News notes
The Marketing Research Institute International, Rocky Hill, Conn., in partnership with the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, has launched an updated and expanded Principles of Marketing Research online certificate course. The launch unveils the latest development in the Principles program, the 12th Module, International Research, as well as content revisions of Modules 1-11.
The International Research Module, authored by Colin McDonald of the U.K., will be featured as a bonus module and will highlight specific challenges in marketing research that arise from the international context. McDonald has been a market researcher since 1961, both on the client side (Reckitt and Sons Ltd.) and with research agencies BMRB and Communication Research Ltd. He currently runs his own consultancy, McDonald Research and is co-editor of the ESOMAR Handbook of Market and Opinion Research (4th edition). A panel of industry reviewers also participated in the development of the module, including, William Douglas of The Coca-Cola Company; Gunilla Broadbent of Synovate; Adam Phillips of Real Research; and Julie Williams of Maritz Marketing Research.
The vision for the international research module was driven by ESOMAR. Its overall objective is to provide additional training on international themes. ESOMAR is a sponsoring organization of MRII, along with the Marketing Research Association.
Also included in the expanded Principles of Marketing Research is the 2003 addition of the Web-based course in Module 11, Web Survey Research and Data Delivery Methods. An added advantage of the curriculum is the online glossary of terms and phrases unique to marketing research conducted via the Internet.
Modules 1-10 were revamped, under the direction of Julie Williams, MRII board member and curriculum chair. The updated modules reflect the new editions of the two required course textbooks: Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation (4th edition) by Naresh Malhotra and A Preface to Marketing Management (9th edition) by J. Paul Peter and James H. Donnelly, Jr. The expanded certificate program was released via the Internet in early September 2004.
The Principles of Marketing Research is self-paced, self-study, online certificate program. Enrolling more than 2,800 students since 1996, The Principles course has reached students from over 60 countries. The goal of the program is to provide the student with a common basis of knowledge among researchers currently in the marketing and opinion research industry. The course also provides basic training for individuals entering the industry.
The University of Georgia is responsible for all aspects of the administration and management of the training program. Successful graduates earn a Certificate of Completion from ESOMAR, MRII and the University as well as 20 University of Georgia Continuing Education Units (CEUs). For more information visit www.principlesofmarketingresearch.org.
Effort, Pa.-based telecom industry analyst firm Technology Research Institute will merge into telecom consulting and research firm Dittberner Associates, Inc., Bethesda, Md.
The board of directors of Arbitron Inc., New York, has authorized a stock repurchase program under which the company may buy back up to $25 million in shares of its common stock. The company expects that the shares may be purchased from time to time in either open market or private transactions at then-prevailing market prices through December 31, 2004. For the three months ended June 30, 2004, the company’s weighted average common shares outstanding totaled 31,497,000 on a diluted basis.
Greenfield Online, Inc., Wilton, Conn., has been added to the Russell 3000 and Russell 2000 indices.
Netherlands-based information and media company VNU has signed a definitive agreement to sell its World Directories group to World Directories Acquisition Corp., a legal entity owned by funds advised by Apax Partners Worldwide LLP and Cinven Limited, for a price of EUR 2,075 million.
The sale includes all operating companies and directly related activities of World Directories. The group produces telephone books and Yellow Pages directories both in print and online under brand names such as Golden Pages, Gouden Gids, Pages d’Or, Páginas Amarelas and Pagini Aurii.
World Directories employs approximately 2,200 people. In 2003, the group generated EUR 492 million in revenues and EUR 211 million in operating income.
Following the sale, MediaPost’s Media Daily News reported in October that VNU was looking to make a major investment in the marketing or media research sector and said some analysts believed Arbitron or Mediamark Research Inc., were likely targets in the U.S. Outside the U.S., analysts speculated that Germany’s Gfk (estimated acquisition cost: $923 million), the U.K.’s Taylor Nelson Sofres ($2.3 billion), and Europe’s Ipsos ($867 million) were the most likely targets. Both TNS and Gfk are providers of TV ratings research outside the U.S., which Merrill Lynch analysts noted would make a good fit and would extend Nielsen Media Research’s TV ratings dominance outside the U.S.
