Report tracks online holiday spending
New York investment firm Goldman Sachs, Rochester, N.Y., research firm Harris Interactive, and Internet audience measurement firm NetRatings, Inc., Milpitas, Calif., have announced a parmership to deliver the 2001 holiday eSpending Report, which tracks weekly online shopping and buying attitudes. The eSpending Report is based upon a weekly national survey of 500 onBne shoppers randomly chosen from Harris Interactive’s panel of Internet users. The survey tracks online shopping activity and spending by market segment, as well as consumer attitudes and motivations that drive online shopping.
Quick-response research for changing environments
Crestwood Associates, a Kirkland, Wash., research firm, has designed a research tool, Planning for Uncertain Times (PUT), to provide information and facilitate decision-making for the immediate future. Planning for Uncertain Times is designed to help businesses and organizations evaluate changing attitudes and plans by key constituencies (customers, clients, suppliers) in response to economic uncertainty. Armed with this information, managers can then make appropriate changes in business planning and strategy. This quantitative research progam is designed to provide immediate field deployment of a custom designed study feedback in four weeks or less. Components of the progam include: a rapid response survey tailored to a client’s specific needs and market environment, interviewing of key constituencies and the production of a key issues; a report including conclusions and implications, key data tables, specific analysis as appropriate and a management presentation if available.
CPG tracking tools debut
ACNielsen U.S., Schaumburg, Ill., and Markham, Ontario-based ACNielsen Canada, operating units of ACNielsen, have announced SCANTRACK North America and Homescan North America, two enhanced capabilities to provide clients with insights into consumer packaged goods (CPG) sales and consumer behavior across the U.S. and Canada. SCANTRACK North America combines ACNielsen’s retail tracking services, SCANTRACK in the United States and MarketTrack in Canada. SCANTRACK North America can be used to identify sales issues and opportunities that can be addressed at the local level. Homescan North America combines the U.S. and Canadian versions of Homescan, a CPG consumer panel.
New online research platform from MarketTools
Mill Valley, Calif., research firm MarketTools Inc. has released zTelligence 2.0, an online market research platform. The product integates panel management, survey technology, and knowledge management capabilities. It incorporates a panelbuilding and management system that enables customers to build, manage, and maintain proprietary panels in compliance with methodological and security standards. Panel capabilities are integated with the survey tool for deployment to panelists, and panel profiles are updated with data collected from surveys. The panel is always immediately accessible for pulling samples, viewing or updating the panel profile and deploying surveys.
New guide to finding research on the Web
MarketResearch.com, an online market research aggregator, has released the 2001 edition of Finding Market Research on the Web, a guide to locating and extracting research information available online. The book directs users through a list of online research sources and strategies and offers a consolidated directory of market data sites, including checklists on how to distinguish the best, and comparisons of their critical elements and features. Also included in the book are the specifics on saving time with search engines and finder tools, directions to IT analyst reports on the Web, information on how to find quality ejournals and insider-newsletters and analyses of vertical business portals or "vertals."
Expanded lifestyle database from Scarborough
New York-based Scarborough Research is offering Scarborough USA+, an expanded national database that provides insights into American consumer lifestyles. Developed for marketing and media professionals, Scarborough USA+ provides information on national consumer demogaphics, shopping behavior, lifestyle patterns and media usage. Together with the company’s existing local-market research, Scarborough USA+ provides a view of the American consumer that allows the users to: compare and contrast local and regional nuances against national data norms; identify the media and message to reach new and existing customers; and target advertising and promotional campaigns. Scarborough USA+ is aggregated from Scarborough’s 75 markets along with additional data from 48 states in the continental U.S. plus Hawaii. The data was collected from adults 18+ via telephone interviews and product booklets. The first release, comprised of 100,000 respondents, is available immediately. Future releases, with a sample of more than 200,000, will be available in the first quarter of 2002.
Updates of SPSS, AnswerTree now available
SPSS Inc., Chicago has released Version 11.0 of its SPSS for Windows data analysis software. SPSS 11.0 features new statistical procedures designed to deliver more accurate analytical, results.
SPSS 11.0 is the first version of SPSS to offer linear mixed models, which ensures accurate predictive models when working with nested data (i.e., students in a classroom, consumers in a household). The flexibility of this procedure means analysts can formulate a variety of models and work with repeated measure designs, such as incomplete repeated measurements in which the number of variables differs across subjects. For example, linear mixed models will help researchers analyze patient data over time where not every subject has the same number of visits.
