Equation Blog

Introducing AnalyticsLab

2010-05-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

A truly innovative tool to change how you use data!

Have you ever wished for a better tool for reporting and analyzing your most important research and business data?

We have, and that’s exactly why we created AnalyticsLab — an innovative, powerful online reporting and analysis tool that will change the way you use data.

Contact us at info@equationresearch.com to set up a demo and see how it works

With AnalyticsLab, you won’t have to work around the limitations of your reporting and analysis tools. We consolidate your data into a single, intuitive, online platform - taking the heavy lifting out of research reporting and data exploration.

Send or share reports with colleagues, run cross-tabs, build graphs and dashboards, stat-test and export to Excel with a single click. You can also combine research data with other critical business information (sales data, CRM, media spend, website metrics, etc.).

Mobile Web Usage Study

2009-10-27T10:15:00.001-07:00

Equation was recently commissioned by Gomez Inc to conduect a study of Mobile Internet users. We talked to over 1000 consumers who access the web using their mobile phone and the results show that their is a lot of room to improve on consumers' mobile Internet usage experience.

You can download the full report here and here are some of the key findings...

Half of mobile web users are willing to wait only 10 seconds or less for a webpage to load on their phone before giving up. Only one in five are willing to wait more than 20 seconds.
60% of mobile web users have had a problem in the past year when accessing a website on their phone and slow load time was the number one issue - experienced by almost three-quarters of those who had a problem.
Almost three quarters (73%) of mobile web users expect to complete a simple transaction like checking their bank balance in a minute or less before giving up and exiting the site.
The majority of mobile phone users expect websites to load as quickly, almost as quickly or faster on their mobile phone, compared to the computer they use at home.
More than 80% of mobile web users would access websites more often from their phone if the experience was as fast and reliable as it is at home.
More than half of mobile web users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone and more than two-thirds are unlikely to recommend the site. Two out of five would visit another company’s site that provides a similar service or content.

Equation's leap into the world of social media

2009-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

As noted in our 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study, social media is here to stay; as the large majority of brands and advertisers are currently implementing SM or planning to in the near future.

What follows is our experience entering the world of Web 2.0 and how with a little bit of luck and some great guidance, we were able to to succeed in using social media to help build the Equation brand and create some very positive buzz for the company. We hope that any companies considering a similar leap will find our story useful and maybe even a little inspiring.

Entering the world of Web 2.0 - Where to start?

The first (and probably best) step that Equation Research took when looking for a good way to use Social Media to promote our brand was to partner with someone who truly understands the space. An introduction to Christina Kerley (CK), a marketing strategist and social media specialist, helped us to think about Social Media as a way to truly engage our audience as opposed to a means to broadcast a marketing message. That distinction is key and may seem obvious until you realize just how many companies out there are simply using Social Media as another marketing ‘channel’ to distribute what really amounts to advertising. If not for CK, we may have been destined to go that route as well.

How to best engage a B2B audience?

Learning the tools of Social Media is an important, but not particularly difficult step. Anyone can start a blog, set up a Facebook page or send a tweet, but the real challenge was in finding a way to connect with our target audience. As a brand and advertising research company, we needed to find a way to start a conversation with marketers and do it in a way that created real value for them.

The solution was to put a unique twist on the Marketing Industry Trends study that Equation runs each year. In previous years, we would create the questions, field a survey among advertising and marketing professionals, analyze the results and provide the respondents with a summary at the end.

In 2009, we directly engaged the marketing community by allowing them to create the survey questions and decide on the key issues that they wanted to see answered by their peers. CK was able to facilitate this effort via her column on the marketing website www.marketingprofs.com and the feedback was outstanding! To our knowledge, this was the first time that a study was designed by and for the community it’s targeting.

The results

The community was genuinely excited about the idea and marketers embraced the crowdsourced approach to research. The focus of the questions suggested by the community was largely on Social Media and other emerging marketing tactics. From there, Equation’s job was easy – to select the questions that best represented what the community was asking and to deliver a great report when we were already assured that the audience would find the content both interesting and important.

After releasing the results exclusively to the MarketingProfs readers who created the questions, it was truly wonderful to see the study take on a life of its own. Apart from a press release , a blog post and a few tweets, Equation was best served by staying out of the way as marketers and readers shared the study with their peers, colleagues and friends using a variety of social networking tools.

