Gallup, Invoke offer qual-quant service
The Gallup Organization, Washington, D.C., has partnered with Invoke Solutions, Waltham, Mass., to launch a new Gallup research service that blends qualitative and quantitative research capabilities in live Internet sessions with large, targeted groups of consumers or employees. Using technology from Invoke Solutions, these research sessions combine the adaptive questioning of a focus group with the large sample and metrics of a survey, all in a real-time event in which client stakeholders can participate. For more information visit www.gallup.com.
New mobile-phone survey product
U.K. research firms Pulse Train and Embrace Mobile have teamed to create Bellview Mobile, a new service that brings together Pulse Train’s Bellview data collection suite and Embrace Mobile’s MSurvey product, which enables market research over mobile phones. Bellview Mobile includes survey creation, survey invitations via SMS and other mechanisms, data collection via mobile phone (SMS, WAP browser and Java are supported), and final data delivery in a variety of industry-standard formats. For more information visit www.pulsetrain.com or www.embracemobile.com.
PreTesting measures emotional connections to ads
Tenafly, N.J.-based research firm PreTesting is now offering e-Motion, technology that measures the intensity of emotional connectedness one feels with television commercials or Web sites. E-Motion can record both visual fixations and saccadic response to these media, measuring respondents’ emotional interest as they watch commercials. With a target audience’s e-Motions superimposed over a commercial, a second-by-second analysis of a brand’s ability to bond with consumers is produced. For more information visit www.pretesting.com.
Two new online-based services from Gongos
Gongos Research, Auburn Hills, Mich., is now offering Gongos i°Communities, a custom platform that encourages consumers to interact with one another in an online environment, and Active Intercept, which offers real-time qualitative interaction with respondents during quantitative online surveys.
Gongos i°Communities are designed to engage customers in a Web-based environment where natural dialogue allows them to take an interest in the direction of brands. During a typical a six-month period of engagement, Gongos Research analysts facilitate communities while guiding interactions such as live chats, flash polls and online surveys designed to enrich the dialogue.
Active Intercept lets moderators interact with select respondents as they participate in an online survey. The program facilitates real-time exchanges between researcher and respondent - a feature that allows qualitative analysis to be injected into traditional quantitative online surveys. For more information visit www.gongos.com.
NMI updates its reports on LOHAS
The Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) has released its 2006 Understanding the LOHAS Market report series. There are three new components to the fifth edition of the LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) report series, including a new segmentation model, the LOHAS Index and market size quantification.
The new segmentation has more dimensionality, with each consumer segment having unique qualities that provide insight on the entire marketplace. This new segmentation solution shows the LOHAS consumer’s role as a predictor in ethical consumerism and reflects the mainstream appeal that many LOHAS product categories have migrated to. It also captures the nuances that exist in various consumer targets, with the new segments being LOHAS consumers, Naturalites, Drifters, Conventionals and The Unconcerned.
The LOHAS Index looks at corporate social responsibility (CSR), combining actual CSR performance and consumer-perceived responsibility. It uses investment analyst data and consumer perceptions on the same companies from NMI’s 2006 LOHAS Consumer Trends Database.
In conjunction with Silvercliffe Media, each report includes an analysis of the dollar size of the consumer LOHAS marketplace. For more information visit www.nmisolutions.com.
Mystery shopping-based training for frontline employees
Norcross, Ga., mystery shopping firm Shop’n Chek Inc. has launched Triggered Training, a new frontline training and learning solution designed to improve operational performance at the store level.
Through Triggered Training’s real-time, immediate delivery of training content and feedback loops, clients can reduce or eliminate the time gap between the measurement of operational performance and resulting customer service improvements. The software product helps clients deliver focused, Web-based training to all store locations where customer service deficiencies are detected. The system works by triggering immediate action at the store level based upon the results of a client’s customer experience measurement programs.
To further ensure that frontline associates and managers understand the training material, clients can elect for tests to be administered in conjunction with the training. Automated scoring and status reporting provide ongoing verification and management follow-up. Triggered Training incorporates customized performance standards into real-time training at all brand locations. For more information visit www.shopnchek.com.
New comScore products for pharma, blogs
Reston, Va.-based comScore Pharmaceutical Solutions and partner Evolution Road have developed consumer e-marketing effectiveness benchmarks for the pharmaceutical industry based on aggregate and blinded data across a multitude of studies. Covering patients and prospects, these new benchmarks focus on the impacts of specific e-marketing initiatives, such as online banners, search and visitation to brand and disease-specific Web sites, and key brand business objectives, including brand awareness, brand favorability, generating incremental new patient starts, incremental adherence/next fill and data for ROI calculations.
