ACNielsen Corp., Stamford, Conn., has acquired The BASES Group, including BASES Worldwide, a test marketing firm. The BASES Group will now be known as ACNielsen BASES. Jack Brown, chairman of The BASES Group, will serve as the chairman of ACNielsen BASES and will be a member of the ACNielsen Policy and Planning Committee. Headquartered in Covington, Ky., The BASES Group, is a privately-held firm with annual revenues of $65 million.
Over 700 marketing research professionals attended the Marketing Research Association's 40th annual conference, "The Winds of Change Connections and Recollections," at the Chicago Downtown Marriott on June 3-5. The number of attendees was a new record for an MRA event.
SPSS Inc. has relocated its corporate headquarters to the Sears Tower at 233 S. Wacker Dr., 11th fl., Chicago, Ill.
A new professional association, the Point-of-Purchase Study Group (POP-SG) has been formed to serve as an educational information exchange among a network of researchers interested in conducting research at the point-of-purchase. The group is a coalition of academic, industrial and other researchers who maintain an active interest in, and promote some phase of, this research. The objectives are to: establish a roster of POP researchers and interested parties; develop a bibliography of published and unpublished material that has a direct bearing on the utility and limitations of POP research; disseminate literature on request to members of the study group; sponsor study and consultation sessions for the group in conjunction with other professional meetings.
Connecticut in Focus, a new 4,000-square-foot focus group facility, has opened in the Hartford, Conn., suburb of Glastonbury. The facility will be headed by Mary Ann Pacocha.
InterActive Research Corporation, Atlanta, Ga., parent company of Project Research, Inc. (PRI) of Minneapolis,has acquired the assets of Dennis And Company of Stamford, Conn. The companies are merging operations under the name Dennis And Company Research and retaining all employees of all firms. Dennis And Company Research will be led by a management team comprised of senior staff from all firms, and will maintain full-service offices in Atlanta, Stamford and Minneapolis, as well as a client service office in WinstonSalem, N.C. Mike Straus, president of InterActive Research and headquartered in Atlanta, becomes chairman and CEO of Dennis And Company Research while Dennis P. Gehr of Dennis And Company, based in Stamford, becomes vice chairman responsible for the Stamford and Winston-Salem offices. Peter Kochenthal will continue to serve as EVP/COO of the Stamford office and Kevin Menk, formerly of the InterActive subsidiary Project Research, Inc., will become EVP/COO of the Minneapolis office. Lynn Bowden-Buzzard will continue to serve as senior vice president and general manager of the WinstonSalem client service office. Elyse Gammer of Dennis And Company, outgoing president of the MRA, assumes the role of vice president and corporate field director of Dennis And Company Research.
Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas, Inc., a New York research firm, has joined Global Market Research, a large international market research network, as the American affiliate. The affiliation provides SRBl clients with a network of established research company partners around the world.
MRCFocus, Las Vegas, has added a third suite of discussion rooms to accommodate large groups of 12 to 40 participants. The new suite of rooms offers a private client entrance to ensure client anonymity and closed-circuit viewing of the focus group process. In addition, the suite is equipped with audio/visual surveillance technology to capture participant expression and body language for analysis and review.
Edison, N.J.-based Schlesinger Associates has opened a new focus group facility in midtown Manhattan featuring three focus group suites (each with large conference room, viewing room, client lounges and work stations), a fully-equipped kitchen and audio/video equipment.
Singapore-based Research Pacific has changed its name to The Research Pacific Group to better reflect its expanded operations, current and planned, throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Research International USA, New York, has acquired Conway/Milliken & Associates (CMA). To support both companies' data collection needs, CMA's existing CATI center has been expanded to 150 calling stations. CMA will function as a division of Research International USA and will remain headquartered in Chicago.
ICR/lnternational Communications Research, Media, Pa., has opened a new branch office in St. Louis. David Hughes, who has joined the firm as vice president of client services, will head up the new branch.
Focus Two, Inc., Daphne, Ala., has opened a new focus group facility in the Mobile, Ala., area.
Data & Management Counsel has relocated its headquarters office to 135 Commons Ct., Chadds Ford,Pa. The firm has also added a West Coast office at 3604 Fourth Ave., Suite 2, San Diego, Calif.
