Market Research

WASHINGTON - When AIDS suddenly appeared, it took more than two years to discover the virus that caused it. It took five months to identify the bacterium that caused Legionnaire's disease, and just as long to track down the viral source of New Mexico's hantavirus outbreak a decade ago. This year, it took but a month to isolate and identify the virus responsible for the explosion of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, advancing the timetable for...

After nearly 40 years in the speaker business, Polk Audio is following music listeners from their living rooms and cars to their smart phones and their MP3 players. The Baltimore company is moving outside its comfort zone — speakers for home stereo systems and cars — with a new line of headphones, out this month. It is the first time Polk has sold anything other than a speaker or related accessory since a trio of Johns Hopkins University students started the company. Until now, senior vice president Ben Newhall said, "we've grown by adding a lot of different categories within speakers.

Roger S. Sennott, a market research executive and former sociology professor who spent his teen years in the Towson area, died of leukemia Sept. 12 at a San Diego hospital. He was 58 and lived in La Mesa, Calif. Born in Staten Island, N.Y., he moved to the Old Hillendale neighborhood in Baltimore County with his family in 1958 and graduated from Towson High School in 1962. He took up golf as a 10-year-old, and won the Baltimore Junior Golf Championship in 1961 and 1962. He earned his bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University in 1966, and a doctorate in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.

U.S. restaurant unit counts declined by 2 percent, or a loss of 9,450 restaurants, according to an annual, and much-quoted, census published by the NPD Group, a Chicago-based market research company. UPDATE: The same survey shows no statistical difference in the total number of restaurants in the Baltimore area. Translating that statistic into plainspeak is tempting, but it is wrong to say, as I've seen elsewhere, that there were 9.450 closings. Am I right about this? Read on  - the rest is directly from the NPD press release: "U.S.

Douglas Gordon Lovell, a Maryland-born pharmaceutical executive who named the popular pain reliever Tylenol while he was market research director at McNeil Laboratories, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Monday at a nursing home in Devon, Pa. He was 76. Born in Garrison at his family's estate, Robinswood, now the site of the Garrison Forest School campus, he attended St. Paul's School and was a graduate of Calvert School. He earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University, and a master's from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Migliara/Kaplan Associates, a health-care market research firm in Owings Mills, has been purchased by NFO Research of Greenwich, Conn., a general market research company.There are no plans to move any of Migliara/Kaplan's 70 employees in Owings Mills and 12 employees in New Jersey, a company spokeswoman said.Sixteen of the 20 largest pharmaceutical firms in the country are among the clients of the 15-year-old Migliara/Kaplan, which specializes in market research for new product development.

For years, Columbia's developers have sat on the sidelines and watched as they lost business to retail centers in Laurel, Catonsville and Glen Burnie.Market research showed Columbia's residents traveling to these far-flung places in search of bargains. Not in the habit of creating business to compete with its Columbia Mall, the Rouse Co. nonetheless was losing out on a lucrative market phenomenon -- the rise of discount centers and warehouse stores.No longer. The Rouse Co. is poised as a contender in this new venue, with a major discount center bounded by Snowden River Parkway and Dobbin Road.

I am Lost in Carbonation. You may have seen me wandering the beverage aisle of your local grocery store mumbling about simpler times when there were just a half-dozen types of sodas. There are so many subtle distinctions within products of even the same brands that I now fear I'll make a mistake and take home some swill that turns even my closest friends against me. For example, C2, Coca-Cola Co.'s reduced-carb, reduced-calorie cola introduced last summer at a cost of $50 million, is a super hip drink.

BlackSand CEO to be at luncheon Kellyann Davis, chief executive officer of BlackSand Research, will headline the Business Women's Network of Howard County luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 19 at That's Amore restaurant, 10400 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. The theme of the luncheon is "Competitive Intelligence, the Second Oldest Profession." Davis will explain what competitive intelligence is, as well as how to find and use it. Davis has more than 15 years of experience in market research and holds a patent for developing a system that measures confidence levels for intelligence provided to companies.

U.S. restaurant unit counts declined by 2 percent, or a loss of 9,450 restaurants, according to an annual, and much-quoted, census published by the NPD Group, a Chicago-based market research company. UPDATE: The same survey shows no statistical difference in the total number of restaurants in the Baltimore area. Translating that statistic into plainspeak is tempting, but it is wrong to say, as I've seen elsewhere, that there were 9.450 closings. Am I right about this? Read on  - the rest is directly from the NPD press release: "U.S.

HCC to sponsor job fair March 28 In cooperation with the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, Howard Community College will sponsor its Spring Job/Career Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 28 in the college's Burrill Galleria. Representatives of companies and government agencies will discuss job opportunities, accept applications and schedule interviews. Job-seekers can take their resumes for review by the college's career counselors and will be able to gain access the HCC Jobs Online database to find job postings.

Imagine a television set so thin that you could roll it up and carry it in your briefcase. It's not as far off as you might think. The Sony Corp. is now selling a futuristic TV in Japan that is only about an eighth of an inch thick - that's one notch on a tailor's tape measure. The new television sets, which began arriving in Japanese stores this month, have an 11-inch screen and cost 200,000 yen (almost $1,800), said Jon Reilly, a product marketing manager at Sony Electronics. The sets replace the bulky backlighting of typical LCD televisions with a thin film that glows with colors even when viewed from the side.

The average home price in the Baltimore region fell for the first time in six years last month, reflecting a sputtering housing market that continues to lose momentum. The decline was small - just a notch more than 1 percent - and prices fell from year-earlier levels in only half the region's six jurisdictions, according to statistics released yesterday by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc. But the decrease, accompanied by a nearly 17 percent drop in the number of homes sold and a surge in listings, signals that an end to the housing slump is not yet in sight.

Frank J. Kennedy, a retired market-research specialist and consultant, died of lung cancer Sunday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 76 and a resident of Baltimore's Mount Vernon section. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., he earned a psychology degree from Columbia University and did graduate research at New York University. He moved to Baltimore in 1989 after working as a partner at Oxtoby-Smith, a New York marketing research organization, and owning his own business, Frank Kennedy Inc. He joined the faculty of the Market Research Institute in Bethesda and taught his students to be focus group moderators.

I am Lost in Carbonation. You may have seen me wandering the beverage aisle of your local grocery store mumbling about simpler times when there were just a half-dozen types of sodas. There are so many subtle distinctions within products of even the same brands that I now fear I'll make a mistake and take home some swill that turns even my closest friends against me. For example, C2, Coca-Cola Co.'s reduced-carb, reduced-calorie cola introduced last summer at a cost of $50 million, is a super hip drink.

Douglas Gordon Lovell, a Maryland-born pharmaceutical executive who named the popular pain reliever Tylenol while he was market research director at McNeil Laboratories, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Monday at a nursing home in Devon, Pa. He was 76. Born in Garrison at his family's estate, Robinswood, now the site of the Garrison Forest School campus, he attended St. Paul's School and was a graduate of Calvert School. He earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University, and a master's from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

WASHINGTON - When AIDS suddenly appeared, it took more than two years to discover the virus that caused it. It took five months to identify the bacterium that caused Legionnaire's disease, and just as long to track down the viral source of New Mexico's hantavirus outbreak a decade ago. This year, it took but a month to isolate and identify the virus responsible for the explosion of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, advancing the timetable for...