MarketTools® Announces a Record 62 Percent Increase in Earnings and a Record Year for Profitability

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MarketTools, Inc., the leading provider of software and services for market research and feedback, today announced that it has entered 2011 on a record high note. The company announced that 2010 was a record year for earnings, with a 62 percent increase in earnings in 2010 versus 2009.  In addition, the company announced that a record number of surveys were deployed with its CustomerSat™, Survey Manager, and Zoomerang® products.

MarketTools had a record 100 percent increase in new customers for its MarketTools CustomerSat solution in 2010 across a variety of industries, including financial services, insurance, healthcare, technology and manufacturing. New MarketTools CustomerSat customers include Avaya, Bally Total Fitness, Fujitsu, Getty Images, and Palo Alto Networks. These companies contributed to a record number of new users added and new surveys deployed with MarketTools CustomerSat, which enables companies to gather and analyze feedback from customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders in order to gain the actionable insight they need to increase customer satisfaction.

"2010 was our most profitable year on record, and we capped it with our ninth consecutive profitable quarter. This strong showing has set the stage for strong, sustained and profitable growth in 2011 and beyond," said Scott Arnold, President and CEO of MarketTools, Inc.  "Despite sluggishness in the economy, our clients continue to depend on our research expertise and technology platforms to deliver customer insights that drive business value."

MarketTools also reported that the company invested more in research and development in 2010 than in any year in its 14-year history.  This increased investment allowed the company to add several industry-leading capabilities to its MarketTools CustomerSat enterprise feedback management solution, including enhanced action management capabilities, adaptive role-based reporting, and expanded social media capabilities.  MarketTools also entered into a strategic partnership with West Interactive, a leading provider of hosted and managed automated customer contact solutions, to offer Insight Customer Intelligence, West Interactive's customer survey solution, powered by MarketTools CustomerSat.  This partnership combines West's market-leading contact center experience with MarketTools' deep expertise in survey best practices and customer loyalty programs, to give high volume contact centers a best-in-class solution for capturing, analyzing and acting on customer feedback.

In addition, MarketTools launched several new versions of MarketTools TrueSample and saw accelerated acceptance of its TrueSample® online data quality solution for market research.  In 2010, the number of online research panelists validated by TrueSample more than tripled to more than 14 million panelists. More than 100 customers are already benefitting from TrueSample, including some of the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies. TrueSample has already been adopted by multiple survey platforms, research companies, sample suppliers and research clients for whom quality is a priority.

The company's custom market research group enhanced its ability to provide clients with innovative business insights made possible by combining world class research expertise with engaging technologies and advanced analytics.

Zoomerang, MarketTools' online survey solution for fast, easy feedback, grew its customer base 28 percent in 2010.  Zoomerang added several breakthrough capabilities, including polls, embedded Web surveys, and integration with Facebook and Twitter.  The Facebook and Twitter integration allows Zoomerang users to post online surveys and polls directly to their Facebook walls or Twitter feeds with a single click.

MarketTools 2010 Customer Growth Highlights:

• Doubled the number of new MarketTools CustomerSat customers in 2010 versus 2009
• 28 percent increase in the number of Zoomerang subscribers in 2010 versus 2009
• 36 percent increase in the number of new Zoomerang Sample customers over 2009

MarketTools 2010 Highlights:

• Unveiled the next generation of Enterprise Feedback Management solutions with several releases of MarketTools CustomerSat that further extended the industry's best action management capabilities, added adaptive role-based reporting, and expanded listening capabilities to include social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online forums
• Entered into a strategic partnership with West Interactive to offer Insight Customer Intelligence, West Interactive's customer survey solution, powered by MarketTools CustomerSat  
• Experienced a six-fold increase in the number of large customers for the MarketTools custom market research services business since 2005, as premier customers continued to choose MarketTools for their business-critical marketing research
• Formed partnerships with Clarabridge, the leading provider of sentiment and text analytics software, and Radian6, the leading social media listening, engagement and insights platform  
• Launched several new releases of MarketTools TrueSample, giving researchers unprecedented visibility into key characteristics of their survey respondents and greater transparency into the quality of sample from each sample source
• Added 10 new member companies to the TrueSample Quality Council, bringing the member total to fifteen.  New member companies include Capital One, Nestle, Samsung Electronics, Southwest Airlines, and Unilever
• The TrueSample Quality Council established industry-wide guidelines for online market research quality, marking a major shift in the way online market research is purchased
• Streamlined the survey creation process in Zoomerang from thirteen steps to 7, while dramatically increasing ease of use
• Launched the integration of Zoomerang with Facebook and Twitter, making it easy for Zoomerang users to post online surveys directly to their Facebook walls or Twitter feeds with a single click
• Added Rod McGeary and Jaynie Studenmund to the MarketTools Board of Directors

About MarketTools, Inc.

MarketTools is the leading provider of software and services for market research and enterprise feedback management (EFM). The company is focused on providing leading organizations the actionable customer insights they need to make better business decisions that lead to high-value business impact. As the first company to make online surveys widely available on the Web, MarketTools continues its market leading position by providing the broadest range of powerful, accurate and integrated customer insight technologies that empower companies to become the most customer-centric organizations in their industries. The MarketTools premier portfolio of technology-based insight brands includes CustomerSat™, TrueSample®, Zoomerang®, ZoomPanel® and ZoomPanel Tech™.

MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit: www.markettools.com.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE MarketTools, Inc.