Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 11:15 a.m.
Linda Pulido visited Las Vegas last month never expecting she'd help decide who'd be the next anchor on a morning television news show.
But in true Siskel and Ebert style, Pulido gave her opinion about who was hot and who was not during a recent screening at CBS's Television City at the MGM Grand hotel-casino.
"I thought it was pretty cool. I'd do it again," said the Laredo, Texas, resident. "It makes you feel like maybe your little opinion might mean something and might count to some big corporation somewhere."
Industry officials say Las Vegas is becoming the city of choice for market researchers to gather data on consumer views on products from pizza to diapers, and on media offerings from television shows to advertising commercials.
With an estimated 36 million tourists a year, the city is a breeding ground for market research gold: consumer opinion.
"That's what drives this industry," said Lee Medick, president and owner of MRCGroup Research Institute. "Companies make million dollar decisions based on what people think."
Finding out what people are thinking is a booming industry that generates an estimated $6.1 billion annually. Dollars spent on market research have grown steadily since 1991 except for dips in 1996 and 2001, said Larry Gold, editor and publisher of Inside Research, a Chicago-based industry newsletter.
When Medick and her husband, Jim, who is MRCGroup's chief executive officer and managing director, moved their 10-year-old company to Las Vegas in 1996, others in the industry were shocked, Jim Medick said.
Despite the skeptics, they found just a few other similar companies in Las Vegas and a virtually untapped "just-add-researchers" market.
Las Vegas as a haven for market research makes sense, said Nancy Costopulos of the Chicago-based American Marketing Association.
"People go to Las Vegas for a reason and that's usually to be entertained," she said. "So by testing people who are there seeking entertainment, you have a steady stream of consumers who are right for your test market."
With its fast-growing population in addition to being an entertainment mecca for tourists nationwide, Las Vegas brings an "instant cross section" of the country to one location.
Also, analysts say Las Vegas provides a "fresh" test market in which consumers haven't been surveyed as much as those in Los Angeles or New York.
Ten years ago CBS set up a temporary test site in Las Vegas to supplement its other test cities and found a perfect match.
Last year the network opened Television City, a permanent site in the MGM Grand in which consumer critics such as Pulido can screen new television shows, movies and participate in focus groups.
The diversity found in Las Vegas was a big draw, said David Poltrack, executive vice president of research and programming for CBS.
"It's something you can't do anywhere else but Vegas because of all the demographics," he said. "The MGM Grand is particularly good in that regard because its demographics are right in the middle of the spectrum."
In addition to coupons for 10 percent off CBS merchandise and other freebies, the experience gives viewers an opportunity to perhaps change television programming.
That attracted Paul Rudzinski of Austin, Texas, who like most TV viewers, has a few gripes about what's on the tube.
"If it's about cops, lawyers or doctors, I'm going to be automatically against it," Rudzinski said before going into a screening at Television City. "That's all there is on TV today."
Laugh tracks -- when laughter is dubbed in -- get a thumbs down from him, too, he said.
More wholesome, family oriented shows should be on TV, said Phyllis Tucker-Saunders of Laurel, Md.
"There needs to be more shows like Cosby and less sex," said Tucker-Saunders, who enjoys comedies. "But the only way that will happen is if people don't watch the shows with the sex and violence in it."
Feedback like Tucker-Saunders' is exactly what media executives crave. NBC is looking to join the Las Vegas action and is negotiating with MRCGroup to open a site similar to Television City at another hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
Consumers' conclusions about products, services and shows can be the deciding factor in whether companies pursue their projects or try something else.
With so much riding on the test results, market research companies sometimes must go to great lengths to keep client projects secret.
MRCGroup conducts research for clients in a variety of industries on products that include chocolate, diapers, slot machines and kitty litter, the Medicks said.
The company's employees sign confidentiality agreements when working with major clients. Once, all the stops had to pulled out during consumer testing for a large pizza chain, Lee Medick said.
"All the pizzas had to be out of the boxes, all the boxes had to be wrapped in paper bags, and I had to be escorted out to the trash receptacles to throw stuff away," she said.
Some clients even use encryption coded e-mails so their communications with MRCGroup can't be intercepted, lest the competition know the ingredients of the latest pizza topping or TV sitcom.
Despite all the testing, the secrecy and the precautions, box-office and market flops can't always be prevented, Gold said.
"Nothing is guaranteed," he said, chuckling. "Life is that way. What you're trying to do is reduce risk."
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