MARKETING RESEARCH AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT 2525 GROSS POINT ROAD EVANSTON, ILLINOIS 60201-4928 USA PHONE: 847.864.3400 TOLL FREE: 800.475.1155 FAX: 847.864.9512 email: info@calderlatour.com
Solving the complex puzzles of the marketplace 2003 Calder LaTour Inc.
W elcome to Calder LaTour Calder LaTour Inc. was founded in 1981 to provide customized marketing research and strategy development services. We have extensive experience in the following industries: Pharmaceuticals Healthcare services Medical equipment Financial services Industrial/business products Consumer durable goods Food service Consumer packaged goods Non-profit service providers Non-profit membership organizations Our experience is global, including substantial work in Europe, the Caribbean, Central and South America. We are a highly educated team of professionals, equipped to work on the most complex marketing problems. We work closely with our clients to understand the nature of their marketplace, their products, and their customers needs and preferences. We pride ourselves on: State-of-the-art methodologies and advanced analytic techniques Keen attention to detail Thorough reports with detailed, actionable recommendations Awareness that our consulting/research must be sensitive to our clients organizational culture and the competitive environments in which they operate An overview of what makes us unique is provided in the following pages. In the pocket of this brochure you will find materials providing details about our services. Services MARKETING RESEARCH Product Development and Concept Testing Brand Image Assessment/Tracking Product Acquisition Analysis Market Segmentation Pricing Research Diagnostic Assessment of Marketing Communications Evaluation of Marketing Campaigns Customer Satisfaction Modeling Multi-Year Marketing Research Planning STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT New Product Development Workshops Branding and Positioning Value Proposition Development Image Crisis Consulting Strategy Mentoring Market Simulation Models We look forward to hearing from you. Stephen A. LaTour, Ph.D. President
We have an intense commitment to our clients. What makes us unique Extensive Involvement of Principals in Every Project Calder LaTour is, by design, a small company, which enables our principals to become personally involved in every project. This involvement includes strategy consultations, study design, questionnaire design, moderation of focus groups, data analysis, and report preparation. We have an intense commitment to our clients and to the success of their strategic initiatives and marketing efforts. Knowledge and Experience Extensive knowledge of determinants of consumer behavior Our principals have published extensively on consumer behavior topics in a variety of recognized journals. They have also taught marketing courses at Northwestern University s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Calder LaTour s ability to uncover and untangle the determinants of consumer behavior has been refined through over 20 years of consulting experience. Extensive strategy development experience across a variety of industries Our principals have provided strategy consulting services to major corporations and organizations in a diverse set of industries. This broad experience enables us to develop sophisticated and innovative solutions to your strategic issues. Examples include: Development of successful strategies and tactics for improving customer satisfaction and customer retention at one of the world s largest financial services firms. Development of an action plan for sales-force response that was effective in maintaining high market share when a flagship product of a pharmaceutical firm was threatened by charges of management impropriety. Assisting manufacturing companies to decide whether to acquire new products, with special consideration of their possible status as niche products versus products with broader appeal. Partnering with companies and organizations across a variety of industries to develop successful new products and services. Extensive research design expertise Our senior staff is composed entirely of persons with Master and Ph.D. degrees who have had extensive training in research design and methodology. They have taught research methods and graduate-level statistics courses at Northwestern University s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and at the University of Illinois at Chicago. They have published articles on these subjects in peerreviewed journals such as the Journal of Marketing Research, Evaluation Review, Decision Sciences, and Advances in Consumer Research. For our clients this means: More accurate measurement of product and company image perceptions. Careful consideration of measurement error, population size, and sample size to give you the precision you need. Better insight into how feature and pricing variations may affect market share. We have extensive experience with the use of the complex experimental designs necessary to make these assessments. Our methodological expertise also means we are familiar with esoteric but critical issues, such as the pitfalls of standard approaches to conjoint analysis for pricing studies and the problems involved with self-stated measures of importance in survey research. Qualitative research expertise Calder LaTour is known for the depth and quality of its qualitative research. In fact,
Calder LaTour is known for the depth and quality of its research. one of our founders, Dr. Bob Calder, is recognized for his seminal work on focus groups and other forms of qualitative research. A further example is our development of sophisticated thought listing and cognitive response methodologies to obtain more thorough diagnostic evaluations of advertising, sales materials, and Web sites. We typically transcribe focus groups and individual in-depth interviews for detailed content analysis. Our reports include a detailed presentation of customer perspectives, and numerous quotes to support the conclusions. You receive both a top-line summary and an in-depth analysis of your customers perceptions. Extensive statistical knowledge and skills We offer state-of-the-art statistical techniques, including structural equation modeling, latent segment analysis, and several proprietary approaches to data analysis. Our unique factor regression approach to modeling the determinants of customer decision-making reduces measurement error due to insufficient sampling of the construct domain and differences in scale usage, as well as multicollinearity. The result is a model that tends to explain a much higher percentage of variance in consumer behavior than is typical. We have also developed proprietary graphical presentations to facilitate understanding of study results. Custom Research, Tailored to Your Needs We never try to fit your problem into a pre-determined methodology. We discuss with you the issues you are facing and the questions you have, then suggest an approach to your problem. Our team works with you to determine the project s objectives, scope, methodology, and time frame. It is possible that one of the approaches to marketing research or strategy development described in this brochure will fit your needs. But everything we do is client specific. We have no standard products to sell.
