News notes
Research companies Roger Green and Associates, New Hope, Pa.; Seek Research, Covington, Ky.; and Schlesinger Associates, Edison, N.J., have collaborated to from a social activism consortium called SEEDS - Cultivating Good. The group has launched Marty Green’s Lunch, a one-day volunteer program aimed at bringing the marketing research community together to feed the hungry. The program includes three elements: recruit individuals to serve lunch to the hungry, ask coworkers to donate food and hygiene products to the food bank/soup kitchen where volunteers are serving the hungry; and raise money for Feeding America, formerly Second Harvest. The group’s goal is to reach all 206 food banks supported by Feeding America.
Lookman Temidayo Adegbola has been found guilty in Canadian courts of operating an employment opportunity scam involving counterfeit checks. In the mystery shopping version of the scam, U.S. consumers received an unsolicited cashier’s check and were asked to cash the check and wire a portion of the money back to a specified address, while conducting a brief evaluation of the wiring service. In some cases, they were also asked to conduct evaluations of other retailers. The letter promised payment by keeping a portion of the check. In reality, the check was bogus and bounced several days later, leaving the consumer liable for the entire amount of the check.
Following a trial by judge and jury in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Adegbola was found guilty of fraud over $5,000, forgery, possession of instruments of forgery and uttering forged documents. Sentencing for Adegbola will take place on September 15, 2009.
London’s The Daily Mail reported in June that the U.K.’s postal service, Royal Mail, could be liable for a fine of up to £40 million if convicted of interfering with an independent mystery shopping-style study regarding mail delivery promptness and accuracy and skewing study results in its favor. The manipulation involved some Royal Mail managers learning the names and addresses of the mystery shoppers and then providing deliberately exceptional service to those particular customers. Senior staff members at Royal Mail were able to claim large bonuses for positive marks on the study.
Bartels Research, Clovis, Calif., has closed its doors after 45 years in industry. The company cites the economy as its reason for shutting down operations. Some staff members will continue conducting research in the Fresno-Clovis, Calif., area.
Acquisitions/transactions
New York research company Guidepoint Global has acquired Vista Research Inc., New York, from Standard & Poor’s, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. With the acquisition, Guidepoint Global will expand its team of client service professionals and recruiters to support a larger client base. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Dallas research company Toluna has acquired the Internet Survey Solutions division of Greenfield Online, a Wilton, Conn., research company, from Microsoft for $40 million. Greenfield Online, owner of Ciao Surveys, was acquired by Microsoft in 2008. Microsoft will maintain ownership of Ciao’s online shopping comparison service. Integration of Toluna and Greenfield will begin immediately.
TrendSource Inc., a San Diego research company, has acquired Examine Your Practice, a San Diego mystery shopping firm. TrendSource intends to use the acquisition to expand in the health care sector.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
Zogby International, a Utica, N.Y., research company, and 463 Communications, a Washington, D.C., have partnered on a joint venture called Zogby463, which aims to combine Zogby’s polling and 463’s strategic planning and communications capabilities.
QSR International, a Doncaster, Australia, research software company, has partnered with StatWorks, a Selangor, Malaysia, analytics firm. Under the partnership, QSR will manage QSR’s reseller network in Malaysia and Singapore and deliver local support for its software.
Digimarc Corporation, a Beaverton, Ore., technology firm, and New York researcher The Nielsen Company have partnered to launch two companies. Each company will own roughly one-half of each joint venture. Digimarc is expected to account for the operations of the joint ventures under the equity method of accounting and will report its portion of the net results of the entities based on its ownership share. Both Nielsen and Digimarc will provide shared general overhead services to the joint ventures.
Awards/rankings
Chicago research company SPSS Inc. has been awarded a 2009 SAP Pinnacle Award in the category BusinessObjects Software Partner by SAP, a Walldorf, Germany, business software organization.
Kadence International, London, has been named the greenest market research company in the U.K., according to The Sunday Times Best Green Companies in Britain list. The company ranked 46th and was the only market research company to appear on the list.
Joaquin (Sonny) Garcia, vice president, sales, of Dallas research company e-Rewards Inc., has been selected to the Dallas Business Journal’s 40 Under Forty Awards program. The program recognizes highly-accomplished executives and entrepreneurs under the age of 40 who have a proven track record of excellence and leadership.
