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Given a saGGinG economy and an inflation rate that is inching up, it should be no surprise that spending for marketing/advertising/public opin-ion research services within the United States, while up slightly, was down significantly from the growth rate enjoyed in 2006.

Specifically, this analysis—based on input from 200 research firms based in the United States—showed total revenue of $8.6 billion in 2007, up 6.0% over 2006. However, after adjustment for infla-tion, which ran at 4.1% in 2007, the so-called real growth was 1.9% (see chart). The comparable num-ber for 2006 was 4.1%. If we look at the most recent 10 years (1997-2006), the annual spending growth rate after adjustment for inflation averaged 5.3% per year. The 2007 rate of 1.9% is, obviously, well below that, and the lowest we’ve seen since the slumping economy of 2001 to 2002.

This is the main finding from this, my 35th annual analysis of industry growth, prepared exclusively for Marketing News.

Solid BaseThe base for this analysis and trend data is large—200 research firms based in the United States that have reported their revenue (U.S. only) for cal-endar year 2007. The main input comes from the 50 largest U.S. research firms’ revenue; they alone account for 91% of the revenue under study. Fortunately, many of the largest Top 50 firms are public, or are subsidiaries of public companies, so their financials are verifiable. The other Top 50 firms provide third-party verification of their revenue. Since several of the Top 50 firms made acquisitions during 2007, every effort has been made to eliminate artificial growth due to acqui-sition, either by including or excluding acquired revenue when calculating growth.

The balance, 9% of revenue, is attributable to 150 Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO) firms that are not included in the Top 50 (or a couple that choose not to participate). On average, these 150 firms had revenue of $5.2 million in 2007. As a group, their revenue grew by 6.2% in 2007 compared with 6.0% for the Top 50, and almost all of this was within the United States.

It should be noted that as hefty as our database is ($8.6 billion), it is not the total amount spent for research services in the United States. For one, federal government agencies spend about $5 bil-lion a year for statistical programs (mostly survey research), and only two of the Top 50 firms (Westat Inc. and Opinion Research Corp.) get a sizable piece of that revenue. Then there are nonprofit sur-vey organizations affiliated with universities that are not included, and commercial research that is done in-house.

But when it comes to commercial marketing research through for-profit firms, this analysis is well-based as the lion’s share.

Changes In ListingEvery year there is change in the list composition. Some firms are acquired or revenue drops enough to miss the Top 50 cutoff. And these openings bring new firms to light, some for the first time. In 2007, there were five additions: Hitwise, Compete Inc., Q Research Solutions Inc., Gongos Research Inc. and The Link Group. Four firms lost their own line ranking due to acquisition: Guideline Inc., No. 38 on the 2006 list, was acquired by a newly formed Opinion Research/Guideline Group, No. 15 on this year’s list; Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights LLC, No. 37 on the 2006 list, was acquired by Market Strategies Inc., No. 17 on this year’s list; Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas Inc., No. 41 on the 2006 list, was acquired by Abt Associates Inc., No. 19 on this year’s list; and Telephia Inc., No. 16 on the 2006 list, was acquired by The Nielsen Co., No. 1 on this year’s list. Finally, Experian Research Services (namely, Simmons Market Research Bureau), No. 30 on the 2006 list, dropped off the list in 2007.

Of special note regarding list turnover is the growth of startups, many in recent years rooted in online data collection. They demonstrate how the U.S. research industry revitalizes itself via inno-vation and “ease of entry,” as the economists term it, especially in a financial climate where so many startups have found it relatively easy to raise capi-tal from outside investors. Then, when a newer firm grows to an appetizing size, it usually goes public or is acquired by a larger, well-established research conglomerate. So the industry evolves, picks up energy and adapts to technological changes.

Growth RatesThe sluggish growth rate in 2007 calls for further examination. If you look at the Top 50 firms, 21 saw revenue decrease in 2007 vis-a-vis 2006, or did not grow enough to cover the 4.l% inflation rate. Of the very large firms, the one with the most impressive revenue growth was Westat, with 10.4%. Of the bot-tom half, with rankings of No. 26 through No. 50, 12 saw revenue decline. So those firms with reve-nue of $34 million or less really took a hit in 2007. One reason for this is that, with rare exceptions, the smaller firms specialize in ad hoc survey research—and such spending is easily curtailed during hard times. Conversely, the huge conglomerates, with rare exception, get the lion’s share of their revenue from syndicated services rooted in huge databases, most of which are under contract. And this business tends to weather economic slowdowns well.

With the exception of Westat, all of the top 10 firms on this year’s Top 50 list are either pub-licly listed companies, subsidiaries of larger public companies or—in the case of Nielsen—a private company that makes some of their financials public. Six are foreign-owned if you include Nielsen, which has both Dutch and U.S. home bases. All are global in reach, except for Westat, which does not do work outside the United States.

Non-U.S. RevenueThe emphasis of this annual analysis is to track U.S. spending, but it should be noted that 33 of the Top 50 organizations have revenue from work done out-side the United States, and that information is in the table on page H4. It is best understood by a firm-by-firm analysis, because in many cases the U.S. Top 50 firm is a subsidiary of worldwide conglomerates based in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and other faraway places—so much for the globalization of the marketing research industry.

To really get a grip on this phenomenon, I sug-gest you read the individual company profiles that follow. In addition to describing the services these firms offer, the profiles also spell out the owner-ship of U.S.-based research operations and why so many of U.S. dollars spent for research services end up as profits expressed in euros, pounds and other currencies. And this is a mixed blessing; to the degree that European research conglomerates have expanded in the United States (usually via acquisi-tions), they are currently hurt profit-wise by weak U.S. dollars, which buys fewer and fewer euros or pounds in profits when converted. m

Jack Honomichl is president of Marketing

Aid Center in Barrington, Ill., and founder

of Inside Research, a market research trade

publication.

By JaCk HoNomICHL

ECONOMY STUNTS INDUSTRY GROWTH

U.S. RESEARCH REVENUE GROWTH

YearBase No. of

Research Firms

% Revenue

Growth

Year-to-Year

“Real Growth”

(after adjustment

for inflation)

1988 140 7.8% 3.7%

1989 147 4.8 0.0

1990 152 8.9 3.5

1991 150 7.6 3.4

1992 156 10.6 7.6

1993 159 9.3 6.3

1994 157 9.5 6.9

1995 162 9.2 6.4

1996 169 5.7 2.7

1997 174 12.6 10.3

1998 183 11.6 10.0

1999 174 10.1 7.9

2000 181 9.0 5.6

2001 180 4.0 1.2

2002 187 3.5 1.9

2003 197 5.6 3.3

2004 188 9.9 7.2

2005 193 5.5 2.1

2006 207 6.6 4.1

2007 200 6.0 1.9

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U.S. Rank2007 2006

Organization Headquarters Web SiteU.S. Research

Revenue1

($, in millions)

Percent Change

From 20062

Worldwide Research Revenue1

($, in millions)

Non-U.S.Research Revenue1

($, in millions)

Percent Non-U.S. Revenue

U.S. Full-time

Employees

1 1 The Nielsen Co. New York nielsen.com $2,173.0 7.9 $4,220.0 $2,047.0 48.5 9,715

2 2 IMS Health Inc. Norwalk, Conn. imshealth.com 801.0 8.6 2,192.6 1,391.6 63.5 2,034

3 3 Kantar Group* Fairfield, Conn. kantargroup.com 526.8 3.5 1,551.4 1,024.6 66.0 2,600

4 5 Westat Inc. Rockville, Md. westat.com 467.8 10.4 467.8 — — 1,935

5 4 IRI Chicago infores.com 441.0 2.1 702.0 261.0 37.2 1,464

6 6 TNS U.S. New York tnsglobal.com 379.8 2.8 2,137.2 1,757.4 82.2 2,000

7 7 Arbitron Inc. New York arbitron.com 338.5 6.0 352.1 13.6 3.9 1,092

8 8 GfK AG USA Nuremberg, Germany gfk.com 319.7 1.3 1,603.0 1,283.3 80.1 1,039

9 9 Ipsos New York ipsos-na.com 281.2 3.5 1,270.3 989.1 77.9 800

10 10 Synovate London synovate.com 250.4 6.9 867.0 616.6 71.1 832

11 11 Maritz Research Fenton, Mo. maritzresearch.com 187.4 5.2 223.3 35.9 16.1 632

12 13 J.D. Power and Associates* Westlake Village, Calif. jdpower.com 184.5 8.2 260.5 76.0 29.2 620

13 12 Harris Interactive Inc. Rochester, N.Y. harrisinteractive.com 161.0 -3.6 227.0 66.0 29.1 879

14 14 The NPD Group Inc. Port Washington, N.Y. npd.com 160.4 10.1 211.1 50.7 24.0 860

15 - Opinion Research/Guideline Group Omaha, Neb. infousa.com 124.7 4.5 206.7 82.0 39.7 546

15 Opinion Research Corp. Princeton, N.J. opinionresearch.com 97.5 0.7 179.5 82.0 45.7 458

38 Guideline Inc. New York guideline.com 26.8 21.3 26.8 — — 73

16 18 comScore Inc. Reston, Va. comscore.com 77.0 26.0 87.2 10.2 11.7 370

17 20 Market Strategies Inc. Livonia, Mich. marketstrategies.com 75.7 6.3 80.4 4.7 5.8 309

20 Market Strategies Inc. Livonia, Mich. marketstrategies.com 53.4 11.0 58.1 4.7 8.1 234

37 Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights Little Rock, Ark. fw-mi.com 22.3 -3.5 22.3 — — 75

18 17 Lieberman Research Worldwide Los Angeles lrwonline.com 71.0 12.5 87.4 16.4 18.8 208

19 - Abt Associates Inc. Cambridge, Mass. abtassociates.com 55.1 -16.8 55.1 — — 279

19 Abt Associates Inc. Cambridge, Mass. abtassociates.com 33.0 -27.5 33.0 — — 150

41 Abt SRBI Inc. New York srbi.com 22.1 6.8 22.1 — — 129

20 23 OTX Los Angeles otxresearch.com 50.8 32.6 54.5 3.7 6.8 184

21 21 Burke Inc. Cincinnati burke.com 47.0 8.0 53.1 6.1 11.5 217

22 22 MVL Group Inc. Jupiter, Fla. mvlgroup.com 42.3 -1.6 42.3 — — 193

23 26 Knowledge Networks Inc. Menlo Park, Calif. knowledgenetworks.com 37.3 5.7 37.3 — — 180

23 25 National Research Corp. Lincoln, Neb. nationalresearch.com 37.3 1.9 41.3 4.0 9.7 181

25 24 Directions Research Inc. Cincinnati directionsresearch.com 37.2 1.4 37.2 — — 120

26 40 Phoenix Marketing International Rhinebeck, N.Y. phoenixmi.com 33.5 26.5 34.9 1.4 4.0 137

27 34 Lieberman Research Group Great Neck, N.Y. liebermanresearch.com 30.1 28.1 30.1 — — 76

28 27 ICR/Int’l Communications Research Media, Pa. icrsurvey.com 28.8 -6.5 29.7 0.9 3.0 195

29 28 Morpace Inc. Farmington Hills, Mich. morpace.com 28.7 -4.7 33.2 4.5 13.6 150

30 33 MarketCast Los Angeles marketcastonline.com 25.1 2.0 25.1 — 36

31 36 Data Development Worldwide New York datadw.com 25.0 6.8 25.3 0.3 1.2 80

32 39 C&R Research Services Inc. Chicago crresearch.com 23.6 9.8 23.6 — — 121

33 32 Informa Research Services Inc. Calabasas, Calif. informars.com 23.5 -6.7 23.5 — — 189

34 31 National Analysts Worldwide Philadelphia nationalanalysts.com 23.3 -12.1 23.3 — — 73

35 44 Service Management Group Kansas City, Mo. servicemanagement.com 22.4 22.4 23.0 0.6 2.6 134

36 34 Market Probe Inc. Milwaukee marketprobe.com 21.7 -3.6 41.4 19.7 47.6 115

37 - Hitwise New York hitwise.com 21.6 50.0 49.9 28.3 56.7 75

38 42 Walker Information Indianapolis walkerinfo.com 21.2 10.4 25.5 4.3 16.9 180

39 43 KS&R Inc. Syracuse, N.Y. ksrinc.com 17.1 -9.5 21.0 3.9 18.6 198

40 47 Bellomy Research Inc. Winston-Salem, N.C. bellomyresearch.com 16.7 14.4 16.7 — — 95

41 46 MarketVision Research Inc. Cincinnati marketvisionresearch.com 16.4 10.1 16.4 — — 80

42 28 Public Opinion Strategies Alexandria, Va. pos.org 15.5 -48.5 15.5 — — 33

43 - Compete Inc. Boston compete.com 14.9 53.6 14.9 — — 100

44 45 Savitz Research Companies Dallas savitzresearch.com 14.8 -2.6 14.8 — — 50

45 48 RDA Group Inc. Bloomfield Hills, Mich. rdagroup.com 13.7 -5.5 16.8 3.1 18.5 97

46 - Gongos Research Inc. Auburn Hills, Mich. gongos.com 13.3 24.3 13.3 — — 63

47 - Q Research Solutions Inc. Old Bridge, N.J. whoisq.com 13.0 8.3 13.2 0.2 1.5 77

48 49 Marketing Analysts Inc. Charleston, S.C. marketinganalysts.com 12.8 -3.0 13.6 0.8 5.9 39

49 50 RTi Market Research & Brand Strategy Stamford, Conn. rtiresearch.com 12.2 -3.9 12.2 — — 43

50 - The Link Group Atlanta the-link-group.com 11.9 5.3 13.3 1.4 10.5 39

Total $7,828.7 6.0 $17,638.0 $9,809.3 55.6 32,883

All other (150 CASRO companies not included in the Top 50)3 $774.3 6.2 $870.1 $95.8 11.0 3,370

Total (200 companies) $8,603.0 6.0 $18,508.1 $9,905.1 53.5 36,253

* Estimated by Top 50 1U.S. and worldwide revenue may include nonresearch activities for some companies that are significantly higher. See individual company profiles for details. 2Rate of growth from year to year has been adjusted so as not to include revenue gains or losses from acquisitions or divestitures. See company profiles for explanation. 3Total revenue of 150 survey research companies that provide financial information on a confidential basis to the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO).

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1 The NielseN Co. www.nielsen.com

<DaviD Calhoun

The nielsen Co., formerly VNU Group N.V., based in New York and Haarlem, the Netherlands, was a company founded in 1964 and listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. In May 2006, Nielsen was sold to a consortium of six private equity firms.

David L. Calhoun, 51, is chairman and CEO of Nielsen. He earned a B.S. in accounting at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

U.S. research-only revenue in 2007 was $2.2 billion, up 7.9% over 2006. In 2007, 48.5% of total research-only revenue, or $2.0 billion, was from outside the United States. The growth rate includes 2006 and 2007 revenue for BuzzMetrics, acquired February 2006; Beverage Data Network, acquired March 2006; and The Modeling Group, acquired November 2006; and excludes revenue for Telephia Inc., acquired August 2007.

Revenue is from two of Nielsen’s marketing and media research divisions, which include some non-research businesses, mostly information services. Worldwide research and nonresearch revenue for VNU NV was $4.7 billion in 2007.

Nielsen is a global information and media com-pany offering services in more than 100 countries and with more than 42,000 employees. It has leading market positions in marketing information, media information, business publications, trade shows and the newspaper sector. In its two research divisions, the firm employs 9,715 full time in the United States and 33,171 worldwide.

Nielsen has 11 business units devoted to research:

aCnielsenACNielsen serves consumer product manufactur-ers, retailers and sales agencies with market research, products and services, and analytical tools.

Its core business activities serve brand, category, sales management and strategic planning.

▶ Retail Measurement Services provides continu-ous tracking of product sales to consumers, based on information gathered at the retail point-of-sale. RMS information is available in more than 80 countries.

▶ Consumer Panel Services research tracks the purchasing behavior of consumers in more than 300,000 households in 28 countries worldwide, pri-marily through the use of in-home scanners.

▶ Assortment and In-Store Space Services provides help in making decisions on issues such as shelf inven-tories, shelf space, category growth opportunities, product listings and how best to distribute merchan-dising information.

▶ Customized Research Services provides qualita-tive and quantitative measures of consumers’ attitudes and purchasing behavior, customer satisfaction, brand awareness and equity, advertising effectiveness and other marketing issues.

▶ Retailer Services are used to evaluate competitive performance, increase traffic and sales, leverage their frequent-shopper data and build consumer loyalty, improve performance of their private-label products and understand their results across all product classes and categories they carry.

▶ Analytic Consulting Services addresses such business issues as pricing, promotion, marketing mix, assortment and product rationalization, category placement, category structure and in-store, in-market auditing and testing.

▶ Decision Support Services provides software tools and delivery methods with tools that range from

analytical and data-management systems to standard reports that are automatically refreshed when data-bases are updated.

▶ Global Services coordinates with local ACNielsen offices throughout the world to deliver clear, consistent information across markets.

▶ TDLinx, a division of ACN, provides universal coverage and unique codes for stores, outlets and accounts, as well as Trade Dimensions directories.

Major 2007 highlights for ACNielsen U.S. include the launch of Total Shopper View, a panel created to capture non-bar-coded items; the launch of Brand³, an approach connecting retail market measurement data, household panel information and customized survey research to manage brand performance and growth; the addition of new capabilities and features to Nielsen Answers Web-based information delivery platform, and the expansion of its Hispanic Consumer Panel to the national level with 2,500 households.

nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (www.nielsenmedia.com) provides TV audience measurement information for broadcast and cable network and station executives, cable system and satellite service providers, program producers and distributors, and advertisers and their agencies. In the United States, Nielsen TV ratings are the currency for more than $70 billion of transactions each year between buyers and sellers of TV time.

NMR markets a range of information products:

▶ U.S. National TV Services provides viewership data generated from Nielsen’s National People Meter Sample, providing demographic audience ratings daily. Its National People Meter, which has an effective sample of 10,000 homes, measures the viewing habits of approximately 26,000 persons. This national sample

has been used to produce national ratings for four Spanish-language networks.

▶ U.S. Local TV Services provides local market TV audience measurement in all 210 Designated Market Areas (DMAs) in the United States. Measurement is conducted by using people meters, set-tuning meters and paper diaries for local TV stations, agencies, advertisers and local cable outlets with 70% of U.S. Spot TV revenue receiving overnight ratings. Local people meters are currently available in 10 local mar-kets and will expand to the top 25 local TV markets by 2010.

▶ U.S. Ethnic TV Services provides national and 19 local TV market measurement for Hispanic TV view-ing for both Spanish-language and English-language TV. NMR also measures TV viewing among African-American and Asian-American national audiences, as well as in local TV markets with significant Asian- and African-American populations.

▶ Nielsen DigitalPlus works with set-top box data from cable system operators (MSOs) and satellite pro-viders to create new services for clients by integrating set-top box data with other NMR information.

▶ Nielsen Monitor-Plus provides advertising spending activity for 18 media, including TV, radio, magazine, newspaper and outdoor.

▶ Nielsen Product Placement Services tracks product placements on prime-time entertainment programming for the English-language broadcast

networks and five top cable networks. ▶ New Media Services provides research that

measures out-of-home audience size, advertising impact and demographics for TV and digital signage networks.

▶ Nielsen Media Research International provides media measurement and advertising intelligence in 45 markets. With the AGB Group, NMR operates a joint venture that offers TV ratings in 30 countries, under the AGB Nielsen Media Research brand.

NMR provides radio audience measurement ser-vices in nine markets, and print readership services in 10 markets. NMR’s Media Index and Panorama surveys study print, TV, radio, cinema, outdoor and Internet audiences, as well as lifestyles, attitudes and product consumption in nine markets across Asia Pacific, and globally through a partnership with BMRB (TGI).

▶ Nielsen Sports (www.nielsensports.com) tracks ad spending associated with sporting events, as well as national and local TV ratings for sports teams—by game, month, season and league stand-ing. Sponsorship Scorecard measures TV audience exposure to all sponsor-placed media in any tele-vised sporting event. Fan-Links is a new service linking sports fans to their actual shopping and pur-chasing behavior.

