What Consumers Know and Don't Know About RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tags) New RFID Consumer Buzz Study to Be Fielded December 2004

COLUMBUS, OH -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 11/17/2004 -- BIGresearch and Artafact have launched a new qualitative/quantitative syndicated report to track consumer awareness, attitudes and opinions about the wave of RFID applications hitting the market from Texas Instruments, VeriChip maker Applied Digital, IBM and others. The second wave of the this new study of over 8,500 adults will explore the impact the recent publicity around new RFID applications has had on awareness of RFID and consumer attitudes and opinions about it. The study will also look at the sources of information consumers use to get and stay informed about RFID. Has this recent publicity fueled or abated consumers concern for privacy? From the first wave of the study fielded in September 2004, 72% of the respondents had never heard of RFID and had no idea what it was. Those that were aware (28%) had educated themselves via the Internet versus hearing about it from traditional mass media like television, radio and print. Over 8,000 consumers participated in the September survey. "We expect to see big changes in just a few months with more consumers being aware of RFID and having heard about it from traditional media channels," said Linda Stegeman, President of Artafact. "Our large samples provide us the unique ability to separate the RFID aware population from the non RFID aware population. Follow up in-depth online focus groups allows us to further explore consumer reactions to a range of applications from mainstream to very complex. "We learned from the first study that there were no differences in shopping behavior between the two populations, but will this change as some retail outlets like Wal-Mart and Target become early adopters of RFID?" said Stegeman. This next study will also explore what brands, companies and organizations (if any) are emerging for consumers as good sources of information about RFID applications. In the first wave of the study, nearly two-thirds of RFID aware adults were concerned about the potential for privacy abuse and no source was recognized by them as a resource for good information. They don't trust the government, so who will emerge for them as a resource to fill this role? Complimentary detailed findings of the September 2004 study can be found at: http://www.bigresearch.com/rfid.htm. For further information about the December 2004 study, please contact BIGresearch at http://www.bigresearch.com .  About BIGresearch and Artafact LLC BIGresearch and Artafact LLC are breaking new ground in research providing real-time qualitative and quantitative syndicated market research data. Companies seeking ongoing market intelligence at a lower cost can now routinely tap into their market to identify, track and predict trends as well as gain in-depth proprietary insights about their product and marketing initiatives within clearly identified market segments. Contact: Linda Stegeman Artafact LLC 43165 Sabercat Fremont, CA 94539 (510) 651-9178 lstegeman@artafact.com