Separately, Arbitron Inc., New York, and VNU have agreed to jointly explore the possible development of a new, national marketing research service, which collects multi-media and purchase information from a common sample of consumers.
The service will be designed to enable a better understanding of consumer exposure to advertising on multiple media and the link to their shopping/purchase behavior. The ultimate objective would be to provide advertisers with an enhanced ability to determine the return on investment for their marketing efforts. Procter & Gamble will collaborate with the two companies to ensure that the service addresses the needs of marketers.
The service would consist of a panel of participants who would be incented to voluntarily carry Arbitron’s Portable People Meter. Data on consumer preference and purchases for a wide range of services and products would also be collected from panelists, electronically and via surveys, with some households being part of ACNielsen’s Homescan consumer panel, which currently tracks packaged goods purchases. Data would be collected in aggregate form to provide an understanding of participants’ media interactions and their resulting shopping and purchase behavior.
Online retailing site InterShop-Zone.com, Haverstraw, N.Y., is partnering with academia on a research project about customers and e-commerce. The independent study is being conducted by a research team led by Thomas J. Decker, III of the Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The survey will run from September 29, 2004 to December 29, 2004 and is located at www.intershopzone.com/survey.
Montreal-based research software firm Voxco has unveiled a new corporate image, which can be viewed at www.voxco.com.
Acquisitions
Harris Interactive, Rochester, N.Y., has acquired Wirthlin Worldwide, a Reston, Va.-based research firm. The deal was completed with a combination of stock and cash valued at $41.8 million, and will add $50 million in annual revenue and 300 new clients to Harris Interactive. The combined firm will have over 1,000 employees and is expected to generate $210 to $215 million in revenue this fiscal year.
The American division of Australia-based Roy Morgan Research has purchased Mapes and Ross, a Princeton, N.J., research firm.
Informa Research Services, Inc., Calabasas, Calif., has acquired Market Trends, Inc., a Seattle research firm. Bill Young, founder and president of Market Trends, will remain as a senior vice president at the firm, which is now known as Informa Research Services, Inc.
Paris-based Ipsos has acquired the assets of TQA Research Pty. Ltd., Melbourne. Founded in 1981 TQA Research specializes in advertising and marketing research, concept development testing and demand forecasting. It has revenues of EUR 2.4 million.
Separately, Ipsos has also acquired Japan Statistics and Research Co. Ltd. Founded in 1968, the firm is based in Osaka and Tokyo and has revenues of EUR 24 million.
J.D. Power and Associates, Westlake Village, Calif., has acquired LMC Automotive Services, Ltd., an Oxford, England-based automotive forecasting and market analysis company it has been working closely with since 1996. The firm will be known as J.D. Power-LMC.
San Mateo, Calif.-based e-business management firm Keynote Systems has announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held research firm Vividence Corporation of San Mateo, Calif. Under the terms of the agreement, Keynote will pay approximately $20 million in cash at closing, which will include amounts payable in satisfaction of certain liabilities of Vividence and amounts held in escrow to secure indemnification obligations for all outstanding shares of Vividence. Up to an additional $6.0 million is payable upon achievement of certain targets by September 30, 2005. For fiscal year 2005, the acquisition is expected to result in a revenue increase for Keynote of $11 million to $14 million and is expected to be accretive to operating income, excluding the non-cash charges related to the amortization of the intangible assets of Vividence to be acquired. Fifty people will join Keynote from Vividence, bringing the total number of Keynote employees to approximately 240. Keynote acquired Enviz in October 2002 and NetRaker in April 2004.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Norway-based research software firm Future Information Research Management and Moskowitz Jacobs Inc., a White Plains, N.Y., research company and developer of the conjoint technology IdeaMap.Net, have formed a partnership to deliver a new online conjoint solution, Confirmit IdeaMap, to the market. Confirmit IdeaMap will be delivered together with research software package Confirmit as an add-on and enable Confirmit users to create and launch online conjoint studies.
New York research firms Scarborough Research and Arbitron Inc. have begun a series of initiatives designed to enhance Scarborough’s shopping center audience measurements and metrics. Simon Property Group, Inc., a current Scarborough client, has undertaken efforts to improve measurement of malls as media through its charter leadership of these initiatives. Scarborough Research and Arbitron will embark on a series of research initiatives to create the foundation for mall audience metrics. This process will begin with personal interviews with decision makers at agencies and advertisers to quantify their needs for mall audience measurement. In addition, Scarborough will test and refine a mall-centric reach and frequency application, offering planners and buyers the ability to assess unique shopping center visits and the frequency of mall exposures.
