Research youth market via text messaging

Stamford, Conn.-based North Castle Partners’ Nextstep digital youth marketing division, in a strategic alliance with text messaging technology provider enpocket, has created Mobile Youth IQ (MYIQ), a learning tool for the text messaging marketplace. Through MYIQ, Nextstep is able to conduct market research through real-time text messaging, allowing its corporate subscribers to gain insights into the evolving youth market.

Nextstep works with a panel of pre-screened teens and young adults (ages 12-22) to conduct specific surveys via text messaging every week. Through MYIQ, Nextstep conducts general industry surveys to provide insights around wireless and text advertising and marketing trends to subscribers of the MYIQ monthly newsletter. Custom surveys are also available from which clients can obtain feedback on the youth markets’ attitudes towards their specific campaign ideas. For more information visit www.ncpnextstep.com .

New Web-based CSM products for financial institutions

Omaha-based Customer Service Profiles has released Reports onDemand and STARS, two Web-based tools for assessing and improving employee performance and customer satisfaction. Reports onDemand provides clients with a real-time summary of their institutions’ employee performance scores, customer satisfaction indicators and comments and perceptions from customers down to the employee level at all locations of a financial institution. Data is gathered from customer-based shopping processes and post-episodic telephone research using objective customer evaluators, verified via a quality-control process and then posted onto a secure Web site. Clients view reports tailored to their management level. Executives obtain high-level snapshots showing the trends occurring throughout their institutions, and can drill down to region, branch or employee scores. They can compare specific regions or branch scores to determine which ones are under- or over-performing. Branch managers use the site for employee performance reviews as well as coaching and training purposes.

STARS is an online performance management resource to help managers in training employees with their customer service tactics. Although the STARS Web site is separate from Reports onDemand, it is integrated so a manager can find relevant content. Both sites are included as part of Customer Service Profiles’ Service Excellerator System, which integrates measurement, management and training programs into one system. For more information contact John Berigan at 800-841-7954 or visit www.csprofiles.com .

Knowledgebase launches Consumer Passion Index

KnowledgeBase Marketing, Richardson, Texas, and its partner Mal Dunn have launched a new lifestyle database called Consumer Passion Index. The new database combines purchase data from Mal Dunn with the demographic lifestyle and attitudinal data in KnowledgeBase Marketing’s AmeriLINK national consumer database. There are over 60 passions to choose from, spanning sports, personal expression, travel, hobbies, intellectual interests, product preferences and causes, as well as a range of demographic and other parameters. For more information visit www.kbm1.com .

New Asian market report

Los Angeles-based research firms Interviewing Service of America (ISA) and Cultural Access Group (CAG) have partnered to create The Asian American Market Report. Using research findings from a variety of sources, including a CAG/ISA quantitative study and the CAG Asian Advisory online panel, it is designed to provide marketers with useful statistics, data, and insights on Asian-Americans. For more information call Michael Halberstam at 818-989-1044 or Raul Lopez at 305-971-1437.

Monitor new CPG segments with LabelTrends

ACNielsen U.S., Schaumburg, Ill., has launched LabelTrends, a new service that monitors sales trends in 13 of the hottest consumer packaged goods (CPG) product segments, such as low-carb, low-fat, organic, and sugar-free. Operating within ACNielsen Strategic Planner, an online sales tracking database of CPG products in nearly 1,100 syndicated categories, LabelTrends groups products with similar claims on their labels such as “reduced fat” or “no added sugar.” For more information visit www.acnielsen.com .

System delivers the voice of the customer

CustomerSat, Inc., Mountain View, Calif., is now offering the CustomerSat Enterprise 7 survey and analytics system. Enterprise 7 enables businesses to hear, analyze and act on the voice of the customer through multiple channels, including speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) and Web, in addition to traditional phone interviews and paper questionnaires. CustomerSat’s support for these channels now extends to mobile devices such as PDAs and cell phones.

