News Notes
The NPD Group, Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y., research firm, has announced a shift in business strategy that will allow it to focus on the transformation of its syndicated tracking businesses to Web-based marketing information portals in selected vertical markets. Personalized portals will contain tracking information on consumer behavior and attitudes, retailer and e-commerce product movement, third-party content, feeds and links.
With the shift in strategy, NPD has signed a contract to sell its custom marketing research business and assets to French research conglomerate Ipsos. Under terms of the contract, Ipsos will acquire the HTI Consumer Panel and other NPD consumer panels used for mail and telephone research, branded ad hoc research products, proprietary marketing models, and several tracking businesses known as the Custom Research businesses. A new company will be formed with 75 percent of the rights for NPD and 25 percent of the rights for Ipsos to manage and develop the NPD Online Panel. Ipsos and NPD will have exclusive access to this Online Panel, to continue NPD’s development of a panel for custom and proprietary research efforts. The acquired Custom businesses will be known as Ipsos-NPD and will be operated as an independent company, within the Ipsos group of multinational research suppliers.
FocusVision, a Stamford, Conn.-based firm that transmits live focus groups from a network of facilities using video communications technology, has standardized on the group video communications products of Polycom, Inc., a Milpitas, Calif.- broadband communication firm. FocusVision will expand its use of Polycom’s ViewStafion systems for its current video deployments in focus group facilities worldwide and in its network.
Western Wats Trax has opened a call center in Laramie, Wyo. The 50-station center will be used primarily for consumer tracking studies via telephone and the Intemet. Tim DeGraw will manage the new facility.
SPSS MR now has worldwide rights to sell the ARCS interactive voice response system from DBM Associates, Whitehouse Station, N.J.
United Information Group, the market research business of United Business Media, announced that as of February, the company’s head office would be bi-located in the U.S. and the U.K. The chief executive’s office has been relocated to New York, while the operational and financial functions will continue to be managed from London. This move reflects the importance of the U.S. market to the company. In 2000, 55 percent of UIG’s revenues were sourced from the North American market.
Fifty leaders of the marketing research industry have initiated a network of research users and providers from around the world. In January, research industry leadership gathered for the first time in Geneva, Switzerland. The Research Leadership Summit RELEAS), organized by the Advertising Research Foundation and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research, is envisaged as a three-year process with annual meetings and continued action and feedback in between. The emphasis is on identifying and addressing the challenges and opportunities facing the research industry.
The industry leaders present at RELEAS - the research industry’s first global leadership summit - agreed to take action on a number of key priorities which include:
- Repositioning the industry, based on a new enlarged industry vision, further expanding its contribution to business and society. Detailed plans to realize this goal, including specific milestones, were put in place.
- Uniting industry forces worldwide to address legislative and regulatory issues related to research. Leaders urged the industry to create a global group to address these issues, using a proactive approach to safeguard access to information - vital to decision-makers at all levels - provided by research. Further consultation to finalize plans for monitoring, identifying common positions and lobbying has been agreed. Initial plans for financing and gaining active support were outlined.
- Creating a universal privacy policy, including a no-spam statement for the research industry, promoted by a common "quality seal." This project is an agenda item for immediate follow-up action.
- Strengthening the dialogue between users and providers of research. In response to the transformation of industry conditions, products and service offerings, summit attendees agreed it is important to forge an ongoing dialogue between users and providers of research. Several proposals were presented to further strengthen the effectiveness of this joint role. Proposals to promote the value of research as a vital input for decision makers were also developed.
Fairfield, Conn., qualitative research and consulting firm Dialogue Resource, Inc. haslaunched a new Web site at www.dialogueresource.com to celebrate its 15th anniversary.
Bay Area Marketing Research, Randallstown, Md., is now offering live and on-demand Internet focus groups in the Baltimore area using the ActiveGroup system. San Diego-based Cardiff Software, Inc., a supplier of forms processing and business automation solutions, has enhanced and expanded the Cardiff Certified Platinum Reseller Program. A key element of the program expansion is the opening of six regional channel managers’ offices in North America as well as an increased investment in local marketing programs worldwide. In a related announcement, Cardiff named Emmanuel de Boucaud vice president of worldwide channel sales.
Rochester, N.Y., research firm Harris Interactive announced in January that its polling site (www.harrispollonline.com) was among the 50 most visited Web sites in the United States in November 2000, according to the Media Metrix "Top 50 Web and Digital Media Properties" report issued December 18, 2000.
Acquisitions
Nuremberg, Germany-based GfK Group has acquired a 65 percent stake in Orange Interactive Research, a Swedish Intemet research firm. GfK also took a 19.9 percent holding in Caribou Lake Software, a U.S. e-commerce and database marketing firm.
