My father, Paul Baker, who has died aged 77, was a co-founder in 1975 of the Ohal consultancy, which pioneered the use of econometric analysis to help clients understand what drove their sales and profits, forecast the impact of different investment scenarios and optimise future marketing.
The consultancy prospered despite the efforts of several advertising agencies to put them out of business, as prospective clients now needed to consider this new, more rigorous approach to evaluating their marketing strategies.
Among the many big-name clients Paul advised were Andrex, for whom he assessed the benefit of using their puppy adverts for toilet paper, and Sainsbury’s, with whom he calculated the value of featuring Jamie Oliver in its marketing campaigns.
Although his business partner, Callaghan O’Herlihy, retired in 1994 and Ohal was sold in 1999 to the advertising company WPP, Paul continued to work for Ohal until his retirement in 2007. This ensured that his influence extended to a new generation of experts in econometrics.
Paul was born in Malvern, Worcestershire, to Peggy (nee Cook), a housemistress at Malvern girls’ college (now Malvern St James), and her husband, Dennis, an accountant. One of four siblings, he enjoyed a happy childhood roaming around the Malvern Hills.
After leaving the King’s school in Worcester, where he was head boy, Paul went to Exeter University in 1967 to study statistics. His first job was at the tea company Brooke Bond in London, as an operational researcher, problem solving and writing small computer programs to help departments while they waited for bigger computer systems to materialise. At Brooke Bond he met Marion Clarke, who was working in a similar role, and they married in 1978, settled in Beckenham, in the London Borough of Bromley, and raised three children, Gail, Patrick and me.
Paul left Brooke Bond to co-found Ohal with Callaghan, whom he had first met when Callaghan went to Brooke Bond as a consultant to help with an advertising effectiveness project. At Ohal Paul had a gift for simplifying the most complex ideas.
Known for his wit and humour, Paul had the ability to brighten any room he entered, and his perspectives were invaluable to those who sought his counsel.
He was a sports enthusiast who particularly liked swimming and playing golf. He travelled around the world to watch British & Irish Lions rugby union tours, cricket world cups and Ryder Cup golf tournaments, and held debentures at Twickenham and Lord’s. He was also a governor at Cator Park school for girls (now Harris Girls’ Academy Bromley) in Beckenham from 2008 until 2012
He is survived by Marion, Gail, Patrick and me, seven grandchildren, and by his siblings, David, Mark and Alison.
