Intelligex, a New York-based startup that will match buyers and suppliers of custom research in a new marketplace slated for a fall launch, has attracted several companies as participants. Yankelovich Partners, Opinion Research Corporation, and Guideline Research are among over a dozen research firms which will bid on requests for proposals, from research buyers such as Arthur Andersen and 24/7 Media. Through the www.intelligex.com Web site, Intelligex’s platform will aggegate and match custom research buyers with Intelligex-certifled suppliers that best fit their needs and allow them to negotiate, collaborate, and transact custom research online.
Princeton, N.J.-based Total Research Corporation announced that its largest client has advised the company that a portion of its current marketing research project would be reduced. Work on the $8.5 million project began in February and was scheduled to be completed in November. The amount of the reduction was $3 million, which was scheduled to be included as part of the company’s billings on this contract over a three-month period.
Looking Glass, a Denver-based marketing firm, is now offering access to its Cohorts market seganentation system at www.cohorts.com. The Cohorts system identifies 27 groups of U.S. consumers based on their demographic and lifestyle characteristics. The site includes descriptions and illustrations of all 27 Cohorts as well as case studies and marketing applications.
Minneapolis-based food company General Mills has formed a 50/50 joint venture with MarketTools Inc., a Sausalito, Calif., research firm, as well as taking a minority stake in the company. General Mills will also be a significant MarketTools customer, which will allow General Mills to increasingly conduct consumer research over the Internet. "Twenty percent of research at General Mills is on the Internet,’" said Gayle Fuguitt, vice president of the consumer insights division at General Mills, in a Reuters article on the joint venture. "We plan to expand welt beyond that. We’ve found (the) participation rate for Internet research to be as high as 90 percent which is unprecedented. It also is a much better way to reach a targeted audience."
South-Western, a division of Thomson Learning, has announced a partnership with WebSurveyor, an Ashburn, Va., online survey technology company, to enhance their markedng textbook line. The alliance will launch with a CD-ROM bundled in the new edition of the textbook Contemporary Marketing Research, fifth edition.
A new Internet site, www.atnocost.com, lets consumers sample and critique a variety of consumer products. The site uses technology called Trackable Internet Domain Extension (TIDE) which enables manufacturers to enter the site and customize their research of any possible demographic profile. Manufacturers can conduct market surveys, have products tested by members with specific demographics or from a specific geographic area and gain consumer feedback about their products.
New York-based research firm NPD is partnering with Notara, a provider of Web-based services for consumer brand companies and their licensing, sponsorship and marketing partners, to offer news, trend information, and online research services via the Internet. The partnership broadens the audience for NPD’s current research reports, which are typically sold to market research executives. NPD and Notara will co-develop new research products that appeal to Notara’s core audience of licensing, sponsorship, and promotions professionals. Currently, NPD does not offer research for that marketplace. Notara will publish news, market data, trend information, and statistical updates, drawn from NPD research, via www.notara.net.
Israel-based NICE Systems, a provider of digital recording and quality management solutions for contact centers, and CustomerSat.com, Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif., online customer satisfaction measurement firm, have entered into a strategic alliance including a minority investment in CustomerSat.com by NICE. The alliance involves integration, joint development, and marketing of CustomerSat.com’s solutions by NICE.
Raeleen D’Agostino Mautner has founded Italy-U.S. Connection, a research, information brokering, and cross-cultural training firm, at P.O. Box 185724, Hamden, Conn.
IBM has acquired Aragon Consulting Group, a St. Louis marketing research and strategy firm. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. has formed an alliance with technology information provider PC Data which will link PC Data’s Internet metering technology with IRI’s Shoppers’ Hotline panel of 55,000 households to help consumer packaged goods manufacturers tie Internet usage to online and offline consumer behavior. Additionally, PC Data’s own panel of 120,000 households will be available to IRI customers for custom online survey research.
Honduras-based research firm Le Vote and Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive have signed an exclusive ageement which adds Le Vote/Harris Interactive as a member of Harris Interactive’s global network. Le Vote/Harris Interactive will develop a database of cooperative respondents in Central America for market research projects. In addition, MASMI Research, a research firm in Russia, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe, has also joined the Harris Interactive global network.
Concord, Mass.-based MORPACE Pharma Group, Ltd. (MPG), a health care information and analysis company, has collaborated with Viridien Technologies, a developer of e-business services and solutions, to build five new Web sites designed to leverage the Web’s capabilities for collecting data and enhancing information flow between MPG and its physician network.
