About MIT
MIT's business philosophy is to serve fewer clients extremely well--as responsively as an in-house research department but at lower cost. The company's clients include many regional, national, and international marketers and public agencies. The company has unique experience in the design and maintenance of marketing information systems for attractions in the travel and entertainment industry such as theme and amusement parks and major league sports teams, stadiums, and arenas. We have experience in a number of industries, but thoroughly understand the operations and promotions of attractions that stay in one place and attract people.
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If desired by our clients, MIT serves as the equivalent of an in-house marketing research department, maintaining and updating the marketing information systems we have established, and performing custom analyses, including longitudinal analyses, from the data bases we have developed. Some of our data bases for some clients go back as far as 22 years in one case, 20 years in another case. Most of these custom analyses are provided on the same day or the next day, or in just a few days if extensive analytical preparation is required. By sharing our fixed costs, non-competing clients have at their fingertips the resources and expertise, and more than the responsiveness of an in-house marketing research department, at a very affordable cost. |
Our Resources
Marketing research is first and foremost a knowledge and expertise business, and our most important assets are our people. The lead researcher on all projects is an extensively formally-trained professional, a documented expert in the field, with extensive, high-level business experience. (Please click on "Senior Analyst" to verify. Please also click on "Research Tips" to possibly see the answer to a question you may have.) Other company resources include a high-capacity computer system designed especially for marketing research applications; customized applications software, and a complete line of audio-visual equipment.
| MIT's customized applications products include customizable general research systems for attractions; a data-base management software system; a computerized, ZIP code-driven socioeconomic profiler; a customizable promotional effectiveness tracking system; and a computer-based telephone interviewing system using population-balanced random digit dialing. The company maintains a file of the latest updates of over 100 U.S. Census Bureau demographic measurements for every ZIP code in the United States. We can collect data by any means in any research venue with turnaround times with meaningful results in the shortest possible time frame required to develop those meaningful findings. |  |
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Our Customizable Research Products MIT has a basic Theme/Amusement Park Products which is easily customizable to any theme or amusement park’s basic continuous information needs. The research design was developed through years of experience working with these attractions. The design calls for continuous in-park surveying, augmented if desired by a ZIP-Code-driven sources-of-origins survey and a telephone survey going into local or targeted DMA/ADI markets. The design has been thoroughly field-tuned over a period of 20 years. An analyzable data base quickly emerges from the resulting data base, and can be merged with MIT’s other socioeconomic databases for extended inferences. |
| Our basic Sports Team/Stadium/Arena Product is also easily adaptable to any sports team, stadium, arena, or even foodservice supplier’s needs. This product consists of several questionnaire versions identifying fan evaluations of various aspects of the organization’s facilities and services, and identifies elaborate fan demographics and attendance incidence measurements, including seating areas, allowing for three and even four-way crosstabular analyses. The design has also been field-tuned over a period of 20 years, and also yields a data base which can be merged with MIT’s other socioeconomic databases. This design can include a geodemographic clustering of the greater drawing area for the stadium, and provides for crosstabular analyses via mapping. |  |
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Our basic Cruise Line Product is again quickly adaptable to the basic information needs of a cruyise ship or line, providing customer service evaluations of facilities and services turned around extremely quickly. The product can be augmented by detailed evaluations of individual service employee groups, identified on the basis of such as cabin assignments and dinner seating arrangements. The cruise line product also includes a sources-of-origins study and a passenger database management system. MIT also maintains a data base of travel agents. |
MIT has numerous other designs which are quickly adaptable to the continuous needs of ski resorts and other types of resorts, and our promotional tracking system, a discontinuous telephone survey system, tracks market penetration and product performance from unawareness to awareness to comprehension to trial to repeat or intention/no intention to repeat, and includes ranged advertising recall measurements.
Examples of Our Work
| For a major theme park system, MIT has developed and maintained a marketing information system consisting of in-park customer research identifying customer satisfaction with all phases of operations, trip and travel information, and extensive customer demographics with monthly reporting and thousands of custom analyses developed form the extensive data bases. This base system was augmented by biannual promotional tracking studies from local markets, numerous special studies such as new attraction and special-event studies, and tens of thousands of custom analyses going to corporate headquarters and to the individual parks. (Duration: 20+ years.) |  |
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For major league baseball teams, stadiums, and arenas, MIT, via a regular in-stadium survey, provides a large array of measurements concerning fan demographics, motivation, perception of the facility and it services, and a detailed sources of residency analysis, all tracked across current-season months and against comparable periods of the preceding season. One of these systems is augmented by two promotional tracking surveys, one of the local DMA and one of other nearby markets. (Duration: 20+ years) |
| For a cruise line, MIT supplies on each of its three cruise ships an on-board marketing information system, a ZIP-code drive Sources of Residency Study, and a continuous ZIP-code-based socioeconomic profile of customers using proprietary data base and software. A second cruise line client receives much the same system, augmented by a detailed passenger evaluation of individual waiters, busboys, and cabin stewards. MIT also maintains a data base of passengers and travel agents for the cruise customers, in fulfillment of their direct mail and telemarketing promotional programs. (Duration: 10+ years) |  |
Services to other clients include custom surveys, tracking surveys, focus group administration, client panel design and administration, managing a national direct marketing tracking program, marketing information systems design and maintenance, and competitive feature mapping.
The Senior Analyst of the company is Dr. Conway Rucks. (Click on See Our Senior Analyst). Additional information can be provided by contacting the company at (501) 661-0690.
Our Clients
Our list of current and former clients includes some of the largest and most progressive firms in a variety of industries. Many of these relationships have durations ranging from five to twenty-plus years.
Theme/Amusement Parks and Systems |
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| • Busch Entertainment Corporation |  |
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| • Silver Dollar City | ||
| • Major League Sports—(Directly) | ||
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| • With Aramark (Arenas/Stadiums) | • Baseball Teams | |
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| • With SportService (Baseball Teams) | • Arenas (Basketball/Hockey) | |
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| • Motor Sports | ||
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| • Cruise Lines | ||
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| • Other Attractions | ||
• Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tours & Gift Shops |
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• Anheuser-Busch Beer Schools |
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| • Anheuser-Busch Bud World & Mobile Beer Schools | ||
| • Arkansas State Fair | ||
•The Budweiser Clydesdales |
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| • All other Anheuser-Busch | ||
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Resorts and Developments |
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Advertising |
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Others |
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