North Adams, Mass., research firm MindBranch, Inc., has acquired majority control in Outsource Korea, Inc. Headquartered in Seoul, Outsource Korea helps Korean corporations identify, source, and manage their business-information purchasing, which includes consulting, market research, and advisory services. With the acquisition, Outsource Korea will gain access to MindBranch’s collection of reports, newsletters, and directories from research firms, consultancies, and publishers.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
The Software Support Professionals Association (SSPA) has launched an online market research center. Through a partnership with online research provider InsightExpress, SSPA’s Supportgate.com community members can create customized customer sarisfaction surveys on the Web. The SSPA Market Research Center will allow customer service and support professionals to gauge customer support satisfaction levels daily, weekly and monthly, access Web satisfaction levels, profile Web site visitors and test market new service and support products.
Indianapolis-based research firm Walker Information and TManage Inc., an Austin, Texas, provider of remote workforce management services, have entered a strategic partnership to evaluate attitudes and perceptions of teleworkers (those who work from home or other non-office location) for their employers. In this partnership, Walker Information will develop an online survey for TManage to administer among their clients’ employees, particularly teleworkers. The survey will capture information about teleworkers’ commitment and loyalty to their employer and overall job satisfaction. The goal will be to produce an accurate measure of the employees’ opinions about telework and productivity levels.
TVG, Inc., a Fort Washington, Pa., research firm, and WebSurveyResearch, an Internet research firm serving the health care industry, have formed a partnership designed to deliver online primary marketing research surveys to assess physicians’ awareness of and attitudes and behaviors toward the use of pharmaceutical and medical products. Under the terms of the letter of intent, TVG will become a charter member of WebSurveyResearch, gaining access to the WebSurveyResearch physician panel for performing marketing research. TVG will develop the questionnaires and analyze the data. WebSurveyResearch will host the surveys on the Intemet and provide the raw data to TVG. The next phase of the parmership will allow both companies to tap into the TVG physician database.
Symmetrical Resources, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., media and marketing information firm, has announced a market and data research partnership with digital media company RMS Networks, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Under the terms of the agreement, Symmetrical has licensed to RMS Networks its data assets, including Simmons Market Research Bureau, and will provide its Advanced Analytic Solutions consultative services. RMS Networks plans to utilize the national consumer purchasing, lifestyle and behavior data for the development of new in-store television networks, programming content, new business partnerships and future sales strategies. Additionally, Symmetrical will conduct product movement studies to analyze the effectiveness of RMS programming in influencing product and brand sales, as well as develop a methodology to measure RMS Networks national audience size.
San Diego-based marketing informarion firm Claritas Inc. has signed an agreement with Simmons Market Research Inc. that will allow it to build new products and support existing ones with Simmons media and lifestyle survey data. As part of the agreement, Simmons will give Claritas its National Consumer Study, a syndicated, multimedia survey measuring adults 18+ and their product consumption, media habits, attitudes and opinions, as well as access to its studies of kids, teens and Hispanlcs.
Rochester, N.Y.-based research firm Harris Interactive has entered into an agreement with Chicago software firm SPSS Inc. to purchase the source code rights for the Surveycraft online interviewing platform. Harris Interactive has been using Surveycraft software as its central Web-interviewing engine for more than two years.
Wilton, Conn.-based research firm Greenfield Online, Inc. and Advertising.com, Inc., a Baltimore advertising services company, have announced a partnership that will combine their respective experience in technology and marketing research to advance online brand advertising and wireless advertising. The firms have developed a product that will let marketers measure the effect of a campaign's impact online, even when consumers do not interact with advertisements.
New York-based YOUResponse Inc. and CLT Research Associates Inc., have formed a strategic alliance to provide marketing research services for online businesses. Companies can gain real-time buyer and non-buyer shopping cart abandonment monitoring and measurement tools through VISITOResponse, a survey-based visitor profling and data analysis system designed to gather information by intercepting visitors as they exit a site without completing a purchase.
Greenfield Online Mexico, an online marketing research company based in Mexico City and a division of Wilton, Conn., research firm Greenfield Online, has formed a strategic partnership with El Sitio Mexico, a Mexican Internet portal. A campaign of banner advertising and pop-up site intercept windows has been used on the El Sitio Mexico site to attract members of the El Sitio Web community for participation in the Greenfield Online Mexico consumer panel. These panelists will participate in future online surveys that will provide insights into the habits, attitudes, and activities of Mexican consumers.
Awards
Macworld magazine has awarded SPSS for Macintosh the 16th Annual Editors’ Choice (Eddy) Award. The first Mac version of its statistical analysis software released by Chicago-based SPSS Inc. since 1995, SPSS 10.0 for Macintosh won the award in the Best Data Management Software category.
The Web site of Northwest Research Group, Seattle, was named one of the best small business sites by Inc. magazine in its second annual Web Awards.
New accounts
Atlanta-based CompuCredit Corporation, marketer of the Aspire Visa card, has retained J.D. Power and Associates, Agoura Hills, Calif., to validate its ongoing internal satisfaction research.