Media Metrix, a New York Internet and digital media measurement firm, has announced enhancements to its Local Market Report on Internet and digital media usage in local markets. Through an alliance with International Demographics, Inc., a local-market qualitative research firm, Media Metrix will provide clients with expanded profiles of online users, enabling them to better understand and target audiences on a local level.
MarketTools, Inc. and Sawtooth Software, Inc., Sequim, Wash., have formed a partnership that will enhance MarketTools’ zTelligence system through the development of Web-based conjoint analysis modules based on Sawtooth Software’s research software products. ZTelligence, an online platform for collecting, analyzing and reporting relationship and market information, will be used to deliver these jointlydeveloped applications. Separately, MarketTools has partnered with Internet content provider ChinaLOOP to conduct consumer and market research in China via the Internet.
St. Louis-based Maritz Marketing Research Inc. has acquired Basis-Kontakt, a Hamburg, Germany, research firm. The terms of the acquisition were not made public; Basis-Kontakt’s 1999 revenues were $3 million.
In August, Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York against a number of Internet service providers (ISPs) which Harris claims have blocked it from corresponding with some of its registered online panelists. The company is seeking injunctive relief and significant monetary damages from America Online (AOL), HotMail, Qwest (USWEST) and others. These ISPs all subscribe to the Realtime Blackhole List (RBL), which is maintained by Mail Abuse Prevention System, LLC (MAPS), a Redwood City, Calif., monitor of electronic mail abuse. MAPS is also named as a defendant in the suit.
"MAPS has listed some of Harris Interactive’s network resources because we have received complaints about their mailing practices, and they are not willing to provide meaningful assurances that Harris will protect the fights of consumers and network owners by confirming that the person to whom they are sending e-mail actually wants to receive that e-mail. We tried to work with them, but they were unwilling to make substantive changes. RBL listings are always a last resort," said MAPS spokesperson Kelly Thompson in an August 2 MAPS press release on the matter.
The decision by MAPS to add Harris Interactive to the RBLprompted the ISPs to block the company from corresponding with the ISPs’ subscribers. The blocking affected approximately 2.7 million of Harris Interactive’s panel members, including approximately 600,000 panelists who have participated in Harris Interactive-conducted market research. The blocking also is preventing certain interested parties from accessing Harris Interactive’s Web sites and joining the Harris Interactive panel. The "causes of action" against the plaintiffs in this case include antitrust violations and range from interference with business and commercial disparagement to negligence and defamation. In addition to the other defendants, Harris Interactive named market research firm Incon and its president, Martin Roth, separately as defendants due to their role in "nominating" Harris Interactive for the MAPS RBL.
In a related action, the suit also includes an anti-trust complaint against AOL, which owns both Netscape and a market research competitor of Harris Interactive’s, Lewisville, Texas-based Digital Marketing Services (DMS). Harris Interactive contends that AOL’s block gives DMS an effective way to limit Harris Interactive’s ability to compete against DMS in the marketplace.
Minneapolis-based marketing agency Gage Marketing Group LLC has joined with Leede Research, Manitowoc, Wis., to form a new marketing research firm called The Leede Group. The Leede Group will provide qualitative and quantitative marketing research to Gage’s clients as well as to its own clients. Located in Gage’s headquarters in Minneapolis, Leede will have focus group facilities and usability laboratories for Internet and Web design testing. Dean Halverson, CEO of Leede Research, will become CEO of The Leede Group.
Greenfield Online, a Wilton Conn., research firm, has launched Greenfield Online Mexico, bringing its Web-based research tools, market trend reports, syndicated and other studies to businesses in Mexico and subsequently, Latin America. Blockbuster Mexico is Greenfield Online Mexico’s first client.
St. Louis research firm Marketeam Associates, celebrating its 30th year as a market research provider, has launched a new Web site.
Modalis Research Technologies, Inc., San Francisco, announced that bmp eBusiness AG, a Berlin-based venture capital firm, has taken a 6 percent stake in the company. The proceeds of the transaction will be used to expedite the opening of local offices around the world. The total amount of funding acquired in this round of financing amounts to just over $5 million.
New York-based Cyber Dialogue has launched the marketing intelligence portal for its Arc 360° eCRM platform. The portal enables Cyber Dialogue’s clients to manage their marketing initiatives by providing Web-based access to customer activity reports, strategic data and eCRM trends and by permitting clients to select market segments for targeted acquisition, retention and cross-sell campaigns.
Separately, the firm announced that Talkcast, a U.K.-based digital media and communications company, will use Arc 360° to integrate visitor data in a centralized database for reporting, analysis, predictive modeling and campaign management.
