How does it work?
Sponsors share the expenses of the research with other companies seeking the same sort of information and, as an added bonus, can modify survey questions and attend focus groups when applicable.

What has been done in the past?  Check out our Archived Multiclients

Consumers have a variety of options available to them for television services, Internet, and communications. What entertainment and communications features are critical today for differentiation and revenue generation, and which are must-have features to implement in the near future?

This study examines consumer sentiment for current services – including bundles – and interest in advanced features that may include IPTV, interactive TV, video-on-demand, and blended communications and entertainment experiences.

This  study covers all consumer aspects of the gaming domain, including gamer habits and expenditure on different hardware platforms (PC, console, set-top box, portable gaming device, and mobile phone), online gaming vs. offline gaming activities, and engagement and interest in different connected gaming offerings such as online console gaming, massively multiplayer online gaming, mobile gaming, virtual worlds, and free-to-play games.

Planned Survey Design: Parks Associates will survey 2,000 Internet gamers, leveraging the same segmentation methodology, which divides gamers into six groups (power, social, leisure, incidental, dormant, and occasional) in order to provide trending analysis.

National Scan is Parks Associates’ annual nationwide survey. It provides an accurate picture of current adoption levels, demand, and the size of the total available market, with comparative analysis of past adoption levels and overall trending patterns. Such data are crucial for strategic planning and in forecasting sales and revenues for product lines and services.

Channel Monitor regularly polls principals from electronic systems integrators, designers, and installing dealers from across the U.S. about their business environment, products and services offered, awareness of new technologies and offerings, and attitudes about key issues in the industry. This program is designed as a mechanism to help manufacturers and service providers monitor the pulse of the systems integration channel. Surveys are conducted online, and each client assists in developing the questionnaire.

Survey Design: Quarterly surveys of 300-500 installing dealers.

NEWS: Installing Dealer Product Categories Experience Heightened Competition

Examines the decision-making process of today’s consumers and key factors that trigger or inhibit purchasing. This survey of consumers provides greater definition and measurement of purchase intentions as well as key barriers to technology adoption.

The analysis measures the impact of information resources and word-of-mouth endorsements, explains the research and evaluation steps for a product purchase, and links the purchase decision steps into an evaluative metric that identifies critical steps. Equipped with this information, manufacturers, retailers, and marketers can better position and market their products for consumer purchase. More Info

Multiple media trends are occurring thanks to new technologies available. This study provides insight and knowledge by rigorously analyzing the new trends in the way media is used and distributed. Building on the first Digital Media Habits study, which explored new media usage models (consumption, creation, organization, and distribution) as related to multiple types of content (music, video, information, games, photos, and communication), Digital Media Habits II will dive deeper, looking particularly at consumer electronics devices, revenue generation opportunities, and digital rights management issues in particular.

Survey Design: Online survey of 2,000 Internet users ages 13 and above

Over the years, consumers have adopted a variety of mobile and portable devices to fulfill the need to be connected, informed, and entertained at any place and any time. Mass-market penetration of mobile/portable devices, multimedia digitization, and the emergence of next-generation mobile broadband are rekindling industry interests in service and platform convergence. The key challenge is to understand consumer perspectives in a fashion that will help hardware/software manufacturers, entertainment companies, and service providers to formulate their short-term and mid-term strategies. This study examines emerging trends in adoption and use of mobile devices and services and consumer perspectives regarding mobile convergence.

Survey Design: A survey of more than 2,000 Internet users ages 13 and above who own one or more mobile or portable devices

Parks Associates conducts annual nationwide surveys that provide an accurate picture of current adoption levels, demand, and size of the total available market. Such data are crucial for strategic planning and forecasting sales and revenues for product lines and services.

This year's survey collected data on a wide variety of products, services, and applications:

• Portable music (MP3), video, and gaming devices
• Digital Cameras/Digital Video Cameras
• Game Consoles
• Flat-panel TVs
• Online Content and Personalization Services
• Desktops, Laptops, and Home Networks
• Home Security Systems
• Multimedia Computer Applications
• Computer-Connected Consumer Electronics Devices
• Multimedia Internet Applications

Survey Design: A survey of 1,000 U.S. households via random digit dial sampling.

NEWS: Offline Americans see Internet of Little Value

A unique quantification of digital lifestyle purchases by households that have moved or are planning to move

This project will quantify the market for key digital lifestyle products and services purchased by households that have moved within the last two years. The project will track purchases by product category, brands considered/purchased, amount spent, timing of purchase (months prior/since move), purchase locations, and other parameters deemed important to participating clients.

Survey Design: A survey of 3,000 U.S. Internet users, employing a stratified random sample to ensure statistical significance

NEWS: Fifteen million U.S. households move annually, offering a prime market for entertainment, security, and control systems; Households on the Move More Likely to Buy Consumer Electronics; Moving Households key to Telco Success in Video Services

Consumer consumption of digital media is becoming increasingly interactive. Websites, devices, and software are all enabling consumers to capture, create, personalize, share, and search content in ways that suit their own tastes. This project analyzes this phenomenon, exploring how technology is being used to facilitate these activities and how this trend will evolve.

Survey Design: The survey was fielded in August 2006 and included 2,117 respondents with Internet access ages 13 and over. All respondents owned at least one computer and had Internet access at home.

This project touches on a broad range of topics in order to provide a comprehensive picture of the gaming market. The fundamental core of its analysis is the five gaming ecosystems that surround the platform categories (set-top boxes, computers, consoles, mobiles, and portables), their evolving relationship, cross-platform and convergence trends, and the services, software, and hardware that constitute these ecosystems.