Speech-enabled IVR interprets and digitizes customers’ spoken ratings and rankings, and records and stores customers’ verbatim comments as audio (.wav) files. Customers may also provide their responses through their telephone keypad. Audio file storage and playback from within Enterprise 7 enables managers to hear verbatim comments in a customer’s own words and tone of voice. All survey results can use CustomerSat’s online analytics, dashboards, and Action Management along with feedback gathered through other channels. The product also allows companies to access results within CustomerSat from a CRM system, such as Salesforce.com or PeopleSoft, by clicking a link. For more information visit www.customersat.com .

Measure restaurant employee satisfaction with REES

St. Paul research firm Questar Data Systems has introduced the Restaurant Employee Engagement Survey (REES), a variation of Questar’s current Employee Engagement Survey. REES uses 16 items to assess four dimensions that research has shown lead to a more engaged restaurant employee: task alignment, managerial strength, environmental health, and employee loyalty. REES is administered by telephone or paper. The program includes an administrative guide, a communications kit and optional telephone coaching for area managers.

A color-coded, one-page report gives restaurant managers a way to identify strengths and problem areas. The report also shows an overall engagement index for their unit, and identifies three key areas to focus on to improve engagement. Rollup reports show area managers the issues that need to be addressed to create more productive, engaged employees. For more information contact Anna Erickson at 651-683-8697 or aerickson@questarweb.com or visit www.questarweb.com .

SSI beefs up B2B samples

Survey Sampling International, Fairfield, Conn., has enhanced its business-to-business online samples, offering researchers access to more than one million businesspeople of all distinctions. Job titles include president, general manager, administrator, operations, and IT professionals. Users can select by a number of categories, including: number of employees and/or direct reports; annual revenue; functional role and/or occupation; business title/job title; industry segment; purchasing role; and number of personal computers. Among IT professionals, researchers can pinpoint more than 100 job titles, including individuals with skill sets and hardware and software experiences of many types. For more information visit www.surveysampling.com .

SPSS offers text analysis product, update of Dimensions

Chicago-based SPSS Inc. is now offering SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys, a new software product designed to help researchers turn unstructured, qualitative data into structured, quantitative data by extracting and classifying key concepts from open-ended survey responses. Using the product’s linguistic algorithms, researchers can unlock open-ended data. Categorized text responses can be quantitatively evaluated alongside other data. Those responses can be further refined through manual techniques.

Researchers will also save time by simplifying in-house creation of code lists and eliminating the need to read verbatim responses word for word. The categories or “codes” produced can be re-used to provide consistent results across the same or similar studies.

Data can be imported from multiple sources, including ODBC-compliant databases, Microsoft Excel files (.xls), and SPSS files (.sav). The product can work in conjunction with the SPSS statistical and data management family of products and the Dimensions market research technology platform. Once created, categories can be exported for further analysis in applications such as SPSS for Windows and Excel.

SPSS is also now offering a new version of SPSS Dimensions, an application suite for survey design, data collection, data management, analysis and publishing of survey research results. This latest release includes updates and enhancements to mrInterview, which provides survey researchers with an end-to-end solution for fielding and managing Web research projects; mrStudio, which enables customers to manage survey research data using efficient scripting; and mrTables, which helps users build, share and interact with tables using a Web browser. For more information visit www.spss.com .

Raosoft updates EZSurvey, adds SMS capability

Seattle research software firm Raosoft, Inc. has issued Service Release 1 of its EZSurvey 2004 software. It adds new security features and form design enhancements, including: a new Active Preview window, which displays the form page as you type; hard-coding of SQL commands into an XML file on the Web server to make them invulnerable to nonsense-data attacks; a form processor that detects buffer overrun attacks and improper file names and sends an e-mail notification to the Web site owner; improved e-mail importing and management; and new algorithms designed to allow faster import and export of large data files.

Separately, through a partnership with Mobile Feedback, Ltd., Raosoft has added text messaging (SMS - short message service) to EZSurvey 2004. Customers can now conduct interactive data gathering, feedback and polling, with immediate reports of results. EZSurvey SMS broadcasts text messages and collates responses, combining the characteristics of mobile phones and e-mail. Other features: multiple messages can be collated into a single database for real-time reports; automatic responses to incoming messages are possible (e.g., to deliver winners’ confirmation messages); faster response exists due to load balancing and a scalable architecture safely supports high message volume; and cost is low through sharing an SMS gateway among several end users. For more information visit www.raosoft.com .

