••• research education
Fairleigh Dickinson offers new MR certificate program
January, the Petrocelli College of Continuing Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, N.J., launches a market research certificate program. The six-course professional development program, to be offered in evening classes at the Hackensack, N.J., campus, aims to cover all aspects of market research, including: an overview of market research as an industry and career; qualitative research methods; quantitative research methods; research communications; application of market research to business issues; and a research practicum. Completion of this curriculum will earn the student a professional development Certificate in Market Research consisting of 15 continuing education units.
http://view2.fdu.edu/academics/continuing-education/certificate-in-market-research
••• neuromarketing
University of Nebraska, iMotions partner for neuro MR lab
The University of Nebraska at Omaha and Copenhagen, Denmark, eye-tracking and biometric software provider iMotions have joined to open a neuromarketing-focused research facility, aimed at studying human responses to online advertising messages. The laboratory will be led by researchers from the College of Business Administration and the College of Information Science and Technology. IMotions has provided the equipment and software for the lab to provide eye-tracking, electroencephalography and the monitoring of pupil dilation, facial expression and skin conductance.
••• pharmaceutical research
Ipsos service evaluates biosimilar pharmaceuticals
Ipsos Healthcare, London, has launched a syndicated project, the Biosimilar Impact Study, to help clients evaluate the strategy of offering copies of rival companies’ products as the product patents expire. The new study is designed to gauge perceptions of biosimilar pharmaceuticals and assess physicians’ willingness to prescribe them in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Rheumatologists, dermatologists and gastroenterologists will be surveyed. Ipsos plans to extend the project to the U.S. shortly.
••• grocery research
Dashboard tracks U.K. supermarket sales
MySupermarket, a London firm with a supermarket comparison Web site for consumers, has launched mySupermarket Insights, a dashboard that tracks product sales and market share across all the main U.K. supermarkets, along with monitoring promotions and purchasing trends. The data is gathered from more than 50,000 monthly shoppers and 4.5 million visitors to the Web site. MySupermarket is offering a free subscription which allows access to 30 days of information as well as more in-depth data and reports for a monthly fee.
www.mysupermarket-insights.co.uk
••• retailing research
NPD Group tracks market baskets
The NPD Group Inc., a Port Washington, N.Y., researcher, has launched Checkout Tracking, a service based on consumer buying behavior at the market basket level and including both online and brick-and-mortar retail purchases. The service uses data collected from large-scale longitudinal panels, allowing analysis of competitive market baskets and purchase patterns to provide insight into opportunities to increase market share and improve discounts, promotions and loyalty programs.
••• mobile research
Kamino tracks mobile device usage
Leeds, U.K., researcher ResearchBods has released Kamino, a passive app that tracks how mobile devices are used, allowing researchers to view consumer behavior in a non-staged environment. Kamino records information such as Web sites visited, including the time and duration of visit; what apps are used, including the time and duration of use; the number and duration of calls and texts; the network provider and the device location, using GPS tracking.
••• advertising research
Automatix seeks to understand implicit ad messages
Conquest, a London research company, has launched a research tool, Automatix, which aims to reveal implicit advertising messages which traditional testing would overlook. Conquest’s fast-priming methodology uses speed of reaction and accuracy in a word-association task to obviate the need for explicit questions, with the goal of minimizing cognitive interference, while Conquest’s gamified and avatarled animations present the respondent with a series of online visual metaphors to engage with – allowing attitudes to be expressed without the need for words or numbers. Findings are then merged to construct a more nuanced picture, drilling further into consumers’ minds to expose hidden and overlooked associations.
••• research software
Creative Research Systems releases Survey System 11.0
San Francisco-based Creative Research Systems has released version 11.0 of its Survey System software for all types of survey research. Designed to accommodate mobile surveying, the Survey System’s responsive survey design uses fonts and graphics tailored to different device characteristics and can convert grid or matrix questions into a series of multiple-choice questions or drop-down lists that are more readable on smartphones. Version 11 lets users create online dashboards that display key reports alongside or above choices for creating custom reports.
The Survey System’s offline mobile survey software is used in many remote areas that do not have Internet connections, as well as at malls and other in-town locations. Version 11’s Android survey software can now send survey answers directly to a Web site, either at the end of each survey or at a later time when an Internet connection is available. This enables live reports and saves the work of bringing devices to a central location or e-mailing data. Existing users can upgrade to Version 11 for a portion of their original purchase price.
