Pi-Consulting

Today marks the “official” start of the end of the holiday buying season. The “!2 Days of Christmas” though when was the last time you saw a partridge in a pear tree?? While all statistics won’t be in until at least mid January, the signs in the windows of the high end Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas declare the state of the retail economy:

Instead of waiting for Boxing day, stores are giving an early holiday gift to last minute shoppers trying to clear their inflated inventories. While this comes as a boon for shoppers looking for a deal, it bodes a sense of desperation for those retail companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Pi is the perfect tool for taking a look at retail’s core shoppers then identifying those who are bordering on the edge. Armed with this valuable information, companies are able to tailor an advertising campaign to attract those who might be “lost in translation.”

The staff at Pi is optimistically hoping for a happy and healthy holiday and a better 2009, both economically and altruistically. We think the brave new year starts on 1/20/2009.

Here’s an example from Pi’s archive of case-histories.

Young people in Spain mix their spirits with Coca-Cola when they’re out for the evening. The Coke remains the same, but what booze goes in it can be very different.

A leading international Scotch Whisky brand (and Pi client) was deeply concerned that young drinkers in Spain were migrating from Whisky to Rum as their mixer …sometimes in the middle of an evening! Yet no-one could explain why.

Pi’s consumer insight research team ran the Pi-Charts. We looked at three groups:

1. Whisky only mixers
2. Rum only mixers
3. Whisky OR rum, depending on their mood

The analysis examined everything from demographics to lifestyle and leisure, and homed in on attitudinal data about fun and pleasure.

So what was the key differentiator between Groups 2/3 and Group 1?

The rum drinkers turned out to be Salsa music freaks!

Key insights always tell you something about consumers. But sometimes they have surprisingly little to do directly with your product.

In that Whisky/Rum case, it was something cultural: young Spanish drinkers with an urge to dance had a romantic notion about Salsa music and warm Caribbean imagery. All the Whisky brand had to do was change the soundtrack behind their commercials, and the defectors started thinking differently about putting Scotch in their Coke!

At the risk of seeming immodest, Pi had done it again.

MORAL: Pi says “keep an open mind, and let your curiosity run free. Beware of analyses, segmentations etc. which only talk about your product; you may miss the key insight altogether. Try Pi-ChartsTM instead!”.