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Market Research

Uncover Opportunities for Business Growth With Market Research From Regional Strategic, Ltd.

Businesses and regional economic development organizations face a landscape that’s more competitive than ever. Understanding what your customers need and where they’re looking for it is a key factor in launching a new service line, a new product, or a new location.

Regional Strategic, Ltd. provides a host of market research and economic development consulting services for businesses and economic development groups who are looking for opportunities to expand. Our expert team will drill deep into consumer and public data to emerge with key recommendations on how to move forward.

We bring a wide range of experience to the table, and our consultants can quickly learn the lay of the land in your industry, conduct an in-depth study of your market feasibility, and identify data trends that will help you make informed decisions.

Regional Strategic’s Approach to Market Research

1.

Defining Market Characteristics to Analyze

  • Can your target generate enough spend?
  • Can your location generate enough traffic?
  • Can your product generate enough interest?
  • Can you capture enough share?
2.

Data Development

We use stakeholder surveys and secondary or purchased resources.
3.

Evaluation

We evaluate developed data with respect to market characteristics of interest.
4.

Project Report

We finalize the report and make any presentations that we agreed to conduct in the statement of work.

Our Market Research Expertise

Regional Strategic, Ltd. was recently commissioned by a rural retailer and farm supply enterprise to work through the site value of a proposed standalone appliance store. The client was primarily interested in three insights:

  • Can the target retail area generate enough spending to support the proposed investment?
  • What is the organic sales potential of existing traffic passing the proposed site?
  • What is the potential value of regular traffic into the proposed site’s community?

We started by defining the target market with respect to the local and select surrounding counties. Total relevant product spending within the target was estimated utilizing data from the Consumer Expenditure Surveys maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The portion of this spending flowing to retailers within the target area was determined with data derived from Iowa retail sales tax receipts available from Iowa State University’s Iowa Community Indicators Program. The difference is the estimated local expenditure that flows to nonlocal retailers. This number, plus estimates of market shares of target-area competitors, provided the client with the ability to evaluate the potential to capture enough spending to support the investment.

The analysis of the second question rested on daily average traffic statistics from the Iowa Department of Transportation. Using segment data for the highway in question, we identified total traffic and estimated portions of that traffic which are local within the community, local within the target area, nonlocal, and commercial. Each of these groups was assigned potential spending based on information derived in part one. This provides an estimate of potential clientele whose search cost is minimal. They do not have to be attracted to the location. They merely need to be enticed to park and walk in the door.

To analyze the third question, we estimated in-target-area traffic usingIowa DOT traffic statistics. We were able to estimate the volume of traffic from individual outlying target-area communities that accessed the site community daily. Commuter flows into the site community were estimated with data from the U.S. Census. Each of these commuters was also assessed an estimated potential spend. Part three also identified potential customers with limited search costs — they were already in the site community. It also identified the source communities of this potential spending — information that could drive targeted advertising to further reduce their search costs.

The final reports are the property of the client retailer.

Chad’s Pizza is a retail pizzeria in Dyersville, Iowa, with franchises in Cedar Falls and Grundy Center. In recent years, Chad’s has entered the frozen pizza manufacturing business on a small scale — producing frozen pizzas within existing facilities during non-retail hours. When Chad’s decided to invest in a dedicated frozen pizza production facility and significantly expand production capacity, Regional Strategic, Ltd. was enlisted to provide an analysis of the frozen pizza market within the target area.

The first step entailed researching the national frozen pizza market. It was found that three corporations control nearly half of the nationwide frozen pizza market. Market distribution is divided between direct-to-retail, wholesale, and other (including corporate and institutional cafeterias, fundraising vehicles, and other direct-to-consumer channels). The product is divided into full-size and individual pizzas which are further classified as regular, specialty, and deep-dish or thick-crust. Revenue data and volumes were estimated across the observed options.

Utilizing this information, consumer data on household pizza consumption and spending, and demographic information for Chad’s target market area, we were able to determine the market shares Chad’s would need to attain to support the proposed facility scale. Utilizing national market producer revenue and local store research within the market area, we were able to estimate the price ranges and potential revenue available to Chad’s product mix within the target market. From this, it was determined that the necessary market scale could support the revenue streams required to justify the proposed facility investment.

The final reports are the property of Chad’s Pizza.

In 2022, three enterprises proposed constructing carbon dioxide pipelines within Iowa to collect and sequester the carbon dioxide generated as a byproduct of ethanol production. Section 45Z of the Inflation Reduction Act provides credits for clean fuel production that will provide the potential revenue stream for these pipelines. In addition, sequestration is expected to increase carbon credits available from states and Canadian provinces with clean fuel legislation. It is expected that a portion of these increased credits will also accrue to the pipelines.

The other side of the coin is that there is an active industrial carbon dioxide market in Iowa. Carbon dioxide users have expressed concerns that carbon dioxide sequestration would reduce their access to or increase their expenditures on carbon dioxide. Regional Strategic, Ltd. was commissioned to estimate the size and composition of industrial carbon dioxide demand in Iowa and the proportion of carbon dioxide supply originating in the state’s ethanol production industry.

Estimating’s Iowa carbon dioxide consumption began with world data from the International Energy Agency. These were adapted to the United States and to Iowa based on industry and demographic shares. Care was taken to separate self-generated carbon dioxide from the carbon dioxide market. Care was also taken to identify industries included in international and national carbon dioxide distributions that did not exist within Iowa. The resulting industrial carbon dioxide demand for Iowa was estimated at nearly 440,000 tons per year. Food processing was the largest consuming industry at 310,000 tons. Medical utilization and firefighting consumed another 110,000 tons.

It was determined that four of the 41 ethanol production facilities in Iowa captured carbon dioxide for sale. Each delivers carbon dioxide directly to Air Products, which processes and markets the gas to industrial users. All four are committed to participating in a carbon dioxide sequestration pipeline. Utilizing direct contacts, media reports, and filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the volume of carbon dioxide marketed and the rate of collection was estimated for three of these four. Applying these estimates to the fourth facility, Regional Strategic, Ltd. estimates that subsidized carbon sequestration collections would cut between 375,000 and 425,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the Iowa industrial market. This is equivalent to between 85 percent and 97 percent of Iowa’s estimated industrial carbon dioxide demand.

The final reports are the property of the client.

Ready To Find Insights Through Market Research? Contact Regional Strategic, Ltd.