Growing research firm shapes the products that hit the shelves

Vada Grantham has always been fascinated by something most people take for granted: products. All of the products that line store shelves had to be created and marketed. Consumers then react to those products. Grantham says that process of creation, presentation and reaction led him to create T.L. Grantham & Associates.   

When he and his wife, Theresa, began the business in 1987, they were catching the food promotions wave. The food promotions industry, was well-established on the coasts and easing into the Midwest. Grantham’s employees handed out samples for manufacturers such as General Mills, Nabisco, Kraft, Quaker Oats and Keebler in grocery stores.

T.L. Grantham & Associates was named Agency of the Year by News America Marketing in 1997, was featured in Time magazine in 1998 and by 1999 had 500 employees in eight states. Then the tide turned as many of Grantham’s biggest clients diversified and became competitors in food promotion.

“It was stores like Hy-Vee, Dahl’s and Fareway that saved us,” Grantham said. “They said, ‘This company’s home-grown, and we’re going to stick with them.”

Vada Grantham, chief executive officer of T.L. Grantham, and Teresa Grantham, president, decided it was time to make a change. They sold the food division in 1999 with the stipulation that they retain their company’s name and research division. Begun in 1991, the division conducts consumer surveys, focus groups, business-to-business research, on-site research and product testing for food, financial, political and agricultural products.

Twenty or 30 years ago, products were conceived, approved by executives, then produced and shipped to stores, Grantham said. Companies then would nervously wait to see if consumers liked the new products, and that gamble could cost them a lot of money. Now companies routinely use services like Grantham’s to test the product, its packaging and its advertising campaign.

The company also performs mock trials. If a client is facing a lawsuit, they can bring in lawyers and a jury of consumers. After presenting the case the way they would in an actual trial, they use the jury’s verdict to decide if they should settle out of court.

When T.L. Grantham and Associates shifted its main focus from food promotions to research, it had to rebuild its customer base.

“We were so focused on the national market that we lost sight of what we had right here,” Grantham said. “A lot more local business were clued in to who we were by the Time article, but after we sold the food division, we had to spend about a year and a half getting our name out in Iowa.”

Grantham, originally from the South, first came to Iowa 23 years ago and he and Teresa moved from Iowa City to Des Moines in 1984. After graduating from Grand View College, Grantham decided to stay in Des Moines and establish a business. He says he felt an opportunity for growth.

“The potential here is so enormous from a business perspective,” Grantham said.

Iowa provides special opportunities for market research firms in particular.      “Iowa is not trendy,” Grantham said. “We don’t jump on the bandwagon like on the east and west coasts. When a company wants to know the long-term future of a product, they ask what Iowans think.”

Located in Park Fair Mall, T.L. Grantham and Associates has the added advantage of a wide pool of consumers to question. Every driver in Polk County must go to the mall to renew his or her driver’s license.

Nonetheless, the company has faced the challenges of the economic downturn. Grantham says many companies are cutting back on research and marketing, even though the opportunities for better pricing structures abound and research could help companies formulate strategies to create market growth.

“We are affected by the fragile economy, but people still need information,” Grantham said. “Clients still make new products and create new ad campaigns for those products. As long as they continue to do so, there’s a need for our services.”