Version 7 of Microtab now available
Atlanta research software firm Microtab Inc. is now offing Version 7 of its Microtab crosstab package. Version 7 has been enhanced to include the following capabilities: import a comma-delimited file of any length; generate 999 row groupings in tables for value fields; print two additional value table stats (optionally); minimum and maximum values for every banner point (sub-cell); control of the density of shading for selected banner points; set the default row label length anywhere from 15 to 30 characters per row under (default is set at 19); allow table format changes for saving in Office 2007’s new format; and revised median calculations for negative weights and reversed ordering.
With this release, a potential customer has lease options starting at less than $100 per station per month. Before committing to a lease or electing to purchase the software, users can evaluate Version 7 free for 90 days, with free 24/7 technical support included. For more information visit www.microtab.com.
Version 8.0 of WinQuery and QueryWeb now shipping
The Analytical Group Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz., is now offering version 8.0 of its WinQuery and QueryWeb. WinQuery and QueryWeb are packaged together to provide flexible interviewing software for CATI/CAPI and Web interviewing. Questionnaires can be programmed once and then interviewed in all three modes. Highlights of WinQuery 8.0 and QueryWeb 8.0 include: new ranking and side-by-side grouped rating questions; additional interviewer and dialing reports; all-new free-format programming interface; and enhanced Web study reporting.
WinQuery’s ranking question provides a visual click-and-rank display. The side-by-side grouped rating question groups rating questions for sequential display and rating ease. Additional user-defined reporting calculations and reports are included to provide more details about interviewers and respondents. QueryWeb Designer’s new free-format programming interface features full customization of questions and answers. Enhanced QueryWeb study reporting provides real-time results presented in a new graphical format. For more information visit www.analyticalgroup.com.
Analytical tool plumbs emotional depths
Minneapolis research firm the Dcypher Group has unveiled an analytical tool designed to measure and assess the emotional reaction of individuals or groups to products, events, concepts, ads, service experiences or political messages through an analysis of the written or spoken word.
Using the dictionary of affect in language, developed by Cynthia Whissell, the Dcypher tool presents distinct numeric and graphical maps of emotional reaction based on an analysis of the words people use to express themselves. The tool can measure individual or group responses and compare the emotional reactions of different individuals or groups. Emotional dimensions measured by Dcypher include pleasantness, excitement, imagery, happiness, anger, joy and sadness. Finally, Dcypher is designed to work whether it is evaluating text in the form of survey comments, traditional or online focus groups, one-on-one interviews, e-mail or blogs. For more information visit www.dcyphergroup.com.
Ipsos debuts veterinarian panel
Research firm Ipsos has developed a new proprietary online panel consisting of veterinarians in North America. Currently, over 900 veterinarians from the U.S. and Canada have joined the Veterinary Advisory Panel with plans to grow it to over 2,000 in the coming year. Panelists are pre-screened to ensure that the panel consists of licensed veterinarians only and is specifically focused on those in general companion animal practices, with a patient base of at least 75 percent dogs and cats.
Designed to be representative of the general population of small-animal practitioners, the panel was developed using a variety of approaches, including e-mail, fax, mail and online advertising. For more information visit www.ipsosna.com.
Vovici releases survey creation product
Dulles, Va., research firm Vovici has released its Vovici SurveyNOW product, designed to help customers build, deploy and analyze surveys by selecting from over 175 pre-defined surveys through a simple wizard-driven online interface.
Vovici SurveyNOW customers can create and deploy a survey and immediately use the dashboard to view and analyze results. Survey templates span subject categories such as customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, brand image, Web site effectiveness and market segmentation. Surveys are further tailored by vertical industries and specific market segments. The dashboard also allows users to track survey progress, activate and deactivate surveys and report on the results.
The five-step process for building a survey begins with the user selecting a pre-defined survey template aligned with a business need and market segment. The user then personalizes the selected survey by entering values for replaceable fields (e.g., company name) built into the text and modified via the wizard. Adding the user’s corporate logo and selecting from a number of available design layouts personalizes the survey further. The process concludes when Vovici SurveyNOW provides the user with required elements to invite respondents to take the survey. For more information visit www.vovici.com/surveynow.
ESRI offers business segmentation tools
The new ArcGIS Business Analyst Segmentation Module from Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI integrates with ArcGIS Business Analyst desktop software, enabling organizations to generate specialized market segmentation reports by geographic area, such as zip codes and block groups.
With the Segmentation Module, organizations can identify the customer segments that promise the highest return on investment from marketing campaigns, allowing them to focus their marketing and merchandising strategies on these segments.
The foundation for the Segmentation Module is 2007 Community Tapestry data at the block group geography level and consumer survey data from Mediamark Research Inc. Doublebase 2005. Community Tapestry is a segmentation system that classifies U.S. residential neighborhoods into 65 distinctive segments based on their socioeconomic and demographic composition. It is based on a segmentation methodology devised by demographers, geographers and statisticians. This information is designed to provide insight into which consumer types would be most likely to buy certain products and services, enabling organizations to develop effective merchandising strategies that resonate with today’s changing consumer tastes.
