Database helps track new products
Naples, N.Y.-based Marketing Intelligence Service is now offering Productscan Online, a database of more than 160,000 new product reports from around the world from 1980 to the present. Productscan Online includes the full content of four Marketing Intelligence Service publications, Product Alert, International Product Alert, Lookout Foods and Lookout Non-Foods. New content is posted six times per month. The database's search engine can track introductions by brand name, product name, manufacturer, product category, health claim, shelving type, innovation rating, packing type, package material, flavor, fragrance, ingredient and publication name. A suite of report programs allows researchers to generate new product statistics on the fly using a search set of their creation detailing new product counts by product category, flavor, fragrance, ingredient and health claim.
Scantron introduces eListen
Scantron Technologies, Tustin, Calif., has unveiled eListen, a universal electronic survey and data collection software system deployable across a wide range of mediums. The eListen brand is composed of three main elements: the eListen software product platform, eListen Web hosting service, and full service combinations of software products, Web hosting, and optical mark reader (OMR) data collection services. Dividing survey and data collection projects into four main phases - building, deployment, collection and analysis - eListen has a look and feel that is consistent with Microsoft Office. It allows audiences to design or "customize" surveys to meet their specific needs. This 32-bit Windows-based software application leverages its end-user familiarity in the marketplace with Microsoft Office as a standard Windows interface.
The building and deployment phases of survey projects are managed by the eListen Builder software module, working in conjunction with third-party systems, i.e., Web servers for HTML and e-mail servers for email deployment. The eListen manual Pump and the Autopump work with industry standard database servers to handle the collection phase, while the analysis phase is managed by the eListen analyzer module.
The eListen platform also supports a full array of standard network protocols, interfaces and technologies widely used in large organizations, including Internet standards such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Microsoft InternetfWeb standards such as ActiveX, e-mail standards such as Mail Application Programming Interface (MAPI), and general purpose/special purpose network operating systems including Windows NT, NetWare and UNIX.
To download an evaluation version of the eListen Builder with support for HTML deployment visit the eListen Web site at www.elisten.com.
SPSS updates AnswerTree
SPSS Inc., Chicago, has released AnswerTree 2.0, decision-tree software which identifies segments, patterns and results-driving factors in data. For example, marketing managers can build profiles of their best customers; credit managers can identify characteristics of people likely to default on a loan; and health care managers can profile those patients most likely to respond to treatment. AnswerTree offers four decision-tree algorithms to uncover relationships and interactions among data. For more information visit the company's Web site at www.spss.com.
New on-line data source from Claritas
Claritas Connect on the Internet is now ready for access, offering more than 100 reports from databases for real-time marketing decision support and geographic analysis. The service, from Arlington, Va.-based Claritas, is a Java-based application that connects users to Claritas' data through the Internet via a current generation browser. Once registered through an on-line interface, users can access reports on every U.S. market at any geographic level. Users can choose information from data sets including demographic profiles and trends, lifestyle segmentation, business location and profiles, consumer spending, traffic counts, crime vulnerability, shopping center profiles, and health care supply and demand. Users can select geographies from a list or they can develop more complex studies using rings, bands, sectors or polygons. Once the query is submitted, the requested information - along with the price for the report - is delivered almost immediately. If the report is purchased, it stays active in the user's "in box" for seven days, during which time the user may view the report, fax it or e-mail it.
Cytel updates StatXact
Cytel Software has released version 4 of its StatXact software, which implements exact methods (also called permutation tests) for statistical analysis. The new features in StatXact 4 include exact power and sample size calculations - features for investigators who need to know whether the samples they plan to study are large enough to detect the differences between treatments that interest them.
Exact methods involve repeated permutation or shuffling of data to determine whether chance might be responsible for observed differences between groups ("statistical significance" is the technical term). They yield more accurate results than traditional formula-based methods, and regulators and journal editors are increasingly requiring their use in submissions.
StatXact 4 implements over 80 exact routines for goodness of fit tests, one-sample tests, two-sample tests, K-sample tests, binomial data, two-way contingency tables, threeway contingency tables, and measures of association. Exact power and sample size calculations are available for a variety of tests on two binomial proportions, k ordered binomial proportions, and two ordered multinomial proportions.
New targeting tool for energy utilities
PNR and Associates, Inc., a Jenkintown, Pa., research and consulting firm, has introduced Energy BusinesScores, a new series of industry-specific variables that enable marketers to target the small and medium business segment based on particular business behaviors and attitudes related to retail energy offerings - at the individual establishment level of detail. Energy BusinesScores are created using statistical models derived from PNR's proprietary BusinessWave panel and survey of independently operated companies with under $10 million dollars in annual sales. These models are then firmographically-linked to individual records on Dun & Bradstreet's national file of eight million small and medium businesses. Retail Energy Provider clients can then use the individual Energy BusinesScores variables on the Dun & Bradstreet file to select lists of target firms for customer prospecting, to overlay their customer files with new data elements for cross-selling and customer-retention activities, or to assess the quantity and quality of geographic markets in terms of these attributes in strategic studies. The initial release of Energy BusinesScores (Release 1.0) variables contains cluster scores for assessing attributes such as customer "Bonding" (used to decrease defections to competitors), "Switching Impetus" (used to identify the "trigger effects" that induce customers to switch energy providers), "Contact Preference" (used to determine how to approach customers effectively), and "Benefits" (used to understand the appeal of product or service features to customers). The current release also contains potential scores that measure the willingness of a firm to purchase energy products and services, such as consolidated billing, power quality, energy management and control systems, HVAC maintenance, and security programs.
System automates phone surveys
Arch Telecom, Inc., Austin, Texas, is now offering SurveyPlus, an automated telephone survey which guides callers through a series of questions that can be responded to with touch tones or voice messages. Arch assigns an exclusive 800 number to each SurveyPlus client. Callers can respond to advertisements 24 hours a day by calling the SurveyPlus 800 number. When respondents call, Survey Plus captures and records a code for the ad medium that triggered the call and the caller's phone number, matching it with a name and address when possible. All responses to SurveyPlus are available real-time via fax-ondemand or the Web. Text files are stored up to 90 days.
On-line database tracks coupon distribution, redemption
International Data, a New Yorkbased coupon clearinghouse, is now offering BrandData, an on-line database that gives marketers information on the success rates of coupons and comparisons of their competitors' coupons. The system stores data on an interactive database and provides users with on-line reports of major market and key account activity. BrandData tracks distributed and redeemed coupons, including Valassis & SmartSource FSI, Synergistic Marketing's magazine inserts, and Catalina Marketing's instore coupons. The database is fully searchable, allowing users to run customized reports on their own brands and on competitors' brands based on criteria such as coupon value, cents-off discount ratio, purchase requirements, coupon publisher, newspaper and magazine titles and more.
Get site reports on-line from NOS
National Decision Systems (NDS) is now offering demographic site reports through a Web site. Prior to making business decisions, the reports can tell a company: who lives and works in an area; the retail trade potential (how much money people have to spend on a particular type of product); what other businesses (or shopping center mix) are located nearby (either complementary businesses or competitors); the demographic trends of the area; and lifestyle and purchasing patterns of potential customers. Reports are available in minutes and can be purchased with a credit card or on account.