Kahn Research Group has recently been mentioned in:

The Washington Post - Now Playing In Aisle 7 . . . Grocers Cater to the Kiddie Crowd By Dina ElBoghdady

"Parents tend to spend 10 to 40 percent more if the kids are with them and in a relatively good mood, said Greg Kahn, founder and chief executive of Kahn Research Group LLC in Charlotte, which does market analysis for retailers. And the number goes even higher when dad does the shopping.

Impulsive children play an important role in supermarket sales. "Grocery stores are designed to be impulse centers," Kahn said. "They're designed for kids. That's why you always see a kid tugging at someone's arm saying 'Buy this.' "

Syndicated in:

The Seattle Times

Duluth News Tribune

The Sun News

The Denver Post - Shoppers wait until last minute: Desire for bargains, lack of time prompt 11th-hour buying by Kelly Pate

"I think we've become more of a last-minute-everything culture," said Greg Kahn, a consumer behavior expert. "The dual-income family has (more) money but they don't have the time anymore."

Entrepreneur Magazine - Marketing Buzz by Nichole L. Torres

"With 80 percent of purchase decisions being made at the point-of-purchase, video monitors have the potential to be profitable for [marketers]," says Greg Kahn, CEO of Kahn Research Group, a behavioral research company in Huntersville, North Carolina. He notes they probably work best on captive audiences (in elevators, for instance)-after all, where else will people look?

Charlotte Observer - Curtain's up, unveiling bigger, brighter Belk by Leigh Dyer

The industry is suffering from an identity crisis, said retail researcher Greg Kahn, CEO of Kahn Research Group in Huntersville. "Department stores can't seem to decide whether they're discount or luxury," he said. "Having a sale every week makes it no longer a sale.... The customer ends up feeling they're not getting the best possible deal."

Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Defying Gravity by Alexander Coolidge

"The customer who is attracted by 50 percent off is not a loyal customer," said Greg Kahn, whose Hunterville, N.C.-research firm studies consumer behavior. "Department stores that went the discount route won't be able to go back, and everyone seemed to cross that line last year."

The National Retail Federation's STORES Magazine - "CPFR Initiative Allows Ace to Boost Revenue While Cutting Costs" by Dale Buss

http://www.jda.com/file_bin/News/09.01Ace_STORES.pdf

The Salt Lake Tribune - Retail Spies Record Customer Activity by Leigh Dyer

http://www.sltrib.com/2002/jul/07262002/business/756603.htm

The Indianapolis Star - "NASCAR fans' zeal fuels brand loyalty" by Chris O'Malley

Of course, there are limits on what fans might be willing to associate
with. While men will don a Tide jacket "there are limits," said Greg
Kahn, founder of Kahn Research Group in Huntersville, N.C.

"No matter how well Mark Martin does, you won't be seeing anyone wearing
a Viagra baseball cap anytime soon."

http://www.indystar.com/article.php?nasfans03.html

Charlotte Observer, 07-29-2002 - Huntersville firm lands research
contract with Pepsi Co. - Leigh Dyer

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/3758732.htm

The Orange County Register - 07-28-2002 - “Marketers turn to cameras” by Leigh Dyer

http://www.ocregister.com/business/retailspiescci.shtml

Excerpt from Newsweek Japan, July 7, 2002 – “Surveillance” by Charles Downey

Some U.S. manufacturers and retailers have decided that it's not enough to ask shoppers why they bought a product. So they're turning into Big Brother and using hidden video cameras and microphones to see exactly how shoppers react to new products in the store. "We study consumers as they behave, not as they say they behave," says Anne Kahn, managing partner of Kahn Research Group in Huntersville, North Carolina, which places cameras in stores ranging from Home Depot to Hometown Buffet, a one-price, all-you-can-eat chain.

Excerpt from Supermarket News, June 3, 2002 - “TV or Not to TV? Retailers wrestle with the idea of putting video monitors in their stores” by John Karolefski

The keys to successful installations are where the monitors are placed in the store and how long the brand message is, according to Greg Kahn, chief executive officer, Kahn Research Group, Charlotte, N.C., which studies shopper behavior in stores. “The message on any active display should be no longer than three or four seconds in length. Since you never know at what point in the video message a consumer will take notice, going beyond three seconds is a perilous course of action,” he said.

Excerpt from The Free Lance-Star, June 22, 2002 – “Hate those long grocery store lines? Be your own cashier.” by Kelby Hartson Carr

Greg Kahn of Kahn Research Group studies shopper behavior. He said the checkout lanes are more convenient for some people than for others.It is ideal for the young male buying just a few things, he said. It isn't as easy to use for someone with a cart packed full of groceries.

