CASE STUDIES
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CASE STUDY No. 1
Consumer Product:
We were asked to review the declining sales, and increasingly negative reputation, of a well known consumer product. Our initial evaluation noted that the product had been recently "upgraded" with a number of new design features. Upon further evaluation, we found that an off-shore industrial design firm had been used, and it was likely that the design engineers had little or no familiarity or experience with the product, or how it was intended to be used. We were able to identify two critical design flaws, and two minor but significant design deficiencies. Once corrected (with only nominal impact to cost, which was recovered by a slight increase in wholesale pricing), the product recaptured its former position as the leading brand in its sector.
CASE STUDY No. 2
Customer Service Platform:
A quality consumer product suddenly began experiencing declining sales and increasingly negative ratings. While the product was of very high quality and typically performed well, we found that the distributor had a seriously-defective system for responding to customer inquiries, complaints, and requests for service. We designed a new customer service model for them, which quickly raised their customer satisfaction rating to the top of their market sector and price-point. The cost of the new service model was easily recovered by a combination of increased sales and a very slight increase in the retail cost of the product.
CASE STUDY No. 3
Retail Sales:
A large, regional retail company (subsidiary of a national chain) was, despite vigorous promotional activities and customer loyalty programs, experiencing loss of sales to a competitor and declining revenue. Our evaluation found that the company had three significant problems:
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deficiencies in their inventory management system
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less than optimal shelf-space allocation, and,
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a failure to employ some of the most fundamental rules of merchandising
Once these issues were addressed, the company regained its position as one of the leading retailers in its market area.
CASE STUDY No. 4
Retail Sales:
A regional retail company was seeing steadily-declining sales revenue. Our evaluation found that a major source of the problem was with their buyers. The company was relying on buyers who had little to no knowledge of the products that they were supposed to be purchasing for the stores. As a result, the stores were being overly-stocked with low-margin, inferior products, and/or those with very low consumer ratings. At the same time, products that were actively being sought by customers were often not available in the stores. A complete re-organization of the buying department very quickly resulted in a significant increase in sales revenue across all departments.
CASE STUDY No. 5
Broadcast Media:
A regional, mid-market television station was experiencing declining viewership ratings for their news programming, and a concomitant decline in revenue from advertising sales. Changes in format, set design, and personalities had done little to stabilize or reverse the losses. Our comprehensive performance evaluation found three problem areas, and recommended the following corrective actions:
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resolve some relatively easy-to-fix technical issues that were detracting from the quality of the programming
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significantly change the way that news stories were being prepared and edited
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re-direct the focus of their news story reporting
Once implemented, these recommendations resulted in the station's news programming to consistently be in the number one or number two ratings spot within their market area.
CASE STUDY No. 6
Political Candidate:
A local political candidate utilized traditional campaign techniques, spending large amounts of money on advertising in the 5 - 6 months leading up to the next election. We were able to show him a means to achieve positive name recognition, and reinforce his political message, at almost no cost throughout the entirety of each of his terms of office. This significantly reduced his fund-raising and campaign spending, and resulted in his winning every subsequent election race in which he participated.
CASE STUDY No. 7
Local Government:
We were able to show two adjacent local government jurisdictions how they could significantly reduce service-delivery costs, while at the same time increasing efficiencies and performance, by consolidating a number of their individual agencies into regional departments. Both cities were able to maintain their unique identity and political independence, while sharing the significantly-reduced costs for single entities to provide public safety, public works, code enforcement, and other services within both jurisdictions. The result was chronic budget shortfalls being converted into modest budget surpluses for both cities.