▶ Nielsen Tracking Service uses encoding and monitoring technology to monitor TV advertising and video news release occurrences across English- and Spanish-language networks and location stations in all 210 U.S. TV markets. Sigma and KeepingTrac offer commercial detection services.

▶ Nielsen Games establishes new metrics for the buying and selling of advertising in video games, while also tracking the activities of gamers across other media platforms, such as TV and the Internet.

▶ Nielsen Outdoor (www.nielsenoutdoor.com) is a ratings currency for the outdoor advertising market-place. Its GPS-based outdoor ratings system measures exposure to outdoor advertising by tracking the travel patterns of consumers in relation to known outdoor advertising sites in Chicago and Los Angeles.

nielsen Mobile Nielsen Mobile (www.nielsenmobile.com), created in 2007 with the purchase of Telephia, provides syndi-cated consumer research to the telecom and mobile media markets. NM integrates Telephia’s services in telecom with Nielsen’s global media and marketing research capabilities, and uses its measurement tools and large-scale consumer panels to understand the digital consumer’s behavior, attitude and experience.

nielsen online Nielsen Online (www.nielsen-online.com) delivers

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independent measurement and analysis of online audi-ences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior, and includes products formerly marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands.

For media research, media companies, ad agen-cies, advertisers and equity research organizations use NO’s Internet media research services to buy, sell and analyze online media—including audiences and advertising.

Key media research products include:

▶ NetView: This Internet audience measurement service provides a perspective on Internet audiences, including key measures and demographics, providing the industry with a view into activity on the Web and in the Digital Media Universe.

▶ AdRelevance: Captures advertising activity across all major industries, channels and ad formats and across most ad types, including all major forms of rich media, on the Web. It is an advertising expendi-ture measurement system for the Internet that mimics the actual online user population by automatically adjusting to traffic patterns.

▶ @Plan: A target-marketing platform for Internet media planning, buying and selling. It details the online population, capturing everything from basic demographics to in-depth lifestyle and brand prefer-ence data for identifying online target audiences.

▶ VideoCensus: Delivers audience measurement and analysis of online video usage.

▶ SiteCensus: A site-centric reporting system that provides server-side-visit reporting. It offers measure-ment for Web site analysis, newsletter and e-mail conversion tracking, ad and keyword measurement and audience assessment.

▶ Market Intelligence: Independent census-based measurement of audited Web sites within specific markets, provides granular audience measurement data. The service offers business effectiveness met-rics, including unique browsers, page impressions, frequency and session duration, which constitute com-prehensive, census-based research of audiences.

For market research, advertisers, marketers, and PR and advertising agencies use NO’s Internet market research services to measure and analyze con-sumer-generated media (CGM), consumer behavior and trends. Specific vertical experience includes automotive, consumer technology, CPG/nutrition, financial services, pharma/healthcare, and media and entertainment.

Key market research products include: ▶ BuzzMetrics services measure, analyze and lever-

age online consumers who share experiences, advice and opinions on everything from corporate crises to customer service and product performance.

▶ Research and Analytics is custom client work based on client needs and leveraging NO’s data, analyt-ics and vertical experience.

▶ Syndicated Studies include measurement and analysis of Internet activity—including audiences, advertising, video and CGM, around major events and topical issues including the Super Bowl, the Olympics, nutrition and sustainability.

▶ MegaPanel provides market research services based on a sample of 500,000-plus Internet users measured worldwide, offering insight into Web user behavior. Its survey research capabilities, combined with demographic and trend data and click stream analysis, are used to define and measure Internet mar-keting strategy.

▶ Homescan Online, in partnership with ACNielsen, measures both consumers’ offline purchas-ing behavior and online surfing activity.

▶ Strategic Services taps into the data sets of NO and across Nielsen. SS delivers consulting and advi-sory services based on data and supported by industry experience to support organizational needs related to digital and consumer-generated media.

nielsen entertainment Nielsen Entertainment serves the global entertain-ment industry—including the film, book, home entertainment, music and interactive segments—with a broad range of marketing information, creative

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testing, marketing services and analytical tools in 16 markets worldwide.

NE’s business units include Film: Nielsen EDI (www.nielsenedi.com); Music: Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, Nielsen SoundScan (www.soundscan.com) and Nielsen Music Control (www.nielsenmusiccontrol.com); Home Entertainment (Videos/DVDs): Nielsen VideoScan (www.videoscan.com); TV and CPG; and Books: Nielsen BookScan (www.bookscan.com).

Major 2007 highlights for NE include progress in building a new global EDI platform and bringing BDS airplay technology to Nielsen Music Control; the creation of portals for home entertainment and international film tracking services to allow clients to manage their data; the creation of a Web-based Cinesys data service; the development of an anytime, anywhere capability to test TV pilots around the United States; the use of fusion techniques to combine entertainment data with media data from Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen//Net Ratings.

Media solutions Media Solution business unit includes PERQ/HCI, ACNielsen HCI, Scarborough Research, SRDS and Interactive Market Systems divisions.

▶ PERQ/HCI provides healthcare audience mea-surement and ad expenditure services to advertising agencies, publishers and advertiser companies in the United States. It is a media research line of business

within media information provider SRDS. ▶ ACNielsen HCI (www.acnielsenhci.com) pro-

vides portfolio of six integrated pre- and post-launch online research services for the healthcare industry: Promotion Planning Model, CTS (Campaign Tracking System) PreTest, CTS PosTest, CTS Sales Test, CTS Plus and CTS MarketReview.

▶ Scarborough Research, a joint venture between Nielsen Co. and Arbitron, identifies local, regional and national shopping patterns and media usage of the American consumer. SR surveys 210,000 adults age 18 and older on a variety of characteristics, including shopping, lifestyle, media and demographics. It serves advertisers and agencies, broadcast TV, cable systems, radio stations, newspapers, Internet, sports teams and leagues, and out-of-home companies.

▶ SRDS (www.srds.com) is a leading provider of media rates and data. It offers coverage of traditional media—such as magazines, newspapers, television, direct marketing and radio—as well as alternative marketing opportunities, such as online and out-of-home.

▶ IMS (www.imsms.com) is an international provider of information systems and services for the media industry. It produces media planning and analysis software for both industry and proprietary research. IMS has clients in 70 countries.

nielsen Connect Nielsen Connect, a new business unit, integrates the

firm’s store of consumer and media intelligence from dozens of business units to provide clients with cus-tomized services that integrate and deploy Nielsen’s global data-gathering and analytic capabilities.

NC consists of five different businesses:

▶ Nielsen In-Store measures consumer exposure to an array of in-store marketing vehicles in partnership with the In-Store Marketing Institute.

▶ Combining media and market research intel-ligence on an individual client basis, NC provides a textured picture of consumer activity.

▶ NielsenHealth provides understanding of the total healthcare value chain of consumers, patients and physicians.

▶ NielsenLinx has created the Master Data Management service of transaction and reporting systems for the retail and marketing businesses to organize, manage and deploy data on brands, locations and media.

▶ NielsenTrend provides a view of the movements, behaviors and attitudes that are likely to have the most impact on clients’ particular operations.

aCnielsen homescan and spectra ACN Homescan And Spectra (www.spectramarket ing.com) delivers consumer and shopper insights for CPG companies through segmentation and targeting services. Homescan services are a global source of lon-gitudinal consumer purchase behavior, demographic

profiles, integrated attitudes and usage information and evaluations of the impact of media on actual behavior. Spectra services provide segmentation and targeting services to identify high-value consumers, uncover new opportunities to communicate with spe-cific consumer segments, and execute marketing and sales efforts at the store level.

ClaritasClaritas (www.claritas.com) provides marketing research demographic data, marketing software and market segmentation services. Claritas helps clients increase profitability, select the best site locations and market more efficiently and effectively by targeting the most profitable customers.

BasesBASES (www.bases.com) is a leading provider of pre-market consumer insights for marketers of consumer packaged goods. BASES combines primary consumer research with forecasting techniques to estimate the sales potential of new product initiatives prior to mar-ket entry.

Decisions Made easyDecisions Made Easy (www.descisions-made-easy.com) provides CPG manufacturers a way to effectively manage, analyze, present and act upon their sales and supply chain data. DME software and services inte-grate point-of-sale and other marketing and consumer

information behind the client’s firewall to support ser-vice to retailers and their shoppers.

2 iMs healTh iNC.www.imshealth.com

<DaviD CaRluCCi

iMs healTh inC. (IMS) in Norwalk, Conn., was founded in 1954; acquired by Dun & Bradstreet Corp. in 1986, and became part of a separate public com-pany, Cognizant Corp., in November 1996. In July 1998, IMS was spun off into a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

David Carlucci, 53, is chairman and CEO of IMS. He earned a B.A. in political science at the University of Rochester.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $801.0 million, up 8.6% over 2006. In 2007, 63.5% of total revenue, or $1,391.6 million, was generated outside the United States. The growth rate excludes 2006 and 2007 U.S. revenue from the 2006 acquisitions of Life Science Practice of Strategic Decisions Group and Dynamic Research Solutions Inc., and the 2007 acquisitions of Value Medics Research LLC and MIHS Holdings Inc.

IMS is the leading global provider of intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries,

providing services in more than 100 countries. The firm offers market intelligence products and services, including sales force effectiveness services, portfolio optimization capabilities, launch and brand manage-ment services, and managed care and consumer health offerings.

Its Global Consulting and Services teams provide insights to improve ROI and the delivery of healthcare worldwide.

IMS business lines offer custom services using information secured from a worldwide network of data suppliers that support the core business processes of virtually all pharmaceutical companies:

▶ Sales Force Effectiveness services are used prin-cipally by pharmaceutical manufacturers to measure, forecast and optimize sales force productivity and improve territory management.

▶ Portfolio Optimization offerings are multi-national, integrated analytical tools and syndicated pharmaceutical, medical and prescription audits. They assist in identifying the optimum mix of products in their portfolios and pipelines and in resolving various strategic issues, including which therapy classes to enter, which products to develop and license, and how to pursue market opportunities.

▶ Launch and Brand Management offerings combine information, analytical tools, services and experience to address needs relevant to each stage in the life cycle of prescription and consumer

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pharmaceutical brands. They provide insights and support decision-making relating to market segmentation and positioning, pricing and market access, pro-motion and performance management, and health economics and outcomes research.

▶ Managed Care services provide an array of information to quantify the effects of managed care on the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

▶ Consumer Health services provide detailed product movement, market share and pricing information for over-the-counter, personal care, patient care and nutritional products.

IMS’s Global Consulting and Services teams support strategic planning and decision-making with a combination of information and analytics. Customized analysis and interpretation of business intelligence is offered in key practice areas: Commercial Effectiveness, to help maximize value of sales and market investments; Pricing and Market Access, to help assess cost, value and anticipated consequences of therapies and treat-ment options; and Product and Portfolio Development, to assess portfolio opportu-nities by determining the value of various strategic options, and evaluating choices based on risk and return trade-offs.

IMS is launching new businesses in implementation services and busi-ness process outsourcing such as market research and sales force compensation and reporting.

In 2007, IMS continued to expand capabilities and support in areas such as market research and sales operations, focusing on new, high-growth disciplines

such as promotion optimization, health economics and outcomes research and portfolio strategy.

IMS employs 7,950 full time world-wide, and there are 2,034 employees in the United States.

3 KaNTar Groupwww.kantargroup.com

<eRiC salaMa

KanTaR GRoup (KG), based in Fairfield, Conn., and London, was founded in 1993 and renamed the Information and Consultancy Division of WPP Group plc, a London-based public company.

Eric Salama, 47, is chairman and CEO of KG. He earned an M.Sc. at London’s Birkbeck College.

U.S. research-only revenue in 2007 was estimated at $526.8 million, up 3.5% from 2006. In 2007, 66.0% of total research-only revenue, or $1,024.6 million, was estimated from outside the United States. The growth rate excludes 2006 and 2007 revenue from U.S. acquisitions of Foresight International Inc. in March 2007, Teenage Research Unlimited in April 2007, and Cheskin Inc. in December 2007.

KG’s research businesses in the United States, with an estimated 2,600 full-time employees, include Millward Brown Group, Kantar Media Research, Research International, The Ziment Group, Lightspeed Research, Mattson Jack Group and Added Value.

Millward Brown GroupMillward Brown Group, based in Naperville, Ill., was founded in Warwick, England, in 1973 and acquired by WPP in 1989. In the United States it includes:

▶ Millward Brown (www.millward-brown.com) provides a full range of qualitative, quantitative and consulting services that address issues around brands, marketing communications, media and marketing effectiveness.

MB works across a wide range of industries and categories, including brand strategy and experience, creative develop-ment and campaign evaluation, consumer needs and values, media planning and strat-egy, ROI and forecasting and investment management, brand valuation and analytics through the MB Optimor unit, and demand and activation.

Key products and services are:

▶ Link: Copy testing of all forms of advertising

▶ BrandDynamics: Brand equity evalua-tion, including BrandZ

▶ Dynamic Tracking: Ccontinuous tracking of key brand drivers

▶ D&A: A framework for measuring impact of demand generating and sales activation activities

▶ MBuzz: Measurement of online and offline word of mouth

▶ AdIndex: Impact of digital marketing activity

▶ Sales Response Modeling: Isolating and measuring marketing effects

▶ Qualitative: Qualitative research and focus group services

In addition, MB Precis provides PR effectiveness metrics.

▶ Greenfield Consulting (www.green fieldgroup.com) is a qualitative agency conducting focus groups and in-depth interviews for Fortune 500 companies globally, across both consumer and business-to-business sectors.

▶ Marketing and Planning Systems (www.mapsnet.com) is a strategic research company and consultancy, which combines marketing science with consultancy skills.

▶ Dynamic Logic (www.dynamiclogic.com) measures the impact of digital mar-keting initiatives and the role they play in the broader cross-media mix.

▶ The Focus Network (www.thefocus-network.com) is a network of three focus group facilities, including a new facility in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart.

▶ BMRB (www.bmrb.co.uk) offers services in conducting quantitative social policy and public interest research, media and marketing research, omnibus services, plus customer, employee and stakeholder research.

Kantar Media Research Kantar Media Research (www.kantarmedia.

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com) is an integrated research, information and software group, specializing in marketing and media services, software data systems for data analysis and analytical services. Key services are:

▶Television Audience Measurement offered by AGB NMR, IBOPE Media Information, Marktest Investimentos, and Mediafax

▶Print/single source, a service available through its Target Group Index and MARS pharmaceutical product

▶MARS pharma and Intelliquest▶KMR software ▶Custom projects, including data fusion and data-

base modeling▶TGI and TAM services available in more than 50

countries worldwide▶TV audience measurement, print and single-

source service through its Target Group Index and MARS pharmaceutical product, software systems, and custom projects, including data fusion and database modeling.

Research international Research International (www.research-int.com), with headquarters in Chicago and London, was founded in 1973 and has been part of the WPP Group since 1989. It has offices in more than 50 countries, and RI Qualitative Space is the group’s qualitative research arm.

RI provides marketing knowledge with answers to specific business problems and generates insights into consumers and markets. It has experience in most major sectors, particularly CPG, retail, new media, financial services, energy and utilities, technology and telecommunications.

The firm’s services are structured around six main practice areas: consumer understanding, branding and communication, innovation, channel manage-ment, new media, customer relationships and service measurement. In each area, the services offered draw on its worldwide knowledge bases, including both custom approaches and its own techniques. Among the latter are Equity Engine (brand equity manage-ment), MicroTest (new product development and sales forecasting), BrandSight Gallery (an internationally validated visual system for exploring brand person-ality), Locator (brand positioning optimization), eValuate, Insightment and Loyalty Driver (evaluating and managing customer loyalty).

Ziment Group Ziment Group (www.ziment.com), based in New York, was founded in 1976 and acquired by WPP in 2001.

ZG comprises three divisions: Ziment, All Global and Syndicated, which incorporates Imap Research and Consumer Health Sciences. In January 2007, Ziment Group acquired All Global, based in London, and in 2008, the All Global and Web Survey businesses

were merged and rebranded as All Global. The firm offers products to address a range of stra-

tegic marketing issues and also provides e-healthcare support, Internet research and multivariate services. Its products include:

▶From compound to profit: A suite of research services to take drugs from Phase II to market launch and beyond

▶Ideaz: Ideation research▶Trialz: An approach for optimal phase III clinical

trial endpoints▶Segz: Market segmentation research▶Zapp: Ziment Associates positioning Playbook

for positioning and messaging research ▶TAGZ: New approach to segmentation to assist

marketing pharmaceutical products to physicians ▶MDS (Market Dynamics Studies): Continuous

market tracking to monitor brand and competitive performance ▶Payz: A suite of three approaches to pricing

research ▶RxOl: Market mix modeling of secondary

and primary data to measure the ROI of marketing investments

All Global provides access to a panel of health-care professionals dedicated to participating in research through the Internet. The combined panels

have more than 160,000 participating physicians across Europe and the United States. The firm also offers a Chronic Illness Panel with more than 350,000 patients in the United States and Europe covering 100 different chronic illnesses.

Imap Research conducts worldwide syndicated marketing research studies, incorporating iTRAK and National Health and Wellness data provision.

lightspeed Research Lightspeed Research (www.lightspeed research.com) was founded by KG in 2000 and is based in Basking Ridge, N.J. The company operates in North America, the United Kingdom, Mainland Europe and Australia.

LR is a provider of global online market research services. The firm specializes in using the Internet as a data collection plat-form to provide market research through building and maintaining panels subject to standards to ensure quality and repre-sentative sampling. Web technology and databases provide the foundation to support market research studies and specialty panels that range across industry sectors such as financial services, health care, b-to-b, sub-ject matter experts, Hispanic, automotive, family and more. LR also provides custom panels to address specific client needs.

Through its network of panels and accredited panel partners, LR can provide access to more than 17 million consumers across 34 countries. Consumer panels are available in North America, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Spain through partners, providing access to adults, teens, kids and other specialty audiences.

The ELITEOpinion panel, launched in 2007, provides access to panelists in the b-to-b panel arena.

LR’s acquisitions of both Ultimate Consumer Panel and Foresight International have enabled LR to expand the range of their services in financial services and employee satisfaction.

The Mattson Jack Group The Mattson Jack Group Inc. (www.matt sonjack.com) was founded in 1986 and was acquired by KG in June 2003. The firm is headquartered in St. Louis and has six offices in the United States, one in the United Kingdom and an associate in Japan. MJG is a global healthcare and pharmaceutical consulting firm special-izing in serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

MJG’s core competencies include Business Analytics (epidemiology, market research, and modeling and forecasting); Corporate Development (licensing, mar-ket opportunity and scientific assessment, M&A and strategic planning); Brand Optimization (promotional response modeling, mix optimization and pre-scription influence mapping, pricing and reimbursement); and DaVinci Oncology Specialists (syndicated products, cancer care environment, and related channels and therapeutic areas).

The firm also provides subscription ser-vices and tools, which include EpiDatabase, Forecast Architect, Cancer!MPact and Oncology Marketing Strategies.

added value Three KG companies—Added Value, Icon Brand Navigation and Diagnostic Research—combined under the AV name.

Added Value has operations in 25 offices in 15 countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Japan, South Africa, Germany, Italy, and France and associate arrangements in Poland, Russia and Australia. During 2007, Added Value acquired Cheskin.

▶ AV focuses on brand development and marketing insight, providing services

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in consumer insight, innovation and com-munications optimization. Core skills are setting future direction (cultural and trend analysis); identifying market opportuni-ties (market segmentation and mindset mapping, brand portfolio management); strengthening brand equity (brand evalu-ation, diagnosis and strategy creation); innovation (ethnography, idea genera-tion and development); evaluating ideas

(marketing mix optimization, concept evaluation); optimizing communications (decoding and planning, copy testing); and communications performance optimization (planning, tracking, spend optimization).

▶ DR Added Value, based in Los Angeles, was founded in 1976 and acquired by Millward Brown in 1999.

