Study segments Boomer population

BoomerEyes, a specialized research division of C&R Research, Chicago, has conducted a study of Baby Boomers, individuals born between 1946 and 1964, to obtain a deeper understanding and an up-to-date analysis of this group.

The BoomerEyes Lifestyle and Psychographic Segmentation study reveals four distinct segments within the broad Boomer population. Defined by their attitudes and behaviors versus age, the segments include: Looking for Balance Boomers, Confident and Living Well Boomers, At Ease Boomers, and Overwhelmed Boomers. The survey was conducted online with individuals born between 1946 and 1964. A total of 1,040 interviews were completed in August 2004. For more information visit www.crresearch.com.

Qualitative resource network launched

Minneapolis research firm Market Resource Associates, Inc. (MRA) has introduced the Qualitative Resource Network (QRN). The network was created in response to an increasing demand for field management of qualitative research projects from independent moderators, advertising and public relations agencies and companies with in-house market research departments, said MRA President John Cashmore in a company press release.

QRN is not a part of a chain or co-op; its purpose is to help place projects in the best location(s) and see the fielding through to conclusion. QRN will handle the smallest assignment to the largest in any desired U.S. or Canadian locale. Services are provided a la carte, so clients can decide the range of involvement of QRN in their projects. Study methods for which QRN provides field services include focus groups, mock juries, ethnographies and in-home, office or telephone individual interviews.

If a moderator, ethnographer or interviewer is needed for a project QRN will supply the client with a list of qualitative researchers who have agreed to work with QRN clients. Some may already reside in the location where the study is to be conducted, saving on travel expenses. Knowing the researchers’ qualifications, the client can select the researcher with whom he or she is most comfortable. For more information contact Dan Bredahl at 800-795-3056 or visit www.mraonline.com.

Syndicated product for online retailers

New from Nielsen//NetRatings is its MegaView Online Retail service, an online syndicated and custom data product that reports overall shopping traffic and customer purchase data. The research is designed to enable retailers and marketers to improve their online retail strategy for increased online sales through competitive benchmarking, dollar spending insights and buyers’ conversion rates. The data measures product category sales by retailer and tracks top referring Web sites.

Retailers and marketers can access syndicated and custom reports, enabling them to:

- track visitor and customer purchasing behavior;

- quantify total dollar spending and drill down by product category;

- assess the referral effectiveness index from top referring Web sites;

- measure visits for comparable sites where purchases were made;

- analyze average retail spending and number of orders across retailers;

- trend retail purchase metrics;

- examine visitor behavior according to demographic profiles; and

- build comparison shopping reports to identify online competitors, gauge loyalty and assess new opportunities.

MegaView Online Retail service is based on the Nielsen//NetRatings’ MegaPanel, which provides retailers with intelligence on online consumers by linking past surfing behavior from the panel’s sample with current opinions through real-time surveys. By combining these survey results with the actual surfing habits of the respondents, retailers and marketers are able to better understand how consumers are spending online. For more information visit http://netratings.com.

Updated Clementine supports predictive modeling with Oracle Data Mining

Clementine 9.0, the latest version of the data mining product from Chicago-based SPSS Inc. leverages its open, standards-based architecture to offer explicit integration with Oracle Database 10g, the first relational database designed for grid computing. Oracle Database 10g supports predictive modeling with Oracle Data Mining, enabling the building and scoring of models directly within the database.

Clementine 9.0 will enable analysts to use the Clementine interface to build, browse and score models in the Oracle Database 10g using techniques available with Oracle Data Mining. Oracle Data Mining algorithms, including Naïve Bayes, Adaptive Bayes Network and Support Vector Machines, appear as nodes in the Clementine interface. These techniques can be used just like any other techniques that are native in Clementine. For more information visit www.spss.com.

Version 9.0 of The Survey System now available

Creative Research Systems, Petaluma, Calif., has released Version 9.0 of The Survey System, its survey software package for Web, paper or phone surveys. The package includes a new drop-out analysis feature which shows where people abandoned a survey. Drop-outs are a major problem in Web-based research, and this feature enables researchers to see which questions caused the most difficulties and prompted respondents to abandon the survey. This analysis can include demographic breakdowns.

The software can also import questionnaires from Word documents directly without modification while preserving the original formatting. This can save time since many questionnaires are originally drafted in Word or similar programs and have to be retyped or cut and pasted into question files.

Other new benefits include the ability to: save results in PDF; produce a questionnaire form summarizing all results; use right-to-left-reading languages (Hebrew, Arabic); create respondent panels for repeated polling; embed Windows Media Player and Apple Quick Time into Web surveys to play video; and drag and drop questions into new positions in a questionnaire. For more information visit www.surveysystem.com.

Markitecture offers multi-sponsored studies

Marketing consulting firm Markitecture, Norwalk, Conn., is now offering Markitecture Syndicated Studies, co-sponsored studies aimed at helping marketers understand the influence of intermediaries in both consumer and b-t-b purchasing decisions. These studies are designed to help marketers develop strategies to encourage these “influencers” to purchase more of the marketer’s products.
The studies are customized for each co-sponsor’s individual brands and market research needs. The co-sponsors participate in designing the studies to insure that the studies obtain data on their individual brands, markets and competitors, including ranking each brand in its own product category in order to develop best-in-class rankings. For more information contact Kevin Moran at 480-595-4754 or at kmoran@markitecturesyndicatedstudies.com.

New Factiva products provide company-level data

New York information firm Factiva is now offering Factiva SalesWorks and Factiva Companies & Executives, which combine Factiva’s collection of global news and business information with information about company executives and industries from publishers around the world.

Factiva SalesWorks is a role-based application created to provide users with a snapshot of a particular company or executive and allows them to identify and qualify prospects with in-depth company information, executive biographies, prospecting lists, relevant competitor analysis and targeted news coverage.

Factiva Companies & Executives provides access to the same content collection as Factiva SalesWorks, and is designed for business, marketing and information professionals who require more flexibility and control over their searching. Through a single interface, this tool delivers the information sources organizations need to identify business opportunities, understand risks and threats, and monitor emerging markets, competitors, customers and prospects. Factiva Companies & Executives, a standalone product, links to Factiva.com.
Both products also provide automated monitoring and alerting, and advanced searching, and allow RICS, ticker symbols or D-U-N-S numbers to be used interchangeably. Factiva’s proprietary taxonomy, Factiva Intelligent Indexing, enables these fields to be mapped, resulting in only relevant information being returned in search results. For more information visit www.factiva.com.