New approach to choice modeling from Macro
Macro Consulting, Inc., MountainView, Calif., has developed a hybrid approach to discrete choice modeling  called the Logit-Cake Method. With the Logit-Cake Method, a large number of feature utilities (50 or more) can be estimated at the individual level while at the same time allowing for control over the experimental design in a full-profile format. Design control allows for specification of product combinations, via traditional experimental design, in advance of the interview process. This permits the incorporation of physical exhibits into the interview to minimize respondent confusion. A cluster-based solution to the heterogeneity problem is built in. First order interactions can also be estimated using the Logit-Cake Method. All of the advantages normally associated with choice models over conjoint models have been maintained.
S-Ware offers Javabased addition to Web package
S-Ware, Halifax, Nova Scotia, is offering a new Java-based tool to complement its Web survey package, World Wide Web Survey Assistant. The new Java editor and updated Web sitare designed to make WWW Suryey Assistant easier to use. The new editor runs as an applet through any Java-enabled Web browser. As no download or installation is required, users will be able to take advantage of software enhancements as they are added. The Java editor can also be downloaded and run as an application independent of the user’s Web browser. S-Ware will continue to support its CGI-based editors for users who are not yet using a Java-enabled browser.
Using WWW Survey Assistant, the survey/test administrator needs only to supply the questions. WWW Survey Assistant generates an HTML form and a dynamic CGI script and installs them on S-Ware’s server. No progamming experience is required. WWW Survey Assistant users need no knowledge of or access to their own WWW server. The company offers a free demo which is fully functional for two weeks and requires no download or installation. Features include: runtime range and type checking, custom formulas based on the user’s responses, automatic skip ability to generate multiple page surveys, data and security violation logging, WYSlWYG editing.
Socratic debuts Web module
Socratic Software, San Francisco, has introduced VISUAL Q Web Player, a new module that enables surveys created by the company’s VISUAL Q survey design software to be conducted on the World Wide Web. Questionnaires developed using VISUAL Q will be automatically converted to HTML by the new Web Player module to create Dynamic Web Surveys, the company’s proprietary on-line survey technique. The new module supports logic of skip patterns, piping, randomization, variables, and error checking.
New product from Spatial Insights
Spatial Insights, Inc., a Vienna, Va., geographic information services company, has developed a menu-driven application used for extracting and appending GDT’s Dynamap data on the fly from within MapInfo. Using the application, GDT’s Dynamap data are extracted directly from CD-ROM, and data for multiple themes coveting multiple states and/or counties are appended in one operation.
The GDT’s Dynamap Extract and Append application was developed in response to consulting projects that required the integration of Dynamap data coveting multiple states or counties. Over 30 specific themes, including census and postal geographic boundaries, roadway systems, and a variety of infrastructure location and attribute data can be extracted and appended for any user-specified area. The application was developed using MapBasic, and runs directly within MapInfo Professional.
CRS adds Spanish dictionary to The Survey System
Petaluma, Calif.-based Creative Research Systems, a maker of PC based survey software, has added a Spanish dictionary to The Survey System for W’mdows, its Windowsbased survey research software package. The addition of Spanish dictionary facilities will enable users to verify both question text and answers. Users can add their own specialized dictionaries of technical terms. CRS plans to add other languages in the future.
New Web-based survey program
Virual Architechs, LLC, Sausalito, Calif. has introduced Survey-Builder.com, an automated survey service that lets users create and conduct a Web-based survey in minutes and view results in real time from their Web browser.
SurveyBuilder.com eliminates the need for survey software, programming and administration. Clients go to the SurveyBuilder.com Web site, enter the questions they want to ask, and SurveyBuilder.com handles the rest.
To experience SurveyBuilder.com’s capabilities, anyone can build and conduct a free, no obligation 50-response survey before making a purchase decision. Users simply access the SurveyBuilder.com Web site (www.surveybuilder.com), follow a wizard through the step-by-step survey design phase, and link the completed survey to their Web site by inserting a few lines of HTML.
SurveyBuilder.com surveys can be deployed across the Internet, intranets and extranets allowing companies to connect with customers, employees and vendors both domestically and internationally. Clients can then invite survey participation using Survey-Builder.corn’s pop-up invitations on their Web site, or by sending targeted E-mail invitations that link to the survey. The latest survey results can then be viewed, printed or downloaded as they come in through real-time reports on the SurveyBuilder.com Web site.
SSI offers international samples on-line
Random digit telephone samples for six countries can now be ordered through SSI-SNAP, Survey Sampling Inc.’s on-line sampling software. Online samples are available for Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the U.S. Sampling for other countries, as well as expanded geography selections for current countries, will occur throughout 1998. Users install SSI-SNAP on their computers. The Windows-based software is designed to communicate with SSI’s computer and databases. SSI provides SSI-SNAP at no charge.
Free statistical software
Decision Analyst, Inc., Arlington, Texas, is offering its new, improved STATS statistical software free to marketing researchers at corporations, nonprofit organizations, government entities and advertising agencies. The new version includes a more powerful and flexible Chi-square module and a new module for paired-comparison tests. The Windows-based package performs several statistical functions, including: generating random numbers, calculating sample sizes for surveys, computing the mean, standard deviation, standard error and range and other statistics for keyboard-entered  data, and determining the standard error of proportion.
PR research guide from Ketchum
The 1998 edition of "A Guide toPublic Relations Research" an 80-page reference manual for PR professionals which is prepared and updated annually by the Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide Research and Measurement Department, is now available. The manual contains five major sections, including a checklist of things PR practitioners ought to consider when they do research, a comparison of six different types of research that are often used in public relations, a listing of secondary data sources, a glossary of terms, and a selected bibliography of key books and articles. The manual is $25. Checks or money orders should be made payable to "Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide" and sent to Walter K. Lindenmarm, Research and Measurement Department, Ketchum Public Relations Worldwide, 292 Madison Ave., New York, N.Y., 10017.
Euromonitor offers directory of European retailers
Euromonitor International, Chicago, is now offering the "European Directory of Retailers and Wholesalers," which provides contact information plus background details, including ownership and subsidiaries, number of employees and sales geography, private labels, and financial data, on 4,800 European companies. The directory covers 27 types of outlet or form of organization, including buying group, cash and carry, concession, convenience stoore, department store, duty-free, hypermarket, mail order, service station, vending machine, and wholesaler.