Association/organization news
The Southwest Chapter of the Marketing Research Association introduced a scholarship program that offers monetary awards to members and employees of member companies. The progam was developed to encourage and assist educational pursuits among those employed in the marketing research industry. Guidelines for eligible coursework were left broad to allow applicants to enhance or develop skills that are primary as well as ancillary to marketing research. Education could include such topics as software applications, oral communications and writing techniques. The progam drew so many worthy applicants that the scholarship committee went back to the board to increase the budget for the current year from $2,500 to $3,300. The seven 2000 SW Chapter MRA Scholarship Award recipients are: Jennifer Adamson, Saurage-Thibodeaux Research; Heather Draves, On-Line Communications Shaun Earley, On-Line Communications; Karl Feld, Western Wats Center; Carlos Jauregui, Galloway Research; Shannon Sims, DFW International Airport; and Teresa Vollmecke, Consumer Psychology Research.
Research Leaders Summit (RELEAS1), sponsored by the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) and The European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR), will convene research leaders from around the globe for the first time, to assess and collectively take action regarding the challenges and opportunities in the industry. The meeting is scheduled for January 15-16 in Geneva, Switzerland. The summit is envisioned to be a three-year process, with annual meetings and continued action and feedback in between. The objective of RELEAS1 is to build a network of research users and providers from around the globe that will speak and act with one voice on behalf of the industry.
Acquisitions
New York-based DoubleClick Inc., an Internet advertising firm, has entered into a definitive ageement to acquire @plan.inc, a provider of online market research planning systems, in a deal valued at approximately $120 million. The stock and cash transaction builds on both companies’ goals to provide third-party objective tools to the media planning community. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2000.
Macro International, a Calverton, Md., research firm, has acquired Social & Health Services, Ltd., a Rockville, Md., communications and information management company.
A management-led goup has purchased the assets of The Response Center, a Fort Washington, Pa., research firm, from its parent company, NCO Group Inc., for $12.25 million.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina Marketing Corporation has acquired Market Intelligence, Inc., a Chicago research firm. Terms of the transaction included an up-front purchase price of $1 million paid in cash for all of the stock of Market Intelligence. Additional earnout payments approximating $1 million may be paid contingent on business performance.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
LightspeedResearch.com, Basking Ridge, N.J., and the Geppetto Group have formed a strategic alliance offering online quantitative research into kids and teen consumer segments. Wilton, Conn.-based research firm Greenfield Online, Inc., and Juno Online Services, Inc., an Internet access provider, have formed a strategic alliance that will enable the two companies to conduct research about the wants and needs of users of Juno’s Internet service.
Separately, Greenfield Online has formed a strategic partnership with Magnifi, Inc., a Los Gatos, Calif., provider of online brand management solutions. The agreement makes Greenfield Online’s research services and survey tools available to Magnifi’s subscribers through PC desktop access.
Atlanta-based Online Insight Inc., an eCRM technology company, and Sawtooth Software, a Sequim, Wash., marketing research software firm, have signed an exclusive contract to accelerate development of guided selling and customer insight applications for e-commerce, including enhancements to Online Insight’s existing products, Precision Choice and Precision Insights.
Dallas-based Digital Marketing Services, Inc., an online marketing research and a division of America Online Inc., has expanded its research partner network to include MSWinteractive, an MSW Group company that brings online marketing research to the advertising community.
Zogby International, a Utica, N.Y. research firm, has joined forces with Target Market Research Group, Inc., Miami, to conduct several targeted surveys involving the Hispanic-American market.
Campbell, Calif.-based online research firm Survey.com has developed an online market research panel with The Cultural Access Group, a Los Altos, Calif., research firm. The panel will explore and measure Internet and computer usage among African-American, Hispanic, and general market segments.
Reston, Va.-based comScore Networks, Inc. a provider of Internet infrastructure services, has formed a relationship with STS Market Research, Cambridge, Mass. under which comScore and STS will provide a view of offline and online consumer buying behavior to apparel industry retailers.
Westport, Conn.-based Intemet consulting firm Digital Idea has formed a strategic alliance with NetRatings, Inc. that will enable Digital Idea to link its Dialscore customer loyalty metric With Nielsen/NetRatings Web audience measurement information. The result is an enhanced analytical service for marketers that combines attitudinal drivers of online customer loyalty with behavioral data on Intemet audience size, shape and visitation patterns, giving Dialscore customers a true ROI perspective on the value of loyalty.
Atlanta-based ActiveGroup, a Norcross, Ga., provider of Internet focus group broadcasting services, has partnered with Net In Focus, a provider of in-person Internet usability focus groups called FutureGroups, to broadcast FutureGroups via ActiveGroup’s streaming media technology.