The study results (along with some very positive mentions of Equation) appeared in numerous articles and dozens of marketing industry blog posts, including some of the most well-read Social Media blogs. Equation also created a landing page where anyone interested in the study could go to download the report and give their permission to be contacted by Equation – on an ongoing basis or for an immediate research need.

Overall the effort was a tremendous brand building success for Equation, resulting in hundreds of fresh connections in our target market as well as some great immediate new business prospects. And, some kind words from CK:

“Through their community-directed research study, Equation’s approach to engaging online audiences provides a prime example (and best practice) for all companies entering the Social Web. Equation Research involved the community at the outset of the project and then created a thorough set of data and findings that community members could use to improve their own work. Equation’s research work is impressive… and their marketing practices equally so.”
--Christina “CK” Kerley

2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study

2009-08-12T10:33:00.000-07:00

Equation Research Presents a Marketing Industry Trends Study Created By, and For, Marketers

The 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study is unique in that Equation opened up survey development to the Marketing Community - drawing the survey questions directly from marketers.

The feedback was outstanding - spurring diverse and thoughtful questions. Over 1,450 marketers representing clients (brands), agencies, consultants and non-profits responded to the survey.

And while the crowdsourced approach to research may in fact be the most ground-breaking aspect of all, the study delivers important findings that confirm the growing significance (and momentum) of social media and digital marketing tactics. Some of the key findings include:

Social media adoption rates - The adoption of social media is well past critical mass--with nearly two thirds of brand marketers (59%) currently implementing social media in their marketing plans.
Tools and platforms - Facebook, Twitter, online video and blogs are the 4 most popular social media tools. Yet none of these are being used in isolation--on average, there are 5 to 7 other social media tools being either actively used or dabbled with by marketers at the same time.
Current marketing spend - While traditional media channels account for the largest proportion of marketing spend; Online, Search and Social Media as a group are approximately a third of all current spend. For smaller companies this increased to over 40%.
Forecasts in spending - Looking towards 2010, brand marketers forecast a shift in spend towards digital tactics, feeling the areas most likely to increase will be Social Media (60%), Online Advertising (53%), Search Engine Advertising (49%) and Email Marketing (41%).
Mobile marketing - While current adoption of Mobile Marketing is low (only 11% of brand and agency marketers had it as a line item), there is interest in experimentation.
Uses of market research - Online ad testing is the type of research most likely to increase in the near future, with a third of marketers planning to spend more in this area.

For additional information and to download a copy of the 2009 Marketing Industry Trends Study, please click here

Making a difference for Myrtle Beach

2009-07-16T09:33:00.000-07:00

We spend a lot of time thinking about ways to make research truly actionable and how insights can make a real-world impact on a client’s business. And while much of the work we do provides important information and guidance, it’s not every day that we can see (and quantify) the direct economic results of research -- as was the case in a recent project for Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach, like most U.S. tourist destinations, has been affected by the economic downturn and as a result of state budget cuts, their tourism funding budget was reduced this year from $18 million to about $5 million. That cut severely limited the ability to advertise to the tourist market within driving distance of Myrtle Beach, putting the destination at a distinct competitive disadvantage.

That’s where Equation came in. Earlier this year, we were asked to conduct a study to gauge the economic impact of tourism in Myrtle Beach. The goal of the research was to quantify tourism activity/behaviors in order to project what that meant in terms of actual revenue produced by the Myrtle Beach area.

The results were eye opening to say the least. Referencing the data from our study, a leading local economist concluded that if the economy caused consumers to spend 10% less in 2009, Myrtle Beach’s tourism business could lose 7,000 jobs and about $400 million in local business revenue.

This finding emboldened local politicians to go to the state capitol and fight for additional tourism funding, to be derived from a 1% increase in consumer taxes. Long story short, the state agreed and moved quickly to put the tax increase into effect. As a result, the new tax would raise an estimated $15 million or more for tourism efforts for Myrtle Beach and lenders became willing to immediately fund MB’s marketing efforts against the projected tax revenues. Now that is making a difference!