••• data analysis
Native Atlas.ti version for Mac
Berlin-based Atlas.ti has released a Mac OS X version of its Atlas.ti quantitative analysis software. The new Mac OS X version is available exclusively for Atlas.ti 7. It combines Apple usability with the interface known from Atlas.ti on Windows PCs. The Mac version is included in Windows licenses and will be free for all Atlas.ti users who have already purchased an Atlas.ti 7 license. For those who intend to buy a new Atlas.ti 7 Mac OS X license, there is a special introductory 30 percent discount. The Mac version includes a new user interface, specially designed for Mac OS, and a range of new features like: full unicode support; full-length quotation display in quotation manager; circular and grid layout for the network view; and an undo/redo function.
••• health care research
Physician, recruit thyself
Chicago research firm MedQuery is offering Fast-Track Physicians, a service aimed at recruiting any type of physician for a qualitative research study within one week. The process allows physicians to self-screen and schedule themselves using e-mail and text, while researchers and clients monitor the results through a QuickQuest software portal.
••• social media research
Facebook opens Rooms
Facebook, Menlo Park, Calif., has released Rooms, a standalone app that provides a mobile-only in-app discussion space about any topic. The Room designer can customize the look and moderation settings, set a screen name for the space and choose who to invite. Participants can share text, photos, videos and comments with others in the Room. They do not need to have a Facebook account or an e-mail address to join; they provide a photo or screenshot of a Room’s QR code invite to gain entry. Currently Rooms is available in the U.S., the U.K. and a few other English-speaking countries but only on iOS. An Android version is tentatively planned for early 2015.
••• Briefly
Provo, Utah, software firm Qualtrics has released Qualtrics Vocalize, a software platform designed to provide flexible surveys which can be configured and adjusted as needed along with automatic actions and alerts based on location, responses and behaviors. Its dashboard provides information on individual customers as well as the overall project.
In New York, Nielsen-funded think tank the Council for Research Excellence has released its free guide, Big Data: A Primer for Defining and Implementing Big Data in the Marketing and Advertising Industry. The publication is designed to help executives in the marketing and advertising industries to understand the opportunities and challenges in using big data. It was produced by Gerard Broussard, principal of Pre-Meditated Media, New York, and includes interviews with media and marketing executives on how their companies are using big data.
New York marketing firm Videology will expand its TV Amplifier video advertising platform to incorporate U.K. TV data from New York researcher Nielsen. The expansion, which will join Nielsen’s NetView panel – which measures online behavior by demographic, to BARB’s TV panel – provides a data connection between TV consumption and online viewing behavior.
Shelton, Conn., researcher SSI is expanding its B2B inSSItes program by partnering with Avios, a Cheshire, U.K., travel firm which operates the Avios currency for frequent flyer travel rewards programs in the U.K. and South Africa. Rewards for Thoughts, a program for members of the British Airways Executive Club and Avios Travel Reward Programs, will offer them the opportunity to participate in an online research panel and receive Avios currency for completed surveys.
Google, San Francisco, has added the ability to target users who have purchased a paid app from an in-app display ad. This new feature is available for in-app display ads powered by Google’s AdMob network.
MedePanel, a Hamilton, N.J., researcher, has launched MyHealthOpinion, an online panel for U.S. residents who either have a disorder or are caregivers. The panel captures opinions on health care practices, products and services. MedePanel intends to expand the panel globally.
Interactive Media In Retail Group (IMRG), a London-based e-commerce industry association, has launched the e-Retail Benchmarking System, to allow online retailers to measure their performances against similar organizations via a PC, tablet or smartphone. The benchmarking system offers up to 12 months of data about average basket, unique visitors, cart abandonment and conversion rates through a personalized dashboard. IMRG partnered with London Internet firm Affino to develop the system.
New York-based AOL has launched its cross-device linking technology in its ONE platform, to allow advertisers to reach customers across devices, enabling “people-centric” marketing rather than “device-centric” marketing. The platform also includes location-based marketing so advertisers can identify the location of potential customers who have been in their stores, across any device.
Targetbase, a marketing firm in Irving, Texas, has launched its Targetbase Marketing Platform, designed to make marketers proactive by providing real-time data on marketing campaign performance through a single portal. The Platform facilitates total campaign management across multiple channels and touchpoints along with a 360-degree view of the customer, including transactional, financial, demographic, social and Web behavior data.
Shelton, Conn., researcher SSI and Univision Communications, the New York media company serving Hispanic consumers, have partnered to create a digital survey panel, ÀQuŽ Crees? (What do you think?). The panel is designed to connect market researchers to the opinions and attitudes of Hispanic Americans, who now make up 17 percent of the U.S. population.