The firm conducts consumer and b-to-b research across a number of product and

industry categories and for all types of marketing issues. Major services offered are copy-testing, brand and advertising tracking, market/consumer segmentation, product design and customer satisfaction.

▶ Icon Added Value (www. icon-added-value.com), formerly Icon Brand Navigation GmbH, based in Nuremberg, Germany, was founded in 1993 and acquired by WPP in April 2001.

The firm is experienced globally in brand and communication research and consulting, integrating new thinking and advanced research with marketing consult-ing expertise.

Icon provides market research and consulting services, including brand com-munications, product research, brand tracking and customer satisfaction studies with offices in four countries. In addition, the firm offers support for advertising agency selection; coaching in brand man-agement, communication development and agency management; and tailored seminars and workshops for defining brand identity.

Its research activities are built around a brand value management structure with four brand components: analytics, strategy, implementation and monitoring.

4WesTaT iNC.www.westat.com

<Joseph hunT

WesTaT inC. in Rockville, Md., is an employee-owned company founded in 1961. The president and CEO of Westat is Joseph A. Hunt, 71. He earned an M.S. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $467.8 mil-lion, up 10.4% over 2006. The growth rate excludes revenue from the acquisition of Eagle Design and Management in July 2006.

Westat conducts survey research for agencies of the U.S. government as well as businesses, foundations, and state and local governments. Major project areas include health, education, the environment, energy, transportation and social programs.

Some of its major statistical surveys measure educational progress and medi-cal expenditures; others are long-term follow-up surveys concerning child devel-opment, employment and epidemiological research. The results of its research activi-ties enhance reporting and performance of government programs, and inform policy planning and decision-making.

The firm continues to perform clini-cal trial work for the U.S. government, and pharmaceutical and biotech clients. In 2007, Westat expanded its international activities to support clinical trial in Costa Rica, South Africa, Thailand and China.

The firm continues to conduct CATI at five telephone research centers throughout the United States. Westat’s nationwide staff of field interviewers uses computer-assisted interviewing methods on many large long-term surveys. To support and manage these large distributed operations, Westat

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maintains a large, secure, nationwide computer and communications infrastructure.

Westat also continues to expand its methods research capabilities, with an emphasis on maximiz-ing respondent cooperation across a broad range of respondent types and applying Web technologies to survey information collection. It operates a behavioral research facility, specializing in Web usability studies to augment its cognitive laboratory and focus group capabilities.

The firm distributes and provides user training and support for its WesVar statistical processing software and for Blaise, a COTS software system for CATI and complex survey processing developed by Statistics Netherlands, and is used internationally.

Westat’s staff includes 1,906 full-time salaried employees. In addition, Westat’s telephone-interview-ing, field-interviewing and data-editing staff averaged about 1,837 during 2007.

5iriwww.infores.com

<John G. FReelanD

iRi, FoRMeRly inFoRMaTion Resources Inc. in Chicago was founded in 1979 and became a

public company in 1983, and majority ownership was acquired in 2003 by Symphony Technology Group LLC, a private company.

John G. Freeland, 54, is president and CEO of IRI, and Romesh Wadhwani, 60, is chairman. Freeland earned an M.B.A. at Columbia University, and Wadhwani earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $441.0 million, up 2.1% over 2006. In 2007, 37.2% of total revenue, or $261.0 million, was generated from outside the United States.

IRI is a worldwide provider of consumer, shop-per and retail market intelligence and insights for CPG, retail and healthcare companies. It offers a combination of integrated market information, automated and predictive analytics, enabling tech-nologies and domain experience.

The firm operates in 58 countries through stand-alone operations, wholly owned subsidiaries, part-nerships and alliances. IRI offers services in five areas:

Comprehensive Market Content ▶ InfoScan Retail Tracking: The census-based

IRI InfoScan point-of-sale (POS) tracking service is among the industry’s most accurate retail tracking services, providing manufacturers and retailers access to detailed information on sales, share, distribution, pricing and promotion, across a wide variety of retail channels and accounts.

▶ IRI AllScan Convenience Store Tracking: The

AllScan tracking service provides scanner-based POS data across the entire convenience channel. Using data from more than 15,000 sample convenience stores, AllScan provides business insights, information qual-ity and accuracy at the national, regional and local market levels.

▶ Enhanced Shopper Insights: IRI and Europanel Association have formed the world’s widest-reaching single panel research service. It combines the IRI Consumer Network household panel in the United States with Europanel to create a global consumer network representing 600 million households in 54 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Brazil and Mexico. It also covers Russia and China exclusively.

In 2007, the IRI Shopper Insights platform con-tinued to be enhanced by expanding the Consumer Network household panel and offering a series of integrated insights, shopper and specialty panels, which are enabled through a new portable, personal collection device. It also enhanced its Shopper Insights Explorer offering, providing an analytic-driven appli-cation built on the IRI Liquid Data platform that enables businesses to uncover and act quickly on fact-based insights into shopper segments, trip missions and buyer behavior.

automated, predictive analytic insights Analytics offered by IRI include analytical modeling, consumer and shopper insights, and new product and

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media testing services, supported by an experienced analytics staff. The IRI Marketing Mix Analytics ser-vices quantify, test and simulate return on marketing investment (advertising, trade promotion, coupons, pricing) for brands. The analytic tools decompose the drivers of current business trends and simulate the effects of changes on future brand plans. For scenarios that cannot be simulated using historical data, the IRI BehaviorScan in-market testing service is a new product and media testing capability that executes in-market media weight and copy tests. IRI also offers other testing services to compare in-store media, assortment and pricing decisions, as well as media plan alternatives.

Decision support servicesIn 2007, IRI unveiled IRI Liquid Data (ILD), a new end-to-end information management and insights platform. ILD supports business applica-tions designed to provide comprehensive real-time information to enterprise business decision-makers. Developed in collaboration with IBM, ILD re-imagines how businesses make decisions based on immediate access to strategic informa-tion and insights. It leverages integrated data assets and redesigned workflows to predict the success of future decisions and initiatives to stay ahead of competition.

The ILD platform offers data management capabilities driven through a combination of IBM and IRI hardware, software, patented algorithms, industry models, data integration and supporting applications that are offered as a hosted service or as a separate infrastructure within the customer’s leg-acy data environment. The capability platform holds data in a flat or unstructured universe of points and leverages powerful, predictive automated analytics

to generate information and insights to support spe-cific decisions in minutes versus weeks or months.

industry vertical services IRI offers vertical experience and customized products and services for multiple industry verticals, including health care and wellness, center store, confections, beer, wine and spirits, bakery and dairy.

▶ Healthcare And Wellness Insights: The IRI Healthcare Solutions Group provides pharmaceuti-cal, healthcare, CPG companies and retailers with consumer intelligence, targeting and analytic services for the healthcare marketplace. It offers a suite of retail tracking, consumer panel and analytic-driven prod-ucts and services under the RxPulse brand.

▶ Beverage Alcohol Industry Insights: IRI delivers insights through an integrated view of the beverage alcohol industry. The retail tracking products and analytics are scaled to specifically meet the beverage alcohol industry needs for providing retail sales trends, purchase behavior and consumer insights in grocery, drug, mass merchandise, convenience, liquor and club stores.

iRi partner ecosystemIRI has an integrated and differentiated “partner ecosystem,” formed to leverage the skill sets of the retail tracking and panel leaders, providing coverage, expertise, products and solutions. Complemented by relationships with sister companies in the Symphony Technology Group, partial ownerships, and strategic alliances, key strategic partnerships include:

▶ Acxiom Corp.: IRI and Acxiom Corp., a leading provider of integrated data, services and technology that creates and delivers customer and information

management services, extended its partnership in 2006. Its consumer insight services target specific types of consumers that have a high likelihood to want and buy selected product categories.

▶ IBM Corp.: This partnership focuses on deliv-ering on-demand market intelligence to the CPG, retail and healthcare industries using IBM software to support the development and delivery of IRI deci-sion support software services and real-time market information processing. It provides a framework for all phases of planning, performance analysis and rapid decision-making required to optimize brand man-agement, trade promotion, and sales and operations management.

▶ IMS Health Inc.: This alliance provides inte-grated, longitudinal marketplace information, analytics and consulting services for the ethical (Rx), consumer (OTC) and CPG markets in the United States and Europe.

▶ TiVo Inc.: This provider of digital video recorder (DVR) technology allows advertisers and brand mar-keters to understand the impact DVR technology has on consumer viewing patterns and subsequent product sales, as well as the ability to quantify the effectiveness of specific advertising campaigns and brand recognition programs in TiVo DVR households. Utilizing second-by-second analysis and mapping it to actual consumer purchasing decisions, the relation-ship provides viewer and consumer insights from a new national DVR research panel combined with new media and message testing capabilities.

▶ Worldpanel: The IRI partnership with Worldpanel provides a high-quality, single-panel research service, delivering global consumer insights in 54 countries, covering 88% of the global gross domestic product. It provides access and consumer visibility across multiple global markets and cultures

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in Asia, Latin America, Europe and North America, as well as Brazil, Russia, India, China, Korea and Mexico.

IRI has 1,464 full-time employees in the United States and 3,655 worldwide. It has offices throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain.

6TNs u.s.www.tnsglobal.com

<DaviD loWDen

Tns u.s. is the U.S. unit of Taylor Nelson Sofres plc, a public company based in London.

Donald Brydon is chairman, and David Lowden, 50, is CEO of TNS. Lowden earned a B.A. in business administration at the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $379.8 million, up 2.8% over 2006. In 2007, 82.2% of total worldwide research revenue, or $1,757.4 million, was from outside the United States. The growth rate includes the 2006 and 2007 revenue of Sorensen Associates Inc., acquired February 2007; Cymfony Inc., acquired February 2007; Retail Forward Inc., acquired March 2007; Financial Services unit of Abt Associates Inc., acquired May

2007; and excludes Landis Strategy & Innovation LLC acquired December 2007.

TNS is a global market insight and information group, a major provider of custom research and a major supplier of consumer purchase panel, TV audi-ence measurement and media intelligence services. It provides marketing information and measurement, together with insights and analysis, to local and multi-national organizations.

TNS operates a global network spanning 80 coun-tries and employing 15,267 people full time, with 2,000 U.S.-based. In the United States, TNS has three divisions—TNS Custom Research, TNS Healthcare and TNS Media—and more than 40 sales and service offices.

Tns Custom ResearchTNS Custom Research is an integrated organiza-tion focused around industry sector knowledge with research experience in strategic business issues as well as analytic and consulting staff to help its clients make more effective decisions.

In addition to general custom quantitative and qualitative research, the division provides a wide range of proprietary services, syndicated research and man-aged access panels.

Dedicated business teams concentrate on major industries such as consumer goods and services (including food and beverage), OTC and health care, retail, restaurants, packaged goods, house and home,

financial services (including banks, credit cards, insur-ance and investment services), technology and media (including entertainment, IT, telecommunications and sport), automotive, travel and leisure, transportation, utilities, social and polling research, and professional services firms and agencies.

Industry teams draw upon experienced staff in the areas of new product development, brand and communications advertising, sports marketing and sponsorship, multicultural, retail, and shopper and stakeholder management research. Much of this exper-tise resides in specialized areas of expertise aligned within the industry teams, including TNS Brand and Communications, TNS Product Development and Innovation, TNS Stakeholder Management and TNS Retail and Shopper Insights. Also included are specialty areas, including TNS Multicultural, TNS Qualitative and TNS Sport. TNS’s Advanced Analytics and Design group provides analytics and sampling, business modeling and strategic consulting.

In 2007, TNS acquired Retail Forward and Sorensen, expanding its offerings in retail and shopper research, and Landis, to expand offerings in new prod-uct development.

TNS services work on a global scale. Among them are NeedScope (emotional needs assessment), Conversion Model (brand commitment), AdEval (copy testing), WebEval (Web site evaluation), InnoSuite (volumetric forecasting), FutureView (new consumer behavior), RGM (Revenue Growth

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Manager), Online Safari (online ethnogra-phy) and TRI*M (customer satisfaction and relationship monitoring and management).

Syndicated research offerings include programs that provide insight for numerous industry sectors including financial ser-vices, travel, sport, telecom, technology and beverages. Key programs include Affluent Market Research Study (AMRP), Consumer Credit Card, Travels America, American Traveler, ESPN Sportspoll, Kids Poll, Telecom Market Tracking, Bill Harvesting QSR (Quick Serve Restaurant) Tracking Study, Retail Forward Intelligence System, ShopperScape, Shopper Perspectives, Shopper360 and eSIP beverage monitor.

TNS operates Worldpanel and managed access panels (6thdimension access panels) in the United States and major countries in Europe and Asia, including specialty panels and custom proprietary panels.

Tns healthcareTNS Healthcare provides market research consulting to the worldwide pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, as well as to health-focused ad agencies, media and analysts. It offers globally consistent services and custom advisory services for product introductions; brand, treatment and sales force performance optimization; and physi-cian and DTC promotional assessment.

Informing decisions across the prod-uct life cycle, TNS Healthcare provides problem-solving across the product life cycle, including product development, pre-launch landscaping, market assessment, positioning and segmentation, message and campaign creation, pricing, forecasting, attitude and awareness measurement and post-launch tracking. Delivering insights across stake-holders—including physicians, patients and consumers—the division helps companies anticipate and impact customers’ behaviors. Its J Street panel provides Internet access to more than 65,000 physicians in the United States and major European markets.

TNS Healthcare’s global frameworks include Brand Performance Optimization (BPO), integrating brand equity and mar-ket equity factors for a complete diagnostic

view. BPO guides companies in build-ing commitment, a powerful relationship metric, validated against prescribing data to predict Rx dynamics, protect share and prevent switching. It also offers a global Sales Performance Optimization framework, help-ing companies configure the optimal mix of physician experiences.

Through its Treatment Performance Optimization suite, TNS Healthcare links successful drug development with optimal commercialization. It also supports suc-cessful message and promotional strategy development. MessageEval evaluates up to 200 message elements, including text, graph-ics and sound. MarketWhys, a DTC tracking service, incorporates insights into patients’ Brand Commitment. In addition, the divi-sion’s DetailMed service delivers continuous tracking, from multicountry to subnational levels, of the physician/rep engagement, providing a globally consistent tool for com-paring detail effectiveness.

TNS Healthcare also offers Cardio-Monitor (the world’s largest international cardiovascular patient database) and a suite of diabetes-focused tools, including DiabetesDynamics, a quarterly record of therapy changes and the reasons behind them in the Type-2 diabetes market; and DiabetesMonitor, in-depth information on patients who have not undergone treat-ment changes.

Offering qualitative and quantitative research through traditional and online methodologies, TNS Healthcare is a lead-ing agency in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain, and in 2005 it established a client service group in Italy. With offices throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East, it is positioned to deliver worldwide insights, supported by local country experts, helping companies make the most effective global and local business decisions.

Tns MediaTNS Media provides a comprehensive suite of marketing, media and audience insights, and global sets of measurement and analysis of consumer behavior services across all

traditional and digital media. It delivers plat-forms for traditional and online advertising, audience, performance and engagement data services through:

▶ TNS Media Intelligence is a leading pro-vider of competitive advertising and marketing information to advertising agencies, advertisers and media properties. Its tracking technologies collect advertising expenditure and occurrence data, as well as select creative executions, for more than 2.8 million brands, covering $150 billion in ad expenditures each year. It currently provides more than 3,000 clients in the United States with strategic advertising information across 20 monitored media.

TNS Media Intelligence also deliv-ers strategic intelligence in key industry marketplaces through its business units: Marx Promotion Intelligence, a source for freestanding insert coupon intelligence and other consumer promotion insights; and Campaign Media Analysis Group, a provider of advertising intelligence on the U.S. politi-cal marketplace.

▶ TNS Media Research provides Internet, TV and radio audience measurement behav-ior in more than 30 countries worldwide using fixed and portable metering technol-ogy and Return Path Data (RPD) from set-top boxes. The company has developed new measurement services via digital set-top boxes (STB), which are able to capture TV tuning information at census or near-census samples with second-by-second granularity.

In addition to basic tracking services, TNS Media Research offers analytics that are instrumental to understanding new advertising formats such as addressable advertising.

▶ Cymfony, a brand monitoring and analytics company, sifts and interprets the millions of voices at the intersection of tra-ditional and social media to gain insights that help organizations understand the people, issues and trends impacting their business. Combining automated analysis with human interpretation, it provides products and services that deliver intelli-gence on consumer preferences, competitor strengths and weaknesses, and other infor-mation critical to a company’s reputation, brands, products and employees.

▶ Compete, a leading digital intelligence company acquired in March 2008, helps global brands to improve their marketing based on the online behavior of millions of consumers. Compete’s services help to create effective online experiences and advertising campaigns. It segments and profiles shop-pers to improve search marketing and online advertising efficiency, analyze the effective-ness of their marketing vs. competitors, and optimize their online interactions with cus-tomers and prospects

▶ Theatrical Entertainment Services (TES) is a specialized service that provides detailed data on the Theatrical Exhibition marketplace (movie theatres) primarily for the motion picture studios. TES specializes in designing programs such as trailer check-ing, sneak preview evaluations, theatre open checking, audience reaction audits, under-cover theatre evaluations, mystery shopping and various other special projects.

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7arbiTroN iNC.www.arbitron.com

<sTephen MoRRis

aRBiTRon inC. in New York was founded in 1949 and in 1960 became a sub-sidiary of publicly held Ceridian Corp. in Minneapolis. In March 2001, Ceridian com-pleted a reverse spin-off of Arbitron into a

public company listed on the NYSE.Arbitron’s president and CEO is Stephen

B. Morris, 65, who earned an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $338.5 million, up 6.0% over 2006. In 2007, 3.9% of total revenue, or $13.6 million, came from out-side the United States.

Arbitron is a leading media and market-ing research firm primarily serving radio, cable, advertising agencies, advertisers, out-of-home media, and online media, and through Scarborough Research, its joint venture with The Nielsen Co., Arbitron also provides media and marketing research ser-vices to broadcast TV and print media.

Arbitron’s four main services are: mea-suring radio audiences in local markets across the United States; measuring network and national radio audiences in the United States; providing consumer shopping and media usage information to radio, cable, advertising agencies, advertisers, retailers, broadcast television, out-of home media, newspapers and online media; and provid-ing application software used for analyzing media audience and marketing information.

Arbitron serves approximately 4,500 radio stations and 2,200 advertising agen-cies and major advertisers, more than 350 TV stations, more than 60 cable customers, more than 170 newspapers and nearly 90 outdoor advertising companies.

Media services▶ Measuring Local Market U.S. Radio

Audiences: Arbitron measures the size and composition of radio station audiences by periodically surveying radio listeners in nearly 300 U.S. markets.

▶ Measuring National U.S. Radio Audiences: The firm also provides measure-ment of network radio audiences through its two national ratings services: RADAR and Nationwide. The RADAR service provides a measurement of national radio audiences and the audience size of network radio programs and commercials. The audience measurements are provided for a wide variety of demographics and dayparts for total radio listening and for 57 separate radio networks.

Radio Nationwide is a source for local/regional market network ratings. The ser-vice, issued twice each year, is based on the company’s fall and spring surveys.

▶ Surveying Consumers in Local Markets: In addition to its radio ratings service, Arbitron also provides consumer profiles of radio listeners, broadcast TV and cable television viewers, newspaper readers and consumers reached by outdoor and out-of-home advertising displays.

These profiles contain detailed socio-economic data and information about what consumers buy, where they shop and what other forms of media they use. Arbitron provides these measure-ments in approximately 277 local markets throughout the United States through its Scarborough service (a joint venture between Arbitron and The Nielsen Co.) as well as two other services that conduct ongoing consumer surveys.

▶ Providing Application Software: The firm provides software applications that

provides customers access to media and consumer information from Arbitron and other research providers. The software assists in making media buying and selling decisions, as well as in managing and pro-gramming radio stations.