Personicx adds tracking of life changes

Acxiom Corporation, Little Rock, Ark., is now offering Personicx LifeChanges, a consumer segmentation system designed to allow marketers to target receptive customers as they move through life variations that affect their purchase behavior. Personicx is a household-level segmentation system that places each U.S. household into one of 70 segments, or clusters, based on its specific consumer behavior and demographic characteristics. Personicx LifeChanges tracks the migration of households from one Personicx life stage cluster to another by using Acxiom’s InfoBase List prospect file, which is composed of households whose segment assignment has recently changed from one Personicx life stage to another. Personicx LifeChanges creates a monthly “change” file compiled from an evaluation of changed Personicx codes on the InfoBase List file and historical trend analysis.

Some specific events such as marriage, the purchase of a home, the birth of a child or preparation for retirement are likely to result in a cluster change. According to research conducted by Acxiom, an estimated 30 million to 35 million household Personicx cluster migrations occur each year. Personicx cluster assignments are updated each month to reflect the constant amount of consumer change. For more information visit www.acxiom.com .

It’s confirmed: Confirmit 8.5 now available

Oslo-based Future Information Research Management has released a new version its Confirmit online survey and reporting software. Confirmit 8.5 is designed to provide companies with a variety of reporting capabilities for surveys such as ESAT (employee satisfaction) and organizational climate.

It includes new report automation and personalization functionality for companies to create and deliver reports that let each manager see the results for his/her own unit, compared to other relevant units within the business.

The new report automation and personalization functionality is available in Confirmit’s Web-centric reporting platform, Reportal. Businesses can choose to provide their managers with secure online access to Reportal, enabling them to drill down, or alternatively deliver static personalized reports in MS PowerPoint or MS Excel directly to their inboxes. For more information visit www.confirmit.com .

New suite of segmentation tools

VisionEdge Marketing, an Austin, Texas-based marketing consulting firm, has launched a beta version of its Envisage Tools Suite, which offers users three separate tools to aid in positioning and segmentation efforts. The Suite currently consists of Envisage Advantage, Envisage Target, and the Envisage Opportunity Calculator. The tools help users see a potential market from several angles. Each tool is based on strategic questions for which users provide input. For more information visit www.visionedgemarketing.com .

Regulus study tracks kids’ reactions to research

Regulus Communications, Inc., a Lincoln, Neb., research company, has established The Research Monitor project to track kids’ research participation and preferences. The study is conducted through the Young Author’s Magazine Anthologies program. Regulus asks young authors and their parents to respond to basic questions about Internet research participation, survey methodologies and Internet privacy issues. The study tracks nine research techniques, from Internet panels to mystery shopping; the most important Internet privacy issues for kids and parents; and the potential for legal actions by parents against intrusive sponsors of market research.

The purpose of The Research Monitor is to serve as a strategic assessment guide for selecting market research services and methodologies for researching with kids online, and to keep research sponsors, marketing directors, brand managers, consumer groups, market researchers and parents informed about potentially intrusive market research methodologies.

The report from the study will be published quarterly beginning this month and will help guide research sponsors in selecting the best methodologies to use when researching with kids online, and help them avoid becoming the legal target of angry parents. For more information contact Richard Austin at 402-450-1252 or visit www.regulus.com .

Conjoint module from QuestionPro

Seattle-based QuestionPro Inc. has released its conjoint analysis module for measuring product profiles and customer intentions. The QuestionPro Conjoint Analysis Simulator helps market researchers extract numeric values for the different attributes of a particular product in a manner that is intrinsic to the consumer. Consumers are presented with different profiles and are asked to choose and rate the different profiles. Different models are used to calculate the relative importance of the different attributes that make up a product. This data can further be used to determine market share of products and how new product introductions may realign the market share. For more information visit www.questionpro.com/conjoint .

Wearable device measures media exposure

Germany-based GfK is now offering MediaWatch, a wristwatch-like device for electronic media reach research. It measures whatever mass media the wearer comes into contact with, wherever the wearer may be. MediaWatch is a further development of the Radiocontrol audiometer developed by GfK subsidiary Telecontrol in Switzerland , which electronically measures radio audiences. Like its predecessor, the new metering unit is designed in the form of a wristwatch, and it is equally able to measure the media contact of the wearer with radio, TV, newspapers, magazines and other printed matter as well as cinema and outdoor advertising.

