• Seasonality of the business
• Population and population segments changes (gender, ethnic, and age groups)
• Socio-economic changes (inflation, unemployment, etc.)
• Weather
• Holidays and other major calendar occasions (Halloween, Super bowl, etc.)
• Trade Promotion activities for all products analyzed including competitors (Features, Displays, Temporary Price Reductions)
• All consumer promotion activities for all products including competitors (FSIs, In-pack, On-Pack coupons, Direct mail, Sampling, Internet requested promotiions)
• All advertising activities for all products including competition (TV, Print, Radio, Outdoors, Internet)
• Distribution changes for all products including competition (%ACV and Items per Store)
• New product introductions
• Price changes for all products including competitors
• All marketing factors are tested for non-linear relationship with volume (diminishing returns, and saturation levels)
• Advertising, Trade, and Consumer Promotion factors are transformed to take into account their impact on following weeks
• Incorporated into the model at the most disaggregated level possible (size, flavor, fragrance) to provide high level of output detail

POINT OF DIFFERENCE: PM Group has extensive experience in developing models that include demographic, economic, and environmental factors

• Models can be linear, log-linear, log-log, and other forms to fit the specific characteristics of the problem to be solved
• Models can be built one at a time (i.e., one brand, one portfolio) or through simultaneous equations (category and all composing brands)
• Models can be built with store-level, account-level, or market-level data (pooling geographies increases the depth of the analysis)
• Models can be constructed to isolate impact of all factors on Category, Portfolio, Brands, and Product aggregations (size, flavor, etc.)

POINT OF DIFFERENCE: PM Group carefully chooses the best method / model for each marketing problem. We are not a one-size-fits-all company (linear volume models for every client and project). PM Group has seventeen years of experience in more than 85 categories.

• What is the incremental volume of each marketing element in total and by tactic?
• How much incremental dollar sales is generated for a million dollar invested in each marketing element, and in each specific tactic?
• What marketing tool is the most cost-efficient? Are My Marketing Efforts Profitable?
• What is driving your brand volume changes year to year?
• How much volume is generated by marketing activities? What part of consumer-promotion generated volume and trade-promotion generated volume is actually incremental? What part of those volumes is subsidized?
• How Does My Marketing Effectiveness Compare to My Competitors?
• What would happen next fiscal year if I change marketing spending allocations

• How much incremental dollar sales is generated for a million dollar invested in each Advertising campaign? Which are the most cost efficient campaigns? What are the most cost efficient media vehicles (Radio, Print, or TV)?
• Is My TV Advertising Working?
• Which are my most effective commercials? Which day-part delivery is more effective and cost efficient? How does TV advertising response vary by commercial length (e.g., :15’s versus :30’s)?
• Is there any advertising “halo” effect (e.g., Brand A commercial on Brand B volume)? What is the total, direct and halo impacts of different ads onto total franchise and brand volumes?
• Has TV delivery reached saturation point (point of diminishing returns)? What is the optimum range of weekly TV delivery to get maximum incremental volume?
• Which commercial has a longer impact on buyers’ behavior?
• How should TV and Print be scheduled to improve the media plan?

• How sensitive is brand volume to price? How does pricing of individual sizes impact the total brand?
• How much incremental dollar sales is generated for a million dollar invested in each Consumer Promotion tactic? Which are the most cost efficient promotion activities?
• Which trade promotion tactic (Temporary Price Reduction, Feature/No Display, Display/No Feature, Feature & Display) is most cost efficient? What trade promotion vehicles work best? Which SKU has the strongest response to Trade Promotion?
• How much of the new product volume is incremental to the brand? What is the level of cannibalization?