▶ Arbitron Out-of-Home Services: Arbitron markets consumer informa-tion, sales training programs and custom research services to a variety of out-of-home media companies. The out-of-home cus-tomer base includes traditional billboard companies as well as new and emerging “place-based” media in locations such as malls, retail stores, airports and cinemas. Traditional out-of-home companies use Scarborough local market consumer data as primary sales tools. For new media, it offers in-depth case studies documenting the awareness, acceptance, engagement and effectiveness of these new media choices.

▶ Online Radio Ratings: The comScore Arbitron Online Radio Ratings, a service jointly developed by Arbitron and comScore Networks Inc., measures the national audi-ence of online radio networks.

▶ Custom Research Services: Arbitron also provides custom research services to companies that are seeking to demonstrate the value of their advertising propositions. The firm has produced audience listening estimates for sporting events, Chinese-language radio and custom research studies for satellite radio providers, the telecom-munications industry and out-of-home/place-based media.

portable people Meter Since 1992, Arbitron has pursued a strategy of evolving its data collection business from diaries to portable electronic measurement devices, which passively provide measure-ment services. The firm has developed its Portable People Meter (PPM) technology, which measures audiences for program-ming and advertising purposes across multiple media including, among others, broadcast and satellite radio, broadcast, cable and satellite TV, Internet, and retail in-store audio and video broadcasts.

▶ The PPM in the United States: Arbitron has begun its plan to roll out pro-gressively its PPM ratings service to the top 50 U.S. radio markets by the end of 2010. It currently uses the PPM ratings service to produce ratings in the Houston-Galveston, Texas, and Philadelphia local markets.

▶ The PPM in International Markets: Arbitron has entered into agreements with international media information services companies to use Arbitron’s encoding technology in their audience measurement services in specific countries outside the United States.

BBM Canada uses the Portable People Meter as the official ratings system for buying and selling commercial airtime on French-language TV in the markets of Quebec and Montreal. TNS is using PPM technology in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Kazakhstan and Singapore.

In April 2007, broadcasters in Iceland selected the PPM Meter system as the audience measurement currency system for both radio and TV. In October 2007,

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TNS announced a plan for field tests in Beijing, using the PPM system for radio audience measurement. In December 2007, TNS announced that the British Audience Research Board had awarded it two con-tracts to measure TV audiences and produce currency ratings in the United Kingdom beginning in 2010.

Arbitron has executive offices in New York, with

sales offices in five U.S. cities and operations offices in six U.S. cities. Its research and technology organiza-tion, in Columbia, Md., provides support for the U.S. Media Services business and continues the develop-ment the PPM technology.

Arbitron has 1,092 full-time U.S. employees.

8GfK usawww.gfk.com

<Klaus l. WuBBenhoRsT

GFK usa CoMpRises the U.S. operations of GfK AG, a public company based in Nuremberg, Germany, and established in 1934. In August 2005, NOP World was acquired by GfK.

Klaus L. Wübbenhorst, 52, is the CEO of GfK

AG. He earned a Ph.D. from Technical University in Darmstadt, Germany.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $319.7 million, up 1.3% over 2006. In 2007, 80.1% of total worldwide revenue, or $1,603.0 million, was from outside the United States.

GfK AG is a worldwide market research organi-zation providing services in three business sectors: Custom Research, Retail and Technology, and Media. The firm has 115 operating companies located in 90 countries with 9,070 full-time employees worldwide and 1,039 U.S. employees.

Custom ResearchThis sector specializes in operational and strategic marketing issues relating to nearly every industrial sector and market. The sources of information for the Custom Research sector are specific target groups of consumers and the medical profession.

GfK Custom Research North America is a full-service, fact-based research firm offering a wide range of ad-hoc and syndicated research products, strategic models and consulting services. Its industry-specific teams include GfK Automotive, GfK Consumer, GfK Financial Services, GfK Media and Communications and GfK Technology (includes industrial and b-to-b research). Key specialty practice areas include GfK Brand and Communications (includes GfK Starch

Communications), GfK Customer Loyalty (includes GfK Mystery Shopping), GfK Roper Consulting (con-sumer trends), GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media (includes GfK Roper Omnibus Services) and GfK Qualitative and Ethnography.

A Research Center for Excellence serves as the firm’s in-house think tank of researchers com-prising three divisions: Statistical Sampling and Methodology; Online Strategy and Methodology; and Marketing Sciences and Analytics. The firm also delivers research support and data collection services through Friedman Marketing Services as well as GfK Research Dynamics in Canada.

GfK U.S. Healthcare Companies comprises three healthcare marketing research agencies: GfK Market Measures, GfK Strategic Marketing and GfK V2. Together they form a major provider of U.S. custom healthcare marketing research services.

▶ GfK Market Measures provides a mix of syn-dicated and custom marketing research services, supporting market assessment, brand tracking, message effectiveness, sales force effectiveness, healthcare consumer and product launch appli-cations. The firm’s custom research expertise includes pricing, forecasting, positioning, concept testing, message development, promotional effec-tiveness evaluation and opportunity assessment. Major products include Therapeutic Class Studies,

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PatientDriver, Detail Tracker, Detail Watch and Fastape Premium.

▶ GfK Strategic Marketing, with a full range of quantitative services, supports clients in areas such as pricing, forecasting, clinical trial optimization and market seg-mentation. Key products include UniterSM, Hospital UniterSM and Perceptual Deficit SimulatorSM. Also, its Qualitative Institute uses a variety of qualitative research methodologies, including cross-cultural projective and elicitive techniques, to pro-vide strategic counsel at each stage of the product life cycle.

▶ GfK V2 conducts qualitative market-ing research with patients and physicians. The firm also executes advanced analytics and quantitative research. Products include Information Architecture (product posi-tioning), Competitive Analysis of Strategy and Tactics or CAST, Market Analysis of Patients and Products (MAPPs) patient flow/treatment maps and PracticeView (strategic account management).

Retail and TechnologyInformation on retail sales of technical con-sumer goods is gathered on a continuous basis in this sector, sourced from retailers.

▶ GfK Audits and Surveys focuses on delivering information and insights from retail-based research. The firm offers both custom and syndicated services to a variety of industry sectors. Among its custom serv-ices are distribution audits, controlled store tests, market description studies, in-store interviewing, trade sentiment studies and customer experience programs. Its syndi-cated services include the Annual Retail Census—a large in-person measurement of the U.S. retail and service marketplace—as well as sales tracking programs covering pet food and animal health pharmaceuti-cals, optical products and mobile content (games, music, ringtones, etc.). It has the unique ability to track dispensing data through professional channels that offer products directly to their clients such as

veterinarians, opticians, etc. ▶ GfK Equity Research Inc. provides

retail sales data and analysis to institutional investors from sales receipts provided by retailer scanner data and other resellers (mail-order, Internet, specialist dealers, etc.). GfK processes sales data in more than 70 countries for virtually all consumer tech-nology and consumer durable goods.

▶ IFR Monitoring USA is experienced in retail in-store shelf analysis, retail ad display metrics and Internet advertising. It analyzes the presence of products and brands in the market at the various levels of retail shelves, retail advertisements and retail online sites, thus reflecting the market offers.

Media This sector delivers continuous custom-ized research on reach, intensity and use of TV, radio, print and online media through Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI), which provides a picture of American con-sumers: who they are, what they buy, how they think and how to reach them. MRI offers demographic, attitudinal and product usage intelligence, as well as consumer usage of all major forms of advertising media. It provides information to magazines, TV, radio, Internet and other media, leading national advertisers and more than 450 advertising agencies, including 90 of the top 100 agencies in the United States.

9ipsoswww.ipsos-na.com

<JaMes T. sMiTh

ipsos in noRTh America (Ipsos) is based in New York and is a unit of Ipsos Group SA in Paris, a public company founded in 1975 and listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1999.

James T. Smith, 60, is CEO and

chairman of Ipsos in North America. He earned an M.B.A. from Cornell University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $281.2 million, up 3.5% over 2006. In 2007, $989.1 million, or 77.9%, of total revenue, was from outside the United States. Revenue in 2007 for Ipsos North America was $450.0 million, and for Ipsos Group SA was $1.27 billion.

Ipsos is a global survey-based market research firm providing services in five areas of specialization: advertising, customer loyalty, marketing, media and public affairs research. The firm has a full line of custom, syndicated, omnibus, panel and online research products and services, guided by experienced staff and supported by analyt-ics and methods. Ipsos conducts polling on behalf of The Associated Press.

Ipsos’ five areas of specialization are represented by five firms across North America:

▶ Ipsos ASI (www.ipsosasi.com) is a worldwide provider of advertising pre-testing services. It offers a full range of advertising research services at all stages of the advertising development process, including copy testing, advertising track-ing and brand equity evaluation. Ipsos ASI helps in the development, evaluation and improvement of advertising efforts.

▶ Ipsos Marketing (www.ipsosmar-keting.com), the marketing research consultancy, provides services in market assessment, brand management, innova-tion and new product development. It offers experienced client services teams special-izing in consumer products, technology, communications, health, pharmaceuticals, financial services, entertainment, foodser-vice, agrifood, energy, utilities, and lottery and gaming research.

▶ Ipsos Loyalty (www.ipsosloyalty.com) is a global, specialized practice in cus-tomer satisfaction management, customer relationship management, and employee cli-mate management, supported by a modular suite of integrated research tools.

▶ Ipsos Media (www.ipsos-na.com/media) provides research to both the edito-rial and advertising sides of media in key markets worldwide. Through syndicated studies and ad-hoc research, it informs editorial and media marketing decision-makers about the expectations, tastes and behavior of readers, listeners, viewers and Internet users.

▶ Ipsos Public Affairs (www.ipsospa.com) specializes in corporate reputation, issues management, strategic communica-tions and sociopolitical trends, serving the needs of corporations, nonprofit orga-nizations, public relations firms, news media and governments. Its toolbox for conducting tailor-made research includes quantitative polling, qualitative focus groups, online panels, elite and stakeholder interviewing, syndicated subscriptions and other research techniques.

Ipsos employs 8,000 full time worldwide and 800 in 15 U.S. locations.

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10syNovaTewww.synovate.com

<RoBeRT sKolniCK

synovaTe, CReaTeD in 2002 (formerly Aegis Research), was acquired in 1999 by the Aegis Group plc, a London-based public company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Robert Skolnick, 55, is CEO of Synovate North America. He earned a J.D. at the Brooklyn Law School. Adrian Chedore is worldwide CEO for Synovate.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $250.4 million, up 6.9% over 2006. In 2007, revenue from outside the U.S. was $616.6 million, or 71.1% of total rev-enue. Revenue of Aegis Group was $2.2 billion in 2007.

Synovate is a global market research firm based around a bor-derless organization whose flexible structure allows it to establish global teams wherever its clients are located, mirroring their requirements and offering local access to the firm’s global knowledge and capabilities.

With fully owned operations in 121 cities in 57 countries, Synovate provides complete geographic coverage and service. Its clients range from Fortune Global 500 companies to entrepreneur-ial start-ups and come from all sectors of business: consumer packaged goods, petrochemicals, media and advertising, government, quick-serve restaurants, financial services, retail, technology and more. The firm employs more than 5,800 staff worldwide with 832 full-time U.S. staff.

Synovate’s global practices and industry verticals include:

▶ Synovate Brand and Communications: The firm offers its Brand Value Creator, Market Barriers and other services to help grow brands and track how well communications are working.

▶ Synovate Censydiam: Known for its psychodynamic research, Censydiam creates a deeper under-standing of human motivations and behavior, and its effects on products and brands.

▶ Synovate Healthcare: Global specialists deliver marketing insights to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, from ad hoc research and analytics to syndicated tracking stud-ies, including oncology, antiviral (HIV, hepatitis B and C) and autoimmune (rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclero-sis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel disease).

▶ Synovate Loyalty: This customer satisfaction and consulting service helps to develop and implement customer, employee and stakeholder loyalty programs and as well as

customer experience management.▶ Synovate Product Design and

Development: The firm has experi-ence and services across all stages of the product development cycle, from initial concept to development, pack-aging and pricing.

▶ Synovate MarketQuest: The firm’s experienced product

development staff worldwide guides clients through the product develop-ment process, from initial concept to ongoing performance monitoring, to ensure effective market decisions and accurate volume estimates for prod-ucts or services.

▶ Synovate Motoresearch: This company provides a full range of

research tools to help the automotive industry develop products with maxi-mum pulling power. NADA-24, its customer feedback program for auto-motive dealerships, provides dealers with immediate information on their customers’ experiences.

▶ Synovate ViewsNet: From cus-tomer behavior to customer feedback,

panels can be accessed online, by tele-phone, by mail or face to face.

▶ Synovate Aztec: This is the firm’s specialist offering in data pro-cessing, analysis and support services across the grocery, pharmacy, liquor, mass merchant and petrol/conve-nience channels.

▶ Shopper research: Synovate’s

shopper insights capabilities provide retailers and manufacturers with research on shopper behavior and segmentations as well as in-store messaging and category/aisle/brand optimization. Equipment counts, tracks and studies shopper behavior in the store during all times of the day to assess the impact of promotions,

displays, store locations, layouts and other factors.

▶ Media research: The firm exam-ines emerging trends and how changes in consumer behavior alter media relationships. This also includes a close look at media behavior and product ownership among affluent consumers in Latin America, Europe, the Middle

East and Asia through Synovate’s PAX and EMS surveys.

▶ Youth research: Synovate’s ongoing research on youth attitudes and behavior, and contemporary cul-ture across the globe provides a broad range of clients with strategy, insight and ideas on this continually chang-ing market.

11MariTz researChwww.maritzresearch.com

<MiChael BReReTon

MaRiTZ ReseaRCh (MR), based in Fenton, Mo., was founded in 1973 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maritz Inc.

Michael Brereton, 48, is presi-dent of MR. He earned an M.B.A. at Bowling Green State University.

U.S. research-only revenue in 2007 was $187.4 million, up 5.2% over 2006. In 2007, 16.1% of total research-only revenue, or $35.9 million, came from outside the United States. Maritz Inc.’s revenue in 2007 was $1.4 billion.

MR provides services that close the gap between brand promise and brand performance through an under-standing of customers, employees and channel partners. Its specialized divi-sions are focused on the automotive, financial services, hospitality, technol-ogy, retail and pharmaceutical sectors.

In 2007, MR introduced the Maritz Comprehensive Brand Audit. This approach helps to understand how a brand compares with the competition in terms of its personality, the emo-tional reaction it creates in customers, the relationship customers have with the brand and the higher-order values customers seek to achieve with the brand. Analysis and modeling of these data identifies which of the brand facets are relative strengths and which drive business-relevant outcomes like brand affinity, brand worth and share-relevant measures.

MR also introduced a new mobile data collection technology called Maritz OnsiteInsights. This cell phone technology combined with real-time data tabulations and analysis provides insights while the customer is still in the store or business location. The resulting top-of-mind information is then used by managers to modify or improve the in-store experience.

In 2008, the firm will debut its Online Center of Excellence. It comprises a team of Maritz’s online research experts, who carefully and methodically assess respective client projects for sampling methodology and set guidelines for monitoring all online survey processes to ensure sample fidelity. The team also focuses

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on the latest advances in online qualitative techniques and Web-based reporting.

MR employs 632 people full time in the United States and 806 worldwide. Offices are located in Chicago; Detroit; Hamburg, Germany; Los Angeles; New York; Marlow, U.K.; Minneapolis; Montreal; St. Louis; Toledo, Ohio; and Toronto.

12J.D. poWer aND assoCiaTeswww.jdpower.com

<sTephen GooDall

J.D. poWeR anD Associates (JDPA) in Westlake Village, Calif., was founded in 1968. In April 2005, JDPA was acquired by The McGraw-Hill Cos.

Stephen C. Goodall, 53, is president of JDPA. He earned an M.B.A. at the University of Southern California.

U.S. research-only revenue in 2007 was estimated at $184.5 million, up 8.2% over 2006. Revenue from outside the United States in 2007 was estimated at $76.0 million, or 29.2% of total research-only esti-mated revenue.

JDPA is a global marketing information services company that conducts independent consumer surveys of product and service quality, customer satisfaction and buyer behavior. Services include industrywide and client-commissioned research, busi-ness-to-business consulting, automotive forecasting, corporate training and performance improvement, and media research.

Annual syndicated studies are based on survey responses from millions of consumers and business customers worldwide. The firm does not review, judge or test products and services; it relies on the opinions and expectations of consumers who have actually owned the products and use the services being rated.

JDPA is best known for its work in the auto-motive industry, for which its metrics have become the industry standard for measuring quality and customer satisfaction. A team of asso-ciates worldwide conducts quality and customer satisfaction research across industries includ-ing automotive, telecommunications, travel, real estate, finance, insurance, health care, utilities and consumer electronics.

The firm’s clients include many Fortune 500 U.S. companies and many internationally. JDPA has five U.S. offices and locations in eight coun-tries. It has 620 full-time employees in the United States and 875 worldwide.

13harris iNTeraCTive iNC.www.harrisinteractive.com

<GReGoRy novaK

haRRis inTeRaCTive inC. (HI), based in Rochester, N.Y., was founded in 1975 as Gordon S. Black Corp.; and together with Louis Harris and Associates, which was founded in 1956, it became a public company in 1999.

Gregory T. Novak, 45, is president and CEO of HI. He earned an M.S. in Management at Krannert Business School at Purdue University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $161.0 million, down 3.6% from 2006. In 2007, $66.0 million, or 29.1% of total revenue, was generated outside the United States.

HI is a global custom survey research company that provides insights and strategic advice. The firm is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the longest-running, independent opinion polls, and for using online market research methods. It has built one of the world’s largest panels of survey respondents, the Harris Poll Online. HI serves clients worldwide through its North American, European and Asian offices, and through a global net-work of 14 independent market research firms.

The firm has particular strengths in the areas of brand and strategy consulting, mar-keting communications (ad tracking and testing) and loyalty. Its industry experience includes advertising, consumer packaged goods, financial services, health care and pharmaceuticals, government, telecom-munications, technology, automotive and transportation, as well as public policy and public relations.

In 2007, HI launched GlobalSynch, a global synchronized research platform. Its integrated Web-based system provides increased speed, greater accuracy and easy real-time access to research data collected anywhere in the world regardless of collec-tion mode. This online research platform can also send out more than one million e-mail invitations per hour and process 180,000 five-minute inbound surveys per hour or 15,000 surveys simultaneously.

Also in 2007, HI expanded its opera-tions through acquisitions in Germany, Canada and Asia. It also extended its south-ern hemisphere presence with the addition of two new Global Network partners: INFOTRAK Research and Consulting in Kenya and CNP Global in Brazil.

HI has 879 full-time U.S. employees and has subsidiary/affiliates in London; Hamburg, Germany; Paris; Toronto; and Hong Kong.

14The NpD Group iNC.www.npd.com

<ToD Johnson

The npD GRoup Inc. (NPD), in Port Washington, N.Y., is a group of pri-vate, majority-owned corporations. It was founded in 1967.

Tod Johnson is chairman and CEO of NPD, Karyn Schoenbart is president and COO, and Tom Lynch is CFO and COO. Johnson, 63, earned an M.S.I.A. at Carnegie Mellon University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $160.4 million, up 10.1% over 2006. In 2007, 24.0% of total revenue, or $50.7 million, was generated from work conducted outside the United States. The growth rate excludes 2006 and 2007 revenue from the acquisition of Current Analysis in May 2007.

NPD provides consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. The firm identifies new business oppor-tunities and guides product development, marketing, sales, merchandising and other functions.

Information is available for the follow-ing industry sectors: automotive, beauty, commercial technology, consumer technol-ogy (consumer electronics, IT, cameras, other electronics), entertainment (video games, music, film, video), fashion (acces-sories, apparel, footwear), food (foodservice and food and beverage consumption), home (appliances, housewares, home

improvement, home textiles), office sup-plies, software, sports, toys and wireless.

Its products and services include retail tracking, consumer tracking, shipment tracking, causal information, special reports and custom services.