Association/organization news
The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) and the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR) released a joint press release on the national Do Not Call Registry: “In the past weeks and months, much has been published about the degree to which the national Do Not Call Registry (DNC) affects the operations of survey research companies and the actions that they should take in order to remain in compliance with the law. Some of this information has been confused and misinformed. In an effort to provide some clarity and guidance on these complex issues, CASRO and CMOR want all members of the industry to understand the following:
1. Generally, since survey research organizations are not commercial in their speech, they are not legally required to comply with the National Do Not Call Regulation.
2. Survey research organizations are not legally required to register as exempt organizations (EOs) or obtain subscription account numbers (SANs) in order to conduct RDD or purchase call lists that are not scrubbed against the National DNC Registry.
3. Survey research companies must register as EOs or obtain SANs if they wish to voluntarily comply with the DNC by (a) accessing the National Do Not Call Registry in order to scrub their own call lists or (b) purchasing scrubbed call lists.
4. Survey research organizations may not access the DNC Registry for any purpose other than scrubbing their call lists or buying scrubbed lists.
5. Survey researchers who work with data or sample lists that have not been scrubbed against Do Not Call should not register as EOs as according to the FTC, that would constitute an improper viewing of the DNC Registry.”
The Intersearch Network, a Netherlands-based group of independent research firms representing Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa and the Pacific Rim, has added Inter-national Communications Research, Media, Pa., as its newest and only U.S. member.
The Mexican Association of Marketing and Opinion Research Agencies (AMAI) has completed its biannual elections. The new president and head of the council is Manuel Barberena. Cisar Ortega de la Roquette, who finished his term as president, will act as program committee chairperson for the IX Latin American ESOMAR Conference, which AMAI and ESOMAR will host.
The Dallas-based Mystery Shopping Providers Association (MSPA) announced it has granted its 20,000th certification. In November 2002, the MSPA established its certification program at the request of its members, who wanted to industry-standard education, practices and qualifications for mystery shoppers. The MSPA offers two levels of certification: silver and gold. A shopper can become silver-certified by taking a short online course at the MSPA Web site (www.mysteryshop.org/certification.php). After obtaining silver certification, mystery shoppers can achieve gold certification by attending a gold certification workshop, a one-day seminar held in 25 cities throughout the U.S. each year. At the conclusion of the seminar, a test is administered, and those shoppers who pass the test are awarded gold certification.
The MSPA estimates there are approximately one million mystery shoppers in the United States and 250,000 internationally. Currently, there are 18,304 silver-certified shoppers and 1,696 gold-certified shoppers.
Pat Lovenhart, principal of Lovenhart Research & Consulting, has been named co-vice president, public relations for the Washington, D.C. chapter of the American Marketing Association.
John P. McDonald, president of Farmington Hills, Mich., research firm MORPACE International, has been appointed to the board of directors of the CASRO.
Awards/rankings
Northwood, Ohio-based TNS NFO has been named the “2004 Large Employer of the Year” by the Ohio Rehabilitation Association (ORA), a professional and advocacy group working on behalf of persons with disabilities across the state. TNS NFO is being recognized for its efforts to promote the hiring of and retaining persons with disabilities. These efforts have included: training its hiring managers to prepare them to hire persons with disabilities; making its telephone call center accessible to persons with visual impairment; employing persons with visual impairment and other disabilities in the company’s consumer and business-to-business calling centers. TNS NFO was nominated for the award by Steven Michaluk, an employer services specialist for the Ohio Rehabilitative Services Commission who has worked with both the company and consumers on employment-related matters. “TNS NFO has proven themselves to be one of the most flexible and proactive employers to employ people with disabilities,” Michaluk stated in his nomination form to the ORA. Michaluk adds that he has placed more than 20 disabled workers in positions throughout TNS NFO in recent years.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Sterling Research Group, Inc. announced that its Quality Management System has been certified under the updated ISO 9001:2000 criteria. Sterling Research satisfied the requirements of certification the week of June 28, 2004 during an audit conducted by International Management Systems, Inc. of Tampa, Fla. The firm was previously certified as an ISO 9000 organization under the older ISO standards.
