Study examines Chinese-American health care
New York-based Kang & Lee Advertising has released results from its Chinese American Consumer Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Study. The study, fielded by Simmons Market Research, was developed to match the content of the Health & Medicine section of Simmons’ semi-annual National Consumer Survey which is fielded in both the general and Hispanic markets. As such, Kang & Lee’s Chinese study results can be indexed against both general market and Hispanic consumers.
The new study provides a range of data about Chinese-American consumers including usage (by both category and brand) of over-the counter pharmaceuticals including vitamins and mineral supplements, analgesics (both adult and pediatric), cold remedies, heartburn and indigestion aids, laxatives, cough syrups, pain relieving rubs and liquids, bandages and topical antibiotic remedies, products aiding vision, and others. In addition, the study provides benchmarks for the incidence and current treatment patterns for a list of medical ailments and diseases, including usage of specific prescription pharmaceutical brands within the last 12 months. The study also queried a range of consumer attitudinal measures with respect to health care and treatments, ranging from the propensity of consumers to get regular checkups, to preference for Chinese vs. non-Chinese medical treatments and doctors, to key sources used by Chinese to obtain health and pharmaceutical information.
The study was fielded in the spring of 2005 with a random sample of Chinese-American adults from the top Chinese DMAs in the country (including New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles). Respondents were pre-recruited by telephone and then mailed a detailed questionnaire in their “language of comfort” - Chinese or English. Based on the pre-recruiting, a total of 1,802 questionnaires were mailed, and 778 completed surveys were returned - resulting in a response rate of 43.2 percent. Eighty-six percent of respondents opted to reply to the questionnaire in Chinese. For more information visit www.kanglee.com.
ESRI releases mid-decade update of Community Tapestry
The data development team at Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI has completed the mid-decade update of its segmentation system, Community Tapestry. Since Census 2000, several demographic changes have occurred and have been included in the update. The U.S. population has increased by 17.3 million people. Another 16.8 million teenagers have come of age. Nearly seven million new households have been created; 6.7 million residents have become homeowners. The average household income increased by 21 percent. The average home value has jumped 57 percent.
These demographic and lifestage changes have caused the reassignment of some neighborhoods into several Tapestry segments. Aging populations have shifted neighborhoods from the Rustbelt Traditions segment into Rustbelt Retirees neighborhoods. Marriage and family changes have moved some Laptops and Lattes singles’ neighborhoods into Urban Chic neighborhoods of professional couples. Population growth has been reflected in diverse markets such as International Marketplace, Pacific Heights and Urban Villages. Areas in transition, such as neighborhoods in Old and Newcomers, have settled into new Tapestry markets such as Trendsetters. Median home value has topped $1,000,000 for Top Rung neighborhoods, Tapestry’s most affluent segment. The median age of residents in Tapestry’s oldest segment, the Elders, has increased from 72.8 years to 73.4 years. For more information visit www.esri.com/tapestry.
Online groups provide early feedback
Menlo Park, Calif., research firm Knowledge Networks has launched a new resource, KnowledgeCommunities, which will provide ongoing marketing feedback from consumers in such niche influencer groups as ailment sufferers, home improvement buffs and wine enthusiasts. KnowledgeCommunities has been developed through a partnership with interactive publisher and technology company morefocus group inc., which has built online consumer groups encompassing more than 12 million people with shared interests. To attract consumers and registrants, morefocus uses a network of Web sites and newsletter publications.
KnowledgeCommunities is designed to provide marketers an early read into their customers and prospects. In addition, the morefocus content infrastructure lends itself to expanding into communities that clients may be interested in tapping.
KnowledgeCommunities draws on the morefocus consumer and patient groups to create communities whose members are involved in specific topics and can provide a level of expertise and engagement. Groups created by morefocus include, for example, consumers with a keen interest in health-related topics, exercise, gardening and travel. For more information visit www.knowledgenetworks.com or http://corporate.morefocus.com.
Study will examine behavioral vs. contextual ad placement
New York-based audience measurement company TACODA is partnering with Next Century Media, a media research company based in Gardiner, N.Y., to develop a study of how and why behavioral targeting outperforms contextual targeting in numerous measures of engagement including purchase intent, advertising awareness, branding measures and ROI.
“Placement of ads in an editorial context has been the gold standard for many advertisers. However we are seeing a significant number of campaigns for major advertisers where the behavioral targeting unit outperforms the contextual targeting ad unit in terms of absolute levels of click-through, purchase intent, advertising awareness, and other measures of audience engagement,” says Dave Morgan, CEO of TACODA. “When this was also reported by other delivery networks, we felt it was too revolutionary and fundamentally important to ignore. We expected behavioral targeting to outperform contextual targeting in terms of eCPM - cost efficiency in reaching target audiences - but we never expected that behavioral would ‘out engage’ contextual.”
TACODA and Next Century Media have begun a four-pronged research effort, which will span more than a year, to understand how it is possible for behavioral targeting to outperform contextual targeting on engagement metrics even leaving cost aside. “The accumulation of cases is too large to be ignored,” says Bill Harvey, CEO of Next Century Media, “and is one of the most surprising set of findings I’ve seen in a couple of decades. How could an ad for a product engage its target audience better in a neutral editorial environment than in an environment that is all about that product category? We studied the data and came up with two hypotheses so far. One we call Clamor: perhaps the user’s eyes sometimes avoid the ads for cars, for example, in a car-related site, because there are just so many of them clamoring for the user’s attention. To investigate this further we have already begun an eye tracking study being conducted by The PreTesting Company. The other hypothesis we call The Unexpected: perhaps users who are known from their Web behavior to be targets for a specific product are surprised when they see an ad for that product on a site where they wouldn’t expect to see it. We are planning to conduct a brainwave experiment to check out the Unexpected hypothesis.”