The Marketing Research Association, Rocky Hill, Conn., has launched an online bookstore as part of the Amazon.corn Associates Program. The bookstore, accessible at www.mra-net.org, will provide, a direct link to over 1,200 titles that fall into the opinion and marketing research category.
New York-based MarketResearch.com, Inc. has entered into an ageement to acquire key assets of Newsletters.com, Inc., Rockville, Md. Under the terms of the ageement, MarketResearch.com will acquire relationships with over 100 market research and business-to-business newsletter publishers, as well as technology infrastructure for the management and delivery of digital content. Separately, the firm has launched an updated version of its Web site, including its proprietary "slice and price" technology that allows clients to order discrete segments such as chapters, charts, tables or individual pages and review and print the content at their desktop.
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and Consumer Reports Online, and Active Research, Burlingame, Calif., have announced an agreement to make Active Research’s product data and information on a broad range of consumer goods available to Consumer Reports subscribers. Active Research will provide detailed product information and images on consumer electronics, baby products, home office equipment, appliances, lawn and garden products, and tools.
Minneapolis-based Interelate, a business analytics application service provider, has released the research paper, "Outsourcing Customer Relationship Management Functions," written by Doran Levy, the firm’s senior analytics officer. The paper reviews trends and issues an organization faces in outsourcing IT functions. It also explores the concept of outsourcing CRM functions in the ASP business model, particularly for marketing analysis.
Seattle-based online research information provider DeepCanyon has expanded the media, telecommunications and wireless industries research offerings on the DeepCanyon.com site through new agreements with Pyramid Research and Veronis Suhler. Pyramid Research specializes in the telecom and wireless industries and their component parts, while Veronis Suhler’s expertise is in the media, communications, and information industries. Separately, DeepCanyon also announced a strategic alliance with Reuters Business Insight to bring Reuters Business Insight to the DeepCanyon site. Reuters Business Insight is a series of management reports jointly produced by Reuters and Datamonitor PLC.
DecisionVelocity, an affiliate of Kansas City research f’m-n Decision Insight, has obtained seed capital to finance the next growth phase, the market rollout to research buyers. DecisionVelocity, a business-to-business ASP, specializes in customized applications for buyers of marketing research who are open to nontraditional techniques. The DecisionVelocity process delivers multimedia-enriched research applications via the Internet. New applications incorporate sound, visuals and motion.
Q2 Brand Intelligence, a Seattle brand research and business strategy company, has opened a Boston division.
Greenwich, Conn.-based InsightExpress.com, an online market research service, has signed 13 strategic alliances with media outlets, business portals and software companies which will offer automated market research services to a wider audience.
Advantis Research & Consulting, St. Paul, has introduced a Web site at www.advantisresearch.com.
Catapult Systems Corp., an Austin, Texas, provider of e-business products and services, has announced that Griffin Bacal ad agency has selected Catapult’s Inquisite survey system for its online marketing research surveys. Separately, StorageTek, a Louisville, Colo.-based global information storage provider, has also selected Inquisite for its online customer and employee surveys.
Lothar Fritsch has opened a new full-service research firm, MinetheSoul, at 1 Wiltshire Ave., Studio 127, Toronto, Canada.
Michael Zicha has opened Zicha & Associates, a research firm located at 12 Manchester, Streamwood, Ill.,
Stamford, Conn.-based @plan, an Internet marketing research firm, has launched the Institute for Online Commerce. The @plan Institute For Online Commerce will offer consumers, the media, opinion leaders and market analysts data concerning online consumer preferences, behavior, and attitudes towards key online issues.
In June, New York Internet traffic measurement firm Media Metrix announced it would acquire New York-based Jupiter Communications for $414 million in stock to create a new company that will combine Internet tracking with market research and analysis. Earlier this year, Jupiter paid $50.6 million in cash and stock to acquire privately held Intemet Research Group and Net Market Makers in an attempt to offer more business-to-business research.
Opinion Research Corporation, Princeton, N.J., has signed $2.3 million in contracts with a global hightechnology company for the continuation of a global brand image tracking program and related research. Separately, the fLrm announced that its offices in Maumee, Ohio, and Bingham Farms, Mich., have achieved ISO 9001 Certification.
Internet audience measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings announced that Yahoo! Inc. has subscribed to the Nielsen//NetRatings service in 14 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
Broomfield, Colo.-based Abacus Direct, a division of DoubleClick Inc., has launched a series of syndicated market research products which will target Abacus’ core market segments: catalog, retail, business-to-business, publishing, and online areas. To complete the market research project, Abacus has formed a partnership inwith Dipankar Chakravarti and the University of Colorado.