The survey research industry has rejected and labeled "extortive" the contractual relationship expressed in mailings from a Chicago-based organization, Private Citizen, Inc., requiring a $500 fee if any of its members receive a call to participate in an opinion survey. The Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), a Port Jefferson, N.Y., trade association, said that subject to federal and statelaw, survey researchers have a first amendment right to communicate with people. "Anyone who attempts to force survey researchers to pay money for what they have a right to do we believe commits the crime of extortion," says CASRO executive director Diane Bowers. "More importantly, survey researchers respect the individual's right not to be interviewed and will accept a refusal not to participate in a survey."
CASRO Chairman Richard Day says, "As professional researchers CASRO members must adhere to astrict code of standards and ethics that specifically requires balancing the right to privacy versus the need for research.
"For survey research to be reliable and to provide meaningful data, it must be able to sample a representative and projectable population and count both the people who refuse to participate as well as those who participate. Such a process guards against sample bias and thus the ability to generalize to the population," Day says.
In the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, the Federal Government recognized the distinctionbetween telemarketing and legitimate survey research calls. The Federal Communications Commission released a report and order on Oct. 16, 1992, that specifically exempts research, market surveys and political polling from the TCPA requirements for do-not-call lists.
Tustin, Calif.-based Scantron Corporation and Catapult Systems Corp., Austin, Texas, have signed a comprehensive agreement to develop and jointly market network survey systems and services. The agreement includes the licensing of Inquisite source and object technologies to Scantron, the joint development of enhancements to Inquisite technology, the development and deploymentof Web hosting services, and the joint marketing of these products and services throughout the world.
Chris Van Derveer, president of Van Derveer Industrial Research, Philadelphia, is prepared to offer the following payment arrangement to new client firms. A deposit of half the project fee would be made up front. Upon completion and delivery of the final report, Van Derveer would receive the remaining half in client company stock, valued at the firm's own internal price structure. "The ideal candidate for the program would be a firm that markets a product that is sold to industrial buyers," Van Derveer says. "The firm has probably undergone a few rounds of financing from venture capital sources and plans to go public in a few years."
Doane Marketing Research, a St. Louis, Mo., firm specializing in agricultural marketing research, has agreed to purchase the assets of St. Louis-based Harvest Research. Harvest Research was founded by Roy Cleveland and John Mattingly and has been a provider of both syndicated and proprietary research services to agribusiness. Doane Marketing Research is a wholly owned subsidiary of MarketeamAssociates Of Mo., Inc., a privately held marketing research firm.
Dallas-based STREAM has opened a facility for qualitative research in the north Dallas area. Thefacility includes a 30x17-foot focus study room with modular table, TelePrompTer, television/VCR, projection wall, surround/ multilevel lights, built-in serving/presentation area, carpeted walls and moveablewhite board for presentation of product and ideas, in-room computer capability, and a viewing room withcamera, and audio with operators for one standardized price. The facility is located at the Spring Valley exit off the North Dallas Tollway. It is supported by STREAM Agency, Inc., a provider of marketing support for consumer-based and business-tobusiness-based companies.
E-valuations Research, Seattle, and 2WAY, a Seattle provider or marketing automation software, haveentered an agreement to develop a comprehensive set of marketing survey tools for 2WAY's flagship product, Enterprise Suite v 2.1. The firms will develop a series of research survey templates. These templates will assist clients of both companies in developing their own on-line marketing studies for Internet, intranet and extranet environments.
The Pennsylvania Federation of Business and Professional Women presented their Employer of the YearAward to J. Reckner Associates, Inc., a Montgomeryville, Pa., research firm, at their 78th annual conference in June in Pittsburgh. The award is presented to an employer whose employment policies andpractices are particularly supportive of women employees.
Field Dynamics Marketing Research has opened a third focus group suite at its Los Angeles location.The 22x20 respondent room features a large, modular conference table that can hold up to 15 respondents. When the table is removed the super room can accommodate 25 respondents in a classroom setting or up to 50 respondents theater-style. The two-tiered viewing room seats 10 to 12 clients.
In company earnings news for the second quarter, Market Facts, Arlington Heights, Ill., reported secondquarter revenue increased 35 percent to $34.2 million from $25.3 million a year ago. Net income forthe quarter rose 87 percent to $2.0 million from $1.1 million, and diluted earnings per share increased to$0.22 per share comparedwith $0.15 in 2Q 1997.
