Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), Northbrook, Ill, has announced the formation of Kids Research Unlimited, a marketing research firm specializing in children. The new company is a division of TRU. Kids Research Unlimited conducts quantitative and qualitative research among 3- to 11-year-olds. Christine Efken, custom research director at TRU will direct the new firm.
IntelliQuest Inc. of Austin. Texas, has received the Texas Instruments Supplier Excellence Award. The award recognizes excellence in advertising and marketing research and commitment to the principle of total quality Minneapolis-based StatPac Inc. has relocated to 4532 France Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55410.
FGI, an integrated marketing service company in Chapel Hill, NC, has merged with the research firm Market Intelligence, Catharpin, VA. The merger was effective March 19 and is expected to increase FGI's research division by about 25%. Market Intelligence will continue to do business as a division of FGI under its present name. Mark Greene, Market Intelligence president, will continue as division president. The two companies have had a working relationship for four years.
Focus Plus Inc., of New York City, has been purchased by Elizabeth Lobrano, managing director, and her partner, John Markham.
Thomas Dupont has formed D2 Research, a marketing research firm. Dupont previously was president of Oxtoby-Smith, New York. D2 Research is located at 14 Ronarm Drive, Mountain Lakes, NJ 07046.
Strategic Mapping Inc. (SMI) of Santa Clara, CA, has agreed in principle to acquire Stamford, CT-based Donnelley Marketing Information Services (DMIS) from The Dun & Bradstreet Corp. DMIS is a unit of A.C. Nielsen Co. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but SMI estimates that annual revenues could exceed $40 million when the two companies' operations are fully combined in 1994. Dun & Bradstreet will retain an investment interest in SMI. SMI is a microcomputer-based software firm which specializes in linking computerized maps with demographic and geographic data. DMIS is a supplier of demographic data for business analysis and target marketing. The unified company will offer both software and data as well as jointly developed custom applications. The DMIS data will continue to be available in a number of standard file formats for use with most databases or GIS.
Focus on Boston has opened a second focus group room at its group research center in downtown Boston. The addition increases the facility to two conference and viewing areas, two one-on-one rooms, a test kitchen and client lounges with large-screen monitors.
Claritas/NPDC of Alexandria, VA, and Troy, NY-based Maplnfo Corp. have formed a partnership to develop new software products for market analysis and data visualization. The partnership is worth an estimated $3 million to Maplnfo. Under terms of the agreement, Maplnfo will design and develop the mapping component of Catalyst, Claritas/NPDC's Windows-based marketing software. Catalyst will provide marketing, demographic and location data accessed from multiple sources (on-line and via CD-ROM), to permit integration of the data for market analysis and planning. Maplnfo's visual component will allow display and geographic analysis of Catalysts' proprietary data and permit users to identify emerging patterns, relationship and trends that are not obvious when reviewing traditional database reports or spreadsheets. The two companies will continue to serve as value-added resellers of each others' products.
St. Louis-based Maritz Marketing Research Inc. has acquired The Research Business Group (TRBG) of London. The acquisition was completed April 15. TRBG, Britain's largest privately owned marketing research company, becomes Maritz' s sister company. TRBG posted research revenues of $ 18 million for 1992, with four operating companies: The Research Business; Focus on Research; The Research Business International; and Sandpiper International.
Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas Inc. has moved to expanded offices at 145 E. 32nd St., Suite 500, New York, NY 10016.
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) of Redlands, CA, has been appointed a value-added reseller by Informix Software Inc. of Menlo Park, CA. Informix is a relational database management system developer. ESRI now provides the entire Informix product line. ESRI also has announced its intent to port its desktop geographic information system (GIS) software products to the Windows NT operating system. ESRI will announce and ship products for the NT environment after the general release of Windows NT.
Synectics Inc. has moved to 20 University Road, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Kirk Tyson International has moved its Chicago-area offices to 4343 Commerce Court, Suite 615, Lisle, IL 60532-3619.
Suburban Associates Marketing Research, Ridgewood, NJ, has an-nounced the redecorating and updating of the their Woodbridge, NJ, focus group facility.