Archive for the ‘News’ Category

Northstar Research And Brand Value Advisors Form Brand Evaluation Service

Published on Jul 28th, 2011 by Northstar UK

Northstar Research Partners has just launched a new product, the Risk Opportunity Index, designed to help private equity firms analyse the brand value of prospective portfolio companies early on in their due diligence phase. The Index measures a brand’s health by examining “the brand purchase funnel”, including brand awareness, familiarity, favorability and consideration, as well as perceptions of the brand on 11 key elements, and the brand’s ability to attract and retain customers” according to Jim Neuwirth, Northstar Research CEO.

As Miles Nadal Chairman and CEO of MDC Partners explained, “the concept is to complement the detailed financial analysis PE firms are known for with insights about target consumers and marketplace dynamics; in essence, providing the other half of the business analysis dashboard”. Created in partnership with investment consultant Brand Value Advisors, the service emerged out of work the two firms have done together over the years in assisting private equity firms with due diligence and market research. The Risk Opportunity Index leverages Northstar’s considerable experience in financial services and its proprietary methods for assessing brand health, identifying risk and opportunities, and measuring future potential value.

 

MRS 5-a-side 2011: The Northstar Report

Published on Jul 7th, 2011 by James

As promised, Northstar returned to the MRS 5-a-side football tournament hosted by HPI and Hanwell Football Club in Perival, London. We sported a new look team, substituting Ian and Matthew from last year’s tournament for Northstar new employees, Daniel Tralman and Daniel Tweddle, with Adnan “Riquelme” Alagas on holiday this time around!

The 14th annual MRS 5-a-side tournament was blessed with very humid weather and the odd ray of sun creeping through the insulating clouds, making it a great day out but tough to run around in! So before the bar and barbeque opened for business, there was the little matter of 31 male teams and 6 female teams playing for the cups! At this point, I would love to say “watch out Premier League” but knowing we weren’t the winners on the day spoils that a bit! Well done to ICM, who beat IFF by a goal to nil in the final in the men’s competition, with the IFF ladies doing better than their male counterparts to lift their trophy! The Research Now Ladies come a not so close second 8 points behind.

So although Northstar didn’t exactly destroy the opposition, we won two of our 5 games and only managed to pick up, well, several injuries actually. My groin strain feels ok at the moment and Daniel Tweddle feels better now after taking a blow to the back of the head, but it is Mr Chris Warren that we feel sorry for right now….

Marketing Industry Triathlon Report 2011

Published on Jul 6th, 2011 by Jack

On Friday 1st July, once again, Northstar’s triathlon representatives Matthew, Jack and Chris found themselves heading for Dorney Lake, Eton to partake in the Marketing Industry Triathlon. Having set the bar high with 13th place last year and a finishing time of 1hour 46mins 51secs, we knew we would have a substantial task on our hands to improve vs. 2010.

Keeping in line with last year, Matthew started out in the 800m swim. As the first athletes came out of the water, it was evident that the speed of the teams this year was much greater than 2010. Matthew responded well – keeping out of the hustle and bustle of the main pack of swimmers, coming out of the water in 14mins 28secs. Jack then took ‘the baton’ onto the bike leg of the race. Despite some awkward headwinds which lead to some erratic lap time splits (being closely monitored by Chris!), Jack finished the 30km bike leg in a respectable 52mins 21secs. Following a second smooth transition, Chris led the team down the proverbial home straight of the race – the 7.5km run. Despite having to battle the huge mental hurdle of having to do one more lap of the course than he had anticipated, Chris crossed the finish line in a sterling 35mins 09secs in what was the most competitive leg of the race. Including transition times, Team Northstar finished in 1hr 43mins 24sec. But the magic question was; how had we done vs. our 2010 effort?To our delight we had beaten last year’s time by 3mins 27secs. However, we had finished, in relative terms, lower in the final rankings – 21st out of 108 – vs. last year’s 13th out of 90. However, we could take solace in the following:

  • The standard of this year’s race was much higher , with the average finishing time 7min 03secs faster than 2010
  • In relative terms we had only finished 5 percentage points lower than last year, despite a 6% improvement in race times overall
  • We had still finished a substantial 9min 01secs above the average finishing time this year

With the improvement on our time this year, one thing is for sure, the benchmark is even higher for 2012, and in true Northstar style we will endeavour to exceed it!

 

Northstar set to work with Target Stores in Canada

Published on Jun 29th, 2011 by Northstar UK

US discount retailer Target Corporation has hired  MDC Partners to lead development of its marketing efforts, including research, to support its expansion of Target Stores into Canada. Northstar Research Partners alongside KBS+P and Veritas Communications are amongst the MDC agencies named as working with Target.

The first Target stores will open in Canada in 2013

More news to follow.

 

Northstar Toronto Wins Metrolinx

Published on May 3rd, 2011 by Northstar UK

We are  thrilled to announce that the Toronto office  has won the Metrolinx study.  Metrolinx is the Toronto Area Train Transport Group.  This win endorses our expertise in this area and the group, which has many research requirements, have rewarded us with a 5-year contract.