Electronic survey system gathers responses in real time
Ortek Data Systems, a manufacturer of group data collection systems for market research and meetings, has introduced its new Express model, a real-time, electronic survey system that gathers data from a group of up to 200 respondents at once. Express uses handheld keypads, called Responders, similar to those used by audiences on some popular TV shows. Each participant answers the moderator's questions by pressing a button on their personal Responder. Within seconds, the data are collected and a summary of the group's answers is displayed as a color graph.
Market researchers who conduct testing of audio/visual productions and pre-sentations can use another Express model, the 300C. In addition to the keypad, this model includes a dial to register responses to continuous material such as TV commercials and movies.
The Express system connects to the user's host PC through an ordinary serial interface. All setup, control, analysis, and graphic display functions are provided by the Orsoft operating software included with the system.
Publications help uncover information on difficult research targets
Now researchers, competitive analysts and other company investigators can learn details about tough research targets: privately held companies; specific divisions, subsidiaries, and products buried within corporate structures, and; elusive foreign firms. Washington Researchers has released new editions of three publications that explain how to find information about these types of companies.
"How to Find Information About Private Companies" describes the data-bases and publications that cover the activities of small companies, special techniques for tapping trade and professional associations, ways to use local governments and organizations to keep tabs on privately held targets, information that every private company must file with at least one state government.
"How to Find Information About Divisions, Subsidiaries, and Products" tells how to discover business details from a variety of sources, such as blueprints of plant expansions from local builders' councils, labor contracts from unions, new product developments from customers, and production schedules from suppliers.
"How to Find Information About For-eign Firms" describes the best data-bases for finding information about foreign firms, which federal agencies have files on foreign companies, and which international organizations have re-sources for tracking foreign firms.
Update of financial segmentation system
An enhanced version of Claritas/NPDC's P$YCLE system is now avail-able. P$YCLE is a market segmentation system used by banks and other financial institutions to predict consumers' use of financial products and services. The system describes households in terms of 27 types or segments, each with distinct financial-product preferences, usage patterns, and demographic characteristics. To make sure that the system is up-to-date, Claritas/NPDC uses annually refreshed data from its Market Audit, a 25-minute telephone survey of more than 90,000 households per year. The basic P$YCLE model, created in 1987, remains unchanged, but some specific changes in the new version are described below.
The system can estimate household usage and account balances for 100 different financial products at all levels of geography. Previously, these estimates relied on national averages. Now, local-market or regional data is available. This allows users to examine local markets in addition to understanding national norms. In addition, P$YCLE product potential estimates now include both current-year numbers and a five-year forecast. This provides a projected count of households, by P$YCLE segment, and a forecast of future product usage.
Automated research tool from MCI
MCI Communications Corp. has introduced a new toll-free 800 service designed to allow businesses to use telecommunications technology to automatically gather a research information. The service MCI Survey, lets a business use a single 800 telephone number to conduct market research or opinion surveys among select groups, such as its key customers, its sales staff, its employees, or any other target group. With the service, businesses set up a series of pre-recorded survey questions on a designated 800 number. Respondents can call in, listen to the questions and give their answers by entering the specified numbers for each answer on their touch-tone phones. MCI Survey software captures, tabulates and compiles respondent data into summary reports that can be delivered overnight, weekly, or monthly via MCI's electronic mail system.
Typical applications include customer satisfaction and employee opinion surveys, advertising impact testing and evaluation, field sales and customer service feedback programs, and product testing and usage surveys. MCI Survey can be used with a range of question types, including yes/no, true/false, opinion response ranges, and others, depending on the business application.
East European surveys scheduled for February
A series of marketing and public opinion surveys will be conducted in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland begin-ning in February 1992. The surveys, which will be undertaken by the Roper Organization and GM Associates International, are a wide-scale, ongoing effort to determine consumer attitudes, lifestyles, market preferences, and media habits in the three countries. Intended primarily for Western businesses, the East European Market, Media, and Lifestyle Study will monitor public attitudes and consumer lifestyles; provide marketing data (by presenting intelligence on market penetration of consumer durables and on consumer usage); measure media usage (newspapers, magazines, television, and radio); and provide clients the opportunity to gain proprietary information through an omnibus service.
The study will comprise simultaneous surveys among 1,000 consumers, age 18 and over, in each of the three countries. All interviews will be face-to-face. The sample will be representative, reflecting the socioeconomic, educational, age, sex, and geographic distribution of the entire population. The surveys will be conducted four times a year.