A key recommendation in this case that Myrtle Beach took to heart and something we’ve seen consistently across different clients and industries is that the best time (and some here at Equation might argue, the only time) to gain market share vs. competitors is in a down market. When times are good, everyone is marketing, client attrition is low and market share is unlikely to change drastically. However, when the broader economy or specific events in a given category cause the players to hunker down, cut budgets and avoid risks - THAT is the time for a brand to go on the offensive to increase market share.

So while the economic turmoil of 2009 poses huge challenges and hurdles for many companies, it also provides an even greater opportunity for those willing, able and smart enough to take the risk of actively pursuing a greater piece of their market.

The real originators of social networking?

2009-05-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

Maybe not, but I think Coleman is on the money with this new campaign.

Great idea and they were able to pull off the message that Coleman invented social networking without coming off as arrogant. This works for Coleman mostly because they are staying true to what the brand really stands for and what it means to people. It’s also nice that their core products don’t get lost in the mix.

The old looking footage (real or not) and tongue in cheek tone help make the ads feel down to earth. On the other hand, I could easily see another brand trying a similar creative idea (alcohol/spirits come to mind) and coming across as egotistical or over the top. Just kind of feels right coming from Coleman.

There are lots of cool ways that they can and are starting to take this idea further. The iPhone apps are a terrific start – lantern and campfire story apps are fun and make sense coming from Coleman. The Facebook group is also a nice way to bring camping enthusiasts together while at the same time tying things back to the brand. Where else could they extend the idea?

A lot of brands are trying to figure out how to join the social media conversation. In an effort not to be left out, it’s easy to run with a “Just do something!” mentality, but misguided attempts can easily do more harm to a brand than just staying on the sidelines. It’s easy to spot a fake and consumers are a lot smarter than many advertisers give them credit. Nice to see a brand doing things in a thoughtful way, and from a credible position.

Research for marketers, by marketers

2009-05-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since our last post, but an exciting new project we’re working on seemed like the perfect excuse to get back in the game. With a good deal of help and inspiration from our friend Paul Soldera, we’re about to launch a first of its kind study (to our knowledge at least) designed by and for the marketing community.

Paul was able to hook Equation up with CK (Christina Kerley) who was drawn to the idea of developing a survey on industry trends with input directly from the marketing community. We’re very excited to be involved and CK has been absolutely great to collaborate with. She was able to help make this happen both through her own site and also via her blog on Marketing Profs.

CK explains the idea much more eloquently here but in short, we’re opening up the floor to questions from the marketing community for a survey to be sent to over 50,000 marketing and advertising professionals. The feedback has been great – quite diverse and very thoughtful questions including lots of good ones around social media and new ways of connecting with consumers.

We’re now in the (happily tough) process of picking ten questions that best reflect what resonated most with the community. These questions will be the focus of our annual Market Trends survey which we do to keep a pulse on what’s happening in the marketing and research world. Once the results are in, CK and her readers will get access to the information before it’s available anywhere else (it’s their data after all!)

As for Equation, we’re thrilled to facilitate this and to be part of a new way to think about research. Huge thanks to Paul, CK, Marketing Profs and especially the community for posing some great questions. We look forward to seeing the results and hopefully, making this an annual tradition.

Stay tuned!

Value Meal Marketing Invaluable for Restaurants

2008-11-03T21:19:00.000-08:00

Check out the great article by Kenneth Kein (khein@brandweek.com)

Subway's $5 Footlong, McDonald's Dollar Menu and Outback's $9.99 "Steak the way you crave it" are among the deals that are keeping the restaurant industry in the black, per a new report from the NPD Group.

Total restaurant industry traffic is up 1% for the quarter ended Aug. 2008, per NPD, Chicago. The modest gain is being drive entirely by meal deals, per the report.

"More so than we've seen in many years, consumers are looking for savings and ways to stretch their dollar," said Bonnie Riggs, restaurant industry analyst at NPD. Nearly a quarter (23%) of all restaurant visits were prompted by price discounts. This was up from 9% the year prior. Non-deal restaurant traffic was down 1%.

Subway's $5 Footlong, launched in March, has helped spur significant growth in sales and traffic for the world's largest restaurant franchise. "Our research shows that consumers' expectations of what is an affordable price have shifted as first gas prices skyrocketed and then the economy moved toward recession which caused consumer confidence to plummet to all time low levels," said Jeff Moody, CEO Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust. "Consumers are looking, more than ever, for high quality food at reasonable prices and our freshly made in front of you $5 Footlongs are fulfill that need perfectly."

