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Introduction:

My name is Greg Renker, my company is Guthy-Renker, and we market consumer products through Direct Marketing television.

Q. How do you use the IMS report at Guthy-Renker?

A. We use the IMS report proprietarily in-house to determine what product categories we need to be more focused on. We use the IMS report to study the charts, to get a weekly feel for what is working or what isn't. We use the IMS report to look for trends that might help us make better decisions about the products we select to market within our own company. We use the IMS report for history of the industry, we go back and we look at what has worked before, compared against what's working now, and to see if there is anything we're missing. We use the IMS report for media analysis. We look at where our competitors are marketing their own products, we make certain that we are leveraging and maximizing our own media opportunities because of these charts, and different divisions within our company use the IMS report for their own benefit. New product development uses it and the media department uses it. It's a multi-faceted document that helps us all.

Q. Are you getting what you need from the IMS report?

A. The IMS report really sets the trend within our own company for what we need to be working on, and starts the communication flow on a weekly basis on where we need to be.

www.guthy-renker.com

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Introduction:

Tim Hawthorne, Chairman of Hawthorne Direct, and we are a full service Direct Response Television Advertising Agency.

A. We use the IMS report just to keep tabs on what the strongest shows and spots are in Direct Response Television. Every week things are changing in our industry, some shows are falling out of favor, others are new and coming on to the charts, they are buying more and more media and obviously IMS is a great way to track what's popular out there in the way of products, what companies are doing well in terms of the shows they might have. The reviews of what the shows are all about, their offers become important, I think when we're reviewing or researching like products in a similar category, what other offers have been out there for that particular product, so overall it's a very useful all-around research tool for us.

Q. Are you getting what you need from the IMS report?

A. What all of us need in our industry is really detailed and verifiable concrete research. Not only on what shows are popular, or where they are running, the value of that media, but gross numbers of total media purchased for short-form and long-form broken down by categories, and also projected revenues for the Direct Response Television Industry, overall short-form, long-form, hard-sell products verses branded, pharmaceutical like products, so multiple category breakdown of revenues and expenditures in Direct Response Television.

www.hawthornedirect.com

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Introduction:

Dan Danielson, Co-CEO of Mercury Media, and what we do is long-form and short-form media buying throughout the United States.

Q. How do you use the IMS report at Mercury Media?

A. The IMS Report, I think we've probably been subscribing to it since it's inception, ever since it began. We've used it quite a bit. It's nice to see where your shows are charting so you'll know how strong your clients are doing in comparison to other clients. It's also a great source for tracking down new business, seeing who the competitors are and being able to figure out where they are, who they are, maybe be able to even open up some doors or knock on some doors of potential clients that you're picking up off the Report.

Q. Are you getting what you need from the IMS report?

A. Ah! One thing we love about IMS is we can call them anytime and get any kind of data that we need. You know, they're more than happy to crank it out, or kick it out in any way, shape or form that we need it, so that's what's been the great thing is their ability to deliver the goods, however we want to see it.

www.mercurymedia.com

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Introduction:

I'm Kevin Harrington, CEO of Reliant International, and we produce infomercials.

Q. How do you use the IMS report at Reliant International?

A. I use the IMS Report to track where my competitors are running on a weekly basis, which is very important to know how often they're running and where they're running, but not only that I also track to see how they are coming up on the charts. In other words, when they go from number 50 to number 25 to number 12, that information is very valuable, to know what our competitors are doing.

www.infomercial.com