A lifetime of contributions to marketing research

Working with Professors Joseph Blackburn and Dale Wilson, Kevin Clancy developed, published and employed the first sophisticated mathematical model for forecasting awareness of a new product or new advertising campaign, prior to the introduction of the campaign in the marketplace. This model has been employed as part of a simulated test marketing service and also as a stand-alone tool for forecasting awareness of new campaigns.

A year after Copernicus opened its doors in 1993, Kevin Clancy and Dr. Steve Tipps introduced the Discovery model, the state-of-the-science in new product and new service forecasting. Among the new developments captured in the model are the built-in corrections for over-statement, depending upon different levels of buyer involvement in the product category; and the inclusion of many new determinants of awareness including public relations, outdoor advertising, word-of-mouth, websites and web advertising. The model has been presented at numerous marketing conferences and employed by consumer product and service firms to make new product decisions. Discovery is featured in the new book Market New Products Successfully (with Peter Krieg and Marianne Wolf), Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books—A Division of Rowman & Littlefield (2006).

Also in the early 90’s, Kevin Clancy demonstrated at professional conferences and in several books that “product category involvement,” a frequently cited marketing concept, is not a characteristic of product categories but rather is a characteristic of individual buyers. Clancy’s argument and data suggest that while it is true that many CPG purchasers are low in involvement, others choose a CPG brand with an obsession that other buyers reserve for categories such as automobiles. This discovery has lead to the increasing use of individual-level involvement as a key component in market targeting and simulated test marketing models.

In the mid nineties Kevin Clancy co-developed with his partner Gary Morris, a breakthrough auditing system for evaluating marketing decision making practices (compared to world class standards) for 22 different types of decisions, 80 different factors and over 700 specific aspects of marketing. This technology has been called by Professor Phillip Kotler “The best approach to measuring best practices in marketing that exists today.”