While Subway and McDonald's continue to do well in lean economic times, others are suffering mightily. In fact, Ron Paul, president of the food-service consultancy Technomic, thinks the NPD findings may be a bit too rosy. "I'm not sure restaurants are in the black," Paul said. "Public companies are reporting negative same store sales almost universally. I have no reason to think the independents are faring any better."

Regardless, value menus help stop the hemorrhaging, Paul said. "Absolutely we've seen this work in the past. That's no surprise. In past recessions, combo meals have always become important. Whether it's given them a lift to offset these other forces, I'm skeptical."

Either way, price discounts have become "the cost of doing business," said Arjun Sen, president, Restaurant Marketing Group, Centennial, Colo. "In the short-term it helps brand. You want make sure traffic continues because it may be more expensive to get them back later on."

McDonald's Launches Mobile Promotion for the McRib

2008-11-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

By Elaine Wong (elaine.wong@brandweek.com)

McDonald's this week is bringing back the McRib and has partnered with Myxer, a hyper-targeting ad service, to market the seasonal pork sandwich to mobile phone users.

A promotion for the McRib, which has been offered by the restaurant chain for limited periods since the 1980s, will run regionally through January in cities including Dallas, Austin, Texas, Salt Lake City and Durham, N.C. McDonald's is spreading the word via ads that invite consumers to text the word "MCRIB" to 69937 to get free mobile content, such as ringtones and wallpapers touting the McRib. Moroch, Dallas, handles the regional account and reached out to Myxer for the mobile platform.

Unlike traditional media like TV or print, the promotion targets consumers ages 18-34. Myxer's Bullseye platform allows McDonald's to narrow the demographic down by gender, age, music genre and mobile preferences. As the platform is entirely mobile, 65% of visitors to the site are between the ages of 15 and 28, said Myxer's vp-marketing Steve Spiro.

"With mobile, the audience demographic tends to skew younger," said Spiro, adding that Moroch tapped the company because they "liked the concept of being able to take their brand with them."

Shawn Gurn, new media director at Moroch, said the McRib sandwich was chosen for the campaign because "it has a cult following." In November 2005, the chain kicked off a viral marketing ploy by announcing that the McRib would be removed from the menu. The sandwich went through two subsequent "farewell tours" and is currently sold in select states. Gurn said the company was trying to leverage this "farewell" buzz in the latest marketing effort.

YouTube ad strategy under threat as Viacom brings $1bn lawsuit

2008-05-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

by Gareth Jones Marketing 28-May-08, 08:30
LONDON - YouTube's fledgling video advertising service could face 'certain death' should
Viacom successfully sue parent company Google for copyright infringement, according to
experts. Media conglomerate Viacom has brought a $1bn lawsuit against YouTube that, if successful, could scupper the video-sharing site's commercial strategy, which is currently being rolled out globally. Google has outlined plans to recoup the £880m it paid to acquire YouTube by allowing brand-owners to run ads around videos on the site. The service is currently limited to clips from partners, including Universal Pictures, NBC and EMI, but YouTube is widely expected to extend the model to user footage, 10 hours of which is uploaded to the site every hour.However, YouTube may be forced to remove hundreds of millions of clips from its site
if US courts side with Viacom in what could be a landmark case. Analysts believe that this would have a 'serious impact' on YouTube's ability to generate revenue from advertisers keen to tap into its huge global user-base.

'Restricting the amount of video content on YouTube will mean certain death for its commercial model,' said Jim Clark, senior technology analyst at Mintel. Google claims that the suit, which centres on 150,000 'unauthorised' clips, could threaten the free exchange of information via the internet.

Pop Culture Pulls in Major Bucks

2008-04-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

By David Lieberman, USA TODAY

Entertainment and sports heroes had only a so-so year in 2007 if you look at traditional
yardsticks such as sales of tickets and discs.

But their appeal as pop culture icons was stronger than ever, judging by sales of clothing, book bags, games, toys, food packaging and other goods emblazoned with licensed names and likenesses.

