Views From The Hills of Kentucky :: Assessment in Context Revisited

Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

Assessment in Context Revisited

For the past three years I have been writing Views about the advantages of In-Store Research starting with "Assessment in Context" January 11, 1994, and more recently as August 25, 1995, "Client Responses to In-Store Research Projects." Actually I have written eight Views on the specific topic of In-Store Research. Over the weekend I read a paper written by Dr. Herb Sorensen of Sorensen Associates Inc that contained a section I thought offered a different perspective about In-Store Research than I have been presenting. His perspective covers the complexity of In-Store Research which I have never addressed in a Views paper. I have, however, covered the problems in great detail in papers written while at Procter & Gamble.

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Sorensen's paper:

Briefly, our food industry specialization is based on a simple application of the principles of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in societal context.

Study of clients' customers in their native environment means that we research supermarket shoppers in supermarkets, food service patrons in restaurants, schools and other commercial and non-commercial locations, food service operators in their kitchens, schoolchildren in their schools, etc. We consider mall "offices" to be a great convenience to "office" type market researchers. However, we have serious questions about the quality of mall patrons as representative of supermarket shoppers. On the other hand, supermarkets are very inconvenient to work in. They have hosts of problems that are unique to their environment. We have spent more than twenty years learning how to deal with these problems and to compensate for the special difficulties in the real super-marketing world of chaos and uncertainty. Our reward is that we are uniquely positioned with our clients' customers. We operate at the center of truth and reality for packaged foods manufacturers.

The above is a very strong position by Dr. Sorensen. My experience, however, to date with his research has been everything he promised. I have accepted Dr. Sorensen's Company as the sponsor of my Views because I believe in his Company and their work.

During the past month I have had requests for back issues of Views. To that point, anyone interested in back issues can obtain a complete set free of charge by calling Ms. Janet Pizzarello at (800) 542-4321.

Since I have finally become a little automated with a FAX program, it is easy and effortless to add new people to the Views distribution list. If you have a friend in another company that may be interested in receiving copies, let me know their name and company name and if possible their personal phone number and FAX number.