Seattle-based research firm NetReflector, Inc. has been named Washington State’s 11th fastest-growing technology company as part of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 Program for 2004. Rankings are based on the percentage of growth in fiscal year revenues over five years, from 1999 to 2003. NetReflector increased its revenues by 661 percent during that period.
WebSurveyor Corporation, Herndon, Va., has been included on the Software 500, a revenue-based ranking from Software Magazine of the world’s largest software and services suppliers targeting enterprise IT organizations. The list is published as an online catalog at www.softwaremag.com. Named to the list for the second consecutive year, WebSurveyor climbed 20 spots in the rankings to number 462. WebSurveyor posted revenue growth of 60 percent over 2003.
New accounts/projects
Fairfield, Conn.-based research firm IMS Health announced a multi-year agreement with U.K-based health care products retailer Boots The Chemist to deliver OTC health care intelligence on the U.K. marketplace. Under the agreement, Boots The Chemist will provide IMS with access to all OTC and health care electronic-point-of-sale data from its more than 1,300 outlets in the United Kingdom. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Fox News Radio and Information Network will participate in the RADAR network radio ratings service, provided by New York-based Arbitron Inc. The inventory will be available on January 1, 2005, based on a special tabulation, from RADAR 83, December 2004. With more than 600 affiliates and over 93 percent U.S. coverage and airing on stations in major metropolitan markets, Fox Radio News and Information Network targets adults ages 25-54.
Heineken USA has renewed its contract with ACNielsen U.S., Schaumburg, Ill., to use ACNielsen as its preferred provider of syndicated sales information and consumer insights.
Simmons Market Research Bureau, New York, has signed a long-term comprehensive agreement with The New Yorker magazine. The new agreement renews the Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS) and Tipping Point Segmentation system.
Tenafly, N.J.-based research firm Invoke Solutions announced that Marriott International Inc. has been using Invoke’s Dynamic Survey platform.
Reckitt Benckiser plc has chosen Research Reporter from London-based E-Tabs to manage its global market research repository. Research Reporter is a Web-based market research portal application designed to help corporate market researchers extract more from their market research resources. The system is developed by Insight Marketing Systems of Melbourne, Australia.
Austin, Texas-based marketing consulting firm VisionEdge Marketing announced three new customers: Adobe, San Jose, Calif.; BOXX Technologies, Austin; and Rackspace Managed Hosting, San Antonio. The companies selected VisionEdge Marketing to help them with marketing metrics, customer research, establish sales and marketing processes, and develop competitive positioning strategies.
New companies/new divisions/ relocations/ expansions
Seattle-based Global Market Insite has opened a new regional sales office in Boston. Alison Morgan, newly named director of sales, Eastern region, will head the new office.
J.D. Power and Associates, Westlake Village, Calif., has opened a new regional office in central Munich, Germany and named David Lauth as its managing director.
Company earnings reports
In first-half 2004 business results, Paris-based Ipsos reported revenues of EUR 286.0, million an increase of 8.2 percent with respect to the first half of 2003. Currency effects dragged revenues down by 4.2 percent, due to Ipsos’ exposure to the dollar zone and Latin America. At constant exchange rates, revenues would have risen by 12 percent to EUR 296 million. The integration of new companies accounts for a 3.9 percent increase in sales. Organic growth remained at 8.6 percent in a market whose overall growth rate reaches 5 percent per year. During the first half of 2004, operating profit rose by 9.3 percent, slightly faster than revenues, and hit a record EUR 22.8 million, equal to 8 percent of consolidated revenues. Currency movements had a significant impact. If exchange rates had remained at their first-half 2003 level, operating profit would have come in up 14 percent at EUR 24 million. The first half brought an extraordinary charge of EUR 2 million, relating to the accelerated depreciation of re-arranged obsolete office space consecutive to the decision to merge Ipsos operations in France into a single site in the Paris area. Despite this, net profit (group share) posted double-digit growth for the 10th consecutive half-year period, rising by 14.3 percent to EUR 13.4 million. At constant exchange rates, net profit (group share) would have grown by 21 percent to EUR 14 million.