Mediamark tests RFID tags in magazines
New York-based Mediamark Research and Intelligence (MRI) is collaborating with DJG Marketing and Waiting Room Subscription Services (WRSS) to test radio frequency identification (RFID) technology as a means of measuring magazine readership in public waiting rooms.
The joint test with WRSS follows more than a year of in-house testing by MRI of RFID technology, which uses microchips, antennae and radio waves to identify people or objects. MRI’s objectives in the collaboration are to determine whether the company’s RFID-driven Passive Print Monitoring System can reliably measure - in a waiting-room setting - the total time spent with a specific magazine issue, the number of individual reading occasions and, potentially, reader exposure to individual magazine pages.
These types of information are seen as potential enhancements to the magazine audience estimates drawn from MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer, which is based on in-home interviews.
“The testing we did in-house from September of 2006 through August of 2007 suggests the power of RFID technology can be harnessed to provide passive measures of magazine pick-ups and time spent reading in public places,” says Jay Mattlin, senior vice president of New Ventures at MRI. “At this stage, we need to test our Passive Print Monitoring System in a non-laboratory setting to determine how well it holds up in this important reading environment.”
DJG Marketing will help to facilitate the public-place testing via its Waiting Room Subscription Services unit.
For MRI’s internal tests, the company created an “intelligent” magazine prototype - containing the Passive Print Measuring System - that keeps track of reader activity with designated pages. Essentially, an RFID tag attached to the magazine sends a signal to a tag reader each time the test subjects turn to one of the designated magazine pages. The system records the times of the openings and closings of designated pages, as well as the opening/closings of the magazine itself. Mattlin reported at a conference of print researchers that the system correctly identified magazine openings and closings an average of 95 percent of the time in these internal tests. The Passive Print Measuring System will now be placed in a set of magazines and tested in real-world waiting rooms with WRSS, using its proprietary database of waiting room locations.
“There are a myriad of factors that affect how RFID technology would work in different settings,” says Mattlin. “We’ve learned a lot so far in our controlled environment, but considering the complexity of trying to measure a non-electronic medium, like magazines, with electronic signals, it’s going to take a while before we have a firm grip on the full potential of RFID with regard to magazine audience measurement. On the positive side, these early internal tests were very encouraging and we hope to deepen our practical knowledge via this public-place testing.” For more information visit www.mediamark.com.
New medical media planning service
Kantar Media, New York, has launched the MARS Medical integrated media planning and buying system. Complete with health care readership surveys, media publisher rates and competitive data, the system is available for use by both agencies and publishers. Features include Web-based media usage research studies among health care professionals packaged with competitive media advertising data and ad scans. The MARS Medical system includes media reach-and-frequency metrics developed in conjunction with KMR Software and the KMR Group’s TGI research group. For more information visit www.kmr-group.com.
Knowledge Networks offers guides to online research, panels
San Francisco research firm Knowledge Networks is now offering two new resources to illuminate the world of online research and panels. Available at www.knowledgenetworks.com/dmg/index.html, “The Decision Maker’s Guide to Online Research 2007” is a 24-page booklet that can help users identify high- versus low-quality approaches to online research, including seven criteria for a top-quality job. “The Decision Maker’s Toolkit for Evaluating Online Panels and Research” is a collection of more than 20 articles, white papers and other resources to help users sort out the key issues in online research quality. It is available as a CD-ROM or a ZIP download.
Eularis updates pharma marketing report
London firm Eularis has released an update to its report, Ensuring Profitable Return-on-Investment (ROI) in Pharmaceutical Marketing: Using Analytics and Metrics to Improve the Bottom Line. Originally offered in February 2007, the report has been revised to provide pharmaceutical marketers with the latest research information.
Eularis identified a common problem faced by pharmaceutical companies: how to know which activities impact market share and by how much. The company assembled a group of mathematicians in the predictive analytics field, as well as thought leaders, to find the solution.
This report, in turn, analyzes how top pharmaceutical marketing leaders are handling pressing marketing return issues and offers new ideas to apply. The research addresses issues such as: ROI basics; practical skills marketers need for measuring marketing effectiveness; tools and best practices that make a difference; measurement principles that drive successful marketing measurement; how to propel strategy, growth and bottom-line return; plus an array of case studies. For more information visit www.pharmamarketingroi.com.
Vision Critical enhances panel system
Vancouver research firm Vision Critical is now offering Panel+ Fall 2007. The system is designed to improve survey authoring, support, panel management and reporting and analysis with new features, including a panel quality index (PQI). With Panel+ Fall 2007, organizations can create a panelist experience with more question types and more point-and-click configuration options. The system offers drag-and-drop question design tools and Microsoft Word import. Once the study is deployed there are tools to manage panelist information and analyze panel performance, including the panel quality index. The PQI provides norms on response rates, completion rates, recruitment, attrition and panelist quality from hundreds of proprietary panels worldwide. For more information visit www.visioncritical.com.
NPD starts tracking sports market in Japan
Port Washington, N.Y., research firm the NPD Group Inc. has launched a new consumer tracking service for the sports market in Japan. The new service offers information on consumer purchasing, attitudes and behavior for sports apparel, athletic footwear and sports equipment. It complements NPD’s existing portfolio of services tracking the sports market in the U.S., France, U.K., Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands.
Subscribers to the new service will receive information on who’s buying the products, where they are purchased and how they are being used. Measures include sales volume, market share, consumer demographics and more. Sporting goods manufacturers and retailers can use the information to support product development, pricing, distribution, marketing, and sales and merchandising strategies. For more information visit www.npd.com.
Briefly
Observant LLC, a Boston consulting and research management firm, has launched QUESTRILLR, an online software tool designed to improve the speed of the firm’s qualitative research. For more information visit www.observant.biz.
Australian research software firm QSR International is now offering the Help Me Choose tool on its Web site. It allows users to select parameters that apply to their project and approach to analysis - such as project size, analysis process, time frame and outputs - which the tool uses to choose the QSR software that’s most suited to the user’s individual working style or project. An overview of software benefits is also provided. For more information visit www.qsrinternational.com.
In January, Omaha, Neb.-based information firm infoUSA opened a new Manchester, England-based firm to compile a database of all U.K. businesses. Similar to the compilation process of the infoUSA database, details, including staff numbers, manager names and contact information, will be collected and then updated annually via a projected 2.5 million phone calls. For more information visit www.infouk.com.