IMRB

Fake “Customer Services Evaluator” Offer - June 2013

SCAM ALERT

Kantar has learned that its name is being exploited to further a fraudulent “mystery shopper” or “secret shopper” scam. People around the U.S. and Canada are receiving offer letters bearing the Kantar name and logo, and fake contact information, inviting recipients to become a “Customer Services Evaluator” or “Investigative Shopper.” A check or money order is enclosed along with the letter, as payment for the shopping and the recipient’s services. Recipients of the offer are asked to call regarding a training assignment, and are then asked, in their role as a “mystery shopper” to wire money via Western Union or a Money Gram in order to evaluate those services. Of course, the check enclosed with the offer is not legitimate, but by the time that comes to light, the recipients have wired and lost their own money.

Kantar is in no way associated with these offers, and does not conduct any “mystery shopping” services. Unfortunately, these fraudulent schemes are using the names of reputable companies like ours without our permission. We are taking all necessary steps to work with the appropriate law enforcement and governmental authorities about this scam.

If you have received an offer similar to the one described above, we recommend the following:

• DO NOT attempt to cash or deposit the check (if the check has already been deposited, you should alert your bank immediately)

• DO NOT send any money to Western Union or Money Gram

• DO NOT contact any numbers listed on the offer and do not disclose any personal or bank account information

• If you have been scammed, contact your bank, local and/or federal law enforcement authorities on how to proceed to recover any stolen funds, secure your bank account, and protect your personal information and privacy.

• Contact your local post office, your local Western Union or Money Gram office, your state consumer protection agency and other local and national consumer protection agencies and organizations to alert them about this scam.

• Please send us a copy of any materials you have received regarding this or similar offers bearing Kantar’s name by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by fax to + 1 (212) 621-0916

The research industry will soon be changing over to a new method for classifying households in India. Two industry bodies, the Market Research Society of India (MRSI) and the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) have been involved in this effort. Many researchers and other professionals have worked on the problem.

The final phase of analysis leading to the new system was conducted by Ashutosh Sinha, Vikrant Dogra and Prashant Raikuni of IMRB International.

To know more about the new SEC system and why it was selected, you could download by clicking on the link below. If you have any further questions about the new SEC system, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Download New Socio-Economic Classification System.

Links to Market Research Society of India:
http://mrsi.in/
http://mrsi.in/newsec.html

On 2nd April 2011, all the cricket websites attracted a little more than 4 Mn fans.

India is the new champion of the Cricket World Cup. The road to this achievement has been far from easy. After making it to the stage of Final-8; India had to win three crucial matches before they could lift the coveted award. In all these matches, they had to win against the past champion teams that had won the cup in last few years. The most important of them being the finals, which was played against Sri Lanka. While the team was gutting it out in the middle; millions of fans were releasing anxieties and passion on various media avenues. A presupposition that Television ratings would have soared can hardly be argued; but how did the Internet perform amidst this chaotic excitement? Read On!

On 2nd April 2011, all the cricket websites attracted a little more than 4 Mn Indian fans. On an average, an Indian fan spent 38 Mins on these websites. The busiest timeslots during the day was between 12pm – 6pm, wherein 3.0 Mn visitors navigated through Internet for accessing cricket-related content. In the other half of the match in the evening (6pm – 12 am) there were a little more than 2 Mn fans that used Internet to get updates for the match.

The Indian fans on the day of the finals match, between India and Sri Lanka (i.e. on April 2nd, 2011), visited different websites. About 1.73 Mn of them visited Espnstar.com/cwclive; followed by 1.7 Mn visiting the Espncricinfo.com. Cricket.yahoo.com attracted 1.6 Mn and nearly 0.3 Mn visited Cricbuzz.com. Overall, The time they spent on the above websites was quite varied. While an average Indian fan was glued to Espnstar.com/cwclive for 41 Mins, they were on Cricbuzz.com for nearly half an hour. An average fan spent 25 mins on Cricket.yahoo.com and 21 Mins on Espncricinfo.com.

Internet in India is gradually evolving to provide different types of content and assuming an important media option. As indicated by Tarun Abhichandani, Group Business Director, eTech Group, IMRB International, "Almost 30% of the 14 million internet users accessed cricketing websites during the World Cup finals. With the next season of IPL scheduled to start in the next few days, it will be interesting to see how the numbers stack up".

About Web Audience Measurement (WAM)

WAM is an offering from IMRB International which provides online publishers, planners and advertisers a common platform to identify trends in Internet usage in India as well as plan for better media planning. The panel based approach adopted by this system has been made possible due to a unique metering technology custom built for Indian market. The meter is capable of capturing internet usage data from multiple machines and still attribute to the same panellist. Further, the meter allows the flexibility of capturing only the panel member’s data in case the machine is used by multiple users. The meter can capture data from multiple browsers (all versions of IE, all versions of Chrome, Firefox, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and MSN Messenger). The data reporting is being done through the well established Media Xpress tool customized for the Internet market. The reporting tool called Web Xpress allows pre and post media planning, duplication analysis and profiling apart from the usual trending tools. The tool is also capable of reporting at day level and at day-part level.

About IMRB International

Established in 1971, IMRB International is a pioneer in market research. IMRB is a member of the Kantar Group, part of the WPP company. Kantar is one of the world’s largest consumer insight networks. IMRB's footprint extends across 26 offices in 14 countries – Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Netherland, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, South Korea, UAE and United Kingdom. With over 1200 full time staff, IMRB provides high quality conceptualisation, strategic thinking, execution and interpretation skills. IMRB International is the only research company in India that offers such a wide range of research based services to its clients. IMRB International's specialized areas includes consumer market research both quantitative and qualitative, industrial market research, business to business market research, social and rural market research, media research, retail research, and consumer panels.

For more details contact:

Tarun Abhichandani

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it