Syosset, N.Y.-based BetaResearch.com has announced an agreement with beenz.com that enables BetaResearch clients to gather marketing intelligence from a database of U.S. consumers who are active online. Beenz is a digital currency that consumers earn by visiting, interacting with, or shopping at participating Web sites. Entitled The beenz Consumer Research Panel, it allows manufacturers, service and media companies to select Internet users who have been prequalified based on lifestyle and financial demographics. The database is available through BetaResearch.com for proprietary research projects.
The Wall Street Journal and Harris Interactive Inc. have formed an agreement to jointly develop Internet-based research including new tracking polls on consumer behavior and business trends. The alliance will create a set of new Internet-based tracking polls codeveloped by both organizations. Harris Interactive will be responsible for data collection and analysis, which in turn may be published by the Wall Street Journal. Possible topics for the joint survey efforts include: e-commerce, executive recruitment, stockpurchase decisions, and online finance, with others to be added.
NetValue USA, an online behavior measurement firm, has been engaged by UrbanIQ, a New York market research firm focused on the urban market, to create a research platform for the live tracking and analysis of the online behavior of urban and Lafino consumers. NetValue will gather this information through a customized proprietary panel built especially for UrbanIQ.
Awards
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Itracks, an online data collection firm, received honorable mention in the EXPLOR Awards presented by the A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research. The EXPLOR Awards honor excellence and innovation in online market research. The Itracks "Online Survey of the Market Research Industry" was a finalist, along with Microsoft and Intel. This study, the first of an annual series, establishes a benchmark of market researchers’ perceptions and experiences with online research methods.
Opinion Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., has been named to the Forbes list of the 200 Best Small Companies for 2000. The annual listing is based on financial performance over a five-year period in a number of key criteria including sales and profit growth and return on equity.
Schaumburg, IlL-based ACNielsen U.S. was named one of the 25 best places to work in the Chicago area by Chicago magazine. Based on surveys completed by employers and employees, ACNielsen ranked number 11 on the list of top workplaces.
In the October issue of Working Mother magazine, Chicago-based SPSS Inc. was named one of the 100 best companies for working mothers. The magazine’s editors recognized SPSS for its flexible culture, progressive benefits and supportive environment for working mothers. SPSS also received the magazine’s highest ranking for its leave for new parents.
New accounts
Web-based market research agency Mindwave Research, Inc., Austin, Texas, has selected SPSS Inc.’s Quancept Web and Verbastat software to provide survey services via the Internet. The company conducts approximately 60 percent of its research using the Web.
Information Resources, Inc., Chicago, and its strategic partner Europanel have signed a letter of agreement with Unilever plc’s Home and Personal Care Europe (Unilever I-IPCE) division to provide scanner-based retail and consumer tracking services across Europe’s largest markets.
The Danish Association of Advertising & Media Agencies has chosen Nielsen//NetRatings to supply information about Internet audiences and advertising. Separately, the Nielsen//NetRatings service is now offered in Spain.
Andover, Mass.-based Cozint Interactive, Inc. has selected Jupiter Research, a unit of Jupiter Media Metrix, Inc., as its research and distribution partner for a study of physicians’ interactions with the Internet. Opinion Research Corp., Princeton, N.J., has signed an option that will increase its contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) by $17 million. Under the option, the company will provide expanded services on the International Demographic and Health Surveys with the USAID.
Schaumburg, Ill.-based ACNielsen U.S. has expanded its agreement with the H-E-B, a grocery retailer operating 277 stores in Texas, Louisiana and Mexico, under which H-E-B has increased its use of the ACNielsen Homescan consumer panel and added ACNielsen’s Retail Warehouse Solution.
New companies/new locations
San Francisco-based Snowball, an online network for members of the Internet generation, has formed IQuestics, a marketing research division. IQuestics will focus on gathering information on the 13-30-year-old demographic for Fortune 500 companies and Snowball’s strategic partners and advertisers. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., IQuestics will conduct research using a variety of online methods, including Web-based surveys, discussion boards, Internet polling and online focus groups.
InterSurvey, Menlo Park, Calif., has changed its name to Knowledge Networks.
Survey Systems has opened at Guanajuato No. 8 Col. Roma, De1. Cuauhtemoc C.P. 06700, Cd. De Mexico, D.F.
Midwest Marketing Research has moved to 425 N. Michigan St., Suite 318, South Bend, Ind.
San Jose, Calif.-based Infonetics Research, Inc. has opened an office in London and another in Somerville, Mass.
