New York-based Simmons Market Research Bureau Inc. has opened an office in Los Angeles. Erica Phillips will serve as senior account manager in the company' s new Western Region location. The new facility's address is 6500 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048.
Effective July 1, Wolf/Altschul/Callahan, Inc., has moved to 60 Madison Ave., 5th flr., New York, NY 10010. Phone and fax numbers remain the same.
Research Mentors has opened in Chicago. The company is designed to be an assemblage of people with experience and educational backgrounds that are unusual in marketing research. Research Mentors was founded by Richard J. Vondruska, who serves as its president. The address for the company is One Magnificent Mile, 980 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611.
Barnes Research Inc., Grand Rapids, Mich., has added a Grandville, Mich., office to its group of facilities. The company also has a location in Holland, Mich.
Censydiam, a European marketing research firm, has opened a U.S. branch, Censydiam USA, offering psychology-based qualitative and quantitative research. The company' s address is 147 Lakeshore Dr., Oak-land, NJ 07436.
Christine Balthaser and Freddi Wayne are principals in a new Denver-based firm called Eagle Research. The company has opened a facility with two focus group suites, a multipurpose room that can seat 75 theater style or 45 classroom style, and a 70-line WATS phone center. The address is 12157 W. Cedar Drive, Denver, CO 80228.
ICT Group Inc., an independent telephone marketing service with headquarters in Langhorne, Pa., has acquired the assets of Spaniel Inc., a Miami-based Hispanic telemarketing service bureau. The move gives ICT entree into the Hispanic market. Terms of the acquisition were not revealed.
The Chicago-based research firm Fieldwork Inc. has opened a new facility, Fieldwork Chicago-West. The new location's address is 1450 E. American Lane, Suite 1880, Schaumburg, IL 60173.
Opinions of Sacramento has moved. The company's new address is 2025 Hurley Way, Suite 110, Sac-ramento, CA 95825. For more information, contact Magda M. Cooling.
Chicago-based Information Resources Inc., has signed an agreement in principle with Tokyo-based Mitsui & Co. Ltd. to form a joint venture called Information Resources Japan Ltd. Within the packaged goods industry, the venture will offer efficient consumer response initiatives based on IRI's QScan and LogiCNet technologies, which use electronic scanner point-of-sale information from retailers to forecast product replenishment needs. In addition, the initiatives will form the basis of a syndicated market tracking service. Information Resources Japan will also license some of IRI's Express-based software products and provide consulting services that address business issues facing the packaged goods industry. In the pharmaceutical, financial services, telecommunications, transportation, utilities and government markets, the joint venture will offer Express-based business intelligence software products and consulting designed to help clients integrate corporate and external information relevant to their enterprise. Products and services will be available in both Japanese and English. The joint venture is expected to initiate operations on Oct. 1, 1994. The terms and conditions of the agreement were not disclosed.
IRI also has announced that the results of the 1994 Survey of Scanner Data Users - conducted annually by Mercer Management Consulting - show that for the sixth year in a row, IRI's InfoScan product in rated No. 1 in customer satisfaction. IRI further has noted that its software products were also rated highest by the Mercer findings.
IRI also has announced that following a complaint filed by the company last year, the director of Investigation and Research at the Bureau of Competition Policy, part of the government of Canada, has filed an application alleging that A.C. Nielsen Canada has engaged in a practice of anti-competitive acts contrary to the Canadian Competition Act. Information Resources hopes that this action will enable it to launch its InfoScan service in Canada by the end of the year.
Market Facts Inc., Arlington Heights, Ill., has agreed to purchase full ownership of Market Facts of Canada Ltd., its Canadian affiliate since 1962. The transaction involves the acquisition of the 50 percent interest in Market Facts of Canada that the U.S. company does not already own. Market Facts of Canada has offices in Toronto and Montreal, and in 1993 posted revenue of $6 million (U.S.). The company provides marketing research information on Canadian consumers to Canadian, American and other international clients.
Lewis Communications Inc. - a Mobile, Ala., company offering advertising and public relations services - has created a market research division. Lewis Market Research has been established to provide consumer and business-to-business information compilation. The market research division will specialize in such areas as customer satisfaction measurement, image/awareness studies, product/concept testing, demographic/behavioral profiling, site/location studies, identification of purchase decision criteria, market segmentation, public opinion polls, direct mail response models, product profitability models and secondary research. The company's address is 1668 Government St., P.O. Box 6829, Mobile, AL, 36660-0829.