...everything we do is client specific.we have no standard products to sell. Commitment to Quality Data Collection Proposing a complex factorial research design is one thing, fielding it correctly is another. Selecting a hard-to-reach segment for interviewing is easy, properly completing those interviews is not. For over 20 years we have recognized the critical importance of the data collection process. Our senior staff members work closely with our own field staff to ensure that questions are understood and interpreted by respondents as intended, and that respondents are randomly assigned to experimental groups. These aspects of marketing research are usually hidden from sight, but without a strong commitment to quality collection, data can have little value. Thorough, Action-Oriented Reports We strive to write every report so that it is as transparent as possible. We never leave you with just presentation-style sets of tables and graphs and little interpretation. With our reports, even those in your organization not directly involved in planning the study understand what was done, what was found, and the bases for our conclusions and recommendations. Our reports of qualitative research contain extensive verbatim quotes; our reports of quantitative research present data graphically and explain its interpretation and implications. We believe the more you understand your project, the more likely you are to use the results and make better decisions about your products and services.
Senior Staff of Calder LaTour Inc. PRESIDENT/CEO Stephen A. LaTour, Ph.D. Steve has served as a consultant in the areas of strategy development and marketing research for over 60 major companies and organizations in the USA and abroad. He has published extensively in the areas of consumer behavior, marketing research, and marketing planning in leading peer-reviewed journals of marketing and applied psychology. Dr. LaTour has also coauthored several book chapters on strategic planning and marketing. He is a former Professor of Marketing and of Health Services Management at Northwestern University and was previously on the faculty at the University of Florida. CHAIRMAN Bobby J. Calder, Ph.D In addition to his involvement with Calder LaTour, Bob is the Charles H. Kellstadt Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Cultural Marketing at the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. His work focuses on marketing planning, consumer behavior, and the analysis of marketing research. He has expertise in the healthcare, food, electronics, and financial services industries. He is widely published and is a frequent speaker at company and association meetings. Dr. Calder was formerly associated with Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Inc. He was previously a professor at the University of Illinois and the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania. DIRECTOR, RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYSIS Pauline J. Houlden, Ph.D. In her more than 15 years with Calder LaTour, Pauline has conducted numerous qualitative and quantitative studies involving focus groups, in-depth individual interviews, quantitative surveys, and experiments. She specializes in studies involving product design and pricing (including conjoint analysis), competitive image assessments, models of choice behavior, and market segmentation. She has published numerous articles concerning methodological issues in survey research and program evaluation. Prior to her association with Calder LaTour, Dr. Houlden was on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has also taught marketing research at the J.L.Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. STUDY DIRECTOR Vanessa Barrons, M.S. Vanessa s academic background is in the area of experimental psychology. Her research has focused on cognition, with particular concentration on the influence of emotion on memory for visual communication. Ms. Barrons brings valuable insight to our diagnostic studies of marketing communications. She has considerable expertise with experimental and quasi-experimental designs. While at Calder LaTour, Vanessa has worked extensively on product development and pricing studies. STUDY DIRECTOR Megan Deiger, M.A. Megan Deiger holds degrees from The Pennsylvania State University and Loyola University Chicago. She is currently completing a Ph.D. in Applied Social Psychology from Loyola. Ms. Deiger has taught undergraduate and graduate research methodology and statistics courses. She has employed experimental, quasi-experimental, and survey methodologies in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. She has presented her research before a number of national psychological and educational associations. At Calder LaTour, Megan has worked on quantitative and qualitative studies investigating issues ranging from diagnostic studies of advertising to pricing. We enjoy the challenge of complex marketing problems.
Some of the clients for whom we have provided services: Client List Abbott Laboratories American Hospital Association American Medical Association American Red Cross Baxter Healthcare Corporation Becton, Dickinson and Company Caremark Inc. Caterpillar Inc. Children s Memorial Hospital (Chicago, IL) Citibank CNA Financial Corporation The Cradle (Evanston, Illinois) Estee Lauder Inc. First Chicago Corporation G.D. Searle & Co. General Electric Company General Motors Corporation Genzyme Corporation Gottlieb Memorial Hospital Highland District Hospital (Hillsboro, OH) Ingalls Health System Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Joint Commission Resources, Inc. Knoll Pharmaceutical Company Lands End Inc. LifeSource Blood Services Lutheran General Hospital Motorola, Inc. Pennsylvania State University Hershey Medical Center Presbyterian Homes (Evanston, IL) Rockford Health System Rush Neurobehavioral Center (Skokie, IL) Sears, Roebuck and Co. Sherman Health System (Elgin, IL) The Quaker Oats Company The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago University of Cincinnati Medical Center University of Texas Medical Branch Viacord Western New York Economic Development Corporation Whirlpool Corporation