Claritas announces Compass upgrades
Data available in Alexandria, VA-based Claritas/NPDC Inc.'s Compass CD-ROM desktop marketing system now can be exported directly into several GIS packages, including demographic data, Prizm segmentation data, syndicated data, boundary data, point data, customized reports or applications data and your proprietary customer data. Compass 5.3 also now operates with two new printer drivers, Deskset 550C and PaintJet XL300. Compass links to Maplnfo, Maplnfo for Windows and Atlas-GIS and data now can be exported directly into several spreadsheet and database programs.
Claritas also has announced a new GIS version of Compass. The system is called Compass+GIS, and provides links with software from two leading GIS firms, Maplnfo and Strategic Mapping. It will provide additional links with other GIS firms in the future. The system provides marketers with analytical power and a variety of data including demographics, consumer-behavior data, TIGER files and site data needed for site location, media planning, direct marketing and other target marketing and planning functions.
Firm offers international conference mailing list
Mardev, Des Plaines, IL, a member of the Reed Elsevier group, has announced it is now managing the mailing list of attendees to Cahners Exposition Group's International Procurement Show. Held in Singapore, the show attracted more than 1,000 visitors, ranging from corporate and plant management to engineering and sales personnel.
CHOICES II offers presentation-ready output
Simmons Market Research Bureau Inc. has introduced CHOICES II, available on Windows and Macintosh platforms. The system's new features include quicker media access; simpler hierarchical dictionary; presentation-ready output (including variable font sizing and color); and built-in graphics (including bar, column and pie charting, and 3-D graphics).
Executive decisionmaking booklet available
FIND/SVP, New York, has published "10 Steps to Making Better Decisions." The 20-page booklet analyzes the decision-making process, from defining the problem to evaluating the results. It includes "dos" and "don'ts," a reference checklist and a bibliography of related articles and books.
Equifax, NRC roll out health care marketing system
San Diego-based Equifax National Decision Systems and National Research Corp. (NRC) of Lincoln, NE, have jointly introduced a new marketing resource that enables health care providers to segment and understand current and prospective patients, determine their potential for program participation and more effectively reach them. The new resource uses NRC's health care survey of more than 130,000 households nationwide. The survey sample is coded with lifestyle segment codes based on the Micro Vision Zip+4 segmentation system developed by Equifax.
Copernicus offers pharmaceutical service
Copernicus: The Marketing Investment Strategy Group, Westport, Conn., is offering to health care marketers Pharmaceutical Watch, a multisponsored issues-tracking and research service. The service reports on dozens of pharmaceutical companies, and tracks industry issues as covered in a representative sample of print and broadcast, trade and consumer media. The quarterly reports give subscribers feedback needed to assess performance against competitors and industry norms. The industry norms are based on media exposure generated by Pharmaceutical Watch sponsors and industry leaders, including Merck, Pfizer, Ciba Geigy, and Searle. The study's tracking mechanism is sensitive to external market changes as well as evolving internal strategies. Reports provide analysis on a number of measures including: raw data; clip volume; circulation/audience (reach and frequency); market-by-market comparisons (states, regions, PMSAs); media (trade, consumer, dailies); content analysis of industry and client-specific messages; and "impact" "story value" and demographic measures.
Penton offers reports to non-advertisers
Penton Research Services findings on outsourcing and more are available for the first time to companies that do not currently advertise in Cleveland-based Penton Publishing's business publications. A complete set of 45 Penton Research Overview Reports is available. Detailed study results on outsourcing are published in the report "How Business and Government Buy: A Study of the Organizational Purchase Process" are also available.
Simmons expands CompPro study
Simmons Market Research Bureau Inc. has expanded its CompPro 1 study of purchase influence in the computer professional marketplace. The new version is called CompPro II. The new study offers a redesigned questionnaire to gather more information for advertisers and agencies; a mail out of 13,500, up from 8,000 mailed in 1992; a bigger government sample; and company site size starting at 50 employees, rather than 100. Publication is scheduled for the first quarter of 1994.
