Priority Metrics Group

Traditionally, the center of a grocery store contains packaged goods that are shelf stable while the perimeter of the store contains fresh items including produce, meat and seafood, deli, and bakery items. These fresh items tend to be higher margin items for the stores but much is not packaged, with shelf life being managed by the efficiency of the supply chain and the look of the actual product providing the merchandising.

Fresh has been growing at a faster rate than other categories since 2010 as projected to grow even faster through 2020. Today, supermarkets are displaying fresh food throughout stores, with shelf space devoted to packaged dry goods declining. Fruits and vegetables are increasingly found wrapped or bagged, and the packaging and merchandising of meats is becoming much more sophisticated.

Greif Inc., a world leader in industrial packaging and services, formulates a specific sales strategy for each individual client as part of their overall account planning process. To further strengthen this process, the company decided that a customer needs analysis based on ‘The Voice of the Customer’ could accomplish this. Greif would, in turn, use this data to aggressively create opportunity for itself rather than waiting on opportunity to appear.

The company chose PMG’s data-driven methods into the customer’s mindset to improve their current strategies to achieve a positive ROI. PMG’s approach to data analysis differentiated our process from other research companies’ survey platforms.

For generations, the field of medical science has relied on glass containers for a multitude of reasons. Such is the case for diagnostic reagents* used in laboratory testing. A viable option to glass— due to risk of breakage and its associated high cost—is advanced plastic bottles that are coated with a thin, transparent silicon-oxide barrier using plasma glass coating technology. These containers are produced using advanced material science to produce a medical-grade plastic product that combines the durability and dimensional precision of plastic with an interior contact surface of high-purity glass.

One such manufacturer of these advanced plastic bottles relied on PMG to conduct a comprehensive market study to define the value proposition for the company’s 5 to 50 ml reagent bottles.

One of the world’s largest technology and manufacturing companies was concerned that their major competitor had taken the lead in their ongoing battle for technology leadership. The industry in which the two firms operate is driven by technological innovations and leadership is key to long-term financial health and, ultimately, survival. PMG was asked to conduct a study to probe for a deeper understanding of the competitor’s research and development (R&D) strategy and direction.