The promotion is in recognition of Winn’s demonstrated commitment to innovative research approaches, her recognized status as a thought leader in traditional and digital ethnographic research, and her ability to answer clients’ strategic business questions.

This expanded role allows Winn to focus more heavily on research insight and strategic recommendations at the account level, moving beyond project execution to add greater value to the organization.

“Laura’s new role will enable her to work with a broad mix of clients to deliver on CMI’s commitment to research that drives results,” said Ellen Mowbray, senior vice president, business strategy for CMI. “She is exceptional at developing and utilizing new approaches, such as our advanced immersive suite, to help companies get to know their customers in deeper ways. Laura’s background in cultural anthropology enables her to identify and articulate key insights in ways that easily translate to strategic business objectives.”

Winn has been with CMI for nine years, during which time she has been a featured speaker and author for numerous industry organizations, including the American Bankers Association, LIMRA, and the Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group (PMRG). She has also been published in a number of publications, including the Medical Group Management’s Connexion, Quirk’s Market Research Review, and Medical, Marketing and Media.

About CMI:
CMI is a full-service marketing research company that combines comprehensive market research expertise with marketing insight to provide clients with a deep understanding of their customers by identifying the choices they make and why. Since 1989, CMI has delivered unique solutions to uncover opportunities, optimize marketing strategies, and improve performance for clients in consumer and B2B markets. CMI’s experienced team of market research consultants leverages a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods and technologies to translate research into insights and insights into actions. CMI serves primarily Fortune 1000 clients.

For more information about CMI, visit http://www.cmiresearch.com .

SKIM is an expert in the field of new product development, communication and pricing decisions, offering strategic insights and customized solutions to support clients in the development and review of their marketing strategies.

To learn more about the research services offered by SKIM or to register for one of the new marketing webinars, visit http://www.skimgroup.com/attend-our-marketing-webinars .

EVENT LINE-UP AND INFORMATION:

* Your chocolate. Your fans. Your strategy. Social media research made actionable
Thursday, May 10, 2-2:30 p.m. EDT
By Sourabh Sharma, project manager, SKIM New York.
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/346273702 .

Join Sourabh Sharma as he presents a social media research case study comparing consumer attitudes regarding a selection of well-known and niche chocolate brands.

Social media research is all about listening instead of asking. When individuals communicate freely and spontaneously online, their comments are often more candid and truthful. Any product or brand that is talked about online can leverage social media to formulate strategies for consumer-targeted marketing, advertising, and channel communication. Illustrated by a real world case study, attendees will learn how SKIM researchers translate social media conversations into actionable insights and marketing opportunities for brands including Toblerone and Hershey’s.

Sharma will discuss:

o “Your chocolate”
* The online competitive landscape
* A brand’s perceived identity
o “Your fans”
* Consumer personas based on online behavior
* Online platform effectiveness
o “Your strategy”
* Consequential actionable recommendations.

Attendees will learn how to use social media to measure brand equity and reach, gauge the competitive landscape, and get closer to consumers by understanding their truthful, candid and current brand perceptions.

* Product portfolio and revenue optimization
Thursday, May 24, 2-2:30 p.m. EDT
By Juan Andres Tello, director, Consumer Americas, SKIM New York.
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/353140414 .

In a competitive consumer environment, it is essential to price your product right. In this webinar, Juan Andres Tello will explore ways to optimize pricing and product portfolio composition to maximize overall revenue. Tello will examine various scenarios such as what happens when product prices are adjusted, pack sizes are decreased, or premium/value line extensions are introduced.

Professionals in consumer pricing, marketing strategy, and research roles will learn how research insights can drive smarter pricing and optimization decisions – even in the most competitive consumer markets. Attendees will learn how to optimize their pricing and product portfolio composition to maximize portfolio revenue.

Tello will discuss:

o Motivations for revenue optimization
o Making the marketing research shift from insight to foresight
o Building blocks of a revenue optimization system
o Sample revenue optimization strategies
o How to deliver optimization results to both internal and external clients.

