Market Sectors

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Retail, Catering, Food & Drink

We have extensive experience in catering, food and drink research.

 

 

Example services include:

• testing new food and drink concepts from ready meals to cheese, from pasties to coffee and from wine to sandwiches

• customer satisfaction with catering suppliers eg. patient food in hospitals, schools etc

• NPD for catering services e.g. on-train, motorway services or other travel environments

• researching the design of retail space, including layout, facilities, colour, lighting and branding

• researching customer behaviour, through accompanied shopping, behavioural observation and direct in-depth interviews

• testing new catering products and menus, through taste trials, and interviews to assess price sensitivity

• branding and packaging studies.

Such studies have been undertaken for such clients as:

• Apetito

• Welcome Break

• Eurotunnel

• Lloyd's of London

• The British Potato Council

• Wiltshire Farm Foods.

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Leisure & Tourism

With such a high level of consumer choice on offer, how people decide to spend their leisure and holiday time has become quite a complex process.

 

We can provide customer insight in the following areas:

• holiday intentions

• site and visitor attraction studies

• service quality evaluation

• communications campaign testing

• online search decision-making.

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Travel & Transport

Our travel and transport experience extends over a period of nearly 20 years.

 

 

Notable projects during that time have included:

• forecasting demand for car and HGV-carrying services through the Channel Tunnel

• exploring the public reaction to potential new cross-London rail services which would run over parts of the London Underground network

• testing market reactions to new branding ideas for London bus companies and global airlines

• understanding the travel needs of disadvantaged groups, particularly in deprived inner-city metropolitan areas

• appraising the response of the public, hauliers and freight forwarders to new ferry routes and vessels in Scotland.

Past clients in this sector have included:

• Railtrack

• Eurotunnel

• Surrey County Council

• Scottish Office

• Department of Transport

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The Environment

Environmental quality is important to the public, but how can you recognise the value that people place on it?

For this and similar questions, research techniques do exist.

We have many years' experience in this complex area:

• examining how landscape is valued by the public and identifying the 'cultural services' it provides

• understanding residents' and visitors' views on the visual landscape in city centres: helping design aesthetic public spaces

• understanding the value that people place on ecosystems and the preservation of endangered wildlife, particularly where there are conflicts between conservationists, farmers and hunters

• incorporating the public's views into forestry investment decisions concerning the recreational and landscape benefits of woodlands.
  

Past clients in this sector have included:

• Natural England

• Scottish Executive

• Forestry Commission.

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ICT

 

 

 

Our services take many different forms, for example:

• researching web formats on a consumer and business-to-business basis

• researching IT managers on their purchasing behaviour

• testing advertising messages and concepts

• examining brand perceptions of online presence and digital footprints

• New Product Development (NPD).
  

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Financial Services

Our experience in this sector has involved work for some of the major banks, life providers, general insurance companies and credit card providers in the UK.

 

The subject matter of these research studies has included:

• corporate/brand image

• new product development

• loyalty/switching

• direct mail testing

• advertising testing/tracking.
  

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