NFO Worldwide, Greenwich, Conn., reported a 38 percent increase in second quarter revenues to $65million from $47 million in the same period last year. Net income for the quarter was $4.4 million, up 60 percent from $2.7 million last year. Diluted earnings per share were $0.20 compared to last year's $0.13per share, an increase of 54 percent.
Information Resources, Inc., Chicago, reported second quarter net earnings of $3.4 million, $0.12 per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $2.1 million or $0.07 per diluted share in 2Q 1997.Consolidated revenues for the second quarter were $129.4 million, up 14 percent over 2Q 1997.
ACNielsen Corp., Stamford, Conn., reported a rise in net income of 57 percent, to $16.1 million,while diluted earnings per share reached $0.27, an increase of 50 percent over 1997. Reported figures include an after-tax expense of $1.6 million, or $0.03 per share, for Year 2000 computer modifications, and a negative impact of $2.4million, or $0.04 per share, from foreign currency translation.
St. Louis-based Quality Controlled Services (QCS) has relocated its Denver telephone surveycenter to 3131 S. Vaughn Way in Aurora, Colo. The new location expands the number of CATI stations from 70 to 82. QCS has also acquired a new call center in Kirksville, Mo., featuring 60 CATI stations. It is located at RR 3, Box 111A in Kirksville.
Clearwater Research, Boise, Idaho, has been named 1998 Small Business of the Year by the Boise Area Chamber of Commerce. Clearwater was one of 17 businesses nominated in three categories (small, medium. and large). Businesses were judged on their quality of service, history of innovation, ability to deal with challenges, and overall stability.
Information Resources, Inc., Chicago, announced that its InfoScan Reviews, a syndicated scanner database, has been upgraded from sample-based to all-store, census-based data. The upgrade allows clients to work with data from 11,300 supermarkets and 7,500 drug stores, an increase from the earlierdatabase of 2,700 food and 550 drug stores. Customers will also continue to receive sample-based information from nearly 300 mass-merchandise outlets.
Mark Freeman Associates, a Cleveland, Ohio, marketing communications firm, has formed an integrated research group.
Intellipost Corp., a San Francisco-based loyalty marketing firm, is expanding its BonusMail opt-in advertising service to include a set of market research tools provided by New York-based CLT ResearchAssociates. BonusMail is an Internet loyalty program that rewards consumers for reading targeted e-mail ads. Under the agreement, Intellipost will offer its advertisers CLT's research services, while CLT will use BonusMail to conduct research for its clients.
The Arbitron Co., Columbia, Md., has selected Fairfield, Conn.-based Survey Sampling as its supplier for the random-digit telephone samples used in Arbitron's radio audience surveys in the U.S.
New York-based Research International USA and The Rouse Company, a developer/owner/managerof regional shopping centers, have formed a partnership that will provide both companies withInternet-based access to retail/home shoppers. Through The Rouse Company's Premier Shopper Club an interactive shopping experience, conducted at mall pavilions and on the Internet, which provides shoppers with exclusive offers, discounts and special services - Research International USA will be able to access 500,000 shopper club members who visit Rouse shopping centers each week to participate in panel research.
Roper Starch Worldwide Inc. and Response Analysis Corp. have signed a letter of intent to combine.Terms were not disclosed. The combined entity will be called Roper Starch Worldwide Inc., withResponse Analysis operating as a division under its own name from its headquarters in Princeton, N.J.
National Survey Research Center has moved to a new facility featuring a focus group suite and 20 CATI stations. The new address is 5350 Transportation Blvd., Ste. 19, Cleveland, Ohio.
A Philadelphia research firm has paid The Business Software Alliance - a watchdog group of software developers - $100,000 to settle claims that the firm had unlicensed software installed on its computers. In addition to the settlement payment, the firm agreed to delete any unlicensed copies, purchase any additional software necessary to be in compliance with copyright laws in the future and strengthen its existing software management policies.
Burke Strategic Consulting Group, Newton, Mass., and Atlanta-based Armstrong Laing Group have entered into a strategic partnership to provide consulting support for clients who purchase Armstrong Laing activity-based management software.