Statement of Work:
Partnership in Walmart Pulse Program
Program Dates: February 1, 2013 thru January 31, 2014
Total Investment: $75,000
Key Contact Information:
Sony
Daniel Christman
[email protected]
MaPS (a Millward Brown / Kantar company)
Maria Zhekova
Principal
[email protected]
781.642.6277
Communispace (an Omnicom company)
Julie Ruiz
Account Manager
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[email protected]
617.316.4438
What is Pulse?
Pulse is an insights platform created by Walmart Global Customer Insights and Analytics in
partnership with two strategic research partners: Communispace and MaPS. By bringing together the
capabilities of these two companies, Pulse delivers integrated, holistic insights at the speed of retail
— in hours and days instead of weeks and months, and at a competitive cost. Forward-looking
planning with Pulse and Walmart GCIA is designed to optimize your use of the platform.
Pulse Communities
Pulse Custom Panel
Listen & Socialize
Qualitative tool to deeply
explore the motivators and
feelings guiding the
customer.
Understand
Quantitative tool to
understand customer
perspectives, behavior
and decision drivers.
Powered by
Build hypotheses
Uncover the whys
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Powered by
Test hypotheses
Identify the who,
what, when
Pulse provides broad consumer access
Pulse provides access to a broad range of consumers through our unique online communities and
customer panels. The Pulse Communities consist of 5,800 Walmart shoppers ranging from moms to
college students; seniors to Spanish-speaking members. Separately, the continuously-refreshed,
65,000-member panel is nationally-representative including an augment to reach multi-cultural
consumers. This means we reach all customers, even the hard-to-reach groups. Through both the
communities and panel, you can reach the following shopper segments, among others:
Age Groups
18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, 65+
Ethnicities
Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic (including Spanish-speaking)
Income Groups
Under $35K, $35k - $50k, $50k - $75k, $75k+
Life Stage
Young/Single, Young/Married, Middle Age, Elderly
Other
Walmart and Sam’s Club segmentations, Rural/Urban/Suburban
shoppers
Note: Sampling by Walmart or Sam’s Club segments dependent on sample size, timing and scope of study.
The Pulse Communities
Powered by Communispace, the leader in market research online
communities, the eleven Pulse Communities are comprised of 5,800
highly engaged, recent Walmart and Sam’s Club shoppers across a
wide range of customer segments including Spanish-speaking
customers, moms, men, B2B Sam’s Club members and more.
Pulse Community members are recruited from Walmart- and Sam’s
Club-provided shopper lists based on anticipated research needs and
formed into communities around commonalities such as age or other
demographic information. Community members are then invited to
participate weekly or more often in “activities” ranging from discussions to live chats to surveys.
Community members are also available for custom qualitative research including ethnographies, instore work, as well as iterative and co-creation research.
A dedicated team of community managers facilitates the communities daily to help foster the personal
connections between members by encouraging member-to-member interactions and
listening to conversations for answers to the “questions you hadn’t thought to ask”.
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The Pulse Panel
Powered by MaPS, the Pulse panel is designed to deliver survey research that is representative of
the US Census and offers an in-depth understanding of Walmart/Sam’s Club shoppers and nonshoppers.
Through our profiling process, we collect not only demographic information but also Walmart and
Sam’s Club Segmentation assignments, shopping frequency and
attitudinal information on all of our panelists. This allows us to target
our surveys and reduce our time in field, while still maintaining a
representative sample frame.
To answer strategic business questions, the panel provides in-depth
custom studies with unique sample frames designed to guide your
business with Walmart and Sam’s Club. We offer the ability to
incorporate analytics and rigorous statistical frameworks to best meet
your specific needs and business questions.
The large panel design (65K members) allows us to reach a wide
range of audiences. However, in situations when product-specific or
very low incidence groups are required, a larger “feeder” panel may be
leveraged, with little impact on cost and timing.
Walmart’s Ongoing Programs
Pulse also provides a few ways to listen to and understand these customers without using research
budget.
Member Topics
A monthly search for customer verbatim on a given topic of interest is available free of charge in the
Pulse Communities and will not count against your allocated budget. These topic searches provide a
rich repository of customer verbatim, with results delivered in an Excel data file. Sample searches
may include topics such as couponing behavior, reactions to a policy, Super Bowl ad reaction, etc.
In-store Research
Pulse partners gain the benefit of working with an internal Walmart/Sam’s Club Global Customer
Insights and Analytics (GCIA) partner to help navigate the in-store research process.
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How Does Pulse Work?
Using your budget
Each project request will be priced on an individual basis based on data collection costs and
reporting/analysis needs. You can use your entire budget in one large project if you so choose or on
smaller projects throughout the year.
Because each project or activity is custom, you will receive an expected cost required to deliver your
project, which will be delivered along with a project approach. Project costs will only change if a
material change has occurred from the original specifications of the project. For example, if additional
sample is required or the type of reporting deliverable is changed.
In this scenario, the costs of the individual project will be adjusted up or down accordingly.
Unless otherwise agreed upon, for Pulse staffing purposes your budget will be equally divided
between the communities / qualitative (with Communispace) and the custom panel / quantitative (with
MaPS).
Pulse encourages equal use of the budget across the four quarters of Walmart’s fiscal year. Due to
high platform demands near the holiday season, we will not be able to accommodate more than onethird of your total research budget in Q4. Any amount beyond the one-third left in Q4 will risk
forfeiture.


Q1-Q3: At least 67% budget utilization
Q4: At most 33% budget utilization
The Process
All suppliers will be provided a point of contact at MaPS for quantitative research and a point of
contact at Communispace for qualitative research. This point of contact will be available to discuss
methodologies, design, analysis, timing, etc.
