April 2007 GMI Newsletter

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Welcome to the April 2007 edition of our newsletter.

GMI strikes global panel partnership with Synovate

Earlier this month, GMI and Synovate announced their worldwide panel partnership, providing Synovate with access to GMI's six million panellists around the globe. The global market research arm of Aegis Group plc employs over 5,700 staff in 118 cities across 52 countries. Combined with its existing ViewsNet panels, Synovate is now able to offer panel research in more than 50 markets.

Synovate global CEO Adrian Chedore said: "GMI will provide us with consumer and specialty panels at the best possible rates, so clients can benefit from our ability to control costs by not building proprietary panels in markets with lower frequency of use. Along with the assured sample quality that is a hallmark of Synovate and GMI's services, this moves our global panel offerings to the next level."

Chedore noted that Synovate is a major investor in this methodology: "We were one of the early pioneers, converting our mail panel to online as early as 2001. We will continue to invest in our own ViewsNet panels and our online expertise. Until now, however, many global research groups have attempted to follow the old model of access panels whereby each company attempts to 'own' their respondents, claiming panel size or response rates as competitive advantages. But the Internet is not about ownership - it's about free access." 

"Our strategic partnership with GMI is designed to provide our clients with the best possible sample of online respondents at the best possible price and speed. The parts of the process we want to 'own' are the skill sets, best practice and intellectual property that ensure we provide the best possible research and insight from all sources of data," concludes Chedore.

• View GMI's Global Panel Book
• Read full press release
• About Synovate
• Request a panel quote
• Looking for a strategic panel partner? Contact us

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New GMI youth panel: Teenage girls

GMI continually recruits for its youth panel to provide customers with increased access to quality data on the youth market. Now you can rely on a new specialty sub-panel of teenage girls, ages 13 through 17, around the globe. Need insights on apparel, jewellery, music, trends and more? This panel consists of 128,000 active respondents and continues to grow with various quality partners.

Our youth panelists participate in weekly online polls, and can access online video games as well. Our innovative incentives and web community provide a high level of panelist engagement, resulting in high response rates for your market studies.

We carefully protect the quality of our Youth Panel to ensure high-integrity sample. All of our youth panelists are double opted-in and profiled with numerous attributes. GMI is also compliant with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and the Children's Advertising Review Unit. Now you can tap into global teenage knowledge to empower your business.

• Download GMI's Specialty Panel Book
• Submit an RFP
• About our Youth Panel

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Panel Spotlight: Canada

Need to run a study on SUV owners in the Northwest Territories or online bill payers in Saskatchewan?

GMI's Canadian panel is profiled on hundreds of attributes. More...

• View spotlight on Canada PDF
• View list of profiling attributes
• Request a quote for Canadian sample

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Streaming video adds spice to online surveys

Like any other data collection method, online surveys need to continuously evolve to keep panelists fully engaged and providing top-quality responses. Surveys need to be kept short, and exciting. It's time to give panelists a break, and let the survey do some of the work.

Implementing a video stream into an online survey breaks up the monotony of the regular Q&A survey pattern to reengage panelists. Appeal to panelists' sense of sight and sound with streaming video surveys. GMI's technology has been developed to background-stream media while a survey is being conducted, which minimizes wait time for video or sound footage to be downloaded. Streaming video surveys are ideal for advertisement evaluation, and contribute to long-term panelist retention.

• View streaming video demo
• Request a live demo

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Top 5 reasons for outsourcing

Outsourcing, or contracting out, is a regular feature of the new economy. The market research industry, like many other sectors, has jumped on the bandwagon, and outsourcing has become an attractive strategy for busy market research professionals.

According to ESOMAR's 2005 Global Market Research Report, increased outsourcing and off-shoring has enabled cost savings of 30 to 40% for simple, transactional, non-customer facing tasks such as data processing, as well as online survey programming and coding. Here are the Top 5 reasons why you should consider outsourcing as a viable option as part of any market research program:

1. Spend more time on insights
   As a market research professional, your time is much too valuable to be spent on non-core operations such as survey programming or data processing. Leveraging an expert outsourcer for such tasks ensures you spend your time on what you do best, and where your expertise matters most: providing your clients with valuable insights and recommendations, so they can make better-informed, strategic business decisions.
    
2. Reach economies of scale
   If you have a constant high volume of research projects, it makes sense to standardize your data collection and processing with a single strategic outsourcing partner, which not only helps streamline logistics, but more importantly reduce operational costs. In turn, you can develop more profitable products and services, and ultimately pass on any cost savings directly to your customers.
    
3. Alleviate skills shortage
   Having an outsourcing resource that you can call upon any time for back-up saves you from dealing with the constant worry of internal skills shortages. By providing "labor on tap", outsourcers take the headache out of any superfluous staff hiring and management, so you can concentrate on your client-facing work.
    
4. Save on technology costs
   Investing in and upgrading technology can be an expensive endeavor, especially when associated with the hire of highly skilled staff. Outsourcing simple market research tasks such as online survey programming and coding, or data processing, takes technology costs out of your expense mix, and ultimately improves your pricing and bottom line.
    
