Analysis-in-Action

The need to enhance public education is well known. But how do you move decades of research on student's assessment of their learning experience from theory to practice? Tripod Project founded by Dr. Ronald Ferguson a leading reseacher at the Harvard School of Education found that student's perception of the classroom experience can be a useful tool for districts that are developing and embracing systemic changes to enhance their schools and student outcomes. FromTopDown's challenge was how to move Tripod from a good idea to one that could serve states, districts and schools clamoring for help and transformational insight. Analysis of the research, education field and the current state of technology in schools led to the development of Tripod Reports, an online reporting platform for teachers and school leaders to review the results of student classroom surveys. Design, development and deployment was fully coordinated by FromTopDown's project team resulting in the development of a reporting platform which processed more than 400,000 student surveys in 2012 and delivered innovative online reports to more than 15,000 teachers nation-wide.

Senior management thought they had a "branding" problem. Turns out they had a strategic problem that required much more than traditional promotion. Distinct corporate brands, cultures and capabilities were operating without obvious synergy that would have increased overall company value. FromTopDown's detailed pragmatic research and analytics including brand equity, competitive, operations and customer analysis revealed market opportunities easily within reach. FromTopDown's interviews with staff, management and major customers also revealed significant challenges that precluded growth. After setting strategic priorities based on a data driven deep dive, FromTopDown working with KKR's Capstone consulting team led the effort to reposition one of the company's strongest brands, its products and restore its focus on leadership by defining a new emerging category. The issue wasn't branding it was strategic focus. The FromTopDown approach - data driven, pragmatic, focused on demonstrable and measureable results.

The industry leader in the sampling space for fragrance, beauty and cosmetics needed a new image and rationale to re-engage with its customers. The product line needed to be refreshed and the company's position needed to be "re-engineered" so that they were partnering with customers during the planning cycle rather than merely delivering support to media buyers. Opening the door to senior brand managers required a detailed data driven look at the product line, the sales process, the customers and the market. The end result was a new focus on consumer research relevant to Arcade's customers that opened doors and led to invitations to participate during brand planning. In the process, FromTopDown coordinated the largest research study on "sample enhanced media" for the luxury fragrance, cosmetics and skin care markets with Millward Brown. Tests included focus groups, quantitative online panel studies and in-market tests across more than 40 markets. Arcade Marketing regained its former position as the thought leader in its space and sales volumes in new categories increased. Customers re-engaged when research providing ROI on Arcade's offerings was available to support the business case. FromTopDown's approach is focused, pragmatic, demonstrable and measureable.

Working with a strategic branding partner, FromTopDown led a market segmentation study and market profile analysis of Ticketmaster's customers using existing CRM data and primary research. The Executive team of Ticketmaster needed info on ways to expand to a rapidly growing market segment. Invest in the primary brand or acquire new brands to serve this market? Key questions requiring a detailed market analysis and a review of much of their internal CRM data. The data deep dive revealed a few surprises. A key finding was their penetration into these attractive segments was much higher than had been thought. The project ultimately identified previously invisible, margin-rich customer target segments. As the intermediary connecting the internal TicketMaster CRM team, Ticketmaster's Executive Team and its branding partner, FromTopDown provided critical data driven strategic customer insights that drove major new acquisition and customer retention initiatives.

This leading video retailer needed immediate traction to defend its brand against new competitive distribution models. Working with a brand strategy partner, FromTopDown analyzed nearly five years of existing primary consumer research related to customers' perceptions of Blockbuster's service, purchase experience (in-store, online), competitive positioning, and various market expansion strategies. Findings from our integrated outlook allowed senior managers to get beyond divisional uncertainties in order to adopt a tighter operational integration of retail outlets and online business.

This global brand hit an inflection point in its long-established growth curve as the market leader in digital video editing technologies. FromTopDown, working with a strategic branding partner, completed an inventory of secondary research in the digital editing market space. An internal analysis including a rigorous review of the company's historical quantitative and qualitative customer data brought clarity to the realities of emerging competitive threats. Our findings became the input for designing alternative marketing communications strategies focused on differentiation and protecting core brand equity.

This promising biotech start-up was poised for its initial public offering. Working directly with the CEO, FromTopDown began by mapping, analyzing and redesigning the operational relationships between the technical research and business development teams to prepare the company for rapid expansion. We developed proprietary analytic models to evaluate the future business impact of ongoing research initiatives, as well as a product portfolio model that became instrumental in focusing customer acquisition efforts. Ultimately, we created the detailed project plans used to map and coordinate all marketing and communications aspects of the company's final IPO filing.

A leader in the field of education research and support, the Wallace Foundation's grants focus on bringing new insight and practices to the classroom that can impact the lives of millions of children. But how do you measure impact? How do you measure the dissemination of best practices when you are creating a collaborative online network of educators? Although the web is a powerful tool, many leaders are struggling to find key measures that can demonstrate a return on investments and giving. FromTopDown, called in to analyze program effectiveness, delivered a new data driven understanding of the impact of the Wallace Foundation's initiatives to reach out to school leaders and researchers in the field of education. FromTopDown delivers data driven approaches, measuring real world impact while providing strategic insights to the leadership of a well known non-profit.

This well-respected, highly ranked liberal arts college needed a better grasp on the ROI of its various online and offline admissions strategies. Working directly for the college's senior marketing officer, FromTopDown developed an integrated student recruitment model to look across multiple data sources including results of traditional and online recruitment initiatives, inbound student inquiries, web traffic and overall media spending. The systematic approach provided Bentley's business and admissions teams with ongoing data assembly, strategic marketing analysis and custom reports to track the relative efficiency of specific recruitment efforts.

This familiar national marketer of quality baked goods and nutritious take-out lunch foods was looking for new growth opportunities. Working directly with the SVP Marketing, FromTopDown analyzed purchase patterns by store and by region to identify optimal pilot regions to test new initiatives. A further analysis of existing consumer research data led the company's marketing team to design and deploy an in-store nutrition kiosk, with a dual purpose of delivering useful information to customers while measuring in-market consumer interest in specific test offerings. The kiosks, which ultimately rolled out nationwide, won awards for innovation in the food services industry.

This national retailer with its two major brands - TJ Maxx and Marshall's - needed to understand how the Internet was impacting sales and how best to spend the millions of dollars it invests annually in traditional and online advertising and promotions programs. Working for the corporate marketing team, FromTopDown led the development of a comprehensive web analytics and marketing performance system. The system assembles internal data from multiple sources, generates custom monthly reports on the overall results of offline and online promotions including email, online advertising and affiliate marketing programs, and ties them directly to retail sales by region. FromTopDown also provided analysis of specific performance metrics to help TJX senior marketing executives measure marketing ROI.