Conflict of Interest Policy

As a full service research company, we face the challenge of potentially providing research services to companies in a brand category in which we are consulting. This may place us in a potential conflict of interest position. We follow the credo: “If is seems like a conflict of interest, it probably is.”

To avoid any conflict of interest, and to abide by our corporate values, we have established the following policy to ensure that our clients’ needs are served first.

• ZINC Onsite is a separate division that is solely responsible for onsite data collection using our Palm PDA platform. Our Online services are delivered in partnership with Dufferin Research Inc.
• Field and tabulation services are considered core offerings of the ZINC Onsite division and are also considered Online products.
• In the event that ZINC Onsite or ZINC Online receives a request for services that include a consulting component, this consulting work will be referred to our Consulting division.
• ZINC Research’s Consulting division will only provide data analysis and strategic consulting services to a single brand category/sector and will not work for a competitor. If a request for research services comes from a competitor, they will be referred to another research consulting company.
• If a client migrates from our Onsite or Online to our Consulting division, they can be assured that they will receive exclusive service from ZINC Research within their product category.