Shoppers need assistance if they buy beer (requiring a license) or pay by certain methods such as by check. Customers also do more work, like bagging their own groceries, which some shoppers may not like.

He said some people will be reluctant to use it just because it's unfamiliar. "It will bring out a panic in a certain type of customer," Kahn said.

But it has many advantages, he said.

"I've never seen a line at any of the self-scan checkouts," he said. "Personally, I like it because I don't like standing in line."

Kasey Lyon, 13, of Falmouth, proves Kahn's point: Youth are quicker to embrace this new technology.

She enthusiastically slid family groceries past the scanner.

"It's cool," Lyon said. "It's just fun."

The Free Lance-Star (June 22, 2002)

Excerpt for The Charlotte Observer, Wed, June 19, 2002 - “Marketers turn to cameras” by LEIGH DYER

"We don't look at just what people are buying; we're looking at what they're not buying and why they're not buying," said Greg Kahn, founder and CEO of Kahn Research Group, based in Huntersville.

His company uses wireless cameras not much bigger than a deck of cards, which record digital images to DVDs. Researchers also follow customers with notebook-sized computers.

Founded in 1999 by Kahn . . .

complete article available at The Charlotte Observer (June 19, 2002)

Excerpt from the Charlotte Business Journal, January 25, 2002 – Point of View Column entitled “Retailers' panic made gloomy holiday season self-fulfilling” – by Greg Kahn

Having heard the dire predictions about year-end retail sales, I went to SouthPark mall expecting to find it a veritable ghost town, haunted by dwindling consumer confidence and a stagnant economy. Instead, I found not empty stores, but something far more troubling -- empty hands. While consumers were still out in force, they were doing little of what matters most in retail -- buying. And, on further inspection, I concluded that as much as retailers would like to blame their troubles on the recession, the real problem is not the economy, but how stores have reacted to the economy . . . complete article available at The Charlotte Business Journal (January 25, 2002)

Marketing Guru Philip Kotler's new book, Marketing Management, Milennium Edition. Kahn Research Group is singled out due to our strict focus on "seriously developing better methodologies for online consumer research."

Excerpt from The New York Times, September 13, 1999:- “Two Companies Show Progress in Group Buying” by Bob Tedeschi

The risk for early buyers, of course, is that they will jump in at the higher price and risk having to pay it if no one else joins in.

"The issue is a cross between the prisoner's dilemma and the bystander effect," said Greg Kahn, chief executive of Kahn Research Group, a research firm. "If they all cooperate, they will reap a greater benefit, but cooperation puts them at risk -- as in the prisoner's dilemma. That leads everyone to wait for someone else to jump in first -- which is the bystander effect."

These group dynamics, he said, "can really only be eliminated by setting the initial price at or below the market price."

The full article is available at The New York Times e-Commerce Report (registration required) - registration is required

Excerpt from QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) - "Who Delivers in Drive-Thru?", July 10, 2000, by Charlie Fletcher

In some areas, drive-thrus are growing so crucial that people are discussing their drive-thru problems on radio talk shows in an effort to give each other the latest reports on the worst service, says Anne Kahn, managing partner of Kahn Research Group, a market research firm headquartered in Huntersville, North Carolina.

But the question is, how long with the lines get? Kahn predicts a time in the not-too-distant future when pressure could come from outside the restaurant industry to change the whole idea. It won't be consumer frustration over long lines that will create the big changes, she says—it will be environmentalists' concerns over air pollution from all those thousands of cars and trucks idling in drive-thru order lanes.

"I think drive-thrus are going to have to come up with different ways of doing things so that cars are not idling so long," says Kahn. "Nobody turns their motor off when they're waiting, and air quality is a huge problem. I think pressure is going to come from air quality regulators."

Kahn predicts the re-emergence of the drive-in restaurant and the development of a form of curbside service as ways that quick-service operators will use to solve the problem.

The full article is available at

QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) "Who Delivers in Drive-Thru?" 

Excerpt from The Charlotte Business Journal, April 10, 2000 – “Table Talk” by J.C Zoghby

If you're prone to tantrums in drive-through lines, watch out. A local company will spend the next 30 days analyzing drive-through, sit-down and take-out service at Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC stores across the country. Kahn Research Groupr founder Greg Kahn says his three-person company will hire six employees for the in-store research as the corporate headquarters look to make a move online.

The complete column is available at http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2000/04/10/tidbits.html

BizJournals.com "It's full spending ahead for IT now that Y2K's over," February 18, 2000

BizJournals.com Table Talk, April 7, 2000