Scarborough Research Expands Cell Phone-Only Sample into Additional Local Market Studies

NEW YORK, Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer and media research company Scarborough Research announced today that it has expanded the incorporation of cell phone-only (CPO) households into 20 additional local market studies. These newly announced markets will receive CPO treatment starting with the second release of data in 2010, issuing to the marketplace in October. The next set of markets receiving CPO treatment are:

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The company first announced CPO treatment in August 2009 when it unveiled the first ten local markets receiving it. With this latest expansion, Scarborough now includes CPO households in a total of 30 local market studies. In 2011, the remainder of the Scarborough Top-Tier markets will receive CPO treatment.

"Scarborough stands out from our competitors as we are the only local market qualitative service with Cell Phone-Only treatment," said Gregg Lindner, Executive Vice President, Research and Operations, Scarborough Research. "Scarborough Research is committed to high-quality data, and we continuously invest in our product to ensure our information exceeds expectations. CPO joins a long and distinguished list of advancements we continue to make in research quality, including response rates improvement initiatives and Media Rating Council accreditation."

"CPO enhances our sample composition among traditionally hard to reach young and multicultural populations," said Steve Seraita, Executive Vice President, Sales, Scarborough Research. "We are enthusiastic and confident in our ability to deliver our clients consistently reliable data that is properly representative of today's consumers."

Scarborough Research employs an address-based sample to identify cell phone-only households.  This CPO sample is combined with the company's traditional landline telephone sample frame currently used to collect data for its syndicated Top-Tier(1) Local Market service.

For more information about Scarborough's CPO procedures, please see www.scarborough.com/cpo.

About Scarborough Research

Scarborough Research (www.scarborough.com, [email protected]) measures the lifestyle and shopping patterns, media behaviors and demographics of American consumers, and is considered the authority on local market research. Scarborough's core syndicated consumer insight studies in 81 Top-Tier Markets, its Multi-Market Study and its national USA+ Study are Media Rating Council (MRC) accredited. Other products and services include Scarborough Mid-Tier Local Market Studies, Hispanic Studies and Custom Research Solutions. Scarborough measures 2,000 consumer categories and serves a broad client base that includes marketers, advertising agencies, print and electronic media (broadcast and cable television, radio stations), sports teams and leagues and out-of-home media companies. Surveying more than 220,000 adults annually, Scarborough is a joint venture between Arbitron Inc. (www.arbitron.com) and The Nielsen Company (www.nielsen.com).

(1) Top-Tier Local Market Studies are Scarborough's core syndicated service. For a full list, please see www.scarborough.com

SOURCE Scarborough Research