CHART: List of the top 100 licensing companies

Popular characters and brands including Hannah Montana, Calvin Klein and the New York Yankees helped drive global spending on licensed merchandise up 3.6% last year to $187 billion, according to trade magazine License Global and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The emerging markets and middle classes in Eastern Europe, China and India want our brands in entertainment, lifestyle, fashion and sports," says Steven Ekstract, the magazine's publisher. That's one reason he expects sales this year to hit $200 billion, even if the U.S. economy remains in a slump. Another reason: When money is tight, people take comfort in familiar and trusted names.

He and others also are optimistic that kids attending this summer's popcorn movies — including Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Kung Fu Panda, The Incredible Hulk and Wall-E — will walk out wanting related toys and clothes.

About 44% of cash spent on licensed merchandise in 2006 went for goods linked to entertainment characters, most from movies and television, says the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers' Association (LIMA).

Manufacturers and retailers take a leap of faith when they make and stock products based on entertainment characters. These commitments often must be made a year in advance.

Sometimes, promising films misfire.

For example, sales last year tied to The Golden Compass and Bee Movie "turned out to be somewhat disappointing," says Michael Stone, CEO of licensing consulting firm The Beanstalk Group. Movie-related sales "were primarily driven by evergreen and franchise properties. There wasn't a big new merchandising success."

Still, Disney reinforced its No. 1 position on the License Global company list with a string of successes including Hannah Montana (the TV show with singer Miley Cyrus as the title character), its made-for-TV High School Musical franchise and characters promoted in its Disney Princesses merchandise lines.

"Most entertainment is here today and gone tomorrow," Ekstract says. "Disney creates brands. And they tapped into the zeitgeist of the tween girl marketplace."

If a movie's big enough, it can sell merchandise even when it isn't in theaters. This year, Star Wars fans who own a Nintendo Wii can imagine themselves to be Jedi knights with a game controller shaped like the movie's famous light sabers.

Adults also often take comfort in products with familiar names — which is why several non-entertainment corporations are entering the fray.

"They're taking their brand names that consumers already know and trust, and licensing them into related but not competing product categories," says LIMA President Charles Riotto. "That creates a very nice revenue stream."

For example, Stone says he's helping Purina put its name on pet products, including leashes, collars and toys. Samsonite's brand will go on travel-related items such as diaper bags and electronic equipment. Vespa's looking to become a symbol for Italian design in apparel, footwear and espresso machines. Food companies also want to grow into pop icons. Popsicle has a line of candies, Burger King is putting its name on chips, and Hawaiian Punch is on fruit snacks. Aquafina is licensing a cosmetics line. Starburst candy will be on T-shirts.

The public's craving for good taste goes beyond food: In June, many artists will flock to the Licensing International Expo in New York looking for deals to put their names on lines of merchandise, including wall coverings, bedding and furniture.

"The show has been more responsible for this boom in licensed art than anything," Riotto says. "Ten or 12 years ago, we had maybe a dozen artists exhibiting. Now, there's well over 100 — maybe closer to 200."

Study: Marketers Stink When It Comes to CRM

2008-04-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

April 13, 2008

By Kenneth Hein (BrandWeek)

Marketers, who spend millions to gain data about their customers, generally fail to use it properly, per a new CMO Council study.

Only 16% of companies rate themselves as effective or extremely good when it comes to customer relationship management. Forty-five percent said they are deficient or need more work at integrating and leveraging customer data gleaned from customer relationship management software.

The report polled 450-plus marketers globally. The New York-based CMO Council teamed with Computer Sciences Corp., IBM Software and Dun & Bradstreet to conduct the research.

"There is a lack of focus as to how to optimize revenue from existing customers," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "In a year of economic restraints, marketers should be more concerned with cross-selling and upselling."

Too often marketers are enamored with chasing new conquests, said Loreen Babcock, CEO of direct/relationship marketing agency Unit 7, New York. "Let's be honest. It's sexier to bring new customers in, but that whole marketing model is broken because there is no accountability."

Only half of the marketers said they have a strategy in place for further penetrating and monetizing key relationships. Not surprisingly, nearly a third of respondents (31%) reported customer churn rates of more than 10%. Roughly another third (32%) reported turnover of 5-10%. Two thirds said they have no system in place for reactivating lost or dormant customers.