Survey Design: This survey polled U.S. Internet gamers (defined as gamers who have Internet access and play electronic games for at least one hour per month) aged 13 and older and included over 2,000 qualified respondents

NEWS: Women Dominate Mobile Phone Gaming; Survey reveals U.S. gamer market is diversifying

Parks Associates is working with SDM Magazine, the largest magazine serving security dealers and manufacturers, to complete two surveys of security dealers during 2006. These surveys, coupled with Parks Associates’ 20 years of experience in home systems, provide valuable and needed guidance to manufacturers and dealers for navigating their markets as their businesses evolve. More Info

This survey is designed to aid a wide variety of players (broadband providers, retailers, consumer electronics manufacturers, IT support personnel, integrators, software developers, and computing companies) to better understand the current landscape and ascertain the market potential for digital home support services.

• The addressable market for installation and support services across three categories: home computers/home networks; Internet services; consumer electronics;
• 2006 revenue projections for installation, support, and in-home and remote management services; and,
• Segmentation that identifies key “clusters” of end users most receptive to managed digital home services.

Survey Design: Two surveys with more than 6,000 respondents (3,447 U.S.; 2,669 Canadian), including 959 U.S. respondents with a data network and 740 networked Canadian households.

NEWS: Consumers Report Digital Home Challenges in Large Numbers

Parks Associates surveyed over 500 national, regional, and local homebuilders to determine product categories installed, brands selected, sources of supply, margins derived from sale, and personnel making purchase decisions. This project is designed to assist manufacturers and service providers in understanding homebuilders, the methods for including technology products in offerings and how to do business with builders. Survey results reveal how builders decide which products to offer and when and how they select technology vendors.

Survey Design: Over 1,100 residential home builders participated in the 2006 survey.

Bundled Services & Residential Gateways (2Q 2006)
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This primary consumer research study is a tool to determine the mixture and pricing of packaged Internet, communications, and entertainment services. This survey tackles such issues as optimal price points and preferred service providers and also examines how consumer preferences for packaged services impact the design, development, and distribution of residential gateway form factors.

Survey Design: An online survey of 3,479 U.S. Internet households, with respondents aged 18 and older and the primary decision-makers of the acquisition of communications, Internet, and entertainment services.

Parks Associates conducted a nationwide survey that provides an accurate picture of current adoption levels, demand, and size of the total available market. Such data are crucial for strategic planning and forecasting sales and revenues for product lines and services.

Survey Design: A survey of 1,000 U.S. households via random digit dial sampling.

Read More: Overall Internet penetration in the U.S. will increase just one percent, from 63% to 64%, in 2006

Multimedia Trends: Segmenting the U.S. Consumer Population (1Q 2006)
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This project provides a multipronged segmentation analysis of Parks Associates’ consumer research studies completed in 3Q and 4Q 2005. Parks Associates surveyed over 9,000 U.S. consumers during this time regarding ownership of, current service subscriptions to, and intentions to purchase products or subscribe to services in the multimedia areas of digital imaging, music, gaming, video, and communications.

Multimedia Trends makes use of Parks Associates’ national telephony survey of U.S. households and incorporates the knowledge gained from surveying ALL U.S. households as a check and balance to the potential bias of online surveys. This study offers a true profile of technology penetration among all U.S. households and a deeper understanding of buyer segments and greater accuracy in quantifying these segments.

Survey Design: The study segments a sample of more than 9,000 U.S. consumers of all types in the multimedia categories of digital photography, music, video, gaming, and communications.

The next round of mobile services available to consumers will have a much stronger entertainment focus; however, success is not guaranteed for this new service focus. This project explores consumer interest in a number of mobile entertainment services; price sensitivity to various stand-alone and bundled service offerings; and platform preferences for enjoying media-rich mobile services.

Survey Design: A survey of over 2,000 consumers (13 and older) of mobile multimedia devices to determine buyer preferences, feature requirements, buyer profiles, and purchase forecasts

Read More: PlayStation Portable Is Most Wanted Gaming Gadget in U.S.; Early Audience for Mobile TV Small But Enthusiastic

Digital Entertainment: Changing Consumer Habits (3Q 2005)
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How, when, and why consumers use specific electronic devices; which specific legacy devices are most likely to be replaced by their digital counterparts; price sensitivity for various digital electronics platforms; and a segmentation of the emerging digital entertainment household

Survey Design: A survey of over 2,000 consumers (13 and older) of home entertainment services and devices to determine adoption of various entertainment devices, services, and subscription models

Read More: Consumers Warming to Emerging Television Advertising Services

Provides a detailed assessment of how today’s PC owner uses this device in their everyday life, investigating the use of and interest in new software and services; the impact of high-speed Internet connectivity; the use of specific Internet-based services; the likelihood of new non-PC platform adoption (e.g., Web tablets); and the use of and interest in mobile Internet services. This project also offers a segmentation of PC consumers relative to these usage characteristics.

Survey Design: A survey of over 2,600 U.S. Internet users

Builder ePanel (1Q 2005)
Survey of Homebuilders’ Implementation of Consumer Electronics
View Table of Contents for the 2004 Survey of Residential Builders
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The Builder ePanel provides market intelligence for manufacturers selling consumer electronics and connected home systems to builders. Research includes: profiles of builders adopting innovative technology solutions; descriptions and analyses of builder business practices; keys to building successful business relationships with builders; and products and brands currently offered and installed by builders.

Survey Design: Online survey of 250+ builders from all regions of the U.S.; sample frame constructed to include national, regional and local builders

Consumers & Emerging Multimedia Platforms (3Q 2004)
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Consumers & Emerging Multimedia Platforms project illustrates how consumers perceive the reliability of different platforms for storing, managing, and distributing media throughout the home. It determines optimal feature sets; identifies price sensitivity to various platforms and feature combinations; and segments the early market for these devices.

Survey Design: A survey of 6,000 U.S. Internet households

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