Sandra Bauman, president of Bauman Research and Consulting LLC, a Glen Rock, N.J., research firm, has been named the 2009 Business Woman of the Year by the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners (NJAWBO), West Windsor, N.J. The award recognizes a woman business owner who distinguishes herself in her business, her community and in NJAWBO and is a positive role model for women in other areas of life.
Ladd Research Group, Cincinnati, has received a Small Business Excellence Award from the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce. The award recognizes the top 10 businesses with fewer than 10 employees.
The Marketing Research Association (MRA), Glastonbury, Conn., has awarded Michael Mermelstein, G2 and Associates, with the 2009 Honorary Lifetime Membership Award for his outstanding volunteer service.
The MRA has also awarded the Distinguished Service Award to Colleen Moore Mezler, Moore Research Services, and Ed Sugar, OLC Global, and the Award of Excellence to Angela Lorinchak, Metro Research Services. The Chapter of the Year award was presented to the Atlanta/Southeast chapter of the MRA.
Five research companies have been named to the Honomichl Top 50 for the first time: Communispace, Boston, 27; Iconoculture, Minneapolis, 40; CMI, Atlanta, 45; Chadwick Martin Bailey, Boston, 47; and Roger Green and Associates, New Hope, Pa., 50. The Honomichl Top 50 includes the highest-ranked U.S. research companies by annual revenue and is published in Marketing News.
David Morse, president and CEO of New American Dimensions, a Los Angeles research company, has been awarded the HispanSource Award for Excellence in Hispanic Marketing Research by Aguilar Productions, a St. Paul event marketing firm.
New accounts/projects
The Leisure Trends Group (LTG), a Boulder, Colo., research company, has signed an agreement with Nielsen Claritas, a San Diego division of New York researcher The Nielsen Company, to integrate LTG’s Most Active Americans Panel of consumers who buy leisure and sport products and services with Nielsen’s PRIZM market segmentation.
Sage North America, a division of London software company The Sage Group plc, has selected Reston, Va., research software company Clarabridge to automate and analyze text-based customer feedback from surveys conducted across Sage’s business management software product lines.
Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, has selected Chicago research software company SPSS Inc.’s predictive analytics software to manage the research lifecycle.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Echo Research, London, has opened an Asian head office in Singapore. Michelle Allen will lead the office as regional manager.
Karen Flake has launched Karen Flake and Associates, a qualitative research company. The company is located at 28 St. John’s Place, Little Rock, Ark. Dawn Adams will serve as research director. Both Flake and Adams provide moderating services. The company is online at www.karenflakeassociates.com.
Nunwood, a Leeds, U.K., research company has launched Fizz, its knowledge management business, in New York.
Alex Sweeney and Alasdair Johnston have formed Clarity Strategic Research, a Sydney, Australia, research company. The company is online at www.claritystrategicresearch.com.au.
Dexterity, a Chennai, India, research company, has made its Columbus, Ohio, office its U.S. headquarters. Dexterity CEO Palanivel Kuppusamy has relocated to the Columbus location.
Media Monitors, a White Plains, N.Y., research company has opened a London office.
GfK Healthcare, a Blue Bell, Pa., division of Nuremberg, Germany, research company The GfK Group, has launched its managed markets practice area, a full-service research and consulting business unit focused on the needs of pharmaceutical clients. The unit will conduct ad hoc qualitative projects, mock pharmacy and therapeutics committee meetings, advisory boards, convention focus groups and quantitative projects.
Research company earnings/financial news
National Research Corporation, Lincoln, Neb., announced results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2009. Revenue for the quarter was $16.7 million, compared to $13.5 million for the same quarter in 2008. Net income was $2.7 million, or $.40 per basic and $.39 per diluted share, compared to $2.0 million for the first quarter 2008, or $.29 per basic and diluted share.
The GfK Group, Nuremberg, Germany, reported first-quarter 2009 sales of EUR 264.7 million, compared to EUR 268.1 million the previous year. The organic growth rate was (4.6) percent. Adjusted operating income totaled EUR 14.8 million and was 35.7 percent lower than prior-year period. The margin stood at 5.6 percent, compared with 8.6 percent in the prior-year period.
Confirmit, Oslo, Norway, announced its first-quarter results, delivering double-digit organic growth. Revenue from new clients for the quarter was at an all-time high for the third consecutive quarter.
Highlights of Confirmit’s first-quarter 2009 performance include: a seven-figure contract for its customer feedback program; the third successive quarter of record-breaking new business growth; the release of Confirmit Horizons, the company’s multichannel platform for market research, customer feedback and employee feedback; and a three-year contract with Rackspace.