NPD’s retail tracking services are based on point-of-sale (POS) store movement

information collected from 700 retail part-ners representing more than 150,000 doors worldwide. It also offers market- and store-level tracking for approximately 50 U.S. designated market areas (DMAs), as well as more granular market views in Europe. Market-level services are available for con-sumer technology and automotive in the

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United States and for beauty in France.NPD monitors commercial sales of

information technology products through an alliance with the Global Technology Distribution Council, whose members comprise approximately 80% of the IT dis-tributor market.

The firm’s U.S. consumer tracking ser-vices are based on information collected from the NPD Online Panel of more than three million registered members. NPD also offers a second U.S. panel option, its lon-gitudinal panel, AccuPanel. Due to NPD’s extensive experience in managing panels, the NPD Online Panel has high cooperation rates compared with online industry norms.

DisplaySearch, an NPD Group com-pany, provides market research on the flat panel display (FPD) industry’s supply chain, covering component suppliers, equipment manufacturers, FPD producers, OEMs, brands, distributors and retailers. It offers information on shipments and revenue, as well as forecasts for displays, applications, manufacturing equipment and components.

In Canada, NPD offers POS and/or consumer panel information for the auto-motive, consumer technology, commercial technology, entertainment, fashion and foodservice industries, as well as food and beverage consumption; in many cases, con-sumer information is collected from NPD’s Canadian online panel.

In Mexico, NPD’s primary business is retail tracking in the consumer technology market.

In Europe, NPD offers information for the beauty, foodservice, sports and toys industry sectors. Tracking services are pro-vided in 11 European countries and include both consumer and retail tracking services.

In Asia, foodservice and sports tracking are available in Japan, and beauty point-of-sale tracking for the prestige beauty industry is available in China.

NPD has offices in 25 cities around the world, spanning the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.

In 2007, NPD introduced new track-ing services, including accessories (United States), toys (Poland and Portugal), nursery products (United Kingdom) and, in 2008,

athletic footwear. NPD also began tracking consumer purchases in Europe via an online panel. It also became Wal-Mart’s preferred provider of consumer data in the industries tracked by NPD, and will offer consumer tracking services to Wal-Mart and its sup-pliers in 2008.

NPD’s joint ventures include a series of companies owned by NPD and GfK AG, operating retail tracking services in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia for con-sumer electronics, household durables, cameras and IT. NPD also partners with GfK in OzToys, a retail tracking service covering toys, video games and software in Australia. In 2008, NPD sold its interest in LatinPanel to TNS.

NPD has approximately 840 full-time U.S. employees (780 full-time exempt). Outside of the United States, it has 260 full-time employees.

15opiNioN researCh/ GuiDeliNe Groupwww.infousa.com

<GeRalD MioDus

opinion ReseaRCh/GuiDeline GRoup (OR/G) in Omaha, Neb., is the market research division of infoUSA Inc., a public company. OR/G was estab-lished in 2007 from acquisitions of four market research firms: Opinion Research Corp. (including Opinion Research and Macro International) in Princeton, N.J., in December 2006; NWC Research in Melbourne, Australia, in July 2007; Guideline Inc. in New York in August 2007; and Northwest Research Group Inc. in Seattle in October 2007.

Vin Gupta, 61, is chairman and CEO of infoUSA. He earned an M.S. in engi-neering and an M.B.A. at the University of Nebraska. The president of Opinion Research is Gerald J. Miodus, 51. He earned a B.S. in economics at Michigan State University. Greg N. Mahnke, 56, is president of Macro International. He earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at Indiana University. Marc Litvinoff, 47, is CEO of Guideline.

U.S. research-only revenue in 2007 was $124.7 million, up 4.5% over 2006. In 2007, 39.7% of total research-only revenue, or $82.0 million, was from work conducted outside the United States. The U.S. growth rate includes 2006 and 2007 revenue of Opinion Research Corp. and Guideline Inc., and excludes revenue of Northwest Research Group Inc. Total research and nonresearch revenue in 2007 was $206.7 million.

There are three operating units in OR/G:

▶ Opinion Research Corp. (www.opin ionresearch.com): ORC, founded in 1938, provides research services in corporate brand and reputation, customer experi-ence and strategies, market planning and development, employee engagement, and community and public services delivery. The company offers a portfolio of research products and services to meet the needs

of marketing, strategic planning, market research, human resources, product man-agement and public services executives worldwide. The firm has experience in the financial services, healthcare, information technology and telecommunications, and public services sectors.

In addition to its U.S. research practices, ORC delivers ORC Caravan, the oldest continuously running consumer omnibus survey in the United States; PR Plus, a PR-friendly research “survey in a box”; Out-of-Box-Experience, a picture of consumers’ impressions of electronic products as they are first unpacked, assembled and used; and the Customer Experience Evaluation tool, an online customer relationship survey pro-cess for midsized companies.

Through the Northwest Research Group (www.opinionresearch.com/north-west), ORC has added a presence in the Western United States and several new products, including CityMARKS, a citizen satisfaction measurement for local govern-ments; CSMPactor, a customer satisfaction and loyalty measurement program focused on the areas that have a high impact on the customer experience; and Idetailing, a brainstorming and ideation process that combines the benefits on traditional in-depth qualitative research methods with online technology.

ORC also delivers the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll through a formal part-nership with CNN, and has partnered with NYSE Euronext since 2005 to survey CEOs of the NYSE’s listing companies on topics ranging from globalization and governance to strategy and human resources.

ORC and NRG have 106 research employees in U.S. offices in Princeton, N.J.; Chicago; Reno, Nev.; Toledo, Ohio; Tucson, Ariz.; Seattle; and Boise, Idaho.

▶ Guideline (www.guideline.com): Founded in 1969, Guideline provides a platform of qualitative and quantita-tive market intelligence for both b-to-b and b-to-c clients. Industry experience includes: health care and pharmaceuti-cal, consumer-related financial services, insurance, consumer packaged goods, industrial, and advertising and profes-sional services. The firm’s quantitative market research capabilities include: Internet/telephone/direct mail surveys, in-depth interviewing, live/virtual focus groups, new product testing, in-home use testing, FDA-related research and label comprehension, message testing, cus-tomer satisfaction and loyalty research, and claims substantiation and copyright infringement research.

Guideline has 73 full-time research employees across five U.S. offices in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Minn., New York and Washington.

▶ Macro International Inc. (www.mac rointernational.com): Macro has more than 40 years experience working with virtually every U.S. federal government agency and conducting research and related projects in more than 125 countries. Macro provides services to the public sector including research and evaluation, social marketing, information technology and management

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consulting. The firm’s research and evaluation proj-ects support federal, state and international programs relating to health, housing, education, science, energy, nutrition and related areas.

In addition to the government sector, Macro’s market research capabilities provide business clients with accurate tactical and strategic information on products, markets, customer attitudes and behavior, performance measurement, organization change, competitive analyses and market transformation proj-ects. In October 2007, Macro introduced MacroPoll Wireless, a national omnibus survey conducted with cell phone users.

Macro has 367 full-time research employees in U.S. offices in Calverton, Bethesda, Elkridge, Rockville and Silver Spring, Md.; Atlanta; Burlington, Vt.; Los Angeles; New York and Plattsburgh, N.Y.

16CoMsCore iNC.www.comscore.com

<Gian FulGoni

CoMsCoRe inC. (Cs), based in Reston, Va., was founded in 1999 and listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in June 2007.

Gian Fulgoni, 60, is chairman of cS, and Magid Abraham is president and CEO. Fulgoni earned a mas-ter’s in marketing at the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $77.0 million, up 26.0% over 2006. In 2007, revenue generated outside the U.S. was $10.2 million, or 11.7% of total revenue.

cS continuously measures the online behavior of a global cross section of consumers of two mil-lion Internet users who provide their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline pur-chasing. Its panelists also participate in survey research that captures their attitudes and intentions that can be integrated with their observed behavior.

The firm’s samples have been built according to statistical sampling methodologies, and encompass consumers at home, in the workplace, at universities and outside the United States.

▶ cS Media Metrix (CMM) division, providing the syndicated audience measurement product of cS, is the source of Internet audience measurement for adver-tising agencies, publishers, marketers and financial analysts. CMM reports details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across 100 local U.S. markets and around the world, including detailed reporting for dozens of countries. The division offers tools for reach and frequency analysis, day-part plan-ning, online and offline local market analysis and

emerging applications. CMM, under the cS Video Metrix sub-brand, provides audience measurement data for streaming video

In 2007, CMM released several new measurement tools: qSearch2.0, a global reporting of online search activity; Campaign Metrix, which measures the deliv-ery of online advertising campaigns and its resulting sales online and offline; Brand Metrix, which reports on the impact of online advertising on a brand’s aware-ness and the attitudes and perceptions toward a brand; Segment Metrix, a new site-level behavioral targeting tool; cS Marketing a new search marketing tool kit; and Ad Metrix, which reports the number of display ad views delivered by top Web sites with detailed demographics.

In 2008, cS plans to introduce Ad Metrix Advertiser, which will measure display advertising by advertiser; Plan Metrix 2.0, monthly releases of Internet audience measurement data married with attitudinal data; and Mobile Metrix, which will mea-sure Internet traffic from mobile devices.

▶ cS Marketing Solutions (CMS) division com-bines cS consumer behavior database with the experience of cS analysts, to deliver insight into the online behavior of consumers for clients in the auto-motive, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, financial services, media, pharmaceutical, retail, tech-nology, telecommunications and travel industries.

CMS also integrates online behavior with offline

purchase and product ownership data. The cS online tracking technology is being installed on the computers of Information Resources Inc.’s Consumer Network con-sumer panel that measures CPG buying behavior across all important retail chan-nels. cS has also matched its database with clients’ offline buying databases to measure the impact that online marketing has on offline behavior.

CMS offers a full range of custom and syndicated survey research services for a variety of industries, using the cS panel with offline and online applications. CMS survey services address business issues such as consumer segmentation, customer satisfaction, product and advertising evalua-tion and brand performance tracking. CMS integrates survey responses with online behavior passively captured for the same respondents.

cS data and services support numerous applications, including market and com-petitive intelligence for any online category; benchmarking and opportunity gap/SWOT analysis; customer profiling and segmenta-tion models; integration and study of online behavioral data with offline purchase data; choice models based on pricing, taxes and promotions, among other factors; controlled measurement of the effectiveness of interac-tive marketing programs; and scoring of customer files for direct marketing programs using markers and propensities derived in aggregate within the cS database and applied using shared attributes. cS e-commerce sales data have been widely published in the media for more than seven years.

cS has 370 full-time U.S. employees and 452 worldwide in offices in Reston, Va.; Chicago; New York; San Francisco; Seattle; Tokyo; Toronto; Paris; and London.

17MarKeT sTraTeGies iNC.www.marketstrategies.com

<anDReW MoRRison

MaRKeT sTRaTeGies inC. (MSI) in Livonia, Mich., is a privately held company founded in 1989. In 2006, Veronis Suhler Stevenson LLC acquired a majority stake in MSI.

Andrew J. Morrison is chairman and CEO of MSI. Jan Brown is president and Reg Baker is COO. Morrison, 59, earned a Ph.D. in mass communications research at the University of Michigan.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $75.7 million, up 6.3% over 2006. Revenue generated outside the U.S. in 2007 was $4.7 million, or 5.8% of total revenue. The revenue and growth rate include full-year 2006 and 2007 revenue of Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights acquired October 2007. The growth rate includes full-year 2007 and 2007 revenue from the acquisition of Doxus LLC in June 2007.

MSI is a full-service, custom research firm that focuses on the energy, financial

services, health care, technology and tele-communications industries. The firm offers industry knowledge and experience, ana-lytical capabilities, unique market research programs and services, and client service orientation.

MSI provides creative and cost-efficient customer satisfaction and loyalty measure-ment programs:

▶ For clients conducting more than 5,000 telephone interviews per month, MSI has developed the Integrated Research Center solution to meet research program needs through a dedicated center; a custom-designed extranet portal and dashboard reporting system; and analytical services.

▶ The firm provides a Customer Experience Management modeling

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capability that sets priorities for service improvement initiatives and employee training.

▶ MSI’s usability consultants help design and evaluate customer-focused Interactive Voice Response systems and Web sites.

It completed more than 2.5 million tele-phone interviews in 2007 out of six telephone centers in the United States and Canada.

MSI also focuses on new product research in health care, financial services and technology, with choice-modeling software and simulators, and Internet data collection capabilities. In 2007, the firm conducted more than 250,000 domestic and international Internet interviews focused on new product and brand equity topics with special populations including physicians, technology decision-makers and business decision-makers regarding financial services.

MSI’s Marketing Science unit provides a suite of products including MSImpact Modeling, a structural equation modeling system for customer experience manage-ment research programs; MSInnovation, a new product optimization and simula-tion approach that features proprietary choice-modeling analysis; MSTargets, a multiplatform market segmentation analy-sis; and the MSBrandManager research program to develop and derive value from old and new brands.

The firm’s MSInteractive unit manufac-tures the Perception Analyzer system and software, and sells and leases systems for market research, education and meeting facilitation uses.

MSI employs 309 full-time staff in the United States and more than 1,000 inter-viewers. The firm has client service offices in Portland, Ore.; Little Rock, Ark.; Atlanta;

northern New Jersey; Indianapolis; and Philadelphia.

18lieberMaN researCh WorlDWiDewww.lrwonline.com

<DaviD saCKMan

lieBeRMan ReseaRCh WoRlDWiDe (LRW), based in Los Angeles, is a privately held corporation founded in 1973.

Arnold Fishman, 63, is the founder and chairman of LRW, and David Sackman, 50, is president and CEO. Fishman earned a B.S. at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, and Sackman earned a B.A. at the University of California at Los Angeles.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $71.0 million, up 12.5% over 2006. In 2007, $16.4 million, or 18.8% of total revenue, was generated outside the United States.

LRW is a full-service custom mar-ket research provider with experience across a diversity of industries, including entertainment, technology, automotive, pharmaceutical and health care, retail, food service, financial and business services, con-sumer goods and more.

LRW maintains an understanding of business needs and techniques by recruit-ing senior executives from academia, consulting, advertising, marketing and marketing research. Its Advanced Analytics team provides experience in conjoint, choice, latent class and Hierarchical Bayes modeling, price testing and optimization, demand forecasting and modeling, market

segmentation, brand positioning and other custom techniques.

LRW emphasizes five core areas of research:

▶ Strategy Development and Segmentation Research: Strategy experience is LRW’s core strength. In segmentation research, the firm determines targets, optimizes marketing mix and develops strategies to maximize performance within target segments that drive business impact. It also deploys techniques and analytic pro-cesses to understand where value resides within brands along with the implications for brand building.

▶ Brand Strategy: LRW expanded its brand practice in 2007 with the launch of its new brand paradigm developed from R&D work to identify new brand metrics that predict financial performance. LRW’s Relevant Brand Clarity helps directly man-age the contribution of brands to their financial performance. This new paradigm links two new brand concepts, Emotional Clarity and Functional Clarity, with tradi-tional measures of the brand funnel (such as awareness, trial, conversion, etc.), delivering a predictor of sales and profits.

▶ CIA Approach to Tracking: This uti-lizes consistency procedures and research processes that generate insight from the data. LRW’s approach applies these to cus-tomer satisfaction, brand or advertising tracking.

▶ New Product Development: LRW’s end-to-end service starts with a market seg-mentation to understand the target markets, then uses Ideation, a structured brainstorm-ing method, to create a large number of potential concepts. After the concepts are refined through Evolution, an iterative series of qualitative research, the firm tests concept, package and price to ensure opti-mal execution. To forecast product demand, analysts apply choice modeling to multiple production configurations.

▶ Actionability Suite: LRW offers Actionability Workshops to actively engage key client stakeholders in the research pro-cess. The workshops include four distinct approaches built upon an action-oriented philosophy: Immerison, Lieberman Learning Labs, Actionability Workshops and Synthesis.

In 2007, LRW developed a full suite of online access tools delivering quality data and analysis including executive dashboards and full reporting systems; introduced its Interactive Decision Tool for brand optimi-zation; and hosted its second annual Client Symposium on the topic of “Linking Brand Performance to Financial Results.” In 2008, the firm will launch its suite of online access tools and develop its own online sampling methodology.

LRW employs 208 full-time employ-ees in the United States. Data collection facilities include five telephone centers with 625 CATI-equipped stations and the capability to conduct interviews in more than 65 languages. In addition to its Los

Angeles headquarters, the company has offices in London; Chicago; Charlotte, N.C.; Huntington Beach, Calif.; Shanghai; and Tokyo.

19abT assoCiaTes iNC.www.abtassociates.com

<WenDell Knox

aBT assoCiaTes inC. in Cambridge, Mass., is an employee-owned company founded in 1965.

Wendell J. Knox, 60, is president and CEO of Abt. He earned a B.A. at Harvard University. Mark A. Schulman, 62, is presi-dent of Abt SRBI subsidiary. He earned a Ph.D. at Rutgers University.

U.S. research-only revenue in 2007 was $55.1 million, down 16.8% from 2006. The U.S. growth rate includes 2006 and 2007 revenue from the acquisition of Schulman, Ronca & Bucuvalas Inc. (SRBI) in July 2007, and excludes the Financial Services Research Practice sold in May 2007. Total research and nonresearch revenue in 2007 was $208 million.

Abt is a full-service research and consulting firm whose research activities include marketing research for government, business, media, universities and founda-tions. Combining research and consulting services, the firm tailors individual services and strategies to help clients identify, under-stand and respond to complex issues and problems.

Abt provides a full range of survey research capabilities, from sample design and instrument development, through data collection and data management and processing, to data analysis. Its emphasis on technical quality ensures confidence in measuring effectiveness, launching new products and improving customer satisfaction.

Abt SRBI is a full-service global public opinion and marketing research company serving many Fortune 500 companies, financial service and insurance orga-nizations, advertising agencies, media, university researchers, foundations and government agencies. It is organized into six divisions:

▶ Analytic and Consulting Division has specialized practice groups in bank-ing and finance, insurance, health care, telecommunications, technology, mass transportation and media research. Industry specialization, combined with analytic tools, are used in such areas as brand equity, advertising tracking, image and positioning, customer loyalty/satisfaction and market and customer segmentation studies. Abt SRBI’s b-to-b research is conducted in this division, including international b-to-b research.

▶ Marketing Insights Division focuses on integrated strategic research approaches,

particularly in the CPG, restaurant and retail sectors. It is responsible for Abt SRBI’s large-scale customer satisfaction surveys utilizing innovative methods and technolo-gies, including Interactive Voice Response. This group manages several large propri-etary online customer and prospect panels.

▶ Government Division conducts large-

scale surveys and tracking studies for many U.S. federal government agencies, founda-tions and university researchers. These projects include epidemiological surveys, global healthcare studies, domestic violence and program evaluations.

▶ Public Policy and Public Affairs Division conducts the Annenberg National

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Election Study and other large-scale public opinion and public policy studies for uni-versity researchers, foundations, research institutes and the media. This includes legal services to the poor, political participation, surveys of Iraq War veterans and children’s health surveys. This division is responsible for SRBI’s public opinion polling for Time Magazine and other media.

▶ Utilities Division serves the electric utility industry. Studies include customer satisfaction and loyalty, marketing issues and studies of the impact of industry deregulation.

▶ Interviewing Services Division con-ducts telephone, mail, Internet, IVR and in-person interviewing for other marketing research firms. The firm has five centralized, fully supervised and monitored CATI facili-ties with nearly 450 stations.

Besides its Cambridge offices, Abt has U.S. offices in Lexington and Hadley, Mass.; Bethesda, Md.; Chicago; Durham, N.C.; and New York (SRBI). Abroad it has proj-ect offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Abt has more than 1,000 full-time employees, of which 279 work full time on its research services.

20 oTX www.otxresearch.com

<shelley Zalis

oTx, BaseD in Los Angeles, was founded in 2000 as a division of iFilm Inc. and acquired in 2004 by Zelnick Media Group and the Pilot Group.

Shelley Zalis, 46, is CEO and co-founder of OTX. She earned a B.A. from Barnard College of Columbia University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $50.8 million, up 32.6% over 2006. In 2007, 6.8% or $3.7 million of total revenue was from outside the United States.