Sailthru, a New York Internet firm, plans to offer a new service, Sightlines, which uses proprietary software to track Web site, e-mail, mobile and social media to identify a firm’s most valuable customers and predict their future actions. These predictions of what and when the customers will make a purchase are geared toward allowing the marketers to send relevant communications. Sightlines is currently in private beta.
Procera Networks, a Fremont, Calif., computer networking firm, has launched Video Perspectives, an analytics tool that gives broadband operators a more complete view of the video being viewed by subscribers. The tool is interactive and allows operators to generate custom reports based on specific issues or opportunities.
Birst, a San Francisco software company, has released its Marketing Analytics Accelerator solution, which unifies online and offline sources of marketing data. The Accelerator includes a pre-built data model that integrates Marketo, Salesforce.com, Google Analytics applications and reports and dashboards. Marketers can access the data through interactive dashboards and visual discovery tools.
Television Audience Measurement Ireland Ltd. (TAM Ireland), Dublin, has launched a pilot project to measure laptop and PC viewing. Sixty homes will serve as an initial test panel as the pilot continues for several months. New York researcher Nielsen will conduct the actual measurement using its Netsight meter. TAM Ireland plans to measure all viewing on all devices by 2017.
Meta, a division of New York marketing firm Kinetic Worldwide, has developed bespoke visualization software, TouchPoints Smart, for the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, London. The software tracks previously unavailable smartphone data, including calls, texts, apps and Web sites viewed by the user, track how these change during the day and provide summary charts according to the selected audience.
Nuremberg, Germany, research company the GfK Group has launched FutureWave, a methodology designed to enable companies to predict changes to their market, product or service by linking consumer needs to market activity.
Retailigence, a San Francisco Internet firm, is partnering with Gimbal, a San Diego mobile technology firm, to deliver personalized content to shoppers’ mobile devices. The process utilizes inventory data gathered by Retailigence to deliver messages to location-enabled devices as they come into range of Gimbal’s proximity beacons.
Twitter, San Francisco, has extended access to its self-service advertising platform to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore. Its full-service ad targeting network is now available to 35 markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Reston, Va., research company comScore and Lotame, a Columbia, Md., Internet firm, have partnered to integrate the Digital Analytix platform of comScore with the Data Management Platform of Lotame. The combination allows joint clients to expand their custom segments with user behavior data across platforms and channels, leading to better targeted and relevant ads.
Dobney Research, Bristol, U.K., has launched Cxoice, a non-linear questionnaire Web survey software. Its non-linear nature allows respondents to create their own route through the questionnaire, in theory making the survey more engaging.
London-based researcher Demographix has added a weighting tool to its suite of analysis products to provide a variety of available weights for a survey and the ability to view the weighted analysis of the responses side-by-side with the unweighted analysis. The tool is being provided at no extra cost to customers and complements the company’s current tools, Derived Variables, Crosstabs and Filters.
SurveyMonkey, Palo Alto, Calif., has extended its Audience sampling service to the U.K. The service provides businesses with online access to a consumer panel of tens of thousands respondents, with the ability to specify desired demographics. It is part of the broader SurveyMonkey platform and has been available in the U.S. since 2012.
YouGov, a London research firm, has launched a new audience segmentation and media planning tool, YouGov Profiles, that examines the media use of 200,000 of its U.K. panelists and joins this information with 120,000 demographic and lifestyle data points. The methodology is designed to identify personal attributes such as musical preferences and personality type.
Nuremberg, Germany, researcher GfK has launched a new model to predict company-level loyalty scores, incorporating its new “emotional imprint” measurement with customer advocacy and other performance indicators. The new model is designed to show that strong emotional imprints lead to lower rates of customer churn and more positive word of mouth.
Minneapolis information technology firm Avtex has expanded its suite of customer experience consulting services to include quantitative surveys, qualitative interviewing and focus groups plus voice of the customer analysis and management, customer loyalty and satisfaction measurements and competitive benchmarking.
Versta Research, Evanston, Ill., has partnered with San Francisco management firm Brilliant Ink to produce a new Employee Experience Assessment tool. The tool can be geared toward the needs, size and population of the company and aims to help them develop an action plan to improve employee engagement and satisfaction.
Attensity has updated its Attensity Q software with tools to analyze online conversations and pull out emerging themes, trends, anomalies and events related to a main topic. The new Attensity Q 1.1.0 is equipped with sentiment analysis, trend analysis, influencer analysis, geo-spatial analysis and topic-based analysis.
