SPSS debuts advancement in predictive dialing
SPSS Inc., a Chicago research company, has launched SPSS mrDialer 4.0 with Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a product designed to deliver faster completion of projects, lower staff costs and give market researchers more control over survey projects.
Since VoIP uses broadband connections instead of analog phone lines, SPSS mrDialer 4.0 is intended to support virtual call centers where interviewers are dispersed over a wide geographical space, either in separate offices or working from their homes. MrDialer 4.0 is designed to allow market researchers to centralize control of the call center, operate around the clock and scale resources without significant cost escalation.
SPSS mrDialer uses predictive dialing algorithms to identify busy, unanswered or unobtainable numbers. It is also designed to be adaptable to new rules and dialing methodologies that can be updated with a graphical user interface.
SPSS mrDialer 4.0 is designed to offer market researchers the ability to record interviews for quality assurance and capture responses; analyze busy signals and unanswered, modem and fax calls; prioritize re-calls to meet a pre-set appointment time; simultaneously run multiple interviewing projects; deliver real-time reporting of numbers dialed and attempted, along with completed interviews; and monitor the interview screen and voices from any station. For more information visit www.spss.com/mrdialer.
TNS launches digital ad effectiveness tools
New York research company TNS has introduced of a new generation of online advertising monitoring tools. TNS Digital Suite combines cookie-tracking technology with TNS’s 6th Dimension Panel to analyze online ad consumption.
TNS Digital Suite provides updates and features designed to aid the program’s panel-centric approach to online ad monitoring, including the following: no more pop-up surveys; control for cookie deletion; capturing ad exposure on multiple computers (home, work or school) for each panelist; ad effectiveness measures for the target audience using the 6th Dimension panelist profiles; analysis through longer surveys (up to 30 minutes long against 7-8 minutes); surveys taken at the convenience of the panelist instead of the current proximate surveys which occur immediately after ad exposure; and analysis available based on frequency and time since last exposure. For more information visit www.tnsglobal.com.
MRSI announces two new offerings
Marketing Research Services Inc. (MRSI), Cincinnati, has launched mrExpress, an online research service designed to provide answers to business questions in less than 24 hours at a cost lower than that of traditional custom research. MrExpress is designed to allow clients to ask up to 20 closed-end questions among a representative sample of 300 consumers. MRSI’s Census Balancer technique is used with mrExpress to help produce demographically-representative online samples based on age, gender, geography, race, ethnicity and education.
MrExpress is designed to be used in applications including brand or ad awareness, incidence testing, usage or satisfaction, name/logo evaluation and tracking research. For more information visit www.mrsi.com/express.html.
In addition, MRSI has introduced a collection of shopper insights research services designed to help consumer product manufacturers and retailers connect with shoppers throughout the purchase process from pre-store, to in-store, to point-of-purchase. MRSI’s shopper insights research is also designed to help clients understand consumer/shopper behavior and motivation, determine optimal product assortment, maximize brand performance, enhance retail shopping experience, refine retail and promotion strategies and improve loyalty and customer retention. MRSI’s shopper insights research services include ethnography, attitude and usage studies, segmentation, product testing with ProSelect, packaging research, product-line optimization, pricing, customer profiling, customer satisfaction research and Hispanic research with ENFOQUE. For more information visit www.msri.com/shopperinsights.html.
WebTrends’ new framework to aid in data exchange
WebTrends Inc., a Portland, Ore., research company, has unveiled an open technology framework and standards-based solution designed to help exchange data, free from mass-market Web analytics suites. The WebTrends Connect framework is designed so that visitor-level online data can be exchanged with other standards-based systems. WebTrends data-exchange framework includes WebTrends Marketing Warehouse, designed to function as an open, standards-based hub for the analysis and storage of online and offline data; WebTrends Connect, designed to streamline the exchange of data into and out of WebTrends Marketing Warehouse and WebTrends Analytics; and a data scheduler, designed to provide self-service, direct access to the WebTrends Marketing Warehouse database. For more information visit www.webtrends.com.
MarketTools launches online research platform
MarketTools Inc., a San Francisco research company, has launched MarketTools.com, an on-demand research solution designed to integrate survey tools, online panels and communities, and research practices to support marketers and market research professionals. The MarketTools.com Web platform is designed to serve as a centralized research hub providing direct access to MarketTools’ portfolio of products without investing in stand-alone software, hardware or integration services.
The initial solutions accessible through MarketTools.com include: Research Manager, MarketTools’ productivity center designed to offer a search function for researchers to locate exact questions within a survey; Survey Manager, using MarketTools’ zTelligence platform, designed for survey creation and functionality to give users the ability to import a text-based survey via a one-step wizard; and TrueSample Manager, a data quality solution designed to prevent survey fraud and duplication. For more information visit www.markettools.com.