* Developing winning claims
Thursday, June 7, 2-2:30 p.m. EDT
By Paul Janssen, director, Communications Research, SKIM New York.
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/914035246 .

What distinguishes a winning communication strategy from one that falls flat? Paul Janssen will share the results of a SKIM meta-analysis of hundreds of claims across 14 categories. Among the compelling findings, results show that a tangible promise of value is critical to a claim’s success. Attendees will also learn how popular communications tactics (e.g., humor, comparative advertising, jargon) can unintentionally undermine the message and render a claim ineffective.

Janssen will illustrate how re-analyzing large amounts of data across studies and categories can be a powerful tool for generating essential consumer insights. Armed with new insights, marketing and research attendees will be prepared to develop more effective claims, which can be broadly applied to any communications strategy.

About SKIM:
Founded in 1979, SKIM is a dynamic and rapidly growing market research agency with offices in Rotterdam, Geneva, London and New York. A new San Francisco office will open in July 2012. Combining market-specific expertise and knowledge of advanced research methodologies, SKIM is a valued partner for multinational companies in consumer packaged goods, healthcare, consumer health, telecommunications and financial services. Visit www.skimgroup.com for more information.

Today’s event will bring together practitioners and academic researchers who are pushing the boundaries in the qualitative research arena. Fasching is one of three speakers to be featured in the New York virtual session from 2:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. March 28, 2012.

In industries that rely heavily on intermediaries to convey finely tuned product messages (e.g. insurance, financial services, and pharmaceuticals), the distance between the brand team and the actual consumer can seem like a million miles. How do you really know whether and how your intermediaries are communicating your most important messages, benefits, and features?

When the research goal is to understand the complexities, challenges and opportunities that occur during important interactions between intermediaries and consumers, a simulated conversation is an incredibly effective substitute for reality.

“A carefully researched and strategically designed simulated conversation can reveal startlingly real representations of actual conversations,” said Fasching. “These insights empower and educate marketing and sales teams to better target and communicate directly with intermediaries and, ultimately, consumers.”

Fasching will share tips for designing simulated conversations that become the foundation for:

* Insightful talking points that facilitate effective conversations and overcome challenges for intermediaries
* Valuable educational tools that inform consumers before, during and after intermediary conversations
* Detailed recommendations that target particular segments of intermediaries and consumers more effectively

To learn more about the event, please visit: http://www.cmiresearch.com/w/upcoming-and-recent-events/ .

To register, please visit: http://newmr.org/events/qualitative-event-2012 .

About CMI:

CMI is a full-service marketing research company that combines comprehensive market research expertise with marketing insight to provide clients with a deep understanding of their customers by identifying the choices they make and why. Since 1989, CMI has delivered unique solutions to uncover opportunities, optimize marketing strategies, and improve performance for clients in consumer and B2B markets. CMI’s experienced team of market research consultants leverages a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods and technologies to translate research into insights and insights into actions. CMI serves primarily Fortune 1000 clients. For more information about CMI, visit www.cmiresearch.com .

“Telecommunications providers will continue to invest in systems that streamline their operations – particularly in growth areas such as customer care and network engineering for wireless services,” says Insight director Fran Caulfield. “Our research confirms continued strong growth for both wireless services and the operations systems that support the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and mobility applications,” concluded Caulfield.

The global market for operations support systems (OSS) – the computing and software IT infrastructure that performs engineering, provisioning, and management functions in telecommunications networks – will exceed $67 billion in 2016. Telecommunications industry spending for OSS is expected to mirror the forecasted growth in service revenue over the next five years, indicating that the industry is expecting sustainable growth in the years ahead.

North American investment in the computing and software systems used to acquire, serve, and bill customers will lag worldwide investment, growing at a compounded rate of 4.6 percent over the same period, while OSS expenditures made by carriers in the Asia, Europe, and Latin America regions will grow at 6.3 percent.

The report found that telecommunications service providers are investing most heavily in those OSS needed to support wireless 3G and 4G services. Over the forecast period, annual OSS spending to support broadband wireless will increase from $3 billion today to $22 billion in 2016.

