Ms. Scully spends much of her workday at her computer running Praxis Marketing, which does marketing for technology trade shows.
Agency life had not been her thing—"a lot of crazy bitches"—so she started her own branding firm, the Fox Theory, which does marketing for entrepreneurs, artists, authors, and a sleight-of-hand magician.
"With gum, taste is paramount," said Michelle Barry, the president of Tinderbox, which does market research on the food and retail industries.
The number of sales contracts signed in April declined in 20 of 22 counties monitored by the Otteau Valuation Group, which does market analysis for brokers.
Risto Puhakka, an executive at VLSI Research, which does market studies for the microchip industry, said the new debugging tools by I.B.M. and Intel might signal an end for older technologies.
After business school Freeman was working for The Intelligence Group, which does market research trend forecasting for Generations X and Y, and Blau was working in marketing and business development at Portero.com, a luxury auction site.
One group that attracts attention for its humorous approach is YouthAIDS, which does "social marketing" of condoms in 60 countries.
Travelzoo, which does online marketing for the travel industry, said yesterday that the Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating trading in its shares, including the sale of stock sold by its chief executive, Ralph Bartel.
"Google and Amazon both have the same end goal, to be the destination that people go to to do their product searches, and Amazon's winning that battle," said Michael Griffin, founder and chief technology officer of Adlucent, which does search marketing for online retailers and formerly managed Amazon's paid search.
Their aim, says Eduardo Braniff of Imagination USA, which does "experiential" marketing, is to "intervene in a consumer's life" and take people by surprise.Given that eliciting shock is a prime goal of pop-ups, the more unpredictable the location, the better.
In the center's analysis of marketing to children, released last November, the highest grade, a B-plus, went to the candy maker Mars, which does not market to children under 12 and avoids other gimmicks that attract them.