Once initial discussions have occurred with contacts at MaPS and/or Communispace, the Pulse team
will provide recommended approaches and costs based on business needs and questions provided.
All supplier project submissions can be reviewed by Walmart to ensure the research objectives are
actionable and not redundant, at which time they may suggest alternative research projects. All
prioritization decisions will be made by Walmart, and not by the MaPS / Communispace Pulse team.
All research conducted in Pulse must be done on behalf of Walmart and/or Sam’s Club and may not
be shared with members of your organization in contact with our retail competitors.
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A wide variety of tools means many ways to get to insight
The Pulse Communities and Panel include a broad range of tools for capturing consumer insights as
well as for analyzing the data received. These tools allow you to build custom research designs with
methodologies ranging from traditional to some of the most innovative tools on the market.
Pulse has a number of different survey options available depending on the desired audience, means
of delivery, nature of the questions being asked and required speed of response. Below are examples
of standard options in both the Panel and Communities that can serve as guidelines on scope and
timing.
Panel Activities / Quantitative (powered by MaPS)
Approach
Description
Cost
Timing
Low
Complexity
Study
• 5 - 7 minute survey, census representative sample, N=300
• Excel deliverable + email summary
$12k-$15k
Low
Complexity
Study
Medium
Complexity
Study
• Could cover: 8-15 minute survey, targeted sample group, larger
sample size, quotas on specific targets
• Excel deliverable + short PPT
$16k-$29k
Medium
Complexity
Study
Higher
Complexity
Study
• Could cover: 15+ minute survey, targeted sample group, larger
sample size, quotas on specific targets
• Excel deliverable + PPT
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$30k+
Higher
Complexity
Study
A variety of advanced analytics are available as add-ons to any panel project. Cost and timing will
vary based on the scope and complexity of each engagement. Estimates will be available upon
request.
Advanced Analytics (Powered by MaPS)
Approach
Description
Decision Tree/ CART
• Uncovers what path individuals choose in decision making based on preceding
items.
Regression
• Identifies causal relationships between independent and dependent variables.
Factor Analysis
• Groups attributes based on underlying themes with common meaning. The new
“factors” can then be used more efficiently in modeling.
Perceptual Mapping
• Simplifies complex relationships between multiple brands and attributes, showing
them in two-dimensional space (perceptual map).
TURF
MaxDiff
• Optimizes strategies by identifying the least number of levers needed to maximize
consumer reach and frequency with limited resources.
• Identifies best/worst or most/least important items among a large set of attributes
or concepts. Forces respondents to make difficult trade-offs across attributes (e.g.,
purchase factors).
Van Westendorp
• Determines optimal price points for a product or service.
Driver Modeling/ SEM
• Derives key drivers of satisfaction, loyalty, share, or other important behaviors.
Used to prioritize improvement efforts.
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A variety of online qualitative tools are offered to provide depth, texture and the opportunity to
interact with shoppers real-time.
Community Activities / Qualitative (powered by Communispace)
Approach
Description
Cost*
Timing
All projects are custom-designed and priced; the price list gives ranges
Discussion
• Sequential discussion to better understand opinions
about a topic or small group of related topics
• Transcript and PPT output
Survey
• Custom priced based on specified parameters
• PPT output
Image Collection
Online Chat
Video Focus Group
• Base price includes analysis of up to 100 images.
• Higher price range included curated PPT of up to 100
images.
• Text-based, moderated live discussion
• Up to 15 participants for one hour
• Transcript and bulleted key findings
• Video-based, moderated live discussion
• Up to 8 participants for one hour
• Video file and brief PPT summary
$6,000
2-3 weeks
$5,000$16,000+
1-4 weeks
$8,000-$12,000
2-3 weeks
$6,000
1-2 weeks
$8,000
2-3 weeks
In-Store Task Force
• Custom assignments, up to 30 participants
• PPT output
$15,000+
3-4 weeks
Video Production
• Custom assignments
• Varied lengths and levels of editing
$10,000$25,000+
Custom
Custom qualitative
projects
• All qualitative projects from medium to high complexity,
typically characterized by multiple activities, in-person
work and/or more complex reporting requirements.
• Includes ethnographies, longitudinal, iterative and cocreation work.
*Low-end pricing includes delivery of data, but no reporting.
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Pricing & timing provided based
on specific needs
Compensation Terms
The total annual cost to participate is $75,000. This entitles the supplier to conduct research
equal to this full amount. All work must be completed through the PULSE platform, and the total
amount must be fully utilized before the program term (January 31, 2014), or risk forfeiture.
Unless otherwise agreed upon, half of the budget will be allocated for panel / quantitative research
and the other half allocated for the communities / qualitative research. Walmart reserves the right
to reject or suggest alternative research projects at any time if they deem the proposed content
inappropriate or redundant.
Budget utilization will be as follows or risk forfeiture:
 Q1-Q3: At least 67% budget utilization
 Q4: At most 33% budget utilization
Project costs will be invoiced in two installments:
 50% of total project costs invoiced on April 1, 2013
 50% of total project costs invoiced on August 1, 2013
Note: All invoices will be prepared and sent by MaPS (a Millward Brown / Kantar company).
Supplier agrees to pay the total amount stipulated above. Supplier will pay all proper invoices
within 30 days of receipt of invoice, provided that Supplier may withhold payment of any portion of
an invoice subject to a bona fide dispute until resolution of the dispute. Supplier understands that
failure to pay these fees may result in a discontinuation of all services.
AGREED AND ACCEPTED
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For MaPS/Communispace
For Sony
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