ABOUT US

Founded in 2000, Merchant Mechanics is a leading consumer behavior research firm that specializes in uncovering opportunities for increasing store generated revenues. We achieve this goal time and again by providing powerful insight and innovation that captures more dollars from shoppers. Our deliverables are based on a wide array of careful and impartial observations of how shoppers are actually shopping once inside the store.

Our research team possesses decades of experience in recording, evaluating, interpreting and effecting change on behavior. With a focus on adding value to every one of our clients through a better understanding of the consumer, Merchant Mechanics continues to provide innovative, cost effective and easily actionable solutions for enhancing the selling ability of any retail environment.

Our Mission

Merchant Mechanics has one goal: Provide insight that creates more profitable retail environments. By providing the most reliable data regarding consumer behaviors occurring within retail spaces in a timely and cost effective manner, we have never failed in successfully completing our mission.

Our Philosophy

Merchant Mechanics is guided by several principles we feel are critical to effective consumer research. We aspire to incorporate these principles into the planning and implementation of each project we undertake. We know that our adherence to this discipline has been, and will continue to be, a key to our success:

Customized Project Design

The issues that face each retailer, fixture manufacturer, or consumer products manufacturer are different. Therefore, we work with you to identify what your challenges are and develop a research program designed specifically to provide insights relevant to those challenges. Our reporting style is also customized to the receiving audience, so that the results of the project will be readily understood by each level of your organization. Our focus is always on your needs.

3rd-Party Objectivity

Merchant Mechanics is dedicated to delivering impartial assessments of consumer behavior. While we often provide insights aimed at improving store design, merchandising programs and marketing initiatives, our recommendations are based on empirical data. We do not participate at the creative level. This allows Merchant Mechanics and our clients to avoid the conflicts inherent with having a company assess its own work. Our objectivity also allows us to work closely in conjunction with our client's in-house creative teams and other third-party vendors.

Identification & Analysis

At Merchant Mechanics, we are convinced that research findings must diagnose as well as evaluate. Merchant Mechanics studies always assess marketing and merchandising effectiveness, but they also provide wisdom to help our clients improve their business. We believe that research data is only as powerful as its interpretation. Therefore, we apply our expertise to give our clients more than a "report card," we also provide a means to improve beyond common practices.

Balance of Quantitative & Qualitative Data

By studying the details of consumer shopping behavior as they occur in the store, and then investigating why those behaviors happen, we provide our clients with insight used to make the best-informed decisions. Whether we are investigating traffic patterns, signage, store design, packaging, or any other point-of-purchase matter, our research is designed to uncover both the "what" and "why" of shopping behavior.

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Our Team

Our Senior Research team members each have decades of experience in collecting, evaluating and interpreting behavioral data in a large variety of contexts. We have attained the highest levels of research training and have honed the skills for providing the deepest insight into your customer base. Just as important, we understand what questions to ask of a retail environment that allow the full integration of store functionality and aesthetics with consumer perceptions, preferences and behavior.

Our Associate Researchers are carefully chosen from elite pools of our nations top minds. With graduate level training, or the equivalent, as a minimum requirement for any research position at Merchant Mechanics, our clients are assured that our nation's best and brightest are thinking about their interests.

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Our Network

Merchant Mechanics continues to establish strategic alliances with companies who are thought-leaders in their respective markets. Synergistic partnerships have been successfully formed with consulting firms, consumer research outfits, retail architecture & store design firms, technology integration companies, academic institutions, and trade advocacy groups. These relationships establish a network of resources that are mutually drawn upon to meet the requirements of our, and our partners', clients. We would be excited to work with you towards extending the reach and power of the value proposition offered to your clients.

Partial list:

DRAFT Worldwide - Ad Age's 2005 & 2006 Top-Ranked, 5-Star Media Agency - Chicago, IL
Miller Zell - Leading retail design & brand marketing firm - Atlanta, GA
Pròspect (Jerry Gelsomino, Principal) - Retail brand image consultancy & environmental auditing firm - Santa Monica, CA
Stiernberg Consulting, Inc. - Commercial audio consultancy - Sherman Oaks, CA
Center For Lighting Education at Texas Christian University - Fort Worth, TX
Dartmouth College (Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences & Amos Tuck School of Business) - Hanover, NH
Lighting Research Center at Rensselear Polytechnic Institute - Troy, NY

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Skills & Knowledge

Our knowledge allows us to understand your customer's behaviors from lease-line to lease-line, and often beyond. All members of our research team have graduate degrees in retail relevant fields such as decision making psychology, spatial navigation, visual perception and statistics. Team members are all highly trained in observational and evaluative sciences. This expertise is used to provide our clients with indispensable insight about WHAT your customers are doing in the store and WHY they behave the way they do. Then we go a step further and suggest HOW to influence their behaviors to increase the frequency of the one behavior you definitely want...BUYING.

Our field research techniques include the latest technology in wireless video capture using closed circuit television as well as non-invasive behavioral observation. We also employ a variety of unique consumer attitude measurement services to provide our clients with insight into why certain behaviors are occurring within their stores or with their products. Merchant Mechanics also maintains a proprietary database of consumer preferences, perceptions and behaviors regarding a large number of retail concepts, contexts and interactions. This information allows us to quickly assess and compare empirical data collected from your retail environment in a larger context.

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Principal Bios

Matthew Tullman is co-founder and president of Merchant Mechanics. His role centers on providing the vision for growth and the strategies for achievement that drive the company forward. In addition, Mr. Tullman continues to pioneer the development of new techniques and resources for the advancement of the firm's video mining and consumer research practices.

His research background includes original studies of visual perception, way-finding and consumer behavior. He has published his work in prominent academic journals and has had his commentary and expert insight appear in business and retail publications such as Crain's New York Business, Visual Merchandising + Store Design, Display & Design Ideas, Chain Store Age, Retail Construction Magazine, NASFM Magazine, Systems Contractor News, The International Lighting Review and Outdoor Retailer Magazine.

As a frequent speaker, Mr. Tullman continues to share his firm's original research findings at numerous international conferences and institutions including GlobalShop, SPECS, NeoCon, Color Marketing Group, AQUA International, and IESNA. He has also appeared on Tech TV and ABC News.

Prior to founding Merchant Mechanics, Mr. Tullman led marketing research for Color Kinetics Incorporated, a publicly traded, Boston-based digital lighting concern. He holds a BS in psychology from Syracuse University and an MS in behavioral psychology from Dartmouth College.

Dr. Kimberly Clark is co-founder and vice president of research at Merchant Mechanics. Dr. Clark is the company's chief research executive in charge of all aspects of in-house and field research design, implementation and analysis. She also plays a critical role in project management. Prior to co-founding Merchant Mechanics, Dr. Clark held positions in marketing research, specializing in ethnographic and demographic studies, and in advertising, specializing in multi-sensory persuasion.

Dr. Clark's research background also includes innovative investigations of decision-making, choice patterns under time pressure, auditory perception and cross-cultural linguistics. She has published her research in highly esteemed academic journals and holds BA degrees in psychology, neuroscience and East Asian studies from Oberlin College. Dr. Clark earned her Ph.D. in psychology & cognitive science from Dartmouth College.