Online panel services provider Borderless Access has launched panels in Australia, Singapore and Thailand.
Denver research firm iModerate is partnering with Luminoso, a Cambridge, Mass., software company which specializes in organizing and interpreting consumer feedback. IModerate will incorporate the Luminoso platform into the newest iModerate software, including (iM)merse Longitudinal and (iM)merge Analytics. (iM)merse was formerly known as Qual Tracker.
Civicom Marketing Research Services has expanded its Chatterbox platform with analytics tools to allow researchers to gather feedback from respondents, print transcripts and synthesize data for speedier analysis and reporting.
Reston, Va., researcher comScore has partnered with mobile media companies to act as tagging partners for comScore’s validated Campaign Essentials Mobile (vCE Mobile) software. The partnerships will allow comScore to provide measurements of mobile advertising delivered in applications as well as browsers. The current authorized partners include AdColony, Addictive Mobility, BrightRoll, IgnitionOne, Kargo, Kiip, Netmining, NinthDecimal, Rhythm, RUN and Tremor Video, with more to be added.
The U.K. Audit Bureau of Circulations has awarded its new viewability certification to comScore, for its validated Campaign Essentials (vCE), DoubleVerify, for its DV Impression Quality suite, and Moat, for its Moat for Attention Metrics. The Integral Ad Science system for calculating viewability was also certified. The certification program is based on industry testing principles which include both PCs and Macs on a variety of common browsers. It complements the work of the U.S. Media Rating Council, which has already accredited comScore, Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify, among others.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), New York, has launched the IAB Digital Video Center of Excellence. The new unit is designed to promote development of digital video by producing research projects, case studies and creative showcases. It will also develop technical standards and best practice identification. Its European partner, the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe), Brussels, has opened its own Multi-Device and Connected World Library of Research, designed to showcase the best practice multi-device and cross market studies. The selected studies will explore the use of TVs, PCs, laptops, tablets, mobiles and smartphones and how the devices are used during the day and in combination.
In Mumbai, India, New York researcher Nielsen has opened its first neuromarketing laboratory in the country.
CivicScience, a Pittsburgh, Pa., research firm, has issued a free e-book of consumer information, 75 Show-Stopping Media Consumption Insights, which provides insights about digital users, such as daily Facebook users being 43 percent more likely than the general population to smoke and 33 percent more likely to eat breakfast on the road or at work.
biz.civicscience.com
SiriusDecisions, a Wilton, Conn., research firm, has released its report SiriusView: Social Media Intelligence 2015, which is offers an overview of what customers should consider when evaluating b-to-b social media intelligence (SMI) solutions. The report also covers current trends impacting the SMI marketplace, including mergers within the market, varying target audiences and the relative connection between social media and the buying process.
siriusdecisionspillars.com
VIA University College, Denmark, has joined with crowdsourcing marketing firm Chaordix, Calgary, Canada, to create VIA Connect, designed to be an innovation community connecting businesses with students, researchers and tutors. Public and private organizations will be invited to share challenges with the VIA Connect community members who can respond with ideas and innovations to solve them.
Chicago research firm Euromonitor International has released a free e-book, Succeed in Emerging Markets: Selection, Strategy and First Steps. It delineates areas needing consideration, including: the stability and size of the market; the demographics of the population; the degree of access and the business environment, along with emphasizing that market entry strategy must be tailored on a case-by-case basis.
http://go.euromonitor.com/succeed-emerging-markets-selection-strategy-first-steps.html
In Washington, D.C., MarketResearch.com has published a free market research e-book, How to Succeed Using Market Research.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), a nonprofit headquartered in Blackpool, U.K., has launched Big Voice, a research community for small businesses. Run by London research firm Verve, Big Voice will focus on issues such as broadband, access to finance, employment, pensions, taxes and other issues relevant to small businesses. The FSB has around 200,000 members.
Special Olympics, Washington, D.C., and New York researcher Nielsen are partnering to explore the purchasing power of people with intellectual disabilities. Nielsen will measure and profile adults with these disabilities as part of their work to build understanding, awareness and impact for Special Olympics worldwide.
n Promise, a project management tool and part of the ctOS (Cross-Tab Optimizer Suite) of Cross-Tab Marketing Services, Mumbai, India, has been released. It is designed to reduce project turnaround time by automating workflow paths and to optimizing resource allocation, aiming to reduce internal error rates by 80 percent. It is geared to integrate with various industry tools and survey platforms.