OTX is a global, full-service, con-sumer research and consulting firm that has established itself as a leading provider of online-based research. The firm blends online technology with experienced market research and agency professionals.

OTX serves the marketing, entertain-ment and advertising communities by providing online products to uncover con-sumer insights. Clients include packaged goods manufacturers, media companies and movie studios.

OTX specializes in understanding the impact of both traditional and emerging media and offers clear thinking on the convergence of brands and entertainment. With access to more than 40 million con-sumers worldwide, OTX provides a suite of syndicated products and also develops custom research.

Services offered to media and enter-tainment companies include testing for movie creatives, movie trailers, Web site appeal and design, global movie tracking in seven countries, daily TV program track-ing and video game tracking. OTX is also an industry leader for movie screenings. For packaged goods companies and retail-ers, the firm offers advertising engagement testing and brand tracking, packaging and product concept testing, and uses virtual stores/shelf for pricing, assortment and any in-store marketing tests. For engagement, OTX uses biometric measures to get a more accurate read on the effectiveness of adver-tisers’ messaging.

New for 2008 is ConsumerMaps, a syndicated research tool that connects consumers with brands, and brands with other brands, based on key measures of recognition, attraction, presence and polar-ization. It offers continuous measurement of consumer sentiment, yielding 360-degree insight into the consumer-driven brand experience.

Also new for 2008 is the Longitudinal Media Experience study that investigates consumer attitudes and behaviors toward digital technology and its impact on tra-ditional media. It evaluates interest and adoption patterns for new media offerings and device innovations and provides a road-map for traditional brands that are entering the digital space and brands already in the digital space.

OTX has 184 full-time U.S employ-ees and offices in Los Angeles, New York, Cincinnati, Miami, Chicago and London, with strategic partners in Japan, Australia, Russia, China and Mexico.

21 burKe iNC.www.burke.com

<MiChael BauMGaRDneR

BuRKe inC. (Bi), based in Cincinnati, was founded in 1931 and has been an inde-pendent, employee-owned company since 1989 with its shares held in an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). It became 100% ESOP in 2008.

BI’s president and CEO is Michael Baumgardner, 57. He earned a Ph.D. at Ohio State University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $47.0 million, up 8.0% from 2006. In 2007, $6.1 million, or 11.5% of total revenue, was from outside the United States.

BI is a full-service marketing research firm using advanced analytical techniques and technology to provide decision sup-port services across all major industry sectors. It’s experienced in defining problems, developing research designs, executing complex studies, analyzing data and interpreting results.

Over the years the firm has expanded its core research competencies in response to emerging trends such as customer loyalty, linkage and integration, and employee-related research. BI’s core competencies are supported by internal research and develop-ment programs.

Burke also provides marketing research and consumer insights educa-tion through the Burke Institute, which has trained more than 70,000 participants from 10,000 companies, through more than 3,000 public and in-house custom-ized marketing research seminars in 39 different countries. Seminars cover research topics such as general marketing research, qualitative and online research, questionnaire design, customer loyalty, analytical tools and techniques, advanced

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multivariate analysis, and linkage and other modeling techniques.

Primary areas of focus include:

▶ Custom Marketing Research: Provides full-service custom research, analysis and consulting for consumer and b-to-b product and service companies to understand marketplace dynamics worldwide. Services include product testing, brand equity research, pricing research, market segmentation, image and positioning studies, and a wide range of marketing research protocols targeted at both tactical and strategic business issues.

▶ Customer Loyalty and Relationship Management: Helps companies develop and deploy customer loyalty and relationship management systems that focus internal resources on customer requirements.

▶ Employee Engagement and Retention: A key element of BI’s approach is employee engagement, which represents the strength of the overall connec-tion between the employees and the organization, and includes commitment, involvement, relationships and initiative.

▶ International Research: Custom research and other research services are available worldwide.

▶ Linkage and Integration: Focuses on where to invest limited resources to optimize process effective-ness, employee commitment, customer retention and business results.

▶ Online Research and Reporting: BI’s online research provides Web survey design and data col-lection using the Internet. Its Digital Dashboard online reporting provides secure, real-time access to survey findings. BI also provides moderating of online focus groups.

▶ Burke Qualitative: BI’s qualitative division is experienced in using the full range of qualitative

formats including focus groups, dyads, triads, mini-groups and one-on-ones. Moderators are versed in laddering, ethnographic research, scripting, and a vari-ety of other qualitative and projective techniques.

▶ Burke Healthcare: Provides experienced and dedicated healthcare industry staff, many with profes-sional accreditation and/or clinical backgrounds.

Burke has 217 full-time employees in the United States and 225 part-time employees.

22Mvl Group iNC.www.mvlgroup.com

<M. van leFFeRDinK

Mvl GRoup inC. (MVL), based in Jupiter, Fla., is a privately held firm formed as a holding company in 1998 and majority owned by Allied Capital Corp. in Washington.

M. Van Lefferdink is CEO of MVL, and Adam L. Rogers is president and COO. Van Lefferdink, 58, has a B.A. from DePauw University.

U.S. research revenue for MVL’s full-service research units in 2007 was $42.3 million, down 1.6% from 2006. Total revenue of MVL in 2007, including data collection and online units, was $78.7 million.

MVL’s full-service marketing research companies include:

▶ Marketing Research Services Inc. (MRSI) in Cincinnati provides custom research services in con-sumer goods, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, retail and restaurant industries.

Its PRISM system utilizes quantitative and

qualitative research tools to guide clients through one or more stages of product development.

MRSI’s Hispanic research includes an in-house Hispanic research team of moderators, research con-sultants, analysts and project directors who conduct both qualitative and quantitative research among Hispanics, including the development of custom pan-els of Hispanic consumers.

▶ Target Research Group (TRG) in Nanuet, N.Y., offers Ad Trac (Advertising Evaluation System), which evaluates TV and print advertising for impact, per-suasion and communication; Con Trac for concept screening; Fore Trac to predict sales on new products, line extensions and relaunches; Power Trac for opti-mizing concept and product acceptance and product retention; and Price Trac that identifies optimal pric-ing for new products.

MVL’s online research and data collection compa-nies include:

▶ Carbonview Research in Jupiter, Fla., launched in early 2005, uses a new approach to online research with its Authenticated Panel based on face-to-face recruitment at mall locations nationwide. This screen-ing method provides access to hard-to-reach targeted consumers and 100% validation.

▶ Discovery Research Group in Salt Lake City specializes in interviewing and recruiting respondents via the telephone. Since its inception in 1987, DRG has grown to 1,000 dialing stations and has become one of the largest opinion and marketing research field service firms in the United States. In 2007, the firm opened a 48-seat center in Costa Rica.

▶ PhoneBase Research in Fort Collins, Colo., has conducted millions of telephone interviews involving research into virtually every U.S. industry since its founding in 1994.

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▶ Quick Test/Heakin, a mall-based data collection network, has 53 nationwide locations centrally linked to its corporate office in Jupiter, Fla. It was created in 1999 by combining two companies in the mall-intercept data collection industry: Quick Test Inc. and Heakin Research Inc.

▶ Active Group (AG) based in Atlanta, was acquired by MVL in early 2007. AG offers a wide complement of products related to video streaming across a network of nearly 600 locations throughout the United States and Europe.

MVL has 420 full-time and 2,000 part-time U.S. employees. MRSI and TRG have 193 U.S. full-time employees.

23KNoWleDGe NeTWorKs iNC.www.knowledgenetworks.com

<siMon KooyMan

KnoWleDGe neTWoRKs inC. (KN), based in Menlo Park, Calif., is a pri-vately held company founded in 1998.

Simon Kooyman, 50, is CEO of KN. He earned an M.B.A. at Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $37.3 million, up 5.7% from 2006.

KN specializes in solving complex, high-impact problems, providing qual-ity and service to business, government and academia. KN works closely to cre-ate healthy consumer-brand connections, effective marketing and advertising, sound public policies and accurate social science research. It has established client-focused

strategic business units for custom market-ing research and government and academic research.

KN excels in study design, analyt-ics and custom panel creation, delivering statistically valid online research through KnowledgePanel, a probability-selected, nationally representative Internet panel. The firm specializes in media and advertising analysis, brand health, brand communica-tion testing, segmentation, new product opportunities and evaluation, public opin-ion and social issues. Other KN resources include the National Shopper Lab, a panel of eight million frequent shoppers available for in-store and new product research.

The firm also maintains an extensive program of research on research, studying the ways that different research methods and respondent cooperation—including panel creation and maintenance—can directly affect the information marketers use to make decisions.

KN operates from six U.S. offices in Menlo Park, Calif.; New York; Chicago; Cincinnati; Cranford, N.J.; and Needham, Mass. There are 180 full-time employees.

23NaTioNal researCh Corp.www.nationalresearch.com

<MiChael hays

naTional ReseaRCh CoRp. (NRC) in Lincoln, Neb., was founded in 1981 and has been a public company since October 1997.

Michael D. Hays, 53, is NRC’s president and CEO.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $37.3 million, up 1.9% over 2006. In 2007, $4.0 million, or 9.7% of total revenue, was from outside the United States.

NRC offers performance measurement and tracking and improvement services to hospitals, healthcare systems, physi-cians, health plans and other healthcare organizations.

NRC provides three primary types of information services:

▶ The NRC+Picker Group provides the most important aspects of the patient experience by combining the advance measurement and improvement technol-ogy of NRC with the philosophy and family of surveys of the Picker Institute. eTool-kit allows clients to act on their research results and attain improvement in the care delivery process. In addition, NRC Custom Research measures market characteristics or issues specific to individual healthcare organizations, including consumer recall of promotional and branding campaigns, consumer response to new service offerings, and provider perception of health plans and healthcare organizations.

▶ The NRC Healthcare Market Guide is an annual study of more than 200,000 households assessing consumers’ percep-tions of and satisfaction with hospitals, health systems and health plans in more than 190 markets across the country. The guide provides consumer satisfaction ratings for medical care, access and admin-istrative services on more than 800 health plans. Consumer quality perceptions, prod-uct-line preferences, service use and visit satisfaction are available for 3,200 hospitals and health systems by name. The guide also studies household health status, presence of more than 20 chronic conditions, alternative medicine use and other health behaviors.

▶ The Picker Symposium Educational Products provide a way of bridging the gap between measurement and improvement of patient-centered care and consists of the Picker Institute International Symposium, the Learning Network and eLearning.

NRC has 181 full-time and 56 part-time employees in the United States.

25DireCTioNs researCh iNC.www.directionsresearch.com

<RanDy BRooKs

DiReCTions ReseaRCh inC. (DRI) in Cincinnati is a privately held company founded in 1988. Ownership is held by 22 members of DRI’s senior staff.

Randy Brooks, 60, is DRI’s founder and president. He earned an M.B.A. at the University of Cincinnati.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $37.2 million, up 1.4% over 2006.

DRI is a full-service, custom research

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company that develops long-term partner-ships with its clients in which substantial responsibility for design, analysis and presentation is handled by dedicated client teams. DRI’s client service staff averages 20 years of experience.

DRI provides custom services, including many product and concept testing systems. The firm also regularly executes a wide variety of studies, including market segmen-tation, conjoint/discrete choice, awareness tracking, attitude and opinion, market structure and customer value/customer satisfaction.

DRI has a team of experienced market-ing scientists and data analysts to provide insight and value to its analyses. This typi-cally includes graphical and multivariate statistical techniques, such as conjoint, Kano, correspondence analysis, discrimi-nant, factor analysis and clustering.

The firm has extensive experience handling research for packaged goods, restaurant, retail, financial services, tech-nology and pharmaceutical companies.

Its studies are conducted among consum-ers, professionals, medical staff and other business-to-business respondents using a broad range of data collection methods. DRI partners with industry data-collection specialists who provide high-quality data at competitive prices. This approach keeps DRI focused on research design regardless of data collection methodology.

Since its introduction in 2002, DRI has been using Navigator, a product-testing norms database in which results have been compiled from a broad array of nearly 5,000 food and other consumer packaged goods tests conducted over the past 10-plus years. This tool, developed with input from the University of Georgia, provides guidance for product test research design and adjusts for the effects of common design elements on any of the frequently used scales.

DRI has built a concept testing database that provides norms for all key measures for a wide-range of business segments. The database reflects a design philosophy of “competitive context” with the inclusion of

existing products as benchmarks. It pro-vides trial potential forecasts based on the specific competition the client’s new ideas will face in the current marketplace.

DRI has placed senior client service staff in close proximity to key account clients with offices in Chicago; Charleston, S.C.; and Dallas. The firm employs a full-time staff of 120.

26phoeNiX MarKeTiNG iNTerNaTioNalwww.phoenixmi.com

<al DeCoTiis

phoenix MaRKeTinG inTeRnaTional (PMI) in Rhinebeck, N.Y., is a privately held company founded in 1999.

Allen R. DeCotiis, 55, is chairman and CEO of PMI. He earned a Ph.D. in admin-istration and statistics at Emory University. Sanford Schwartz, Ph.D., is president.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $33.5 million, up 26.5% over 2006. In 2007, $1.4 million of revenue, or 4.0%, was from outside the United States. The growth rate includes the 2006 and 2007 revenue of Johnston, Zabor, McManus Inc. acquired January 2007.

PMI is a marketing research firm that combines primary and syndicated research experience with database analytics and modeling to serve the financial services, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, automotive, travel and leisure industries. Its dedicated analytical and model groups include Phoenix Communications and Brand Analytics, List Op (response market-ing) and Multicultural Research.

The firm has eight industry research groups: financial services, automotive, afflu-ent, converged technology, multicultural, travel and leisure, health care and newly formed media research.

Among its syndicated products are Affluent Market Services, Card Performance Tracker, Small Business Credit Card Tracker, Hotel Scores, Investment Services, Advertising Metrics, Credit Card Advertising Metrics, Retail Banking Advertising Metrics, Automotive Concept X and Virtual Mailbox.

PMI has offices in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and Durham, N.C. It has a full-time staff of 137 employees.

27lieberMaN researCh Groupwww.liebermanresearch.com

<MaRK leFKoWiTZ

lieBeRMan ReseaRCh GRoup (LRG), based in Great Neck, N.Y., is a pri-vately held corporation founded in 1966.

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LRG’s chairman and CEO is Mark Lefkowitz, 64, and its president is Stephen Miller, 55. Lefkowitz earned a B.A. at City College of New York, and Miller earned a B.A. at the University of Michigan.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $30.1 million, up 28.1% from 2006.

LRG is a full-service marketing research and consulting firm specializing in strategic research, stakeholder satisfac-tion, advertising and communications tracking and tactical research among consumers, healthcare professionals and business executives. Its clients include health care, technology, banking and finance, travel, leisure, transportation, retail and food services.

The firm is a member of the International Research Alliance, a global network of 20 companies in Europe, Latin America and Asia, providing design and interviewing worldwide.

LRG is composed of specialized busi-ness units devoted to study design and analysis, data collection and data man-agement. The firm has an analytic group with expertise in market segmentation, choice modeling, predictive modeling and forecasting.

LRG’s main products include the following:

▶ Market Segmentation Research: LRG conducts strategic market segmentation among healthcare professionals, business executives, consumers and patients. It has developed services for defining global segments and tying market segmentation models back to client databases.

▶ Choice Using Simalto is a tool for trade-off analysis, which is easily under-standable and engaging to respondents. Simalto can accommodate up to 36

features, with nine options per feature. It predicts consumer preferences for both potential and existing competitive products.

▶ COMPEL is a tool for selecting the best set of messages for promotions, such as advertising, sales calls and public rela-tions. It is a choice-based system that combines measures of motivational power, uniqueness, believability and synergy to identify optimal message sets.

▶ TRACER is a communications tracking system that measures whether advertising has broken through the clutter, communicated key messages and had an effect. It provides insights into ideal media weights, more efficient media mix and sug-gestions for more creative advertising.

▶ PDA Research is a data collection technique that uses handheld computers to conduct personal interviews anywhere at anytime. Survey data are uploaded from handheld computers to the Internet, with results viewable in several hours on a secure Web page, compared with several days or weeks on paper.

The company has 76 full-time employ-ees and 450 part-time employees, with full-service offices in New York and Great Neck, N.Y. Data collection capabilities include a telephone center with 400 CATI-equipped stations with speed-dialing option and continuous interviewing in more than 20 foreign languages. Data pro-cessing capabilities include a fully staffed facility offering tabulations produced with Quantum software and panel expertise.

28iCr/iNTerNaTioNalCoMMuNiCaTioNs researChwww.icrsurvey.com

<allen KhoRaMi

inTeRnaTional CoMMuniCaTions ReseaRCh (ICR) in Media, Pa., was founded in 1983. Since 1986, it has been a subsidiary of Mount Laurel, N.J.-based AUS Inc., a pri-vately held company.

ICR’s president and CEO is Allen Khorami.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $28.8 million, down 6.5% from 2006. In 2007, 3.0% of total revenue, or $900,000, was from out-side the United States. Total research and nonresearch revenue for ICR in 2007 was $35.1 million.

ICR is a full-service market research firm specializing in designing customized methods using in-house resources, includ-ing three interviewing centers, a data center and a staff of experienced researchers. Its Advanced Research Methods group designs and executes custom research for complex business issues. These include market siz-ing and segmentation, concept and product tests, pricing, brand positioning, messag-ing, strategy and motivational research, advertising effectiveness, usage tracking, customer loyalty and satisfaction, including surveying low incidence and multicultural populations.

Industries in which ICR has experi-ence include CPG, pharmaceutical/ biotechnology, telecommunications/technology, financial services/banking/insurance, healthcare services, business to business, public opinion polling, social science research, public relations/adver-tising, utilities, media/entertainment and retailing markets.

ICR is a provider of omnibus research services, including ICR EXCEL, a twice weekly sample of 1,000 adults age 18 and older; TeenEXCEL, conducted monthly among 500 teens ages 12 to 17; and HispanicEXCEL, ICR’s monthly omnibus targeting a nationally representative sample of 1,000 Hispanics.

ICR maintains a dedicated Web portal for Internet studies.

The firm has 195 full-time employees and 359 part-time employees.

29MorpaCe iNC.www.morpace.com

<FRanCis WaRD

MoRpaCe inC., BaseD in Farmington Hills, Mich., is a privately held corporation founded in 1941.

Francis J. Ward, 62, is the chairman and CEO of Morpace, and John P. McDonald,

56, is president. Ward earned a B.A. in marketing at Wayne State University, and McDonald earned a D.B.A. at University of Kentucky.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $28.7 million, down 4.7% from 2006. In 2007, 13.6% of total revenue, or $4.5 million, was gener-ated from work conducted outside the United States.

Morpace is a practice-based full-service survey research and consulting firm with a diverse client base, broad industry experi-ence and the global capability and cultural diversity required to conduct research worldwide. The firm offers a full range of research services, including problem identification, custom research design and data collection. Data analysis and decision-focused interpretation are reported using a number of tools and approaches.

The firm is organized around seven sectors, including automotive, consumer products, financial services, health care, retail, technology and transportation.

Morpace has research experience in four key areas: market and product development, brand and communications, consumer choice, and satisfaction and loyalty. Recent introductions include:

▶ Brand Connections: Measures brand value and points the way to building it through the meeting point of customers’ needs and desires, lifestyles and cultural context, and the rational and emotional benefits a brand delivers.

B-Link: Identifies the linkages between the benefits consumers seek from a prod-uct or service and the particular product features that deliver these benefits. Understanding the linkages enhances the product development process and provides guidance for developing a marketing com-munications strategy.

▶ Price Sensitivity Modeler: This simu-lator produces expected share results in a graphical output window after entering prices for competing products. With sup-porting cost data, the modeler can reflect forecasted changes in sales volume and revenue/profitability.

Analytic and insight services are made available to vertical practices through its Advanced Analytics Team and Qualitative Methods Team. These teams develop and implement approaches such as discrete choice modeling, segmentation, database modeling and hybrid ethnographic-survey methods.