“Operations Support Systems, 2011-2016″ forecasts global IT infrastructure spending for billing, customer care, planning/engineering, provisioning/inventory, trouble repair, network management, business management, and workforce management systems. It also projects the professional services expenditures required to implement those systems by type of carrier in four regions: North America; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; Asia/Pacific; and Latin America/Caribbean.

A free report excerpt, table of contents, and ordering information is online at http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/oss11.asp .

This report is available immediately for $4,695 (hard copy). Electronic (PDF) reports can also be ordered online. Visit our Website, or call 973-541-9600 for details.

Held Thursday, March 1 and Friday, March 2, 2012, the conference offered more than 30 educational sessions, a keynote presentation, and roundtable discussions covering innovative strategies and creative approaches to fundraising that help nonprofits develop new initiatives and increase donations.

Hamilton joined CMI client Angie Moore, senior vice president, CRM at Merkle, Inc. to discuss the importance of constituent satisfaction and how it is imperative for nonprofit organizations in order to generate greater financial returns and improve donor retention.

Hamilton and Moore shared new results from a groundbreaking study that marries constituent attitudes with their giving behavior. The study was conducted across four health charities to provide a rich understanding of the nonprofit landscape. They addressed the primary drivers of positive and negative experiences and how improvement in these areas equates to increased retention, donations and overall constituent value.

Also, attendees learned how this information can be used to prioritize marketing investments for the greatest gains with specific targeted donor segments.

Event highlights included, for attendees:
* Benefits of and best practices for segmentation;
* Segmentation strategies to address specific organizational goals;
* New techniques around motivational segmentation;
* How St. Jude has effectively used segmentation to improve their direct marketing programs.

About CMI:
CMI is a full-service marketing research company that combines comprehensive market research expertise with marketing insight to provide clients with a deep understanding of their customers by identifying the choices they make and why. Since 1989, CMI has delivered unique solutions to uncover opportunities, optimize marketing strategies, and improve performance for clients in consumer and B2B markets. CMI’s experienced team of market research consultants leverages a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods and technologies to translate research into insights and insights into actions. CMI serves primarily Fortune 1000 clients. For more information about CMI, visit http://www.cmiresearch.com .

About Merkle:
Merkle, a customer relationship marketing (CRM) firm, is the nation’s largest privately-held agency. For more than 20 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. By combining a complete range of marketing, technical, analytical and creative disciplines, Merkle works with clients to design, execute and evaluate Integrated Customer Marketing(TM) programs. With more than 1,500 employees, the privately held corporation is headquartered near Baltimore in Columbia, Maryland with additional offices in Boston; Chicago; Denver; Little Rock; Minneapolis; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; San Francisco; Seattle; Hagerstown, MD and Shanghai. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkleinc.com .

About St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital:
Since opening 50 years ago, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has changed the way the world treats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. No family ever pays St. Jude for the care their child receives and, for every child treated here, thousands more have been saved worldwide through St. Jude discoveries. The hospital has played a pivotal role in pushing U.S. pediatric cancer survival rates from 20 to 80 percent overall, and is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted to children. It is also a leader in the research and treatment of blood disorders and infectious diseases in children. St. Jude was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, who believed that no child should die in the dawn of life. Join that mission by visiting www.stjude.org or following us on www.facebook.com/stjude and www.twitter.com/stjude .

“Despite global economic uncertainty, the telecommunications industry is showing strong revenue growth, which is being driven by consumer Internet usage and business mobility solutions. These are enabling new applications,” says Fran Caulfield, Research Director for Insight Research.

“Even amidst so much economic uncertainty, the fact remains that telecommunications is a key factor in economic growth. Telecommunications facilitates socio-economic advancement and is a critical utility for economic development, much like water and energy,” Caulfield concluded.

According to the new industry market study, says that the global telecommunications industry continues to expand as spending by consumers and businesses for wireless services fuels industry revenue growth.