Group 1 releases AccuMail for Windows
Group 1 Software, Lanham, Md., has released version 3.0 of AccuMail. The release includes a new Windows version and an easier-to-use DOS graphical user interface versions. AccuMail for Windows and DOS are both delivered on one CD-ROM disc with no increase in price. Both versions meet all U.S. Postal Service requirements for coding accuracy and are USPS CASS-certified. The new AccuMail version allows users to create and save an unlimited number of predefined job setting, saving time and eliminating job set-up errors. AccuMail works directly on ASCII delimited, ASCII fixed-field, dBASE IV and VI, Alpha Four, CA Clipper, dBXL, FoxPro, FoxBase, Quick Silver and Group 1's ArcList file formats. AccuMail can process database formats in batch processing or individual address lookup, and can browse the USPS national database for alternatives to ambiguous addresses.
NPDA releases three studies
The National Decorating Products Association, St. Louis, has introduced three new studies. NDPA's Employee Compensation Study is the result of a comprehensive dealer survey on the salary and hourly rates paid to many em-ployee positions of independent decorating products businesses. The report also includes a comparison of fringe benefits. All responses are divided by store size and geographical area for easy comparison. The Paint Consumer Market Research Study is an in-depth report on the type of store usually selected for a paint purchase, brand of paint selected, demographics of paint customers and more. This information is helpful when planning advertising for paint and coatings products. The Wall covering Consumer Market Research Study is available on a subscription basis. It outlines who is buying wallcoverings, how they prefer to buy them, and how dealers can use demographics and media preference to best reach them.
BiblioData has custom version of Fulltext book
BiblioData, Needham Heights, Mass., is offering its directory, Fulltext Sources Online, as a custom-produced book. The custom version selects only those vendors that a library or individual has access to, and lists all the Fulltext periodicals that make up those databases. The features of the original book remain the same: Dates of coverage, subject and geographic indexes and front matter all included, but customized to the databases chosen. The custom version is organized alphabetically, by title of publication. It is now possible to ask BiblioData to generate a custom book at any point during the year, which will reflect the most current information on Fulltext titles.
Market-Seer released
Market Dynamatics Inc., New York, has introduced Market-Seer, a family of proprietary decision support tools based on dynamic optimization methodologies. Applications include advertising accountability, market segmentation and targeting, market forecasting, marketing mix optimization and brand loyalty measurement. The tools can keep up with real-time changes in key market characteristics. They can be ported on PC or Mac platforms and are customized for the users' particular needs and environment.
MarketPulse introduces workstation software
MarketPulse has introduced its MarketPulse software, a fast, sophisticated database marketing system, in a workstation environment. The new product offers an affordable option for companies that want to downsize their database marketing platform or add to their mainframe computing power. The database is stored and accessed locally on the PS/2. It is designed to handle millions of customer records and associated transactions and promotional history, and can quickly perform complex queries, profiles and analysis. The MarketPulse standalone desktop system supports up to 24 gigabytes of storage on SCSI external disk drives. The five-gigabyte tape drive included with a standalone system provides full data refresh or transaction update and mailing list export capabilities. The system is also available in LAN-based client/server and distributed coprocessing configurations, which support up to 16 simultaneous users and added database storage capacity.
Fairchild publishes 1994 directories
Fairchild Books, New York, has published 1994 editions of two directories. "Fairchild's Retail Stores Financial Directory" contains 300 detailed financial profiles of the largest publicly owned domestic and international corporations in the retail industry, from appliance store chains to variety stores. "Fairchild's Textiles and Apparel Financial Directory" contains 180 detailed financial profiles of the largest publicly owned domestic and international companies in the textile and apparel industry. It also contains 15 pages of industry analysis.
Each company listing in these directories provides: name, address, phone and fax number; type of service and/or description of products; subsidiaries and divisions; affiliates; transfer agents; stock exchange and ticker symbol; number of stores (past five years); corporate officers; cross-referenced index; sales and earnings (past five years); cash and stock dividends and stock account (current and previous year); assets (current and previous year); liabilities (current and previous year); working capital and shareholders' equity; post-annual report data on dividends, splits and acquisitions/ mergers; breakdown of revenue by line of business; and all key ratios. Both books feature detailed charts divided into industry segments, including sales and percent change; pre-tax income; shareholder's equity; net income-to-sales ratio; and net income-to-equity.