Schaumburg, IlL-based ACNielsen U.S. and Norwalk, Conn.-based Adams Business Research, an operating unit of Adams Trade Press, Inc., will expand their multi-channel liquor sales information service, LiquorScan. The service now includes census-based, account-specific reporting for liquor store retailers ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Boston-based Kappy’s, Spirits Unlimited of New Jersey and Goody-Goody of Dallas.
New York-based Arbitron Company has entered into a strategic alliance with Lariat Software, Inc., a developer of streaming media infrastructure solutions, to power InfoStream, a Webcast audience ratings service. Under the terms of the agreement, Lariat will license its MediaReports software to Arbitron for use in the collection of data from streaming media servers for the InfoStream ratings.
Hudson, Mass.-based C Me Run Corp., an Internet computing company, has announced that Market Perspectives, Inc. will provide online survey tools to help C Me Run garner and act on user response to C Me Run’s services.
San Diego marketing information firm Claritas Inc., has announced the formation of the MyBest... suite of Internet-deliverable products with the first in the series of Web sites called MyBestProspects. The new sites will be a component of the ClaritasExpress portal site. MyBestProspects allows the user to identify and target qualified prospects by providing over 500 product and service usage categories, ranging from restaurant preferences to media behavior.
Elrick & Lavidge Marketing Research (E&L), Atlanta, has formed an agreement with America Online under which it will provide visitors to Shop@AOL with independent reviews of merchants, including ratings of key factors that lead to a successful online shopping experience. In addition to providing independent merchant reviews to the consumers, E&L’s research will offer feedback to Shop @AOL merchants regarding consumers’ experience on the merchants’ Web sites, which they obtain from consumers by giving them the opportunity to participate in short online surveys.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a part of an antitrust lawsuit brought by Information Resources, Inc. against the ACNielsen Corporation. ACNielsen and the other defendants moved for partial summary judgment on IRI’s non-U.S. antitrust claims. The court granted the motion and dismissed those claims, ruling that IRI could not assert claims based on defendants’ alleged activities in foreign markets where IRI operates through subsidiaries, companies owned by joint ventures, or relationships with local companies. IRI brought its lawsuit in 1996, alleging a variety of anticompetifive activities by The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, ACNielsen, and IMS International, Inc. abroad, as well as in the United States. IRI claimed worldwide antitrust damages.
Survey.com has moved to 1282 White Oaks Rd., Campbell, Calif.
Jim Shut, president and owner of Pathfinder Research Group, Acton, Mass., has sold his business to Q Research, Newton, Mass. The new business wil! operate under the Pathfinder Research Group name in its present location and be owned and managed by Karen Daily Stahl and Ed Stahl.
St. Louis-based research firm Quality Controlled Services has opened a new facility near Phoenix in the Papago Spectrum in Tempe, Ariz.
Qualitative research firm The Clowes Partnership has moved to 373 Saybrook Rd., Higganum, Conn.
Results Thru Research has moved to 12W. 37th St.,4th fl., New York, N.Y.
INRA (EUROPE), in partnership with GfK Group, has won the contract to conduct the European Commission’s standard Eurobarometer survey, which polls over 85,000 people in 15 countries each year about issues of concern to the European Union.
Decision Analyst, Inc., Arlington, Texas, has created an advisory council designed to give physicians and surgeons a greater say in the shaping of health care policy and products. Called the Physicians Advisory Council, the program includes a Web site (www.physicianscouncil.com) where physicians worldwide can participate in Decision Analyst surveys pertaining to health care issues. Separately, the firm has expanded to 100,000 the number of Europeans who are members of American Consumer Opinion Online, Decision Analyst’s online panel.
In July, National Computer Systems. Eden Prairie, Minn., announced it was being sold to Pearson PLC, an international media, publishing and education company. The transaction is valued at about $2.5 billion. The deal was expected to be completed in September.
The Coleman Group, a Minneapolis-based design consulting firm, has introduced its Brand Strategy Team, headed by Rina Papler, which will integrate brand strategy development with naming, product design and packaging efforts.
Opinion Access Corp., Long Island City, has expanded its telephone interviewing capacity to 200 stations. The stations are 100-percent CATI, using both TelAthena and CfMC software inte~ated with EIS predictive dialers.
Essman/Research, Des Moines, Iowa, has been chosen as one of the top 10 focus facilities in North America by the moderators and researchers who participated in the 2000 edition of the Impulse Survey of Focus Facilities.