“The 2012 Telecommunications Industry Review: An Anthology of Market Facts and Forecasts” notes that wireless subscriber growth, particularly in Asia and other emerging markets, will raise wireless revenues by 64 percent from current levels, while wireline revenues show only modest growth.

Nearly all of the growth in both sectors is expected to occur in broadband services, with wireless 3G and 4G broadband services projected to grow at a compounded rate of 24 percent over the forecast period and wireline broadband services projected to grow at a 13 percent compounded rate over the same forecast horizon.

In addition to regional and sector forecasts, the report provides an assessment of the key drivers of this growth, including industry trends, network infrastructure and access technologies, telecom services, and enterprise telecom markets. An excerpt, table of contents, and ordering information are available online at http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/review12.asp .

This comprehensive 352-page report is available immediately for $1,195 (hard copy). Electronic (PDF) reports can also be ordered online.

The market research report notes that in this period of slow economic growth and reduced spending on basic telecommunications and IT services, many enterprises will find that purchasing managed services is a cost-effective alternative to increasing internal staffing. The study predicts that revenues associated with the managed services market will nearly double from nearly $140 billion in 2012 to $266 billion in 2016.

Insight’s newly-released market analysis report, “Managed Services in an IP World: Global Opportunities for Wireless and Wired Networks 2011-2016″ includes full segment details for North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and Pacific Rim, and Latin America.

The study differentiates and forecasts five managed service segments: managed data center services, managed infrastructure, managed LAN services, managed WAN services, and managed mobility services. In addition to the revenue forecasts for these market segments, forecasts are provided for various market subdivisions, including managed IP VPNs, security services, VoIP, LAN extensions, WLAN extensions, managed cellular services, hosting and cloud services.

“Stability has returned to the telecommunications industry and with the continued shift to wireless and cloud-based services we are forecasting strong revenue growth in the managed and outsourcing services segments,” says Fran Caulfield, Research Director for Insight Research.

“As enterprises shift their applications to the cloud and as more users access these applications via mobile devices, the level of complexity involved in managing these moving targets increases. Buying a suite of Managed Services can get the enterprise around the complexity-the local IT manager can outsource the most difficult tasks to a service provider, and probably get the job done faster and at a lower cost,” Caulfield concluded.

An excerpt of this market research report, table of contents, and ordering information are online at http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/manserv11.asp . The report is available immediately for $4,695. Electronic (PDF) reports can be ordered online. Visit our website at www.insight-corp.com or call 973/541-9600 for details.

Understanding and targeting the increased spending power of the Hispanic American, African American, and Asian American communities will be crucial for telecommunications providers over the next five years.

“US Hispanic Use of Telecommunication Services, 2011-2016″ takes a close look at the purchasing habits and telecommunications usage patterns of the Hispanic segment of the US population. The study emphasizes that the Hispanic market exhibits above-average consumption of mobile content. The study further reports that nearly 82 percent of all Hispanic respondents now have cell phones, and that Hispanic households on average spend $103 monthly on cell phone service – twice as much as the average household spends on wireline services.

“Hispanics have surpassed the African American population as the largest minority group in the US, and Hispanic purchasing power is now growing at nearly twice the rate of the general population,” says Fran Caulfield, Research Director at Insight Research.

“Fueled by strong population growth and higher technology penetration, Hispanics are heavy social-networking users. There are over 32 million Hispanics online today, their usage grows faster than other groups, they are more connected, and they will demand unique services to match their evolving needs,” Caulfield concluded.

“US Hispanic Use of Telecommunication Services, 2011-2016″ examines spending and usage patterns of Hispanics for wireline, calling cards, cellular, and international services, and compares these spending patterns to those of the general population as well as other minority segments, including Asian Americans and African Americans.

An excerpt of this market research report, table of contents, and ordering information are online at http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/hisp11.asp .

This 350-page report has everything and is available immediately for $4,695. Electronic (PDF) reports can be ordered online. Visit www.insight-corp.com or call 973-541-9600 for details.

“The emerging markets for millimeter wave systems are so diverse, people involved in these technologies haven’t really been talking to each other,” says Thintri president, J. Scott Moore.