ArcGIS Business Analyst desktop software provides the GIS tools necessary for performing customer profiling, trade area analysis and business applications such as site evaluation and selection. Because the Segmentation Module integrates into ArcGIS Business Analyst, users can estimate product usages and market potential, perform competitive analyses and discover secondary markets for their products and services. The Segmentation Module makes it possible for market analysts to generate reports and maps based on segmentation data that is relevant, precise and accurate and to plan clear-cut, well-defined marketing strategies. For more information visit www.esri.com/basegmodule.
Product aids data processing for multi-wave surveys
Paris-based research software firm Askia has released askiasurf, a new product designed to help research companies and their clients with data processing tasks when working with trackers and other multi-wave surveys. Instead of reprocessing continuous survey data each time, askiasurf allows users to define a “relational path,” forming a direct link between raw data and the analysis and reporting stage. When analysis takes place, all the data are combined logically, rather than physically, which cuts out the traditional restructuring and reprocessing of data. For more information visit www.askia.com.
Simmons, KMR partner for media measurement
KMR North America and New York-based Simmons, which partnered previously by linking the KMR Compose Survey and Software Tool to the Simmons NCS study, have developed a new set of vehicle-specific channel platform drivers that link Compose to the Simmons Multi-Media Engagement Study.
Using proprietary surveys and analytical techniques the Compose planning platform incorporates consumer drivers in a software tool that allows users to quantify brand communication objectives and develop enhanced brand strategies. The current Compose Engagement Product contains 41 product categories, 33 channels and over 1,000 individual TV, magazine and online vehicles within the Compose integrated communications planning platform.
Compose demonstrates the context in which consumers relate to ads across platforms and for individual media vehicles while allowing the Compose user to then take into account how many consumer targets will be exposed to that ad. This approach to planning allows the user to overlay transactional data obtained from any TV, magazine or Internet audience measurement source and evaluate planning alternatives with either actual or projected audience estimates. For more information visit www.kmr-group.com.
ORC offers tools for customer relationship eval, generating PR buzz with surveys
Opinion Research Corporation (ORC), Princeton, N.J., has launched its Customer Experience Evaluation tool, an online survey process designed for small and mid-sized companies to assess the health of their customer relationships. The Customer Experience Evaluation tool provides real-time delivery of customer opinions on issues that can impact business revenue, profitability, competitive differentiation and market positioning.
ORC’s Customer Experience Evaluation tool is designed to give businesses insight into customer perceptions on issues such as the company’s image/reputation; the value of products/services relative to cost; ease of doing business with the company; quality; level of service; and competitive offerings. It can also help identify likely growth customers as well as indicate which may pose risks to existing revenue streams and profitability.
Separately, Opinion Research Corporation and public relations firm the Hastings Group have unveiled PR PLUS, a “PR-friendly survey in a box” service. PR PLUS is designed to help boost media coverage of sponsors’ business issues, products and services. Intended primarily for corporations and organizations with limited or no dedicated PR resources, PR PLUS is also aimed at agencies, companies or trade associations that lack extensive experience with the design, delivery and promotion of media-targeted surveys. PR PLUS is available in two tiers: full-service and advisory service. Full-service includes survey concepting through post-news event follow-up. The narrower advisory service includes consulting on topics such as brainstorming ways to integrate a survey into a client’s broader PR efforts or development of news release and related survey fact sheet. For more information visit www.opinionresearch.com.
Briefly
London researcher Toluna plc now allows its panel members to conduct their own research using polls, opinion reviews and debates. At www.toluna.com, members can create, share and report on the results of polls and opinion debates across any topic. Every poll or debate created by users is open to U.K. panelists to answer and each member can see a demographic report of the results. The polls can also be posted on users’ own Web sites or blogs.
Advertising Ratings Company, Glendale, Calif., is now offering ACE (Advertising Creative Effectiveness) Scores, which rate advertising’s creativity and effectiveness versus just how many people are watching. ACE Scores are designed to tell advertisers which spots are effective and which are not and why. For more information visit www.werateads.com.
BIGresearch, Columbus, Ohio, has released its BIG Dashboard, which utilizes consumer insights from BIGresearch’s Consumer Intentions and Actions (CIA) Surveys. The data can be customized and trended over the last 36 months by specific retailers or consumer groups by choosing segments from a drop-down menu. Segments include: future purchase intentions (90-day) by merchandise category (20 categories); purchase intentions (next six months) - durable goods; store channel shares; and purchase deferrals. For more information visit www.bigresearch.com.
ComScore Marketer, a new interactive search intelligence service from Reston, Va. research firm comScore Inc., is designed to enable search marketers and Web site operators to benchmark their performance versus competitors and optimize the ROI from their search marketing efforts.
It can: identify high-performing search terms at a site and category level; analyze searchers and the use of search terms by demographic segment; and find out who is competing on search terms to identify prime affiliate marketing partners. For more information visit www.comscore.com.