A recording unit records and encodes audio and radio signals three times a minute. The MediaWatch is able to record data for up to four weeks before it has to be changed. If clients wish, they can have docking stations installed for panel members which can be used to send the signals recorded during the day to the GfK IT centers overnight. These are compared with sample signals from programs. For more information visit www.gfk.com .

Add streaming video to online surveys

StreamingSurvey.com is a new product from Chicago-based Survey Writer.com that incorporates streaming video playback into its online survey tool. StreamingSurvey.com combines all of the functionality of SurveyWriter.com with the ability to embed video with guaranteed playback into surveys. By using a playerless video system, StreamingSurvey.com is designed to make the experience of taking a survey with video embedded into it easy and efficient. This new online survey tool allows companies to test video advertising, animatics, infomercial concepts, movie trailers or any product or service with a video component. The player is Java-based so that video will play on all Java-compatible platforms and browsers. The encoder can take media in any format and turn it into streaming video. In addition the media is encrypted. For more information visit www.surveywriter.com .

Ipsos firms debut pricing strategy suite

New York researchers Ipsos-Insight and Ipsos-Vantis are now offering a full-service pricing strategy suite called Price Evolution that addresses manufacturers’ and marketers’ pricing challenges at various stages in a product or service life cycle. The Price Evolution frameworks consist of four stages of customized pricing solutions to meet a range of pricing challenges: Price Test, for early in the development process; Price Optimization, typically employed after a product or service has passed through the initial concept testing stage; Price Estimator, used pre-launch; and Market Simulator, for a mature product or service.

The suite combines market research capabilities with a validated forecasting model to adjust consumer-stated survey data to reflect actual behavior. Clients can test the impact of variable pricing and marketing strategies - such as different price and feature combinations, or lowering the price to meet price-aggressive channel requirements - on sales. For more information visit www.ipsos-insight.com .

New facilities

Promark Research Corporation, Houston, has opened a call center in Rexburg, Idaho with 45 CATI stations that are expandable to 75 stations. Rexburg is home to Brigham Young University Idaho , which is expected to provide many of the center’s telephone researchers and supervisory personnel.

Promark also announced that it has installed Voxco’s Pronto predictive dialer at its Houston data collection call center facility. For more information visit www.promarkresearch.com .

Ventura, Calif.-based Reyes Research has opened a new Los Angeles-area facility in Sylmar, in the northeast section of the San Fernando Valley . Heading up the office is Jennifer Torres Rayas, previously manager of the firm’s Oxnard/Ventura office. Phone 818-367-4445.

Briefly...

Synovate India has set up CATI centers in the cities of Delhi , Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. For more information visit www.synovate.com .

New York-based P\S\L Research Group has formed Medefield America to provide pharmaceutical research field services. For more information contact Elys Roberts at 212-220-0880 or at elys.roberts@medefield.com .

New York marketing firm Cohn & Wolfe has launched its proprietary research and brand planning process, MindworX. A set of intelligence tools, MindworX is designed to leverage consumer communications styles to build stronger brand differentiation in the marketplace. For more information visit www.cohnwolfe.com .

AcuPOLL Research, Cincinnati , has introduced eFactor, a new method for assessing the initial and deeper emotional connection made by advertising. It uses the studies of social psychologist Robert Plutchik as its foundation for gathering unarticulated emotional responses in an effort to unearth brands that can win over consumers. For more information visit www.acupoll.com .

Colwell & Salmon Communi-cations, Inc., Albany , N.Y. , has expanded its offshore data collection capabilities at its facility located in Noida , India , just outside of Delhi . The new facility has added approximately 200 seats to the current 125 U.S.-based seats. For more information visit www.colwell-salmon.com .

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Knowledge Networks is now offering KNOW, a new business and market research magazine. It can be accessed at http://know.knowledgenetworks.com. For more information contact David Stanton 908-497-8040 or at dstanton@knowledgenetworks.com .