Systems using millimeter waves, at the upper end of the microwave spectrum, from roughly 20 GHz to 300 GHz, are breaking out of specialty applications like scientific research. Thanks to steady technology development over the last couple of decades that is bringing down cost, millimeter waves are now being exploited, or soon will be, in a broad range of markets that include security, defense, telecommunications, consumer products, medicine and health, manufacturing, and construction and infrastructure.

Moore adds, “the opportunities for companies who enter the millimeter wave arena are significant and wide-ranging as more cost-effective technologies, such as silicon germanium and CMOS integrated circuits adapted to millimeter waves, are bringing millimeter wave systems to mass markets and smaller, but critically important, markets.”

For example, millimeter wave systems are already being deployed at airports for passenger screening. Similar systems are being used in inventory control and loss prevention, where companies are avoiding loss at warehouses due to employee theft. In loss prevention alone, addressable markets are in the hundreds of thousands of installations.

Millimeter wave telecommunications links are bringing broadband access to buildings otherwise inaccessible to optical fiber, with performance near that of optical fiber but at a fraction of the cost. The same links bring inexpensive broadband capability to enterprise and campus networks, and redundancy to critical optical fiber networks.

Consumer multimedia products will benefit from millimeter wave technologies that will allow wireless transfer of high definition video and other media within the home, and eliminate the tangle of cables around most home multimedia systems. Automotive radar systems at 24 GHz and 77 GHz are rapidly becoming established in mainstream, affordable cars.

Millimeter wave perimeter and surveillance radar for intrusion detection is moving outside defense to government and commercial use, such as protection of key assets like diplomats and executives.

Other markets, while not yet established, offer significant growth potential. Wireless patient monitoring for conditions like sleep apnea and other respiratory disorders will offer not only improved accuracy and capability but eliminate intrusive and uncomfortable wires. Construction and infrastructure will benefit from the ability to check structures for cracks and other defects, even under coatings or wallpaper, or detecting leaks in pipelines, vessels and other structures.

About Thintri, Inc.

Founded in 1996, Thintri, Inc. (www.thintri.com), is a full-service consulting firm, based in New York and directed by J. Scott Moore, Ph.D.

Thintri’s services include business intelligence, market research, technology transfer and technology assessment, and in-depth, off-the-shelf market studies on promising emerging technologies. Topics of focus have included medical and industrial imaging, optical networks, materials and coatings, semiconductor devices, industrial logistics, security, thermal management, energy, and a host of others.

According to Insight Research’s market analysis study, “Carriers and Ethernet Services: Public Ethernet in Metro & Wide Area Networks, 2011-2016,” Ethernet’s central driver continues to be its ability to meet seemingly endlessly growing bandwidth demands at lower cost and with greater flexibility than competing services. While the emergence of new high-bandwidth 40- and 100- Gigabit/s services is proceeding slowly, due largely to high current equipment prices, these will become increasingly important during the 2011-2016 forecast period.

Ethernet services are marketed under various names: transparent or native LAN, Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, GigE, metro Ethernet, Ethernet private line, Ethernet virtual private line, Layer 2 virtual private network, Ethernet access, and virtual private LAN service.

“Wireless backhaul is the fastest-growing sector within the Ethernet marketplace,” says Robert Rosenberg, president of Insight Research. “Ethernet can provide the necessary backhaul at lower unit costs and with greater flexibility than the older technology. The market continues to be paced by voracious bandwidth demands from its longstanding key verticals such as finance, schools, government and healthcare-whose data transmission requirements continue to grow rapidly,” Rosenberg concluded.

“Carriers and Ethernet Services: Public Ethernet in Metro & Wide Area Networks, 2011-2016″ examines carrier Ethernet market spending and usage patterns by topology (E-line, E-LAN, and access), regional domain (metro, wide-area, and access), retail/wholesale, and various bandwidth levels.

An excerpt of this carrier Ethernet services market research report, table of contents, and ordering information is available online at http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/ethernet11.asp . This 162-page report is available immediately for $4,695 in an electronic format (PDF) and can be ordered online.