5. Respond quicker to customers
   When client relationships are at stake, time is of the essence. To remain agile in today's global competitive marketplace, your customers need data delivered fast, so they can make objective decisions quickly. Typically, outsourcers are staffed up in such a way that they can turn projects around at record speed, so you can concentrate on delighting your customers and ensure their loyalty for the long term.

• Need to outsource a quick project? Request a quote
• Need panel management help? Contact us
• Learn more about GMI Global Panels

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Latest GMI Poll reveals Second Life's potential as a marketing vehicle

Second Life® is a web-based, three-dimensional virtual world developed by Linden Lab®, which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006. In Second Life, residents can explore, socialize, create and trade virtual property and services with one another. One of the newest trends in Second Life is the recent influx of marketers. Some of the world's largest companies are now setting up shop in the virtual world, including brand names such as adidas and Toyota. So far, most companies have seen little return on their marketing investment, but, according to the latest GMI Poll, that could change soon.

The poll reveals that 56 percent of Second Life users in the U.S. believe the virtual world is a good promotional vehicle. Only 16 percent say they would not be more likely to buy or use a brand that is represented in Second Life.

"Second Life is still in its infancy, and nobody knows if this virtual world has true staying power or is just a fad," explained Michael Cai, director, broadband and gaming at Park Associates, a Dallas-based market research and consulting firm specializing in digital and connectivity products and services for the home. "What is clear from the GMI Poll is that Second Life is a potential, untapped source for marketing and branding. The people at Linden Lab have the opportunity to build out a new platform for promotion, much like Yahoo and Google did for the Internet."

The poll also revealed that many Second Life users go to the virtual world to avoid reality. Twenty-four percent of respondents claim they go to Second Life to escape real life, which they are not satisfied with. 64 percent report that they present themselves differently in Second Life than in reality.

The Second Life GMI Poll surveyed a total of 9,529 U.S. consumers between March 2nd and April 9th, 2007 on the GMI platform. Additional Second Life polls were conducted in Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

• Read the full press release
• Contact GMI to conduct your own poll

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Selecting survey software: A case study by Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, an international market intelligence and research company, recently produced "Why Frost & Sullivan chose GMI survey software: A case study on selecting web survey software."

The case study explores the four commercial software systems considered during Frost & Sullivan's final phases of selecting an enterprise-level, ASP-based software system to use in their wide-ranging market research work. In total, Frost & Sullivan evaluated 24 different software systems, and reviewed each against stringent criteria until four products remained, including GMI.

Frost & Sullivan rated each of the four software applications on the following features:

• Ease of programming
• Flexibility of programming
• Customization capabilities
• Server reliability and response time
• Technical assistance
• Training
• Multiple licenses required
• External software interface
• Backup programming/consulting
• Limitation on usage
• Email system utility
• Translation system
• Overall costs

Although each of the four shortlisted products met Frost & Sullivan's minimum requirements, specific aspects of some of the systems made them less desirable for the company's operational needs.

The case study concluded that: "In summary, we find that GMI rated highest in both the quality of the system functions and offered the most competitive price. For full-scale enterprise-level survey software, we find that GMI is clearly the superior product currently on the market."

• Read the case study now
• Contact GMI about survey software
• About Frost & Sullivan

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Updated GMI answers to ESOMAR's "25 Questions to Help Research Buyers"

Learn more about GMI's online research best practices, from panelist recruitment and profiling to panel management and project deployment. GMI adheres to all research industry standards, and has provided candid responses to ESOMAR's '25 Questions to Help Research Buyers'.

• View ESOMAR 25 document
• Submit an RFP

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Downloads

• Best practices: Take a risk, keep it simple
• Focus groups: Time-honored or time to go?

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Who's new at GMI

We welcome this month's new staff members around the globe:

Christopher Spaniac
Vice President of Tax - Seattle, USA

Chris joins GMI from Boeing Capital Corporation, where, as Senior Manager of Domestic and International Tax Planning, he was responsible for tax analysis, review of all investment proposals, tax planning activities, and analyzing the impact of new tax legislation. Previously, he was Senior Tax Manager at Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche, and Experienced Tax Manager at Arthur Andersen. Chris is a CPA and brings 19 years of tax & accounting experience to GMI, along with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Accounting, a J.D. from University of Colorado School of Law, and an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University School of Law.

Daniel Fitzgerald
Managing Director, Sales, Central USA - Connecticut, USA

Dan brings 19 years of sales and marketing experience to GMI, combined with operational experience within the information/knowledge and technology services industry acquired in both start-up companies and established corporations. Dan joins GMI from Election Services Corporation, a business services outsourcing firm, where he served as Acting President responsible for the company's ultimate turnaround strategy. During his tenure at Knowledge Networks prior to Election Services Corporation, Dan drove the company's sales and marketing effort, taking revenue from zero to $25 million in just 15 months.

Praphan Chongwattanpirom, Account Manager - Sydney, Australia
Femke Gijsber , Account Manager - 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Kevin Green, Sales Director, Eastern USA - Massachusetts, USA
Emily Iverson, Receptionist - Seattle, USA
Christian Jung, Account Executive - Munich, Germany
Kimberly Long, Senior Collections Specialist - Seattle, USA
Michael Zuckerman, Technical Support Specialist - Seattle, USA

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