Content area
Full text
Ask Roseanne Luth about her work, and the answer is simple.
Opinions.
Getting into people's heads is the mainstay of Luth Research, Inc., the marketing research company Luth founded in 1977.
Getting into Luth's head, and the workings of her business, is to see that hard work and intense discipline have shaped Luth from a young age.
She, in turn, has built and nurtured Luth Research to fit the same contours.
Seated in her Mission Valley office, Luth pulls closer a stack of spreadsheets containing details of daily growth plans, deadlines and department progress. Being on top of things and in control, spells success for Luth.
Charles Rosen, Luth Research's vice president, explained the company's core value is exactly that attention to detail which Luth personifies.
"She's one of the most focused persons I've ever met in the business," Rosen said. The infrastructure Luth designed would be able to support a much larger company, he said.
That's precisely her intention.
Last year, Luth Research's gross volume totaled about $3.5 million. This year, with a move Downtown to the old CB Commercial Building, the company expects to double last year's figures.
The company's growth has been steady: 20 percent a year, she said. Currently, there are 35 full-time employees and 400 part-timers, Luth said.
The company handles 50 projects a week, she estimates, testing consumers' reaction to new products before the products go on a shelf, testing advertising, and collecting data on consumer response.
current projects include a new product for Howard Leight Industries, an Otay Mesa-based manufacturing company that makes earplugs and factory glasses for industrial workers. Another project focuses on a magnetic resonance imaging product for Toshiba's medical equipment division. A recent job was for PriceSmart.
Luth Research's Mission Valley office includes large areas for...