desk research case study
• Launching a Fast Food Franchise In A Competitive Market – A retail survey + competitive analysis case study

Research Objective

• A personal care client developing a new product needed to understand the ‘must have’ attributes of their product.
• Specifically, they needed to know whether to dial up or down the scent, consistency, and dispersal amount to achieve the optimum level of each attribute.

Scope & Methodology

• After testing three product variants, participants rated the intensity of several attributes – how did it compare to being “Just About Right”
• 5 point scale ratings were converted to 3 point scales and mean likeability scores were calculated for each attribute followed by mean drop scores for the off-limit groups.

Value Delivered

• The product development team was able to understand which product features of the three variants were more and less desirable, and were able to adjust the thickness and scent strength appropriately to improve likability of the product.

Check out other related case studies

• Increasing Customer Acceptance For Controversial Pet Food Format – A survey case study
• Improving Sales by Understanding Pain Points of Sales Reps – A home appliance survey case study
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Campaign with Brand and Message Recall – A consumer media survey case study

Research Objective

• A top retail food chain wanted to understand consumer product substitutions in order to prevent potential cannibalization in sales.

Scope & Methodology

• A survey was designed to gather consumer perceptions of multiple product flavors.
• Hierarchical Cluster Analysis/segmentation was conducted using the following process:
  • Identify data requirements and build a survey designed for a cluster analysis
  • Identify product sets with 2, 3, or 4 flavors along with their potential substitutions
  • Map purchase intent for product flavors to understand the impact of substitution

Value Delivered

• The results showed that certain sets of flavors were less likely to lead to substitutions and cannibalization. The client was able to choose a set of flavors where consumers would be more likely to use more flavors and remain loyal to the brand.

Check out other food case studies

• Measuring Consumer Preferences for Successful Ready-To-Eat Development | A Sensory Research Case Study
• Benchmarking Brand Awareness and Competitive Brand Space – A consumer food survey case study
• Sentiment and Content Analysis of Qualitative Consumer Comments – A food survey + text analysis case study

Research Objective

• A pet food brand offering a controversial new product format needed to understand purchase behaviors for current brands, and barriers to acceptance for a pet food using insects as a source of protein.

Scope & Methodology

A survey was designed to understand current purchase behaviors and market gaps for fresh and premium pet food products. The survey also focused on understanding awareness, barriers, and purchase intent for pet foods based on insects.

The data showed that:

• 1% currently use pet food with insect protein
• 66% were unaware of pet food with insect protein
• 60% were willing to try pet food with insect protein

Value Delivered

Despite the lack of awareness and lack of use of insect based pet foods, consumers demonstrated that they had a strong willingness to try the product, particularly because of its reduced impact on the environment. The research helped the client understand which message associated with their brand – sustainability –  would be most effective at reaching their targeted consumers.

Check out other related case studies

• Improving Sales by Understanding Pain Points of Sales Reps – A home appliance survey case study
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Campaign with Brand and Message Recall – A consumer media survey case study
• Identifying Optimum Price Corridors to Predict Volume Share – An advertising price simulator case study