Boston-based Burke Strategic Consulting Group has relocated to One Apple Hill Dr., Suite 216, Box 8178, Natick, Mass.
Company earnings reports
Total Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., announced fourth quarter and full year results for the period ended June 30, 2000. For the year, the firm reported record revenues of $50,755,769, a 22 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, and net income of $1,916,628, essentially even with the previous fiscal year. Total diluted shares outstanding increased by 885,809 shares, from 12,693,423 in fiscal 1999 to 13,579,232 in fiscal 2000; as a result, fiscal 2000 net income translated to $0.14 of diluted earnings per share, compared with $0.16 of diluted earnings per share in fiscal 1999.
For the fourth quarter, Total Research reported revenues of $14,579,442 and net income of $248,346. Revenues in the fourth quarter grew by 23 percent and net income decreased 39 percent over the corresponding three-month period in the previous fiscal year. Net income translated to $0.02 of diluted earnings per share compared with $0.03 of diluted earnings per share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999. Fiscal 2000 results included two months of the operating results of Romtec, a U.K. IT and telecom research firm which Total Research acquired in May 2000.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive announced revenues of $12.1 million for its fiscal ftrst quarter ended September 30. This represents an increase of 29 percent for the quarter when compared with $9.4 million reported for the first quarter of fiscal 2000. Internet revenues expanded in the first quarter to $7.0 million. This is an increase of 155 percent compared with the first quarter of fiscal 2000. Internet revenues represented 58 percent of the total revenue for the quarter. Net loss for the three months ended September 30 was $0.22 per share ($7.3 million), compared with $0.38 per share ($4.1 million) in the first quarter of fiscal 2000. Gross margin for the first quarter was $5.8 million, which represented 48 percent of revenues, compared with $3.1 million or 33 percent in the first quarter of fiscal 2000.
Opinion Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., reported record third quarter net income. In addition, revenues, cash flow and earnings for the first nine months of 2000 were better than for any comparable period in the company’s history.
For the third quarter of 2000, revenues were $37.7 million, an increase of 9 percent compared to $34.5 million for the third quarter of 1999. Net income for the third quarter was $777,000, an increase of 12 percent compared to third quarter 1999 net income of $694,000. Operating income for the current quarter was $2.8 million, an increase of 13 percent compared to $2.5 million a year ago. Diluted earnings per share for the third quarter of 2000 were $0.16, equivalent to third quarter 1999 diluted earnings per share of $0.16.
Cash earnings per share (net income plus goodwill amortization expense after-tax) for the third quarter were $0.27 compared to $0.26 in last year’s third quarter. Diluted shares for the third quarter were 4.9 million, or 15 percent more than the 4.3 million shares in 1999, primarily as a result of the September! LLR Equity Partners common stock investment. For the third quarter, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $4.7 million, an increase of 15 percent compared to $4.1 million a year ago.
Stamford, Conn.-based ACNielsen Corporation posted higher earnings in the third quarter, as each of the company’s regional businesses contributed solid local-currency results. Earnings were $24.5 million, or $0.41 per diluted share, including a negative impact of $0.02 per share from foreign-currency translation, compared with $23.4 million, or $0.39 per diluted share, in the prior year. The 2000 results include a $5.5 million pre-tax loss from ACNielsen eRatings.com, but exclude a pre-tax charge of $12.2 million for Operation Leading Edge, the company’s plan to accelerate growth. Including the charge, reported earnings were $17.0 million, or $0.29 per diluted share.
In other news...
St. Louis-based data collection firm Quality Controlled Services has changed its name to Delve. AetiveGroup, a Norcross, Ga., provider of Internet focus group broadcasting services, is producing Marketing Research Live!, a monthly talk show-style Webcast on topics of interest to researchers. November’s show focused on online focus goups vs. traditional focus groups. The progam is scheduled to air on the first Wednesday of each month. Visit www.activegroup.net to view it live or to see archived editions.
Worldbridge Language Services, a Los Angeles-based translation service for the market research community recently celebrated its seventh anniversary and has added a 40th language to its translation capabilities.
In October, Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive and Weekly Reader Corporation, a publisher of classroom periodicals, teamed up to design a supplement to help teach school children about public opinion polling and its role in society. The insert was .distributed in the mid-October issues of Weekly Reader, Current Events, Teen Newsweek, and Know Your World Extra. The classroom periodicals that Weekly Reader publishes have a combined circulation of 250,000 teachers and more than 7 million students in pre-K through high school.
San Jose, Calif.-based Infonetics Research has revised its Web site (www.infonetics.com), which now includes excerpts from its market research studies, press releases including sample data, and information on its 2001 services.