LCM is a local marketing research company that has been in business for over 20 years. We are a member of the Marketing Research Association (MRA), Atlanta Chapter, and the NY American Marketing Association (AMA). We do all types of interviewing from consumer to executive to medical. We provide recruiting services for focus groups, one-on-one interviewing, door-to-door interviewing, mystery shopping, telephone surveys, and more.

The Webster Dictionary says that marketing research is the study of the demands or needs of consumers, in relation to particular goods or services. What this means, to you and me, is you are able to voice your opinion about what you want or need in a product or service. It is a way to communicate your desires or dislikes to businesses.

An example would be an automobile study. In this study an automobile manufacture might want to know what you think about their onboard satellite guidance system or where you'd like to have a drink holder.

We may have called on you for several reasons. Such as you asked to be included in our database, you responded to an ad in the newspaper, our client may have given us a printout with your name and phone number, you might have been referred to us by one of your friends, or we may have just found your name in the phonebook. We receive and collect names and phone numbers from numerous sources.

You should participate in a survey because it is a way of having your voice heard! Only a small number of people are allowed to participate in any given survey. If you were one of the selected people it was because you fit certain criteria that represented a large segment of the society. The surveys are also fun and entertaining!

What happens during a survey all depends on what type of survey is being conducted. We do Telephone Surveys where we just need you to answer a few questions over the phone. On Door-to-Door surveys we might need to come in to your home for a specified period of time to do a one-one-one interview with you. You would normally be selected for this type of interviewing because of where you live and our client has selected certain streets or a certain area on the map. We also conduct Focus Groups, which are explained below.

Focus Groups are fun and entertaining! You would be requested to meet at a designated location, normally a nice hotel conference room in your area. There you would join other participants, from 10 to 30 people, who also meet our qualifications. Once there, everyone would go behind a closed door to discuss a product, service or idea with a moderator who would lead the discussion. Our company will not know what will be shown or discussed. Normally, focus groups last approximately 2-hours. Refreshments are always served and you will be compensated for your time and opinions with an honorarium of $40 dollars or more, depending on the topic and duration of the discussion. Past respondents, who have attended for the first time, have come out saying how much they enjoyed the experience and how interesting it was for them. They even request being called on for future studies!

We DO NOT sell anything! We are only in search of your opinion! NO sales calls will ever result from participating with this company!

Sometimes there are situations that are unavoidable causing you not to make it to the focus group, such as illness in the family. That's understandable. We would appreciate notification as soon as possible so that we may find someone else to take your place. Recommending a friend as a substitute is always helpful when you call us. But before they could attend we would have to go through a screening process with them to make sure they qualify.

On the other hand, we might need to cancel or reschedule a focus group because we could not find enough people to join our discussion or the client decided to cancel and move the focus group to another region of the country. However, we do make every effort to ensure this does not happen.

You may feel that we ask some intrusive or personal questions such as your age or income. This is not meant to insult you. We merely need this information to make sure we collect diversified opinions. Someone in their twenties might have a different point of view than that of someone in their fifties.

You might be given a follow up phone call after participating in one of our surveys. It could be as simple as just saying "Thanks". There are also other reasons, such as: We may have skipped a question that needed to be answered or you took home a product we wanted to get your opinion on. Other times our office or client may conduct quality assurance checks, just to make sure procedures were followed correctly.

How often you can participate in a survey varies on the criteria from our client. Some require a 6-month waiting period between studies you have participated in. Others do not mind if you have participated in other studies as long as it is not on the same topic as theirs. Whether or not you can participate would be determined during our screening process with you. You will be told at that time if you qualify. If you do not qualify for a particular study it does not mean you will not qualify for the next one available. We will keep your name in our database for future events in your area.

We will not and do not sell any of our information and we only release necessary information to our clients to complete the study. At no time will your name be sold or added to a mailing list!