Letter from the Head of Corporate Affairs
Gallaher Group Plc to the Clerk of the Committee (TB 8F)
Thank you for your letter of 22 February 2000,
with which you attached two pages from a Synergy report[35].
You had previously, in your letter of 14 February,
asked me to clarify whether or not this organisation was "identical
to the Target Group Index research" referred to in my previous
letter of 9 February 2000. I have looked into this and can report
the following.
Synergy Consulting is an independent consultancy
which buys from BMRB details of the TGI research sample. It then
re-contacts respondents to TGI and re-interviews them. This then
allows Synergy to tie-in its analysis with the usage information
generated by TGI. So, although Synergy is not and has no direct
link with TGI its product is inextricably linked in this context.
The Synergy sample defines adults as 15+ simply
because that is the way TGI defines the common research audience,
which is at the heart of both surveys.
Much as I described to you in my memo about
TGI, Synergy re-interviews a very broad sample of TGI respondents,
on the premise that the wider it casts its net the more business
it can do with the major advertising agencies and FMCG companies.
The specific Synergy research referred to in
your letter of 15 February was bought by M&C Saatchi, rather
than ourselves. M&C would have sought the Synergy analysis
to help understand better the Silk Cut smoker.
As was the case with TGI, I confirm that I believe
Synergy has worked with most major advertising and FMCG companies
at some time. It is not a consultancy working solely for tobacco
companies—or companies in any other sector.
I trust that this clarifies any relationship
which exists between TGI data and Synergy, as I understand it.
As ever, if I can be of further assistance,
please do not hesitate to contact me.
28 February 2000
35 Not printed. Back
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