CURS: Socio-political research profits down

 “The problem is the multitude of “apartment companies,” participating in tenders and presenting offers at half the price,” the General Manager of the Center for Urban and Regional Sociology (CURS), Augustin Stoica, told Business Standard. “Many clients are poorly informed about the meaning of social research and opinion polls. They are unable to distinguish between offers presented and quality of research. There are

clients who think only of the price,” explained Stoica. Another problem could be a difference between clients interested in socio-political research those requiring market research, with the former requiring quality and not considering price so important.

“Most of these are multinational companies, corporations, who are able to recognize and read well-founded research, unlike the socio-political environment,

where many clients are uninformed,” argues the CURS representative. Stoica believes that as regards employees and specialists, staff selection is more important than their specialization, and the center’s regional specialists conduct training.

“The problem is not their recruitment, but rather following their evolution, seeing how serious they are, and if they have other reasons for entering the network. I am referring to interview operators - we have some 800 countrywide, and an average 150 activate on each project,” added Stoica. The Center for Urban and Regional Sociology is a private social and marketing research company, established in 1990 on the foundations of the Urban Sociology Laboratory of the Building Design, Resarch and Software Institute (IPCT).

CURS is now one of the top players on the research market with INSOMAR, Irsop, Imas, and Gallup. The company reported €530,000 worth of business for 2006, and expects an increase exceeding 10 percent this year.

“Most of these are multinational companies, corporations, who are able to recognize and read well-founded research, unlike the socio-political environment, where many clients are uninformed Augustin Stoica General Manager, CURS