Home textile company pursues new business ideas based on Sample learning

At American Pacific, the marketing department is able to gain insight into new product ideas at the concept stage, for timely understanding of potential opportunities.

American Pacific Enterprises is a home textile manufacturer specializing in bedding, window and bath products. The company's products are broadly distributed among the largest retailers across the country, including Bed Bath and Beyond, Linens N Things, and JC Penney.

Suzanne Griffin, Marketing Manager, began using Zoomerang survey software about three years ago. "We had a consultant come in to conduct some management training," she says. From this came an employee evaluation survey that was developed using Zoomerang. Shortly after that survey, the marketing group started using Zoomerang for their research needs.

Sample delivers targeted respondents quickly
Griffin does research regularly with Sample, Zoomerang's survey respondent service, sending out about one survey a month to inquire about consumers purchasing habits. Griffin requests a sample that is representative of her consumers. "Over 90% of consumers in our market are women, so our surveys usually target women only, within the ages of 25 - 55, who are interested in home fashion," she says. "We have requested anywhere from 250 to 1000 responses, depending on the purpose of the survey. I usually send out a survey in the afternoon, and by the time I get in to the office the next morning, I have a fair number of responses already. In most cases, we are able to close a survey in just three days."

Survey responses fuel business decisions
"Our surveys are developed either to understand the buying habits of our target audience, or to get a better understanding of use information," Griffin says. "Sometimes our surveys are designed to help us better understand categories of business, brands, or opportunities in the market today. We often test consumers' acceptance or familiarity with a product or brand name," she says. If the results are favorable, the company will sometimes take the matter to the next stage of development.

"Other times the survey is designed to help us learn what consumers are looking for so that we can better help our retail partners meet those needs and understand their customers," she says. In these cases, the responses allow the sales and merchandising teams to better support their retailers with more targeted information about their stores and their customers.

Respondents react positively to 'more interesting' surveys
Griffin thinks that some surveys get a better response because, "they're more interesting." In one survey, she inquired about duvet covers. The questions in the survey probed peoples understanding of that particular product versus comforters. When we reviewed the results from the first survey, we found ourselves asking more questions, and developed two more surveys on the same topic one for people who owned duvet covers and another for people who do not own one to gain a better understanding of their buying decisions, product benefits, etc. We wanted to find out why people either buy or don't buy duvet covers, to see what they perceived the benefits to be and what the challenges were in this category of business," she says. The results have helped the Marketing and Merchandising teams focus their communications and their efforts when working with their retailer partners and licensors.

Griffin feels that because the survey had an educational element to it telling the consumers about the benefits of duvet covers that it was well received. The respondents expressed interest in the informational element of the survey, and provided that feedback in the open-ended questions at the end.

Regional testing means potential for regionally focussed product placement
To date, Griffin has used Sample for national audiences, but she is considering moving into more regional surveying. "In the future, we may do surveys just for, say, San Francisco, Chicago and New York," she says. "We know that peoples buying habits can vary regionally in our industry from East Coast to West Coast, from urban to suburban. Sometimes it makes sense to survey a more targeted region, in order to understand the needs of a specific group of consumers. Its just nice to have that option with Sample.

Her business isnt seasonal, so surveys are created at any time, for many purposes. Were always looking at ways of improving or expanding our offerings. So if we have an idea or a question, well develop a survey, and Sample delivers the audience."