New options for mobile brand impact surveys
New York advertising company Millennial Media has released enhanced brand impact survey targeting capabilities, which are designed to offer more options for targeting and to allow third-party brand impact studies to be conducted according to advertising research industry standards.
The program is designed to allow third-party digital marketing research companies to recruit control and exposed cells, whereas mobile ad effectiveness measurement generally required recruiting the control (or unexposed) group prior to campaign launch in order to ensure a clean sample. This methodology was necessary due to the limitations associated with uniquely identifying a user’s exposure to an advertisement.
Millennial Media’s enhancements are intended to match the standards for online brand impact studies in which unique identifiers are used to ensure that the control group is recruited using the same targeting parameters as the exposed group, but never exposed to the brand campaign. This methodology is designed to remove potential biases that could occur from the delay between collecting the control and exposed groups. For more information visit www.millennialmedia.com.
Arbitron unveils reliability calculators for diary and PPM data
New York research company Arbitron Inc. has released two reliability calculators for diary and PPM radio estimates. A new feature of eBook is designed to allow users of Arbitron radio ratings, whether diary or PPM-based, to gauge the estimated statistical reliability of audience estimates for published demos and dayparts. The PPM GRP Reliability Calculator estimates the margin of error for gross rating points (GRPs) of radio advertising schedules in PPM markets.
Arbitron has added a standard error calculator to the Audience Estimates Reliability section of its Web-based eBook for every market, which is designed to estimate the standard error for any Arbitron audience rating published in eBook. A subscriber can select the parameters of the rating they wish to evaluate (e.g. geography, estimate type, demographic and daypart), and the calculator estimates the standard error for that rating. This standard error then can be used to create a confidence interval around the rating.
The GRP Reliability Calculator is a new software program designed to enable clients to estimate the reliability of GRPs for a schedule in PPM markets. The PPM GRP Reliability Calculator provides an estimate of the margin of error (confidence interval) around GRP estimates of radio schedules. The user selects the desired confidence interval (90 percent is the default value), the market(s) and the schedule specifications (e.g., target demographic, the daypart in which the spots are scheduled, the number of months, stations, spots and GRPs for the schedule), and the PPM GRP Reliability Calculator estimates the margin of error and confidence interval for the schedule of GRPs. For more information visit www.arbitron.com/ppm.
Briefly
Star Data Systems, a Jupiter, Fla., research company, has partnered with CMS Research, Toledo, Ohio, to offer interactive voice response (IVR) surveys to Star Data clients. The arrangement provides for IVR data and voice files to be automatically transferred to Star Data’s online dashboard so that CMS clients can log on and see tabulations of their data and listen to recorded comments made by respondents. Star Data Systems will offer IVR surveys alongside traditional CATI projects, online surveys and paper questionnaires. For more information visit www.stardatasystems.com.
Business networking site LinkedIn, Mountain View, Calif., has launched a service designed to help market researchers and professional investors conduct research using its database. LinkedIn Surveys lets clients search on any combination of qualifications, company, industry, title, expertise and keywords, to profile industry experts who meet specific criteria. For more information visit www.linkedin.com.
Boston research company Eidetics has debuted Provenance, an interactive tool designed to provide pharmaceutical brand teams and clinical researchers with a panoramic view of data, utilizing data mining techniques and Bayesian networks. The Provenance business intelligence and decision-modeling tool is designed to allow users to visualize data relationships; answer product positioning and market-size questions in real time; and provide the capability to do real-time scenario modeling for senior management. For more information visit www.eidetics.com.
Dallas research company e-Rewards Inc. has launched Veracity360, its quality management system designed to enable an expanded focus on broader aspects of quality and ensure that its online respondents meet clients’ quality standards. The system encompasses by-invitation-only enrollment, ID validation, duplicate elimination, profile validation and overall survey performance, which incorporates a client feedback loop. For more information visit www.e-rewardsresearch.com.
TruMedia Technologies, a Tampa, Fla., research company, has launched iTRI, an audience measurement solution designed for experiencing and demonstrating proactive advertising and face-based audience measurement firsthand. ITRI software is designed to be installed on a PC and work with any USB camera. The application has three modes, generating up to 12 hours of audience data at a time. The application also features TruMedia’s content-based reporting and advertising capabilities based on the viewer’s gender using pre-loaded, fixed ads. For more information visit www.tru-media.com.
Evanston, Ill.-based publisher Manufacturers’ News Inc. has expanded its database to include 600,000 additional businesses, organizations and institutions. It now encompasses companies in various fields, including health care, finance, government and transportation, and provides 2,300,000 related executive contact names. For more information visit www.manufacturersnews.com.