Bulletin Vol. 2 No. 9 September 2003

B U L L E T I N

Tools and Resources for Data-Driven Market Research

Vol. 2 No. 9 September 2003


	IN THIS ISSUE: From the Editor Survey: Where’s Your Pain? Tool Bits: Explore the Product Line Planner	Bulletin Archive

FROM THE EDITOR

August doldrums are over—it’s time to get back to business. It never ceases to amaze me how even business categories that have nothing to do with the season’s cycles still show seasonal patterns. Where I live in Wisconsin, there’s little point in trying to wheel and deal between the 4th of July and Labor Day. Projects that were planned can’t quite seem to get started; projects that got underway last spring somehow stay on hold. The problem is, there’s always a key decision-maker out of the office—up at his cabin, out with her kids at the theme park, or whatever. It’s just too nice around here in the summer to stay indoors and focused on work work work.

But that’s over now. There’s something about September’s "Back to School" energy that infects us all. I find that many businesses start new initiatives at this time. Planned-for purchases finally get made. New marketing programs get the go-ahead.

If you’ve been finding it hard to connect with key decision-makers... hard to get decisions out of them when you do connect... don’t lose heart. Get on the phone and follow up on some of this summer’s contacts. I predict you’ll close a few new sales as a result. Good luck!

--Sarah White

TOOL BITS

Explore the Product Line Planner

In last month’s Bulletin we introduced the Product Line Planner. If you’re involved with products for retail trade, accommodations, or food service, use the Product Line Planner to study distribution patterns by business category or product line, assess your competition, or evaluate new opportunities. Two types of report are available, one views the data by product line and the other by kind of business.

Question: What types of retailers might carry my products?

Example: A college sorority has produced a line of greeting cards. Sales will fund philanthropic activities. Who should the sorority sisters call on to offer this product line?

The sorority sisters go to the demographics area on bCentral and try a Product Line Planner report. They choose a "Kinds of Business selling Product Line" report, selecting the product category "Greeting cards".

The report shows a list that includes a variety of retail stores. By sorting in descending order on the column "Number of Establishments Selling This Product", the sisters quickly see that their top prospects are gift stores, supermarkets, and department stores. Click here to see the report.

Now the sorority sisters at Sigma Tau Pi start thinking about other products these stores might carry. Maybe their fundraising product line could be broader than just greeting cards? What might they add that could be sold to the same stores that carry the greeting cards?

To explore this question, the sisters click on the "NAICS Code" link (left column) for the first kind of business shown on the sorted report. In moments they are looking at a "Product Lines Sold by Kind of Business" report on the business category "Gift, novelty and souvenir stores". Again, they sort the report by "Number of Establishments Selling This Product". Click here to see the report. It is immediately clear that two categories, "kitchenware and home furnishings" and "jewelry" hold the most promise. They decide to skip a similar report on supermarkets, but select one for department stores, to see if the same categories rank near the top. Sure enough, after sorting the report on "Number of Establishments Selling This Product", they find that jewelry and kitchenware/home furnishings are in the top ten products sold at department stores. Click here to see the report.

The girls decide that it is beyond their resources to create a line of kitchen/home furnishings, but jewelry is a possibility that could definitely complement their greeting card line. With ambitious visions of a successful product line, they call out for caffe lattes and start sketching jewelry designs.

Try the Product Line Planner!

SURVEY

Thank you to our readers who sent in suggestions for upcoming surveys. This month we turn our attention to "Where’s your pain?" Please take a few minutes to respond to this 9-question survey and next month find out how you compare to your small business comrades.

Tell a Friend

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I look forward to your feedback. Click here to write to me and I will try to respond promptly.

Best regards,
Sarah White, Editor, the Bulletin
Third Wave Research

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About Third Wave Research

The BULLETIN is published occasionally by Madison, Wisconsin-based Third Wave Research. Editor Sarah White and other associates of Third Wave Research write articles that appear in bCentral's "Demographics" and "Market Research" topic areas. For information about Third Wave Research's services, click here.

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