SPSS 11.0 also features the new data restructure wizard, which enables users to restructure data from multiple records per individual to a single record per individual or vice versa. Additional new features in SPSS 11.0 include: enhanced multinomial logistic regression, general linear models, categorical regression, categorical principal components analysis and one-way analysis of variance procedures; expanded data access - SPSS can now access newer data sources including Sybase 12, Informix 2000, SQLServer 2000 and SAS 8; integration with SigmaPlot - SPSS Science’s scientific graphing software can be run within SPSS 11.0.
The firm has also issued an update of its AnswerTree data mining software. AnswerTree 3.0 is the first release of the software to offer a client/server version. AnswerTree also features evaluation graphs that provide at-a-glance summaries of segments. New features in version 3.0 include: interactive evaluation graphs - evaluation graphs visually display gains, risk, lift, profit and ROI for better understanding of model performance; and enhanced usability - mdlvldual nodes can be expanded and collapsed without delet-ing them, enabling users to see more (or less) of the tree without changing or deleting ihe model itself.
New research software from TeleSage
Seattle-based research software firm TeleSage, Inc., has added the ScanQuest software program to its product portfolio. Both ScanQuest and the firm’s SmartQuest IVR software enable a company to develop its own survey system. ScanQuest software is a scanning solution for SmartQuest users who wish to submit their data via printed forms rather than over telephone lines.
Once a company has designed and implemented a telephone survey system, input can be sent to the SmartQuest program from a local or remote location using a telephone’s touch-tone keypad. The information received is then scored and stored in a Microsoft Access or other ODBC-compatible database.
With the addition of the ScanQuest software, the program will also recognize input received from plainpaper optical mark forms, again scoring and storing the results. Theforms may be scanned locally or scanned and faxed remotely. The two products will share the same back-end database that scores and stores results for interpretation in any number of ODBC-compliant databases.
Using either the phone or scanner method ensures that results will be collected and scored in a timely manner. Once the results are entered into the SmartQuest or ScanQuest system, they can be distributed to specified recipients immediately using TeleSage’s SendQuest reportfaxing feature.
New online satisfaction research product
Stamford, Conn., research firm InsightExpress, has introduced SatisfactionExpress, an online customer satisfaction survey product. Using SatisfactionExpress, companies can acquire feedback from every customer interaction and identify and address situations before they become critical business issues. The product provides real-time alerts when a customer states they are not satisfied; monitors and tracks customer satisfaction over time, geography, or by service representative; identifies drivers of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction; prioritizes product and service improvements; operates as a standalone customer satisfaction solution or integrates into any existing CRM or database application. SatisfactionExpress provides a suite of tools to interpret and communicate results throughout an organization.
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New York-based Nielsen Media Research and Scarborough Research have partnered to offer qualitative, multimedia information to local television stations in the U.S. Beginning in January, the Scarborough television sales and training divisions will become part of the local television business unit of Nielsen Media Research, called Nielsen Station Index (NSI). This partnership will offer television stations a combined qualitative and quantitative analytical service provider.
RPM Consulting, Northridge, Calif., has announced a special agreement with Redlands, Calif., GIS firm ESRI to continue to sell and support Atlas GIS. RPM is also developing an extension to ArcView 8.1 incorporating Atlas’s functionality and look and feel. RPM will sell Atlas GIS 40 until the ArcView extension is introduced next year, and will then continue to provide support for all Atlas users.
Chicago-based SPSS Inc. has integated its SPSS and SigmaPlot software tools to form a data analysis and graphing system. This integration means that SPSS users can create and edit scientific graphs without ever leaving SPSS, and SigmaPlot users can add the analytical abilities of SPSS to complement the graphing capabilities of SigmaPlot. The latest versions of each software SigmaPlot 7.1 and SPSS 11.0 are required.
Rochester, N.Y., research firm Harris Interactive and Washington, D.C., marketing firm Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc., have launched The Gay and Lesbian Pulse. Using Harris Interactive’s online panel, the companies have developed a random, specialty panel of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals who are willing to answer questions online.
The NPD Group, Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y.-based research firm, has announced a new market information resource for the toy and video game industries, NPDFunworld (www.npdfunworld.com). The customizable, Web-based portal will provide information on market performance and trends from NPD, plus third-party content, feeds and links. It will encompass information on toy and video game purchasing and insight into consumer attitudes.
Maritz Research, St. Louis, has released a new version of Maritz Stats, its statistical testing software. Now Windows-based, Maritz Stats 2.0 can conduct t-tests, z-tests, sample-size determination based on statistical power calculations, Chi-square tests, non-parametric McNemar tests, and partially overlapping sample t-tests and z-tests.