Office Building Gets Permit

The Conservation Commission has granted a Sandy Hook firm a wetlands permit for the company’s proposed construction of an 18,000-square-foot office building on Commerce Road.

Commission members unanimously approved the permit for The Harrison Group October 27.

The two-acre parcel where the firm plans to build is on the east side of Commerce Road, between the main post office and Charter Communications. The marketing firm is now located on Glen Road in Sandy Hook.  It employs 17 people. The Harrison Group plans to lease out space in its new proposed facility.

The construction project will be subject to review by the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Date: Fri 17-Sep-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Harrison-group-market-research

Full Text:

Sandy Hook Firm Plans To Expand On Commerce Road

(with photo)

BY STEVE BIGHAM

The Harrison Group of Sandy Hook has announced it recently purchased two acres

of land in the Newtown Business Park on Commerce Road. The worldwide market

research and consulting firm, currently located on Glen Road, plans to build

an 18,000 square-foot facility.

That's only part of the excitement for president/owner Doug Harrison and his

upstart company. His newly unveiled automated interviewing technique, Synapse,

is expected to spiral the Harrison Group into being the "Microsoft" of market

research.

With its clients being mostly Fortune 500 companies, the Harrison Group has

completed work in almost every region of the globe. In 1997, the company

recorded sales of $1 million. In 1998, those figures jumped to $3 million.

This year, numbers are expected to reach $6 million. Those familiar with the

market research firm attribute the success to the company's high standards and

the development of creative solutions for each client's issues.

Doug Harrison, 34, spent 10 years working for the market research firm of

Yankelovich Partners in Norwalk where he ultimately ran one of the company's

main strategic research groups.

"I finally decided I could basically do everything they were doing and more on

my own," he said earlier this week.

In 1996, he started the Harrison Group in the basement of his home after

moving to Newtown with his wife, Kim. Mr Harrison started out by himself with

just one part-time person. Today, he employs 17.

So what exactly does the Harrison Group do?

"We tend to do higher end strategic research positioning and market

segmentation, which is identifying the most valuable customer targets for new

and existing products," Mr Harrison explained.

Typically, the Sandy Hook company's work involves primary consumer research or

business-to-business research. It involves the use of surveys which are

completed by subcontractors based all over the world. The results are sent

back to the Harrison Group for various types of statistical analysis.

"We look for groups that exhibit common attitudes, behaviors and demographics

that present predisposition toward our client's product. We then organize more

efficient ways to reach them," Mr Harrison said.

The company's clients include McDonalds, Coca Cola, Microsoft and M&M Mars --

huge corporations who spend billions on advertising and want to make sure

they're reaching the right market.

The Harrison Group also produces optimization work, which identifies the best

bundling of features and benefits at alternative price levels to return the

greatest return on investment. It produces forecasts for sales projections and

provides market strategies.

Synapse

Synapse is an automated survey mechanism run through the Internet that is

designed to cut weeks off market research projects while increasing accuracy.

"The speed part of it is the main benefit. This is a business that is time

sensitive. There are lots of deadlines," Mr Harrison said.

The Synapse system is expected to be rolled out later this year and could end

up being to the Harrison group what Windows was to Bill Gates.

"We can't fully leverage the system just by using it for our own clients. The

idea is to license Synapse to other market research firms," he said. "We hope

to make this the standard of the market research industry. There are

tremendous benefits to this.

The Harrison Group is a tight-knit bunch which excels in paying attention to

its clients' needs.

The Harrison Group intends to lease out some space in its new facility.

Doug and Kim have a son, Adam, age 3, and another one on the way. The baby is

due sometime this month.