News notes
Rochester, N.Y., research firm Harris Interactive has reduced its staff as part of its ongoing integration process with Total Research. The actions affected approximately 5 percent of the full-time wo.rkforce in Rochester; New York City; Norwalk, Conn.; Princeton, N.J., and other outlying locations. The affected employees were mainly support staff with overlapping functions in the combined company. Harris Interactive also closed telephone centers in Tampa, Fla., and Youngstown, Ohio. The company continues to maintain phone centers in Rochester and in the U.K.
Separately, Harris Interactive has been awarded a broad business method patent (U.S. Patent No. 6,311,190) for an online instant polling process and other techniques used for conducting multi-lingual surveys via the Intemet. The patent covers the following system for conducting surveys over a network, including the Internet, to multiple respondents in multiple countries in different languages having the features of: generating surveys from information stored in a database of the system; immediately showing the results of the surveys and offering a comparison of the results; allowing the respondent to vote only once on each survey.
Sorensen Associates Inc, a Portland, Ore., market research firm, has earned the Quality Certification ISO 9001:2000. Conformance to the ISO international quality standards is implemented through accrediting agencies that conduct a detailed audit of the entire process relating to the systems and procedures which have a direct result on a company’s end-product. Sorensen Associates received the ISO 9001 Certification through a registration audit by Perry Johnson Registrars.
Southfield, Mich., automotive data services firm R. L. Polk & Co. has increased its shareholding in Marketing Systems GmbH to 100 percent. Marketing Systems, a Germany-based automotive information and research firm, will continue to trade under its own name and represent its own as well as the global Polk brands.
Acquisitions
U.K.-based research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres has agreed to acquire the business and assets of Theatrical Entertainment Services, Inc. and its sister company RapidChek Reporting, Inc. (together TES), a U.S. supplier of box office verification and cinema tracking services to the film industry and cinema operators. The initial cash payment is £25.9 million (US$36.8 million). TES sales for the year ended December 31 were US$9.9 million with EBIT of US$5.3 million. Net assets at that date were US$1.1 million.
Dependent upon the achievement of earnings performance targets, relating to the ongoing performance of the U.S. business and geographic expansion, deferred cash payments may be made in the years from 2002 to 2007. The maximum consideration payable, including the initial cash payment, will not exceed £52.0 million. Completion, which is dependent upon obtaining Hart Scott Rodino approval, was expected to come within weeks of the deal’s announcement in November.
TES will operate as a division of Taylor Nelson Sofres’ CMR, a provider of strateNc advertising tracking services in the U.S. The current owner and CEO, Thomas Steven Perakos, who founded the company, will continue to run it and will take responsibility for expanding its operations worldwide. Other key management will also remain with the business.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
New York research firm RoperASW has become a certified QualPartner, which means the firm is proficient in and licensed to use the online qualitative software from Caste Rock, Colo.-based QualTalk. RoperASW plans to use the augmented capabilities both for custom qualitative work for clients and multi-client studies, including special research for Roper Reports, the company’s trendspotting service. RoperASW plans to use the bulletin board technique as part of its TrendWhys qualitative studies of changing consumer trends.
Boston-based Bernett Research Services Inc. has announced that the Business Research and Consulting Group of Abt Associates Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., research firm, has made a strategic commitment to use and integrate Beruett’s data collection and online monitoring and publishing services in its marketing research operations. To showcase their combined capabilities, Bernett Research and Abt Associates are collaborating on a national survey that will examine how American households are reacting financially to the enduring economic uncertainty that has been compounded by the ongoing U.S.-led global war on terrorism.
Wilton, Conn., research firm Greenfield Online has entered into a strategic alliance with Microsoft Corporation which grants Greenfield Online the ability to recruit visitors to Microsoft’s MSN Web sites for marketing research purposes. Site visitors can choose to participate and are screened at the time of survey execution. Eligible participants are then directed to open surveys based on Greenfield Online’s proprietary quota management system.
Separately, Greenfield Online has entered into a multi-year ageement with Minneapolis-based GfK Custom Research Inc. under which Greenfield Online will assist GfK Custom Research’s online research efforts.
Autometrics, an automotive e-commerce performance measurement firm, has teamed with Nielsen//NetRatings to provide the automotive industry with Internet audience information throughout Europe. Under the three-year agreement, Autometrics will receive Nielsen//NetRatings information for all of the European countries covered by Nielsen//NetRatings.
Awards
Group Dynamics in Focus, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., research firm, has been recognized by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Excellence Awards as "service company of the year." Merle Holman, the firm’s president, accepted the award at the Hyatt Regency Philadelphia in November.
Chicago-based SPSS Inc.’s Clementine and AnswerTree data mining programs were named the two most popular data mining tools by the readers of KDnuggets News, a data mining and knowledge discovery industry e-newsletter. In a poll asking visitors to the KDnuggets Web site (www.kdnuggets.com) to name the data mining tools they regularly use, Clementine and AnswerTree finished first and second, respectively. In an identical poll published last year, Clementine and AnswerTree also fmished first and second.
New accounts/projects
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands has selected SPSS BI, a division of SPSS Inc., as its worldwide preferred supplier of business intelligence software. The master supply agreement allows Philips locations in over 60 countries to secure SPSS data mining and statistical software by issuing a purchase order, with the pricing, terms and conditions negotiated in advance.
Chicago-based ShopperTrak, a provider of retail technology solutions, will install its Orbit II customer traffic counting systems in all Apple retail stores throughout the U.S.
Nuremberg, Germany research firm GfK has won contracts for two large projects with a total volume of approximately EUR10 million for 2002 and 2003. The projects will be carried out by GfK companies in the Consumer Tracking division in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The first contract is for an analysis of housing demand (Woningbehoefte Onderzoek 2002) for the Dutch Ministry for Housing (Ministerie van Volkshuisvesting, Ruimtelijke Ordening en Milieubeheer). The survey will form the basis for planning, at the Ministry as well as at a range of social and economic institutions at national and regional level. The second contract is with Swiss retailer Coop and covers a project linking scanner data from Coop with panel data from IHA-GfK. Coop intends to develop a Web-based knowledge system for promotional activities and new product launches which can be used in category management.
The Social Research business of Princeton, N.J.-based Opinion Research Corporation has been awarded nearly $2.5 million in new contracts under its recently signed Multiple Task Order Contract with the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). The DOE Multiple Task Order Contract, also known as an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract, extends through April 2006. This type of procurement qualifies the company as one that is able to compete for DOE research, analysis, measurement and other similar services.
New companies/new locations
Norman Stolzoff has launched Ethnographic Insight, a custom marketing research firm, at 440 Donovan Ave., Bellingham, Wash., 98225.
Julie Fichtner and Tiffany Stewart have co-founded ACE Mystery Shopping at P.O. Box 11, Warrensburg, Mo., 64093.