Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

In Security Solutions for Strip Shopping Centers, author and security expert witness Karim H. Vellani discusses risks and solutions for strip shopping center security:

Using Police Data

Given that we now know that crime analysis uses actual crime data, we should define, step by step, the methodology that is proven, considered a best practice, and most important, accepted in court. The first step is to obtain the police department data for each store. This data usually comes in the form of Calls for Service (CFS), which provide a fairly accurate portrayal of criminal and other activity and consist of each call to the police to report crimes or other activity from the location. With this initial data, we can begin to build our database of crime at each store.

Trademark expert witness William D. Neal is Senior Executive Officer at SDR Consulting and in Modeling Brand Equity, he writes on branding:

Measurement Issues

The challenge to both marketers and marketing researchers is determining how we measure and manage the intrinsic value of a brand (its equity) and how do we tie that value and our attempts to improve value to customer loyalty.

In Security Solutions for Strip Shopping Centers, author and security expert witness Karim H. Vellani discusses risks and solutions for strip shopping center security:

Having outlined some of the concerns at strip centers, it should be noted that the focal point of this article is how to determine the true risk at these facilities, rather than the reasons for the risk. As such, we turn to the way in which risk can be determined.

Shopping center managers face a formidable challenge in determining the true risk at their properties because their addresses are often used by crime victims, witnesses, and even the police to report criminal incidences. Adding to this problem is the fact that many people without phones in their residences use the payphones at shopping centers to report crimes that happened elsewhere. Even crimes that occur on the public street can get reported using the center’s address. These issues necessitate the need to thoroughly investigate each crime of violence to determine the true location.

Trademark expert witness William D. Neal is Senior Executive Officer at SDR Consulting and in Modeling Brand Equity, he writes on branding:

We believe the total value of a brand in a particular product/service category is composed of three parts. One part is due to the physical and readily identifiable (and replicatable) features of the brand that delivers specific, tangible benefits to the purchaser, thus impacting purchase choice. We call these the tangible product features. The second part is due to some perceived intrinsic value associated with the brand name due to such things as the image transferred to the purchaser, trust, longevity in the marketplace, social responsibility, consistent performance, and so forth (i.e. the intangibles), impacting purchase choice. We refer to this as the brand’s image, or the brand’s equity. The third component is the price of the product. Thus, the total value (or utility) of a product or service is a function of 1.) its physical, tangible, deliverable features, 2.) its brand equity, and 3.) its price.

In addition, we believe that a brand’s value is directly related to customer loyalty. That is, if a particular brand maintains a significantly higher perception of value to a consumer than any other brand in the category, that consumer will consistently purchase that brand and consistently recommend that brand to others. Conversely, as brands in a category become less differentiated in terms of both tangible and intrinsic features, price becomes the major differentiator of value, and thus, there is little loyalty.

In Security Solutions for Strip Shopping Centers, author and security expert witness Karim H. Vellani discusses risks and solutions for strip shopping center security:

Strip shopping centers face unique threats not common to other properties. Often considered a safe haven by customers, strip centers contain various types of businesses and stores that create high traffic levels of both vehicles and pedestrians. Shopping centers often contain an anchor store which draws the bulk of the traffic, such as grocery stores and department stores. Grocery stores, in particular, face numerous crime challenges as they meet many customer needs beyond groceries.

The two biggest threats to shopping centers are victimization of employees and customers and the liability associated with such events. The inherent nature of the facility lends itself to high traffic, because diverse businesses are located within the center. This high traffic creates an abundance of targets for criminals. Other factors that can contribute to higher traffic and higher risks are external payphones, banks and automated teller machines (ATM), and the location of the center at major cross streets or near highways. These factors along with other considerations are typically what the real estate department is looking for when selecting and planning new shopping centers as the factors also contribute to marketability. Thus, a fine line exists between marketability and security.