Phoenix-based hotel chain Best Western International and Sterling Research Group, Inc., a St. Petersburg, Fla., research firm, have started a new guest satisfaction measurement program. As part of the company’s newly refined focus on quality, Best Western is partnering with Sterling Research Group, Inc. to implement a gnest satisfaction measurement program that will be tested in 125 hotels nationwide. "Gathering very specific feedback and information from guests about their stays will provide valuable brand information as well as property level ’report cards’ designed to help hotel owners and managers enhance their service and operations," says Si Sloman, vice president of operations for Best Western International. "This program, which starts March 1st, will provide Best Western hotel owners and operators with a tool for better understanding and acting on the things that matter most to our guests."
Hew companies/new locations
Modalis Research Technologies, Inc. has expanded its London operations, opening an office at 20 New Road, Clanfield, Hampshire, U.K. Phone The firm has also opened a new office in Stockholm at Lillhagsvagen 11, 124 71 Bandhagen, Sweden.
Star Data Systems, Inc., a North Palm Beach, Fla., research firm, has opened MarketStar Research, a fullservice research company. Mark Eisner has been named president of the new division, which will be located in North Palm Beach.
John McKay has opened a new research firm, Multicultural Connection, specializing in multicultural and international research, at 6106 South Memorial Dr., Tulsa, Okla., 74133.
Porchey Research, St. Louis, has moved to the Chapel Hill Office Center at 12935 N. Forty Dr., Suite 210, St. Louis, Mo., 63141.
Tokyo-based media and marketing research firm Video Research has expanded its TV audience ratings services into Taiwan, forming a new media research company. The new company, Broadcasters Market Research Co. Ltd., is a result of joint effort made by the Broadcasting Development Fund (a Taiwanese governmental organization) and Video Research. The first data is due for release in January 2002. In addition to its financial investment, Video Research will assign one executive vice president and one research and development manager to support the new company’s research operations.
U.K.-based MDL Research, doing business as Marketing Direction, has launched an international division, Marketing Direction International (MDI), offering a full range of research services. Primary responsibility for the division will rest with John Kelly andAndy Booth. MDI, seeking parmerships with likeminded organizations throughout the world, has formed an agreement to represent White Plains, N.Y., research firm Moskowitz Jacobs Inc. in the U.K. and Europe.
The Ziment Group, owners of Ziment, a health care marketing research firm, has formed WebSurveyResearch, a new company dedicated to conducting health care research using the Intemet. The new company will take over the WebSurveyMD.com panel launched last spring by Ziment as a means to conduct marketing research surveys with physicians. Other panels to be launched by WebSurveyResearch in 2001 include WebSurveyMCO.com and WebSurveyRN.com. Plans are for WebSurveyMD.com to expand to over 40,000 physicians by 2002 around the globe.
Company earnings report
Opinion Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., announced December 2000 bookings of a record $18 million and a record year-end backlog of $25 million in its U.S. Market Research. Group. The record bookings consist of an array of contracts, the most significant of which is in excess of $4 million with a U.S. health care provider.
Rochester, N.Y., research firm Harris Interactive announced its second quarter of fiscal year 2001 results. Intemet revenue expanded again in the second quarter to $9.0 million, an increase of 102 percent compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2000 and an increase of 29 percent from the previous quarter’s $7.0 million. Intemet revenues represented 62 percent of the total revenue for the quarter.
Total revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2000 were $14.5 million, an increase of 16 percent when compared with $12.5 million reported for the second quarter of fiscal 2000. For the six-month period ended December 31, 2000, Harris Interactive reported revenues of $26.6 million, an increase of 22 percent compared with $21.8 million reported in the same six-month period in fiscal 2000.
Net loss for the three months ended December 31, 2000 was $0.17 per share ($6.0 million), compared with $0.33 per share ($5.4 million) in the second quarter of fiscal 2000. Loss for the first half was reported at $0.40 per share ($13.6 million) as compared to $0.70 per share ($9.6 million) for the same period of fiscal year 2000.
St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Catalina Marketing Corporation reported third quarter results for the period ended December 31, 2000. Revenue in the quarter grew 11 percent to $108.8 million, compared to $97.8 million in the comparable prior year period. Quarterly net income was $16.9 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, versus $16.6 million, or 29 cents per diluted share for the comparable prior year period. For the nine months ended December 31, 2000, revenue totaled $304.6 million, an increase of 18 percent compared to $257.2 million for the first nine months of the prior year. Net income for the first nine months of the current year totaled $43.7 million, or 75 cents per diluted share, an 18 percent increase over $36.9 million, or 64 cents per diluted share, for the comparable period last year.
The company’s marketing research operations posted a revenue increase of approximately 22 percent over the comparable prior year period. Research operations consist of Alliance Research and the recently acquired Market Intelligence. Earnings for the research operations were equal to approximately 1 cent per company common diluted share.