Software enables qualitative data analysis

Australia-based software developer QSR International has launched XSight, a software program designed to assist qualitative researchers in the task of data analysis. The interface provides the researchers with their own personal white board, referred to as an analysis framework. Within each framework the researchers paint a picture around a central topic and develop themes and headings, adding comments from the research and their own interpretive thoughts. The findings can be entered directly into each framework or can be brought in from typed transcripts that are imported into the application.

A query feature allows users to slice and dice their findings. Whether querying for patterns between or across different target markets, or querying different themes, headings, brands, or just their creative thoughts, the software can accommodate these requests.

Team members can work together through the creation of shared white board outlines, i.e., templates that they create which reflect the main themes and headings of their findings. They can then merge their projects so that everyone has access to the shared findings.

The software allows users to create reports and presentations which can be exported to MS Word and PowerPoint. To ensure XSight is user-friendly, the software adheres to Microsoft guidelines and also uses specific market research terms. A 30-day free trial version is available at www.qsrinternational.com .

Evaluate Rx marketing campaigns with CTS Sales Test

Pharmaceutical promotion research firm ACNielsen HCI, Princeton, N.J., is now offering the CTS (Campaign Tracking System) Sales Test, a measurement tool to evaluate the sales force support of key message platforms and the use of sales material in order to provide the most effective Rx marketing campaign.

A foundation of ACNielsen HCI’s campaign assessment process HCI MAPS (Marketing Analysis For Promotion Success), CTS Sales Test reveals why the sales force is/is not using sales material and driving the key message, then identifies and provides solutions for issues surrounding sales materials.

By surveying the response of a random, anonymous selection of sales representatives from a client company, CTS Sales Test is designed to garner accurate campaign reactions by allowing the sales representatives to speak candidly about their thoughts. This information is ultimately used to measure both the visual and message components of the sales material, to identify any sales force issues related to sales aid usage and to recommend corrective measures.

The CTS Sales Test poses questions concerning sales representatives’ understanding of key messages, the conversations that sales representatives are engaging in, the most useful sales aids, and examines why certain sales materials are/aren’t being utilized. Additionally, it evaluates representatives’ response to visual aspects of the campaign such as the effectiveness of graphics in supporting key messages, layout, visual impact and functionality in detailing. For more information visit www.acnielsenhci.com .

Research firm unveils vacation Web site

Pioneer Marketing Research, Atlanta, has launched a Web site that helps parents find the best places to take a vacation with children. Called www.vacationswithkids.com, the free site contains ratings and verbatim remarks from more than 2,000 families who took vacations at least 50 miles from home in the last year.

Pioneer Marketing collected the ratings data from surveys it conducted in December 2003 and March 2004. Respondents provided information on the quality of accommodations, the quality of activities, the variety of dining options and the perceived value for the dollars spent on their vacation. The surveys also measured whether a family would return to a city or recommend that city to other families.

New program gauges health insurance product satisfaction

DSS Research, Fort Worth, Texas, has launched SatisAction, a satisfaction research program built to reveal snapshots of health insurance product performance and generate actionable recommendations for improvement.

SatisAction moves beyond member satisfaction measurement programs to allow for potential measurement of all key stakeholders, including members (new, lost and current for commercial, individual and Medicare products), employers (new, lost and current), patients, physicians/hospital administrators and brokers. Every SatisAction program includes reports and deliverables including: crosstab report with significance testing; profiling demographic characteristics of surveyed groups; trending against previous quarters or years; benchmarking against national, regional and local norms; spider chart analysis to delineate key performance factors; and correlation trees outlining the relationship between individual and overall measures. Projects can also include optional value-added reports and analysis, including: POWeR chart key driver analysis; structural equation model key driver analysis; customer value analysis (CVA); and overall brand strength analysis. For more information visit www.dssresearch.com .

Consumer-focused site aids product development efforts

Myproductadvisor.com, a Web site from Market Insight Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif., research firm, is designed to help consumers make the right product choices and also aims to give manufacturers insight into consumer product preferences. My Product Advisor helps those shopping for complex products narrow their focus and save time while finding the right products for them. Consumers answer educational questions to generate impartial recommendations that are customized specifically to their needs and preferences. By analyzing these consumer inputs, marketers can explore new product development efforts, product pricing, new feature introduction, and production scheduling. For more information visit www.marketinsightcorp.com .

Ethnic demographic data from GeoLytics

The new Planners Package for Ethnic Studies with demographic data from 1990 to 2008 is now available from GeoLytics. Population forecasting and planning has been hindered in the past by the problem of changing geographic boundaries over time. With the Planners Package, GeoLytics has resolved this issue. All of the data is converted to 2000 boundaries, so users can examine 1990, 2000, 2003, and 2008 data all in the same boundary definitions.

The regular Planners Package includes three census-based products: 1990 Long Form in 2000 Boundaries, 2000 Long Form, and the 2003 Estimates and 2008 Projections (with Consumer Expenditures). For researchers who need detailed data on ethnicity and race broken out by age and gender, they require an additional dataset - the 2000 Short Form (SF1).

The Short Form data also includes detailed breakouts of group quarters (nursing homes, college dorms, military barracks, and prisons).

All products come with built-in mapping capabilities. The software also exports data and boundaries to other products such as SAS, SPSS, ArcGIS, MapInfo, Excel and Access. For more information visit www.census-data.net .