Morpace has employed the Internet for both b-to-b and b-to-c research for more than 10 years. One of its Internet capabilities is the Lighthouse Internet data collection and processing system that pro-vides development, tracking and reporting tools, and executes Internet research in virtually any language. It delivers research results, reports and databases using Web-based interactive tools.

The firm’s data processing is supported with a database system linked with software for tabulation or analytics. Data processing

systems are developed in-house and cus-tomized to serve individual client needs.

Morpace executes globally large-scale Internet, telephone, mail, IVR and cen-tral location studies using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The firm has also developed intuitive PC- and Internet-based cross-tabulation systems. In addition to

custom survey capabilities, Morpace has developed a set of tools to ensure consistent, high-value results from continuous and other tracking studies.

Morpace has 150 full-time employees in the United States. The Morpace focus group facility, newly renovated, is located in Farmington Hills, Mich.

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▶ Satisfaction DDW provides strategic and tactical solutions for strengthening customer relationships. LoyaltyBuilder highlights the issues that are essential to brand involvement and helps prioritize these issues to optimize loyalty. LoyaltyCheck monitors progress of these efforts.

▶ Market Strategy DDW comprises the tools that help identify and attract key targets. Configure pro-vides a vision for the structure, and Segmenter finds the core targets for guiding brand strategy.

Based in New York, DDW also has offices in Orlando, Fla.; Albany, N.Y.; Chicago; San Francisco; Long Beach, Calif.; and Kansas City, Kan.

The firm employs 80 full time.

32C&r researCh serviCes iNC.www.crresearch.com

<RoBBin JaKlin

C&R ReseaRCh seRviCes Inc. (C&R) in Chicago is a privately held corporation founded in 1960.

Robbin Jaklin, 48, is C&R’s president. Jaklin earned a B.S. at the University of Illinois.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $23.6 million, up 9.8% over 2006.

C&R Research is a full-service market research company specializing in both qualitative and quantita-tive research. The firm uses target-appropriate research tools, coupled with industry experience, to provide practical insights that guide business decisions.

C&R’s research specialties include consumer insights, needs assessment, segmentation, attitude and usage, concept and product development/testing, brand imagery/positioning, advertising development/evaluations and customer satisfaction tracking.

In addition to their research capabilities, C&R has a number of specialized divisions, bringing demo-graphic experience and further customization to their projects.

▶ KidzEyes and TeensEyes divisions offer expert analysis into the youth demographics. With years of youth research experience and analysts trained in childhood development, they are adept at understand-ing the youth market.

▶ MomsEyes, a natural extension of their youth divisions, offers expert insight into the world of moms (and dads). Analysts routinely navigate the complex world of moms, identifying the key variables and dif-ferences to understand and effectively communicate to this key demographic.

▶ LatinoEyes is C&R’s Latino market consultancy

division. Services include immersion courses, strategic consulting, competitive analysis, and full-service qualitative and quantitative market research. LatinoEyes has a team of dedicated professionals with understanding of both the U.S. and Latino culture and more than 15 years specializing in the Latino market.

▶ BoomerEyes focuses on what drives the boomer market and how their business can harness the pur-chasing power of boomers. Backed by segmentation, BoomerEyes has the experience to conduct effective research and interpret the findings to make intelligent and informed decisions.

▶ ShopperEyes is dedicated to bringing the retail customer experience to life. C&R has many years’ experience conducting shop-alongs, shopper inter-cepts, in-home ethnographies, video/photo journals, as well as packaging, concept and positioning work for their retail, CPG and restaurant clients—across all key channels and categories.

C&R also offers online kids, teens, moms and Latino panels, providing demographics for customized research projects. For each of these segments, they also offer a monthly omnibus.

In addition, C&R will release YouthBeat 2008, a syndicated report that offers a comprehensive and in-depth view of today’s youth based on 10,000 monthly interviews of kids, teens and tweens ages 6 to 18.

C&R has 121 full-time employees.

30MarKeTCasTwww.marketcastonline.com

<henRy shapiRo

MaRKeTCasT, BaseD in Los Angeles, was founded in 1987 and acquired in 2000 by Reed Elsevier plc in the United Kingdom, a public company.

Henry Shapiro, 44, is vice president and general manager of MarketCast. He has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $25.1 million, up 2.0% over 2006.

MarketCast is a marketing research firm servicing the global entertainment industry. The firm consults on marketing and distri-bution strategy for hundreds of movie and video releases and TV shows for a client base that includes most of the major motion picture studios, as well as selected indepen-dent studios, producers and TV networks.

MarketCast’s research services include positioning analyses, focus groups, adver-tising testing, tracking studies, recruited screenings, volumetric forecasts, A&U stud-ies, brand studies, segmentation studies and product launch studies.

The firm is experienced in the measurement of individual consumer pre-dispositions toward entertainment choices, and in translating such predispositions into predictions about future behavior on an aggregate basis. These include box office projections, volume forecasts for DVD sales, or estimates of future entertainment tech-nology penetration.

MarketCast has adapted statistical methodologies from other industries to the circumstances of the entertainment busi-ness. These methods improve the reliability of research and increase the stability of predictions made about future consumer behavior. This technology and approach form the foundation of all of MarketCast’s research services, which is applied to varied

and complex problems in the entertainment industry.

MarketCast employs 36 full time.

31DaTa DevelopMeNT WorlDWiDewww.datadw.com

<Chip lisTeR

DaTa DevelopMenT WoRlDWiDe (DDW) in New York is a privately held corporation founded in 1960 that was sold to two senior managers in 2005.

Chip Lister is managing director of DDW.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $25.0 million, up 6.8% over 2006. In 2007, $300,000 or 1.2%, was from outside the United States. The growth rate excludes 2006 and 2007 revenue of Newman-Stein Inc., which was acquired in August 2007.

DDW is a full-service custom market-ing research firm that provides a number of approaches addressing a range of devel-opment, marketing and communications issues. Each of its techniques and methods is appropriate to specific situations and related to business issues.

▶ Brand DDW addresses issues related to equity. EquityBuilder is structured to understand the value of brand(s) and the elasticity associated with core benefits and perceptions. Brands can be optimized to brand proposition and enhance competitive position. EquityCheck monitors ongoing success of these factors.

▶ Communication DDW provides techniques that help build and evaluate advertising and marketing efforts. AdEPT identifies the optimal messaging and posi-tioning platform for a brand or product, and AdvertisingCheck provides the tools to evaluate the impact of campaigns.

▶ Price DDW consists of products that navigate price as a sensitive and critical component of market success. PriceDeveloper will identify the optimal pricing strategy in a competitive con-text (for both new and existing brands). BrandVulnerability takes this a step further by looking forward and anticipating the impact of pricing strategy over time.

▶ Product DDW offers techniques that help select the optimal pathway in situations where product development and product line decisions are the focus. OptionDeveloper maximizes the impact of a new concept or identifies the best approach to product reconfiguration, and LineDeveloper provides a logical and user-friendly service to select the most powerful set of offerings.

▶ Competitive Assessment DDW pro-vides the techniques to evaluate competitive position and identifies ways to improve it. MarketCheck will ensure that a brand is on the right track by continually monitoring the landscape and evaluating its competitive relationships.

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33iNforMa researCh serviCes iNC.www.informars.com

<MiChael aDleR

inFoRMa ReseaRCh seRviCes Inc. (IRS), Calabasas, Calif., was founded in 1983 as Meyer Interest Rate survey, acquired in 1993 by BISYS Group, and then acquired again by London-based Informa plc in 2000

Michael E. Adler, 44, is president and managing director of IRS. He earned an M.B.A. from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and his J.D. from Loyola Law School.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $23.5 million, down 6.7% from 2006.

IRS is a provider of market research in the financial, retail, and travel and leisure markets, and provides daily competitive intelligence and market analysis to clients in the financial industry.

Much of IRS’s custom research experi-ence came from its acquisition of Barry Leeds & Associates in 2003 and Market Trends Inc. in 2004.

IRS’s full-service division specializes in managing the customer experience and understanding the customer point of view. Its researchers are experienced in all phases of market research: mystery shopping; customer satisfaction and loyalty; brand equity, awareness and usage; new product and usability testing; legal and match pair testing; and compliance, discrimination and misleading sales practices testing.

IRS is experienced in the use of market research to limit the risk associated with

allegations of discrimination, predatory lending and misleading sales practices. It pioneered the use of mystery shopping and matched pair testing for this purpose and developed the technique for post-applica-tion testing to detect discrimination and predatory lending.

The firm provides customer experience information by measuring their progress through a metric called CERscore, provid-ing post-transaction interviewing and a Web-based reporting product, which mea-sures and reports customer satisfaction and customer problems within 48 hours of a recent customer experience. A Web panel of more than 100,000 Informed Consumers for mystery shopping, interviewing and online surveys is maintained.

The firm has a full-time U.S. staff of 189.

34NaTioNal aNalysTs WorlDWiDewww.nationalanalysts.com

<susan MCDonalD

naTional analysTs inC. (NA) in Philadelphia was established as the market research unit of Curtis Publishing in 1911 (publisher of The Saturday Evening Post), became a separate privately owned corpo-ration in 1943 and was reorganized as an employee-owned company in 2004.

Susan Schwartz McDonald, 58, is chairman and CEO of NA. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $23.3 million, down 12.1% from 2006.

NA is a market research and consult-ing firm that addresses business issues in a wide range of industry sectors, including pharmaceuticals, information technology, financial services, package transport and consumer goods. Its depth of marketing experience in key industries, combined with customer market research capabilities, makes NA a hybrid organization, providing services ranging from problem concep-tualization to strategy development and implementation.

Types of projects routinely conducted by NA include market segmentation, opportu-nities assessment and demand forecasting, pricing, positioning and market entry strat-egy, product development, brand equity, portfolio strategy and lifecycle management. To create primary data for those assign-ments, NA conducts both qualitative and quantitative research utilizing a portfolio of data collection methodologies and ana-lytic techniques. NA’s history of innovation includes advances in statistical sampling, early development and application of focus group methodology, and work in consumer and business market segmentation.

Project leaders are supported by an in-house team of methodologists and a portfolio of modeling tools that are readily customized to address marketing problems. Its own NA-Quest Web software enables complex survey design.

The firm is widely known for its skills in building integrated forecasting models that reflect the interactions of multiple stake-holders and customers (such as health care and b-to-b marketing). Clients have access to a range of decision software supporting diverse modeling applications.

On record as the world’s oldest market-ing research entity (1911), NA is a founding member of CASRO. It employees 73 profes-sionals full time.

35serviCe MaNaGeMeNT Groupwww.servicemanagement.com

<anDy FRoMM

seRviCe ManaGeMenT GRoup (SMG), based in Kansas City, Kan., is a pri-vately held firm founded in 1990.

Andy Fromm, 40, is president and CEO of SMG. He earned a B.A. at Boston University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $22.4 million, up 22.4% over 2006. In 2007, $600,000 or 2.6%, was from outside the United States.

SMG is a full-service research firm providing store-level customer experi-ence measurement in 60,000 locations that is integrated into service improve-ment systems for multi-unit retail,

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restaurant, hospitality and service-based com-panies. The strategic model used by SMG—the Service Profit chain developed at Harvard Business School—demonstrates the linkage between customer loyalty, employee loyalty and a company’s financial performance.

SMG measures customer satisfaction and loy-alty in 44 countries and 19 languages. Most work is done in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Data collection is also conducted in Europe, Australia, Central America, the Middle East, Malaysia, India and China.

SMG provides several services and capabilities:

▶ Customer Experience Measurement: SMG enables large multi-unit companies to continu-ously monitor service levels and satisfaction in each location. Data is collected primarily via IVR and Web surveys. Customer feedback is reported on a Web-based, real-time performance dashboard that includes online analytics and service improvement tools.

▶ Employee LoyaltyPLUS Measurement: SMG measures employee loyalty plus satisfaction and com-mitment. Surveys are custom-developed by brand to reveal the strength of the relationships between the attitudes of employees and the key drivers of cus-tomer satisfaction and loyalty.

▶ Internal Customer Surveys: For multi-unit

operations, SMG measures the effectiveness of inter-nal support systems within an organization. The firm conducts internal customer surveys that measure management effectiveness and service quality deliv-ered from internal service providers.

▶ Customer Satisfaction Index Dashboard: SMG’s Web-based reporting system provides real-time access to unit-level customer feedback. Satisfaction data can be viewed by region, by unit or by specific service performance attributes. Customer survey results are continuously streamed to the CSI dash-board providing up-to-the minute data on key customer metrics. The dashboard can also integrate data not collected by SMG.

▶ Chain Store Industry Normative Data: SMG maintains databases of comparative data in retail and restaurant industry segments. Its clients receive performance comparisons based on common service attributes.

In 2007, SMG expanded its international capabil-ities by 80%, adding 20 countries and eight languages. In 2008, the firm will host its 10th Annual Service Management Forum, where senior-level executives from the multi-unit environment will gather to learn, network and exchange ideas and solutions.

The firm has offices in Kansas City, Kan.; Los Angeles; Denver; and London. There are 134 full-time employees.

36MarKeT probe iNC.www.marketprobe.com

<T.R. Rao

MaRKeT pRoBe inC. (MPI) in Milwaukee is a privately held company founded in 1976.

MPI’s founder and president is T.R. Rao, 67. He earned a Ph.D. in marketing at Michigan State University.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $21.7 million, down 3.6% over 2006. In 2007, 47.6% of total revenue, or $19.7 million, was from outside the United States. The growth rate excludes 2006 and 2007 revenue from the U.S. acquisitions of Rowin Group Inc. in March 2006 and Marketing Horizons Inc. in January 2006.

MPI is a full-service global marketing research and consulting firm specializing in stakeholder measure-ment engagements as well as a wide array of custom research techniques.

MPI companies span North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, with a China acquisition to be announced shortly. Its U.S. operations are grouped into client service divisions: agricultural, auto and manufacturing, banking, health care, pharmaceutical, service and telecommunications as well as employee satisfaction research, which directs employee

commitment research. These divisions pro-vide full-service research as well as consult with MPI’s international offices. There are also three support divisions: Research and Development, Data Acquisition Services and Information Technology.

The firm’s services include customer satisfaction and loyalty research, employee equity research, brand management and tracking, new product development and custom research and consulting services.

Its consultative work provides customer satisfaction measurement that includes interpreting results and determining stra-tegic implications of customer feedback. MPI also provides statistical modeling and data mining. Special customer satisfaction research audit services are offered to new clients interested in testing MPI’s mod-els and techniques in their current CSM programs.

MPI’s research portfolio focuses on customers (CSM, customer loyalty manage-ment solutions, benchmarking programs), employees (employee satisfaction metrics, employee commitment programs, HR applications and consultations) and brands (brand health management, market seg-mentation, new product development), also with related research in product quality and distributor/dealer strategic relationships.

MPI contributes to the research industry’s knowledge base through the publication of articles and books, includ-ing Analysis of Customer Satisfaction Data, Linking Customer and Employee Satisfaction to the Bottom Line, and Managing the Customer Experience. Its Rx models (Loyalty Rx, Brand Rx and Equity Rx) provide the means to set goals and take into account costs of improvements in different key areas. Its Rx Optimizer has been developed to help clients test what-if scenarios.

The firm’s Web Reporter is a survey analysis tool that explores client data in near real time. Customized reports are cre-ated and exported to PowerPoint or Excel. WR creates many standard tabular, graphi-cal and text-based reports that can utilize powerful sorting and filtering mechanisms. Text-based filters include exact and pho-netic matches, allowing easy detection of patterns within the data.

In January 2007, MPI acquired Ask Business Marketing Intelligence NV, based in Brussels, Belgium, which specializes in agricultural research and b-to-b research.

MPI operates more than 500 in-house CATI stations among its call centers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Singapore. It maintains strong part-nerships with field agencies throughout the world to expand the services they can provide.

There are eight company offices in the United States and subsidiary offices in Toronto, London, Brussels, Paris, Dubai, Singapore and Shanghai. MP India has offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.

The firm employs 270 full-time employees worldwide, including 115 in the United States, and as many as 1,000 part-time employees.

37hiTWisewww.hitwise.com

<ChRis MaheR

hiTWise, BaseD in New York, is a privately held firm founded in 1997 and was

acquired in April 2007 by Experian Group Ltd., a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The president of Hitwise is Chris Maher, 40. Maher earned an M.A. at Boston College.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $21.6 million, up 50.0% over 2006. In 2007, 56.7% of total revenue, or $28.3 million, was from outside the United States.

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Hitwise is one of the world’s leading online competitive intelligence services that provides insights on how 25 million Internet users worldwide interact with a more than one million Web sites across more than 160 industries. This volume of Internet usage data is integrated into a Web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs. The firm’s methodol-ogy is independently audited on an annual basis.

Hitwise has developed a network-based approach to Internet measurement through relationships with ISPs around the world. Its patented methodology anonymously cap-tures online usage, search and conversion behavior.

The firm delivers daily insights via its on-demand service that provides information on Web sites, with the following products and services:

▶ Hitwise Rankings provides an over-view of key players and Web sites across industries and custom categories.

▶ Hitwise Search Intelligence is a key-word research tool providing information on how people have searched for products and services from across all major search engines, including paid and organic search data and fast-moving search term data.

▶ Hitwise Clickstream data provides reports on the upstream traffic to and downstream traffic from a specific Web site, industry or custom category. This includes new and returning visitor data.

▶ Hitwise Industry Statistics provides an overview of trends in any of Hitwise’s 160-plus industries.

▶ Hitwise Lifestyle identifies the top-per-forming sites that attract the most desirable customers and provides data on the segments that visit client and competitors’ sites. This includes Experian’s MOSAIC data.

▶ Hitwise Conversions are customized reports that provide detailed information on how customers interact with specific sec-tions on competitive Web sites, and which customer acquisition tactics have proven to be most successful.

▶ Hitwise Demographics define a Web site’s user base by key demographics includ-ing age, gender and geographic location.

▶ Hitwise Charting creates customized charts detailing how Web sites, industry categories or search terms perform against each other.

▶ Hitwise Custom Reports include all data available within the Hitwise service that can be specially configured to meet business reporting needs.

▶ Hitwise University is an on-demand training and education resource for all Hitwise clients.

In 2007, the firm launched three services: Paid and Organic Search Tools, New and Returning Visitors Data and MOSAIC Consumer Segmentation System.

Hitwise has 75 full-time U.S. employees and 263 worldwide in offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

38WalKer iNforMaTioNwww.walkerinfo.com

<sTeven WalKeR

WalKeR inFoRMaTion (Wi), based in Indianapolis, is a privately held corporation founded in 1939.

WI’s president and CEO is Steven F. Walker, 50. Walker earned a B.S. in business and accounting from Boston University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $21.2 million, up 10.4% over 2006. In 2007, 16.9% of total revenue, or $4.3 million, was from outside the United States.

WI specializes in customer loyalty and related customer strategies, including inno-vative approaches to segmenting, valuing, obtaining, serving and retaining customers.

Combining consulting and technology with predictive and validated research science and models, WI offers a wide range of prod-ucts and services, including Walker’s CLM software—the Walker SmartLoyalty System—which provides services to leverage customer feedback throughout the enterprise.

In 2007, its Walker Loyalty Report program produced three reports of cus-tomer loyalty studies—wireless service providers and handsets, the semiconductor industry and the information technology industry—as well as one report of employee loyalty in the workplace. These reports pro-vide deep understanding of customer and employee issues, provide unique informa-tion and serve as a snapshot for industries to understand the importance of customer-focused strategies.

Also in 2007, WI conducted two client forums offering environments to interact, share and learn the latest best practices in CLM. To complement these forums, the firm also conducted 13 Customer Strategy Forums—small-group sessions for noncli-ent companies committed to improving their relationships with customers by seeking solutions to their most common customer challenges.

For 2008, the firm plans to continue with 18 Customer Strategy Forums in major U.S. and European cities, and conduct three customer-focused Walker Loyalty Reports focusing on medical devices, semicon-ductors and the information technology industry.

