Research Industry Index (RII)

As some of you may know, I author the RII report for the MRA. I was very excited to report a strong gain for the index at the close of 2009. This is very encouraging news for our industry. A copy of the press release is available at http://www.mra-net.org/news/article.cfm?aID=1073. Equally exciting is the growing number of industry leaders who are now participating in the quarterly survey. The RII has one of the largest and most diverse respondent bases of any industry surveys.

Invitations to participate in the next wave of the survey will be going out soon. If you already participate, I thank you and encourage you to continue. If you do not participate, I strongly encourage you to do so. As an added perk, only survey participants receive as copy of the full report. The survey is restricted to business owners or high level executives of research companies and end users.

Personally, I feel good about 2010. I hope the next RII report proves I am correct.

Market Based Pricing

I have been purchasing Girl Scout cookies for almost as long as I have worked in marketing research. So last week when a friend told me her daughter was selling the cookies, I placed my order for six boxes – at $4.00 a box. Like many people, I grumbled that the prices keep increasing and the package sizes keep decreasing. But that was about the end of my snit. Then I happened to mention the cookies to a friend of mine in Colorado. I was shocked to discover Girl Scout cookies sell for $3.25 in Colorado.

Yes that is correct - the Girl Scouts have adopted market based pricing. So like most other products and services, Californians pay a premium to buy the cookies. I am still a bit surprised by this, but I also admire their marketing savviness. After some exploring, I discovered this is a $700 million annual business. This brand has rapidly embraced many new forms of marketing, such as E-vites , YouTube and Facebook . And because the economy is hurting their sales this year, they are using one of the strongest marketing tactics possible – nostalgia (while reducing the average box size by one ounce).

They must be doing something right. While sales are down close to 20% in some parts of the country, they are running 9% ahead of last year in Northern California.

How much did you pay for cookies this year?