Nortel has made great strides in improving its CRM efforts, said Heidi Lanford, its global leader for marketing analytics. "We've formed more of a partnership with our customers. They help us innovate faster by helping us target what their needs are. Leveraging the customers we have is critical to us."

Still, like many companies, Nortel has difficulties with data collection. "Since we're a business-to-business company we struggle to get data from our channel partners that gives us a true view of the customer," said Lanford.

Integrating a wide variety of siloed data sources across often inadequate IT systems is a challenge for many companies, said Alexander Black, senior partner of the strategic services group at CSC, an IT services company based in Falls Church, Va. "There can be as many as 20 to 25 different sources of data."

Wealth management companies like Charles Schwab and Fidelity are the best at CRM "because they have the biggest risk if they lose their wealthy customers," said Black. Internet retailers like eBay and Amazon are also tops because "they started with a clean slate. They don't have the heritage of all those legacy systems."

For many, however, "the landscape is a mess in terms of how data sources are linked," said Babcock. As a result, 31% of respondents said they don't do any data mining at all. In the end, the number of respondents claiming to have an excellent knowledge of their customers when it comes to demographic, behavioral, psychographic and transactional data: only 6%.

Online Adspend set to overtake TV in 2009

2008-04-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

(Brand Republic)
Online advertising revenues will overtake traditional television ad revenues by 2009, as internet adspend jumped 38% last year, according to a report by the Internet Advertising Bureau.

The IAB said that faster broadband speeds and greater ownership of laptops propelled internet advertising spending by 38% on a like-for-like basis last year to £2.8bn, taking its market share to 15.3%, up from 11.4% in 2006.

That represented a slowdown from 41% growth in 2006 and 66% in 2005, but it beat the IAB's forecasts of 35%.

The internet, which is now the biggest medium behind TV and press display advertising, is expected to sidestep the downturn in other media to overtake TV advertising revenues next year, the report said.

Guy Phillipson, chief executive of the IAB, said: "To grow 38% from £2bn to £2.8bn is a very powerful performance.

"It's clear marketing directors now recognise the value of online to drive their business and more and more are using rich media and video to build their brands, just as they do on TV."

The increasing popularity of social networking websites, the availability of cheap laptops, wireless connectivity and TV on demand, such as Channel 4's 4oD, were also cited as key drivers behind growth last year.

PAUL SOLDERA - INSIGHT BY DESIGN

2008-02-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

Below is a link to Paul Soldera's blog called Insight By Design (http://insightbydesign.blogspot.com). Paul worked for a large "boutique" marketing research and consulting firm in NYC up until a few months ago. He's a really bright guy and his blog has lots of great information. Check it out.

UPCOMING BLOG CONFERENCE

2008-02-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

Below is some info on a blog conference in NYC on April 4^th-5^th , it's $350 registration, see CK's blog entry for more information (http://www.ck-blog.com/cks_blog/2008/01/for-a-whale-of.html), she is the person organizing it. You're invited if you have a blog!

2007 Market Trends Report

2008-01-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

2007 Market Research Trends:

Increased Demand for

Market Research and Metrics

Abstract

The advertising and marketing industries are changing because of increasing demands for metrics and accountability, yet many agencies and brands continue marketing practices that yield no quantifiable results. In response to this, demand for market research, both traditional and progressive, is increasing, and both agencies and brands recognize its relevance as a component of a complete marketing mix. This report focuses not on the causes for the change in the advertising agency but rather its effects, namely the demand for market research. It also examines the most used forms of market research, the reasons for market research, the efficacy of it and the source of demand.

Key findings examined in this report include:

> Companies are shifting their preferences and budgets away from traditional advertising and toward integrated marketing programs.

> Online surveys are currently the market research tool of choice for both agencies and brands; 80 percent of respondents utilize online surveys with relative frequency, and 41 percent indicate they utilize online surveys often.

> While both agencies and brands feel that clients are more likely to drive demand, brands’ belief that clients drive demand is more pronounced.

> Fifty-four percent of agency respondents view market research as an expense rather than revenue.

> The overwhelming majority of our survey participants agree that there are no practical barriers to market research.

These findings are based on the “Market Research Trends” survey conducted by Equation Research in Q4, 2006 and Q1, 2007.

If you would like a copy of the report let me know, bstone@equationresearch.com