The MACROModel© is a unique approach to new product screening which offers several advantages over other methods: A large number of concepts (50 or more) can be screened at one time Price sensitivity can be calculated for every new product concept screened First year sales can be estimated for every product concept and over a range of prices Price/volume can be individually optimized for…
The Web is altering the landscape of business in many ways. One of those ways is in marketing research. Marketing research is a tool for businesses to gather vital information on which to base sometimes critical business decisions. One complaint with traditional marketing research is that the value of the information often isn’t worth what the research cost. Another complaint,…
In a career that is quickly, too quickly, approaching 30 years in length, I have stumbled upon a series of general principles that have been proven, usually by my not employing them, to successfully guide the earnest analyst as he or she tentatively picks his or her way through that dark and tangled forest that we often refer to as…
Introduction Conjoint models typically provide the “what” but very little of the “why” in customer behavior modeling. Conjoint models may tell the analyst to what degree various product features, a range of prices and/or a variety of brands each affect ultimate product demand but they do not comment on why customers may have been motivated by those features, prices and…
There are two basic approaches to marketing research: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative research involves large numbers of respondents, typically 100 or more, and yields results that are representative of the total population. Qualitative research is generally done in the form of focus groups, that is, groups of six to ten respondents at a time carry on a group discussion which…
Segmentation: The Key to Conducting Successful Segmentation Research The goal of segmentation is to divide the total marketplace into subgroups whose members are similar to one another and different from members of other subgroups. The key to conducting successful segmentation research is to define “similar” and “different” in terms that are relevant to the client’s business. For example, a segmentation…
If you had a choice (no pun intended) between asking respondents 20 choice questions or just one, which approach would you choose? OK. Now that you’ve picked 20 because you don’t think one choice task is going to yield a sufficiently accurate model, momentarily assume that, with just one choice task per respondent, you could estimate a disaggregate choice model…
Design elements such as colors, shapes, typefaces, photographs and vignettes can have a powerful effect on the behavior of people exposed to them. There are numerous brand identity and packaging examples which illustrate this. Often, those exposed to the designs are not aware of the effects the designs have on their behavior. The Association Test has been designed to measure…
The Cake Method© is a unique, proprietary approach to trade-off analysis, developed by MACRO Consulting, Inc., which offers several advantages over other conjoint methods: A large number of product features (50 or more) can be included in the model First order interactions can be estimated at both the disaggregate and aggregate levels There is complete control over the experimental design,…
We seem, as a culture and society, to have walked through a door. A door, I believe that we may never be able to return through again. We celebrate celebrity. It no longer seems to matter how you became famous. It just matters that you are famous. Party girls, mistresses to the already famous, self-destructive entertainers. No matter how negative…
Prior to founding MACRO, Mr. McCullough was the senior vice president for a leading international strategic consulting and design research firm. Before that, he was market research manager for a $300 million division of Levi Strauss & Company.
Mr. McCullough has spoken before the American Marketing Association, the Marketing Research Association and various universities on a wide range of marketing topics. He is a past board member of the American Marketing Association, San Francisco chapter, and has been quoted in Canadian Packaging Magazine. He has chaired and lectured at applied multivariate statistics seminars for several years and is a member of numerous professional associations.