WI founded and leads the Walker Global Network, an alliance of 15 compa-nies around the world that certify in and distribute WI’s techniques. The firm has 180 full-time employees and 111 part-time employees at offices in the United States and Toronto. WI operates two call centers and two focus group research sites.

39Ks&r iNC.www.ksrinc.com

<vinCenT CaMa

Ks&R inC., BaseD in Syracuse, N.Y., is a privately held company founded in 1983.

Vincent Cama is CEO, and Rita L. Reicher is presi-dent of KS&R. Cama, 63, earned a Ph.D. in sociology at Syracuse University.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $17.1 million, down 9.5% from 2006. In 2007, $3.9 million or 18.6% of total rev-enue was from outside the United States.

KS&R’s customized, multidisciplinary, marketing research and consulting services facilitate accuracy in client understanding and decision-making. KS&R capabilities include service/product concept testing and development; market opportunity sizing and segmenta-tion; brand/customer loyalty assessment and analysis; business retention/attraction predictive modeling;

advertising testing and measurement; channel and part-ner strategy, and pricing/buyer behavior research.

The firm specializes in global b-to-b research across industry segments, including information technology, telecommunications, transportation, utilities, health care and financial services. KS&R also has extensive experience in consumer markets, especially related to technology interface and the retail environment.

Dedicated teams conduct projects from concep-tion to completion. The majority of KS&R staff are experienced both as buyers and providers of research, and the average senior staff member has 10 to 25 years of experience. The firm is not limited by geographic, cultural or language barriers, delivering surveying, translation, measurement, modeling and presentation worldwide. In 2008, the firm launched a best-practices speakers bureau to enable heightened transfer of expertise and service.

KS&R owns and operates INSITE, a 110-seat con-tact center; a unified, global, data collection and partner network; and Centers of Excellence in qualitative and quantitative research. The firm employs 198 full time

and has offices in New York; Atlanta; Memphis, Tenn.; Seattle; and Frankfurt, Germany.

40belloMy researCh iNC.www.bellomyresearch.com

<sCoTT layne

BelloMy ReseaRCh inC. (BRI), based in Winston-Salem, N.C., is a privately held company founded in 1976.

John Sessions, 45, is chairman, and Scott Layne, 47, is president. Sessions earned an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University and Layne an A.S. in computer sci-ence from Winsalm College.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $16.7 million, up 14.4% over 2006.

BRI is a full-service marketing research firm with a

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dedicated team of consultants focusing on responding to client needs, expanding their own intellectual capacity and working as an extension of their clients’ staff. BRI’s clients span a wide array of industries including automotive, CPG, health care, telecommu-nications, utilities, retail, finance and textile/apparel. BRI conducts research among both b-to-b and consumer segments.

The firm employs a three-pronged strat-egy building on core competencies:

▶ Knowledge: This is derived from the combination of cross-category experience, understanding of how business is conducted in corporate America and seasoned research skills. Its consultants have on average 20 years of client-side and/or vendor-side mar-keting research experience.

▶ Science: This is incorporated into the research process through the use of experimental design and advanced analyti-cal techniques. Its Marketing Sciences staff has advanced degrees in statistics, with the department head having nearly 30 years of client-side experience. Analytic approaches that address business issues include short-term satisfaction and long-term loyalty tracking, market segmentation, concept development, product optimization and price elasticity among other research needs.

▶ Technology: BRI encompasses the design and development of software and tools that enhance its ability to gather and report information. SmartIDEAS is a modular component architecture using a proprietary integrated platform that can adapt to customized survey development, sample management, data collection across any medium (including phone, Internet, CLT, mail), panel management,

table generation/data processing and online reporting.

The SmartIDEAS platform supports a 300 CATI-station inbound/outbound telephone center, a nationwide network consisting of more than 75 central loca-tion testing facilities and a sample strategy that reaches more than 30 million online panelists.

In 2007, BRI moved its corporate head-quarters to a new 30,000-square-foot office building in Winston Salem, N.C., which also includes a fully equipped focus group facility.

BRI employs 95 full time.

41MarKeTvisioN researCh iNC.www.marketvisionresearch.com

<John pinnell

MaRKeTvision ReseaRCh inC. (MVR), based in Cincinnati, is a private company founded in 1982.

Donald G. McMullen is the chairman of MVR, and Jon Pinnell is its president. Pinnell earned an M.B.A. at the University of Texas at Austin.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $16.4 million, up 10.1% over 2006.

MVR is a full-service, custom market-ing research company, with a focus on product-based research, including prod-uct development, pricing, branding and segmentation in both the consumer and business sectors. The company invests significantly in its research-on-research

program, particularly in the area of quan-titative research design and analysis. MVR works across industry groups.

Its capabilities include:

▶ Advanced Analytical: MVR’s Marketing Sciences group blends technical skills with creative approaches to deliver insights into clients’ businesses. It is espe-cially skilled in discrete choice and conjoint techniques.

▶ Viewpoint Forum: The firm’s U.S. Internet panel and research platform has an average cooperation rate of 50% to 60% and 90% recovery on home-use tests. Panelists are not permitted to sign themselves up to participate in the research; rather MVR selects who is invited to participate.

▶ MarketVision/Gateway: MVR’s inter-viewing facilities are located at the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Fla., and Los Angeles. These facilities provide a national sample to conduct taste tests and other product-based research. All inter-viewing stations have high-speed Internet access, and the facility is noted for recruit-ing families, children, teens and Hispanics.

Major activities in 2007 included sig-nificantly expanded professional staff and capabilities; continued investment in a qual-itative research consulting capability; and continual investments made in research-on-research programs covering a variety of advanced research techniques, particularly in the area of discrete choice modeling.

MVR employs 80 full time and has three offices: Its main office and qualita-tive research facilities are in Cincinnati and Cleveland; client service offices are in Dallas, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia; and a research call center is in West Chester, Ohio. Data collection offices are in Orlando, Fla., and Los Angeles.

42publiC opiNioN sTraTeGieswww.pos.org

<Bill MCinTuRFF

puBliC opinion sTRaTeGies, (POS) based in Alexandria, Va., is a part-nership founded in 1991.

POS is headed by partner and co-founder, Bill McInturff, 56, who earned a B.S. at Boston University.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $15.5 million, down 48.5% from 2006.

POS is a national political and public affairs research firm that has conducted more than two million interviews with vot-ers and consumers nationally and in more than a dozen foreign countries, including 1,500-plus focus groups.

About half of POS’s research is dedi-cated to winning elections for candidates from city council to the presidential level,

and for initiatives. The American Association of Political Consultants awarded the firm “Pollster of the Year” for 2002.

The other half of the work is involved in public policy, working with industry coalitions, government entities and private companies. Research includes corporate image, community relations and crisis man-agement for local companies, Fortune 500 corporations and industry associations. Some of the industries served include airlines, energy, financial, gaming, health care, technology, hospitality, insurance, real estate, retailers, sports and stadiums, telecommunications, tourism, transportation and utilities.

A wide array of research techniques are used:

▶ Quantitative research: POS’s specialty is telephone polling using its own telephone center with more than 400 CATI-enabled data collection stations. Telephone polling includes in-depth executive interviewing, nightly tracking surveys, monthly national omnibus surveys, benchmarks and b-to-b interviewing. POS uses the Internet for targeted research purposes, including for online focus groups, Web page testing, advertis-ing testing and online surveys for companies and associations.

▶ Qualitative research: POS conducts traditional

focus groups and in-depth interviews, and uses tech-niques that blend quantitative and qualitative research, including mall intercepts and Perception Analyzer dial groups. The firm also coordinates and moderates qualitative research projects, including message and advertising testing, and logo and tag line development.

POS has offices in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and Denver, with a staff of 33 full-time employees.

43CoMpeTe iNC.www.competeinc.com

<Don MClaGan

CoMpeTe inC., BaseD in Boston, is a privately held company by management and five venture capital firms and was founded in 2000. The firm was acquired by Taylor Nelson Sofres plc in March 2008.

Don McLagan, 66, is chairman, president and CEO of Compete. McLagan earned an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $14.9 million, up 53.6% over 2006.

Compete is a Web analytics firm that combines site-centric and Web-wide metrics to provide more targeted, online marketing campaigns. The firm uses a panel of two million active users representative of the U.S. Internet population.

Its Marketing Effectiveness Intelligence and Online Channel Effectiveness services provide the earliest mea-sure of how consumers consider, buy and engage with their brands relative to rivals.

In 2007 Compete released four new products:

▶ Behavior Match, a tool that provides media buyers with information to maximize their strategic publisher and ad network investments.

▶ Ad Analyzer, a service that measures the impact of ads (the client’s own and competitors’) on consumer behavior within target customer segments.

▶ Compete Search Analytics, a Web-based service that provides search analytics on a pay-as-you-go basis.

▶ Compete Search Analytics Select, a service that targets searches within the most profitable customer segments.

Compete serves the automotive, financial services, travel, telecommunications and media industries.

In 2007, the firm ranked 164 on Deloitte’s 2007

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Technology Fast 500 and 824 on the Inc. 5,000. Compete has 100 full-time employees.

44saviTz researCh CoMpaNieswww.savitzresearch.com

<JeFFRy saviTZ

saviTZ ReseaRCh CoMpanies (SRC) in Dallas is a privately held corporation founded in 1981.

Jeffry N. Savitz is founder and president of SRC. He earned an M.S. and an M.B.A. at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $14.8 million, down 2.6% from 2006.

SRC is a full-service marketing research company whose experience includes quantitative market, product and advertising research. SRC executives all have exten-sive client-side experience.

The company offers customized models and products in customer satisfaction, benefit segmentation, brand equity, promotion evaluation, direct mail list screening, pricing and optimal line extension models. It also pro-vides Hispanic marketing consulting as well as research.

The Savitz Field and Focus division offers a network of focus group facilities in 13 major cities including,

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Columbus, Ohio, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Tampa, Fla. They facilitate in-depth interviews, taste tests, music tests, dial tests, usability tests, simulated store tests, prod-uct trial tests, ethnographic studies and mock juries.

SRC employs 50 full-time staff and offers a 50-line CATI-equipped system, complete Internet inter-viewing and data processing. The firm also provides graphical and statistical services, SPSS and other soft-ware packages.

45rDa Group iNC.www.rdagroup.com

<anThony pieTRoWsKi

RDa GRoup inC. (RDA), based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is a privately held corporation founded in 1969.

Anthony Pietrowski is founder, president and CEO.U.S. revenue in 2007 was $13.7 million, down 5.5%

from 2006. In 2007, 18.5% of total revenue, or $3.1 mil-lion, came from outside the United States.

RDA is a full-service market research and con-sulting company providing information regarding customer behaviors and attitudes to businesses in a broad range of industries including automotive,

financial services, utilities, insurance, recreational vehicle, health care, temporary staffing, housing, food and advertising.

Using quantitative and qualitative methods, RDA offers insight into product development, product qual-ity, customer profiling and statistical modeling, as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The firm employs cross-disciplinary knowledge to custom design research that meets each client’s spe-cific information needs. RDA’s research professionals are able to design research to address most any busi-ness need.

RDA uses its Quality Management System to conduct mail and telephone surveys, central location testing, Internet research, focus group research, one-on-one interviews and intercept research. Research and industry experience is complemented by database inte-gration, data mining and advanced statistical analysis.

The firm, with 97 full-time employees, addresses a variety of research needs including:

▶ Customer Satisfaction: Designing tools for ana-lyzing customer satisfaction to determine what drives satisfaction and loyalty.

▶ Product Quality: Leveraging positive product attributes, as well as identifying those aspects that hurt customer perceptions of quality.

▶ Advanced Product Research: Gathering and interpreting consumer opinion throughout the prod-uct development process, including the creation of

customer profiles, product usage profiles, concept ideation, prototype evaluations and marketplace launches.

▶ Qualitative Research: Using focus groups, one-on-ones and executive inter-views, online groups and telepanels to uncover information important to market-ing endeavors.

▶ Internet Research: Conducting online research among businesses and consumers, as well as Web site usability testing.

▶ Statistical Modeling and Consulting: Integrating data from multiple sources and transforming it into actionable, strategic insights. RDA’s statistical capabilities range from multivariate techniques to customized modeling and analysis.

▶ Six Sigma Consulting: Supporting and validating Six Sigma initiatives. RDA’s Six Sigma Black Belts consult on the use of customer voice in—and the analysis of data from—Six Sigma projects in order to mea-sure the impact of process improvement on revenue, profitability and growth.

▶ Global Research: Adapting research design, survey development, data collection, language and analytical insights to fit the local culture and conditions in both the emerging and developed markets of North America, Europe, South America and Asia Pacific.

46GoNGos researCh iNC.www.gongos.com

<John GonGos

GonGos ReseaRCh inC. (GRI), based in Auburn Hills, Mich., is a privately held company founded in 1991.

John Gongos, 47, is president and CEO of GRI. He earned an M.B.A. at the University of Cincinnati.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $13.3 million, up 24.3% over 2006.

GRO is a full-service, custom market-ing research company that specializes in research methodologies that support product development, service development, retail and marketing decision-making.

To support product and service develop-ment, GRI utilizes methods such as concept development, concept testing, voice of the customer, product testing and price/feature optimization. Its consumer immersion tech-niques provide in-store research to support a variety of initiatives for retail clients. The firm also provides a wide range of research meth-ods to support marketing decision-making, including emotional connections, segmenta-tion and positioning.

While initially focused entirely in the automotive industry, today GRI partners with

Fortune 500 companies in the powersports, consumer product, retail and services sectors, while still maintaining a strong presence in automotive.

While the majority of clients are U.S.-based, Internet methodologies are employed to conduct research globally for several clients.

A major thrust for GRI is to leverage tech-nology to gain competitive advantages. Some of the technologies that GRI has developed include real-time date collection/reporting for product testing (utilizing handheld note-books), i°Community, metacommunities, active intercept, virtual shopping and virtual focus groups.

GRI recently launched its own internal metacommunity called Consumer Village, which currently consists of more than 12,000 consumers who are used for testing new research methods, marketing and philan-thropic purposes.

Its i°Community currently has a total of eight communities in progress ranging from topics such as alternative fuels to chocolate consumption.

For 2008, the firm will continue to develop new research products by leverag-ing technology and concentrating on virtual shopping, virtual focus groups and the con-tinued development of the i°Community platforms for research.

GRI has 63 full-time employees.

47Q researCh soluTioNs iNC.www.whoisq.com

<paTTi nelson

Q ReseaRCh soluTions Inc. (QRS), based in Old Bridge, N.J., is a privately held firm founded in 1983.

The founder and CEO of QRS is Patti Nelson.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $13.0 million, up 8.3% over 2006. In 2007, 1.5% of total revenue, or $200,000, was from outside the United States.

QRS is a full-service marketing research firm that provides customized market and sensory research services.

The firm understands the product development process and establishes the best research practices, from the idea gen-eration stage through the product launch stage. QRS serves consumer packaged goods companies, food and beverage manufactur-ers, fragrance houses and pharmaceutical companies, and most studies are conducted among consumers, b-to-b professionals and physicians.

QRS was the first to create high-tech ventilation booths for consumer product

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testing. Today, each high-tech ventilation booth is equipped with dishwashers, wash-ers and dryers, kitchen sinks, microwaves and lavatory sinks to simulate home envi-ronments. QRS’s other facilities include observational household rooms, state-of-the-art test kitchens and qualitative suites.

The firm employs 77 full time.

48MarKeTiNG aNalysTs iNC.www.marketinganalysts.com

<RiChaRD seRRins

MaRKeTinG analysTs inC. (MAi), based in Charleston, S.C., is a privately held company founded in 1982.

Robert Pascale, 53, is founder and chairman of MAi, and Richard Serrins,

58, is president and CEO. Pascale earned a Ph.D. in applied research and statistics at Hofstra University, and Serrins earned a B.A. at Hofstra University.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $12.8 mil-lion, down 3.0% from 2006. In 2007, 5.9% of total revenue, or $800,000, was from outside the United States.

MAi is a full-service custom market-ing research and consulting company with 39 full-time employees that focus on four areas:

▶ MAi Consumer Packaged Goods▶ MAi Rx (medical and pharmaceutical)▶ MAi Insights (branding)▶ MAi Financial

Client engagements include both custom and strategic marketing research services. Among its product and purchasing offerings are choice modeling, concept and product testing, shelf packaging research,

product lines research (LineOpt) and volumetric modeling (VMS), and category development.

MAi’s consumer and customer research includes segmentation, target panels and tracking studies, and its communications activity consists of advertising copy research, brand personality and image identity (Brand Intelligence) and positioning studies.

The company has offices in Charlotte, N.C., and Morris Plains, N.J., in addition to its Charleston, S.C., headquarters.

49rTi MarKeT researCh & braND sTraTeGywww.rtiresearch.com

<Mel RoThsTein

RTi MaRKeT ReseaRCh & Brand Strategy, in Stamford, Conn., is a privately held company founded in 1979.

Mel Rothstein, 64, is chairman and CEO of RTi. He has a B.A. from Hunter College, City University of New York.

U.S. revenue for 2007 was $12.2 million, down 3.9% from 2006.

RTi is a marketing- and business-focused research company addressing both consumer and b-to-b issues, providing cus-tom research service across a diverse client base. Its research teams are led by company principals to deliver marketing-focused research and brand strategy services. These services are designed to align with client business objectives and brand-specific stra-tegic priorities.

While the majority of problems are solved with custom designs, RTi’s research tools provide added levels of services. Among these are:

▶ BrandStar: A facilitated, interactive strategic marketing tool used to define all aspects of a brand’s competitive position leading to better strategic and research decisions.

▶ Qualmark: A satisfaction and loyalty research program designed to help priori-tize improvement efforts by focusing on the aspects of service that have the largest impact on overall satisfaction.

▶ RTi Portfolio Manager: This provides the means for decisions regarding line extension or reduction. The model mea-sures volume opportunity rather than reach.

▶ Construction Test: A product develop-ment tool that is used to identify optimal combinations of new product or service components.

▶ ScreenPlay: After a quantitative screening of ideas, concepts or benefits, Screen Play provides an easy and powerful way to consider these multiple opportuni-ties and determines which make up the optimal set.

▶ Pathways: Using wireless audience response technology, quantitative and quali-tative research can be combined in a single

two-hour session. It also provides cost, speed and learning benefits to a client’s team.

▶ Mature Market Omnibus: A regularly scheduled omnibus study among 1,000 50- to 74-year-olds. This important demo-graphic can be reached and queried quickly and cost effectively.

RTi’s management-style presentations are carefully crafted management com-munications tools organized to address the business issue. The firm has offices in Stamford, Conn.; Iselin, N.J.; and Westerville, Ohio; and employs 43 full time.

50The liNK Groupwww.the-link-group.com

<ToM pFeil

The linK GRoup (TLG) in Atlanta, is a privately held company founded in 1994.

Tom Pfeil, 40, is co-founder and part-ner of TLG. He earned an M.B.A. from the University of Texas.

U.S. revenue in 2007 was $11.9 million, up 5.3% over 2006. In 2007, 10.5% of total revenue, or $1.4 million, was from outside the United States.

The Link Group is a full-service market research firm with services that include every aspect of study design, fielding, analy-sis and reporting, and encompass a wide range of methodologies.

The firm conducts qualitative research using focus groups, one-on-one interviews, bulletin board focus groups and mobile groups, as well as ethnographic techniques such as in-home interviews, on-site observa-tions and “on-site insights” (an ethnographic approach developed by The Link Group).

TLG quantitative offerings include Web surveys, telephone surveys, mall intercepts, mobile lab/on-site research. Also, it offers analytics such as conjoint/discrete choice, max-diffs, segmentation and latent driver analysis.

TLG’s primary industries are IT, pharmaceuticals/health care, retail and CPG, and serves both consumer and business-to-business clients, nationally and internationally. It has significant interna-tional experience, most frequently among

developed economies and international markets in Europe, Asia Pacific and South America.

The staff is divided between offices in Atlanta and Research Triangle Park in Durham, N.C. Senior managers come from a variety of industry backgrounds, and all have Fortune 100 marketing management and research experience.

The firm employs 39 full time. m