Street maps from TIGER files available on CD-ROM
Maplnfo Corporation, a developer of desktop mapping software for data analysis, is introducing its Streetlnfo digitized street maps on CD-ROM for Maplnfo for DOS. Streetlnfo on CD-ROM is a series of 10 compact discs based on the U.S. Census Bureau's 1990 TIGER files, covering the United States and Puerto Rico.
Detailed maps include streets and street names, address ranges per block for major urban areas, highways, water-ways, railroad tracks, municipal boundaries and bridges, without consuming space on a hard drive.
According to Barry Bycoff, senior vice president, Maplnfo, after refining the raw TIGER files, Maplnfo then condensed and stored the data for the Streetlnfo on CD-ROM product. "As a result, Maplnfo for DOS users can immediately begin their applications without further processing or conversion. The data is formatted and indexed, ready to be combined with other data such as prospect lists or distribution routes as soon as the user takes it out of the box," Bycoff says.
Because U.S. street data are so vast, the Census Bureau has compiled the TIGER files on nearly 40 compact discs - wherever the information fits. California, for instance, takes up two discs, Texas requires three and unrelated states such as Kentucky and Utah are combined on a disc. Streetlnfo on CD-ROM organizes the data logically, with complete states grouped according to familiar regions on each disc.
Streetlnfo gives users data visualization and analysis capabilities through a range of features such as: layering, starting with Streetlnfo and overlaying other data such as customer sites and revenue figures to analyze territories and identify new market opportunities; geocoding, to place points on a map, whether it's a street address, telephone pole or location of a crime scene; finding a location by entering an address and town to pinpoint it on Maplnfo.
Streetlnfo on CD-ROM for Maplnfo for DOS is available direct from Maplnfo and through authorized value-added resellers. For more information, phone 800-FAST-MAP.
Systems offers on-line research with physicians
DTW Marketing Research Group, Flanders, New Jersey, now offers COM.DAT, a new, on-line computer methodology designed to provide medical/health care marketers and researchers a direct link to the physician's office, yielding a national, projectable representative sample. More than 20 physician specialties are included in the COM.DAT panel.
COM.DAT administers any kind of quantitative study, and executes any kind of analytic technique, including multivariate analyses. Using personal computer and on-line communications technology, COM.DAT enables marketers to survey physicians on their personal office or home computers. Physician respondents communicate on-line with the mainframe, downloaded with the research instrument. After physicians have completed their questionnaires, the data is immediately uploaded to the mainframe and becomes available to marketers. Physicians respond to research questions via an interactive, data-gathering Sawtooth software program.
Publication covers consumer trends in Asia-Pacific region
Countries in the Asia-Pacific region will have the fastest growing consumer markets in the 1990s as the children born during the 1970s and early 1980s enter the household formation years. While the European and U.S. markets are chang-ing from mass markets to ones in which there is a great deal of independence and individualism, the newly developing economies of the Asia-Pacific region can still be considered a mass market for many consumer goods and services. At the same time, the more developed consumer markets of Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong present opportunities for sale of luxury items.
A new publication, Market: Asia Pacific, will cover consumer trends in the region. It is the sister publication of Market: Europe, which has been published since August 1990.
The monthly report will cover all the countries in the region, providing demographic data, analysis of trends and the opportunities they create for new business, developments in the labor force, sources of data, and specific segments that present opportunities because they are growing or changing quickly. Countries slated for in-depth consumer profiles in the first few issues include Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore.
Each issue will provide information about the latest consumer research available in the region, and trends in direct marketing, media and advertising, and marketing management.
New Simmons study of computer market
The Custom Media division of Simmons will conduct an in-depth study of the computer market. The survey, which will be conducted among computer professionals and business executives across a broad range of companies of 100+ employees. will measure purchase influence in three markets: computer hardware, peripherals and software. The objectives of the research are to determine the size of the market, the purchase decision process through the organization and media habits.
"The decision to do this study was the result of many conversations we had with advertisers, publishers and agencies," says Ellen Cohen, president of Simmons. "It was they who expressed the need. As a result we will invite and appreciate their input in questionnaire design."
The study, conducted through the mail, will begin its field work during the first quarter of 1992, with a third quarter release scheduled. A full description of methodology, including sampling frame and size is available.