Version 2004 of EZReport from Raosoft

Seattle-based Raosoft’s EZReport Version 2004 provides analysis and reports for both non-expert and expert end users. EZReport is developed specifically to examine questionnaire and survey-type data. The data can be derived from Raosoft data-gathering software, any DBF database, ASCII databases, or standard ODBC databases (SQL Server, Access, Oracle, DB/2, Sybase, more). New features include the ability to produce stacked bar charts, which can pivot instantly. Formatting options are extended to support color and plot styles that can be set. The menu interface has been reorganized and extended for greater clarity. EZReport Version 2004 is designed to be a user-friendly and flexible report writer with statistics, and was developed to give non-experts the ability to produce custom reports, and to give speed to advanced users. Reports may be saved as templates for future re-use with different data, printed, exported, or be saved in Adobe PDF format for Web site posting and distribution. Or, end users may take advantage of Raosoft’s RapidReport Version 2004 program, which provides default templates that allow them to prepare reports for each variable or question in a preset chart format. For more information visit www.raosoft.com .

New Q Score measures brand attachment

New York-based Marketing Evaluations, Inc./The Q Scores Company is now offering Brand Attachment Q as a new metric for evaluating consumers’ emotional attachment to brands and services. Brand Attachment Q is an enhancement of the company’s Product Q service, and will utilize a new rating scale to measure consumers’ emotional connection to brands.

Product Q summarizes a variety of consumer perceptions and feelings into a likeability measurement. Brand Attachment Q will take the concept of liking particular brands to the next level, and determine why consumers love particular brands.

Brand Attachment Q helps companies identify consumers who are committed to its brands, as well as competitive brands. As a company aims to define how large its customer base is, and understand what turns those consumers on or off, Brand Attachment Q offers insight into how to deepen the connection to various brands by turning likers into lovers. Additionally, when companies understand what drives consumer involvement with competitive brands, Brand Attachment Q provides assistance in developing strategies to lure customers to its own brands. For more information visit www.qscores.com .

Scarborough enhances PRIME NExT; adds genre viewership info

Scarborough Research, New York, has enhanced its proprietary data analysis software, PRIME NExT, with the addition of two new capabilities: mapping and quick view reports. Both features are designed to save time for the user and create presentation-ready sales and marketing materials featuring Scarborough market penetration information, demographic data, media analysis, and product and retail category insights.

The new mapping capability enables media professionals and marketers to understand consumer phenomena visually through the production of custom digital maps. With mapping, PRIME NExT users can create maps illustrating local and regional consumer and media audience behaviors. These maps can easily be incorporated into reports and presentations. The mapping function utilizes Microsoft MapPoint to enable users to develop sales pitches and marketing strategies.

Separately, Scarborough has added television program genre viewer information to its syndicated study. Beginning with the first release of the 2004 Scarborough database, qualitative information about consumers who watch different types of programs – from the many versions of reality (dating, game shows, documentaries, adventure, talent, etc.) to music videos and local news – is now available to help television stations, cable systems and marketers target their audiences and customers. Scarborough also added new measurements in the insurance, sports, retail, Internet and lifestyle categories of its questionnaire. For more information visit www.scarborough.com .

Measure sponsorship effectiveness with Dynamic Logic product

Dynamic Logic, a New York research firm, has launched AdIndex Sponsorship, a new product designed to help advertisers measure the effectiveness of sponsorship initiatives that aim to link a brand to a particular activity, event or content. The new research application will also help advertisers evaluate the impact of sponsorships on consumers’ perceptions of the brand as well as their intent to purchase or engage in a particular activity.

AdIndex Sponsorship will help sponsors answer the following questions: Did the sponsorship successfully link the cause, activity or content to the brand? Did consumers feel that the sponsorship and the brand were a good fit? Did the sponsorship increase brand favorability and purchase/behavior intent among the target audience?

The specific contribution that a sponsorship can add will be measured through AdIndex Sponsorship using a control/exposed methodology, which isolates the effects of the sponsorship from other activity (online and offline media, PR, etc.). For more information visit www.dynamiclogic.com .

New facilities

Precision Research Inc. has opened a new research center near Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The 12,000-square-foot facility features four focus suites and a commercial test kitchen with natural gas and ample electric. The address is 999 E. Touhy Ave., Suite 100, Des Plaines, Ill., 60018. Phone 847-390-8666. Web www.preres.com .

Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights, Little Rock, Ark., has opened a new call center in West Little Rock. The center, operating under the name Flake-Wilkerson Market Insights Midwest, LLC,   will bring an average of 11 full-time jobs to Arkansas and 167 part-time jobs. The call center will conduct customer satisfaction research for Qwest Communications.

Briefly

Houston-based Promark Research Corporation is now implementing Voxco Interviewer VCC (virtual call center) software in all of its call center data gathering operations.

Natick, Mass.-based Sage Research, Inc. has launched Sage Market Pulse, a technology research service offering a free weekly e-mail alert that delivers data to subscribers on a variety of current technology topics. Each week, Sage Research asks a question of the Sage Panel, Sage’s proprietary group of nearly 13,000 qualified technology decision makers, and delivers the answer to subscribers with an illustrative chart. Subscribe at www.sageresearch.com/pulseregister.htm.

WebSurveyor Corporation, Herndon, Va., has introduced a new service to help people build online versions of their paper-based surveys. With this new service, WebSurveyor gets organizations started on their online survey projects by converting their existing paper surveys into Web surveys. Once a paper survey is converted, the customer maintains complete control of it. Using WebSurveyor, they have the ability to modify the survey, send out e-mail invitations, receive data and analyze results. For more information visit www.websurveyor.com.