Trademark expert witness William D. Neal is Senior Executive Officer at SDR Consulting and in Modeling Brand Equity, he writes on branding:

A brand’s equity therefore becomes part of the tradeoff exercise a consumer considers as they first select their consideration set, then decide which product to purchase. That is, purchasers actively trade off both the perceived tangible benefits and the perceived intrinsic benefits delivered by products in their consideration set, against price, to arrive at their value hierarchy, and ultimately their purchase decision.

Brands that have high perceived value are always included in a purchaser’s consideration set. If a brand’s combined tangible and intrinsic equities are consistently higher than any other brand in the category, that brand will have the highest customer loyalty in terms of purchase, repurchase, and recommendation. Competing brands can only improve their loyalty against the brand equity leader by lowering price in the short term, improving their product’s tangible features in the mid term, or improving their brand’s intrinsic benefits, or equity, in the long term.

Property management expert witness Ann E. Reisch, CPM, CCIM, RPA is Principal of Reisch Consulting Group, Inc. in Central Florida. Also a member of the Industry Standards Advisory Board for the Institute of Real Estate Management, here she writes on resident screening during the leasing process.

Nothing is more devastating to a landlord than to learn that someone was seriously injured or killed on their property. What makes it tragic is to learn that the person responsible was one of their tenants. One of the biggest mistakes a landlord can make is to improperly screen prospective residents during the leasing process. While credit checks, employment verification and reference checking is often done, the most frequent omission landlords make is the failure to check a person’s criminal history.

The safety of residents is paramount. Protecting the property itself is also essential. By obtaining a person’s criminal history before they move in, individuals with prior convictions for violent crimes, sexual assault or other egregious offenses can be identified and rejected for occupancy. When considering that the cost of obtaining this information is typically paid for by the applicant, there is no justifiable reason to skip this important step when leasing property.

Trademark expert witness William D. Neal is Senior Executive Officer at SDR Consulting and in Modeling Brand Equity, he writes on branding:

The measurement and management of brand equity has become a major issue for marketers and marketing researchers over the last several years. The concept of brand equity goes well beyond the legal concept of a trademark or the accounting concept of goodwill. Brand equity encompasses a gestalt of intrinsic values, or equities, that adds to the tangible, measurable benefits delivered by a particular product or service. These intrinsic equities may include such things as the image imparted to the purchaser, advertising quality, advertising quantity, trust, long term reputation for reliability, customer support, social responsibility, and so forth.

As an example, two unbranded home breadmakers may deliver the exact same set of features in terms of capacity, warranty, ease of use, display, color alternatives, and price. As long as these two breadmakers remain unbranded, they will be undifferentiated and therefore equivalent to the purchaser. But, if we label one of those breadmakers, say, an Acme and the other Braun, most purchasers will attribute additional, intrinsic, value to the Braun product. The two branded breadmakers are no longer undifferentiated and, to most consumers, the Braun breadmaker has more value. Most purchasers associate the Braun brand name with the intrinsic values of quality, durability, reliability, trust, and an image with which they want to be associated.

the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is deciding whether millions of women who work at Wal-Mart or are former employees can join a class action sex-discrimination lawsuit against the chain. Plaintiff’s attorney Brad Seligman says that discrimination was “a system-wide process” at Wal-Mart’s 3,400 stores and that their sexual discrimination expert witness found that “in every one of 41 regions, women got paid less than men” by an average of a couple of thousand dollars a year. As a class action it would be the largest civil rights suit in US history. Seligman wants to see all the women compensated and the company change its practices.

Excerpted from SFGate.com.

The Coalition for Affordable Health Care was in Pittsfield, MA, Friday to talk to the public and business owners about their coverage. Health New England President & CEO Peter Straley told them that a lot needs to change and the best way to get coverage costs under control is to take better care of ourselves. Our health should also include more conservative care. Too often, Straley says, doctors order more tests than are needed. “MRIs, CTs…these are exceptionally expensive, exceptionally important diagnostic tools, but we use them too much,” said Straley.

One local insurance expert says another way to rein in health care costs is to shop around. “As frustrated as employers are, they are having more options and they are taking advantage of the marketplace forces,” said True North Financial Services insurance broker Holly Taylor.