“In addition we are conducting a series of controlled campaign experiments measuring click-through, a range of branding communications metrics and ROI,” says Morgan. “And we are asking the industry to provide cases, whether anonymous or not, that can shed light on this phenomenon. The findings of this program will be shared with the industry and will have implications for how to use contextual targeting and behavioral targeting to their greatest advantage, so as to maximize ROI for the advertiser and add to the ongoing growth of the Internet as an advertising and marketing medium.” For more information visit www.nextcenturymedia.com or www.tacoda.com.
Cost of Care module from PharMetrics
Watertown, Mass.-based PharMetrics, a unit of IMS Health, is now offering its Cost of Care market intelligence module, which gives pharmaceutical companies insights for measuring the impact of their products and other medical interventions on health care costs. It incorporates anonymous patient-level insights to help marketing teams create value-oriented messages and maximize the formulary status of their brands.
Typically, manufacturers rely on in-depth pharmacoeconomic studies to identify disease-related costs and compare the advantages of alternative therapies. PharMetrics’ Cost of Care module supplements these traditional studies, providing a solution to assess the total health care cost associated with different treatment approaches. For more information visit www.pharmetrics.com.
Updated version of DataFriend software
Russia-based research company Comcon has released DataFriend 6.0, a new version of its media and market research software. DataFriend helps users analyze market research data and build reports using a range of statistical tools. DataFriend 6.0 offers a cluster analysis module for customer segmentation. Its cluster analysis is based on the K-means method. No special programming skills are required. The new version also provides new statistics such as correlation, delta and rank. New types of diagrams have been added to visualize indices, correlation and other statistics. The software also offers tips to make the analysis process more efficient. For more information visit www.datafriend.net.
Radio listening measured by new passive system
Paris-based Ipsos and the providers of the syndicated study the Media Audit have joined forces to market a new passive-media audience measurement system for the media industry in the U.S. The two came together in response to the radio industry’s interest in an alternative ratings service that will use technology to monitor radio listening and include new ways to sell radio’s advertising strengths. Most recently Clear Channel Radio announced an RFP for an alternative measurement system. “Radio measurement has remained the same over the past 40 to 50 years,” says Bob Jordan, president of International Demographics, Inc., publishers of the Media Audit. “Yet the media world that the measurement system is trying to measure has changed dramatically.”
The Media Audit/Ipsos new audience measurement system includes two forms of monitoring software. One form is an encoded watermark embedded in the broadcaster’s audio signal. The second form is an audio matching technology that will measure broadcast signals of those stations that are not encoded. The open-technology solution does not involve the manufacture of hardware. The smart cell phone, via the Ipsos software, monitors the individual’s exposure to radio, other electronic media, the Internet and out-of-home. In addition it has the facility to track retail shopping patterns via a GPS system.
“Cooperation of survey participants is a critical component of good research,” says Richard Silman, global CEO of Ipsos Media. “We believe that cell phones are such an integral part of most peoples’ lives that we will get a high degree of cooperation and compliance with survey participants via their cell phone. This applies particularly to the younger demographics.”
According to Ipsos the smart phone solution offers the following advantages: it is a familiar device that does not require the respondent to carry a piece of equipment that may attract curious glances or questions from friends; it does not require the research firm to manufacture special hardware for signal embedding or detection; the power and functionality of the device will increase in line with developments in smart phone technology; although the development work thus far has concentrated on the signal encoding approach it will also incorporate an audio matching capability in the same device; the system offers the potential for very large samples - in due course anyone who has a smart phone will be able to participate once the software has been downloaded to them; as a device for transporting the software, smart cell phones will insure a greater degree of compliance in usage of this audience measurement system. The Media Audit will initiate a field test of the Ipsos watermark software in mid-year 2006 in the U.S. For more information visit www.themediaaudit.com.
TNS to track local cable television advertising
Beginning in March 2006 New York-based TNS Media Intelligence will begin tracking advertising occurrences for local cable television in the San Francisco and Boston markets. This marks the first undertaking to provide detailed information on advertising occurrences for local cable television in the U.S. TNS MI will monitor multiple cable systems per market, allowing clients to differentiate commercial announcements that cleared market-wide, versus regional zones. Tracking of commercials will be done from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week. All advertising occurrence detail will be provided, including network, category, advertiser, brand and number of units. The first set of data for San Francisco and Boston will be available in April 2006. For further information please visit www.tns-mi.com.
Briefly
Research firms Trendex North America, Toledo, Ohio, and Marketing Group, Mexico City, have begun jointly operating a nationwide quarterly in-home personal interview omnibus in Mexico. The omnibus will be based on interviews conducted by Marketing Group in 15 of Mexico’s major metropolitan areas. For more information visit www.trendexmexico.com.
London-based Research Now has launched a Spanish client service team, which will offer clients access to profiled Spanish consumers who are members of Research Now’s Opine Y Gane online research panel. Fiorella Calderon Boza has been promoted to client development manager for the Spanish market and will be supported by Client Service Executive Andres Salazar. For more information visit www.researchnow.co.uk.
San Francisco-based research firm MarketTools, Inc. has introduced a new Hispanic-focused research service called Hispanic Reach, which blends online and offline respondents, from both acculturated and unacculturated Hispanic populations, to provide insights to market researchers. The 100,000-plus member U.S. Hispanic online panel, with options such as a choice of acculturation segments, allows marketers to capture behaviors, attitudes and responses to better understand U.S. Hispanic consumers. For more information visit www.markettools.com/solutions/sample/hispanic_reach.html.