Separately, comScore Networks and Federated Media, the representative of more than 110 independent conversational media sites (including Digg, PROTRADE, BoingBoing and Dooce), announced a research and development initiative designed to provide comprehensive measurement of conversational media such as blogs and community-driven sites. As part of this research endeavor, comScore will build a database using a customized weighting and projection system designed specifically for measuring the conversational media and blogging sector. For more information visit www.comscore.com.
Foodservice database from Technomic
Chicago-based foodservice consultancy Technomic Inc. and European firm CHD Expert are offering access to a large database of foodservice providers with over four million addresses in North America and Europe. Food manufacturers and other suppliers to the industry can use the CHD Expert database to reach over 820,000 commercial foodservice establishments in the U.S., encompassing limited- and full-service restaurants, in addition to bars and taverns. Over 150,000 other foodservice providers, including lodging, health care, transportation, recreation, business and industry, and education segments are also available. For more information visit www.technomic.com.
Survey TV fans via BuddyTV site
Seattle-based research firm QuestionPro and BuddyTV, an entertainment-focused community Web site, have created a new way for advertisers to acquire input from viewers of shows that feature their ads. BuddyTV uses custom online surveys from QuestionPro to gather information and opinion from the community of fans that cluster on its site to discuss their favorite programs.
BuddyTV community members take online surveys - developed by the research groups of advertisers and facilitated by QuestionPro.com - within hours of when a show airs up to a few days afterward. BuddyTV’s analysts compile the results and produce a report. For more information visit www.questionpro.com.
Briefly
Focus group video transmission firm FocusVision Worldwide, Stamford, Conn., has launched FocusVision Librarian, a new service which gives researchers a secure central location for all their focus group video and documents. Users can create video clips, order transcripts and download audio podcasts in their Librarian. A free 90-day trial is available. For more information visit www.focusvision.com.
U.K.-based Kynetec Limited and Doane Marketing Research Inc., St. Louis, have merged to create a new marketing information business, dmrkynetec. The firm serves the crop protection, biotechnology and animal health industries from 10 offices across North America, Europe and Asia. For more information visit www.dmrkynetec.com.
Bruzzone Research, Alameda, Calif., has released results of its post-testing of ads aired during the 2007 Super Bowl. Recognition, advertiser awareness and 52 other diagnostic tools were used in the evaluation. For more information visit www.bruzzone-research.com.
Synovate has launched its PAX Latin America media consumption survey. It will poll 4,500 affluent consumers in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, including business decision makers and managers such as C-level executives. For more information visit www.synovate.com.
First Choice Facilities, a consortium of owner-operated focus facilities, has added new members: Focus on Boston (with two locations), J. Reckner Associates in Philadelphia, and House Market Research in the Washington, D.C./Baltimore area. For more information visit www.firstchoicefacilties.net.
New York-based Scarborough Research is offering a complimentary report on Wal-Mart shoppers at www.scarborough.com/freestudies.php. The report examines the success of Wal-Mart in converting its store shoppers into buyers.
Prezza Technologies, Cambridge, Mass., has released the latest version of its Checkbox Web Enterprise Edition Web-based form, feedback and survey software. Prezza has also renamed its technology platform from Ultimate Survey to Checkbox. For more information visit www.prezzatech.com.
Toronto research firm Angus Reid Strategies is developing Angus Reid Forum, a national online market research panel representing a cross-section of Canadians. For more information visit www.angusreidstrategies.com.
Dallas research firm Parks Associates has launched 2007 Digital Health Service: Analyzing Health and Wellness Markets for Digital Devices and Services, a new research program that will provide ongoing updates and analysis on the emerging digital health market. The service includes a free monthly newsletter, a monthly compilation of key industry events and a client-based program. For more information visit www.parksassociates.com/digitalhealth.
London research firm All Global now offers an online panel of 80,000 U.S. physicians. For more information visit www.allgloballtd.com.
ResearchPAYS Inc., a market research firm based in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., is offering a new primary market research solution, ResearchPAYS, which is designed to help marketers learn what America’s Hispanic consumers want and how to reach them. Surveys are delivered to a consumer’s home address, where they use a proprietary phone-based process to enter their responses. For more information visit www.researchpays.net.
The Qualboard software for discussion boards and research journaling from Nashville-based research firm 20/20 Online has been translated into Chinese/Mandarin. For more information visit www.2020research.com.
New York-based communications firm KCSA Worldwide has created an advertising and media practice dedicated to serving the advertising, market research, publishing and media industries. For more information visit www.kcsa.com.
San Francisco research firm Telephia has launched Residential Market Metrics, a new product that measures residential access line share at the metropolitan market level on a monthly basis. The product allows companies to see a view of their market share defined for their specific footprint. For more information visit www.telephia.com.