New MRA portal solicits honest, anonymous feedback
The Marketing Research Association (MRA), Glastonbury, Conn., has launched a portal where clients, agencies and subcontractors can evaluate and comment on each other’s services online. The exchange evaluation program (EEP) provides a platform where MRA members and non-members can post feedback about their research relationships, with reviews based on ratings of quality, communication and other factors taken into consideration when selecting a service or product.
To ensure a reviewer’s anonymity, only a numeric ID number is shown, and this number can never be used by other EEP users to find contact information relating to a review. After a review is posted, it is held for 48 hours for verification by an MRA staff member who checks that the project actually took place but does not censor the comments in any way. Once verified, reviews are featured individually until such time that 10 reviews have been posted, when the scores become cumulative.
If anyone posts a negative review which either party disputes, the MRA has a system in place to intervene to try to resolve the issue. If the posting is proven to be false, the MRA will take it down immediately. However, if the accused party sticks by their rating, and it cannot be proven to be inaccurate, then the feedback will remain posted.
Future plans include adding extra language options to ensure that the portal will be used globally. For more information visit www.mra-net.org.
FootPath hot on shoppers’ trail
Portsmouth, U.K., research firm Path Intelligence is testing surveillance technology that continuously tracks mobile phone signals to help understand the movement of shoppers as they flow through retail centers or public amenities.
The firm’s FootPath system allows shopping center managers/owners, airport and railway station managers, exhibition centers, art galleries and museums to obtain data about the path that their visitors take. For example, the technology logs when people enter a shopping center, what stores they visit, how long they stay there and what route they take as they wander around. The system monitors signals produced by mobile phones and then locates each phone using triangulation – measuring the phone’s distance from three receivers which are placed on walls around the center.
Through this technique, it is possible to gather data on how many people are in a store at a specific time, how many customers visit specific stores and how shoppers group stores together. In addition, the firm says that the system can also help organizations optimize the layout of their space and improve their retail tenancy mix. For more information visit www.pathintelligence.com.
Data Central integrates with Confirmit platform
Oslo, Norway, research software company Confirmit has launched Confirmit Data Central, a new version of the former Pulse Train data processing tool, which is designed to streamline data processing functions. Confirmit Data Central includes enhancements designed to provide integration with the Confirmit platform and increase performance and productivity.
A new Confirmit XML operation within the tool allows users to connect to a Confirmit system, extract data for processing and then upload processed data for reporting purposes.
Confirmit Data Central now supports Triple-S XML 2.0 and provides an operation for upgrading Triple-S classic files to this format.
Other developments to the Confirmit Data Central tool include an improved topline report operation; ability to add notes to each object in the data processing workflow; improvements in refreshing and running projects; an improved data cleaning operation; and an improved data extending operation (creating new variables). For more information visit www.confirmit.com.
SPSS updates predictive analytics platform
Chicago software company SPSS Inc. has released a new version of its predictive analytics platform SPSS Predictive Enterprise Services 3.5. New features include improved automation based on events, additional model management techniques and expanded reporting options designed to improve visibility of analytic results.
The platform provides a foundation to manage and automate the analytic process and integrates with all SPSS products and existing enterprise infrastructures. It also provides organizations with a single data access layer for building and deploying predictive models within operational systems to improve customer interactions within marketing campaigns, call centers and through the Web.
The Predictive Enterprise Services 3.5 platform enhancements include event-based automation, enhanced model management, additional reporting options and easier deployment of predictive models. For more information visit www.spss.com.
NielsenHealth encourages consumer-centric service
New York researcher The Nielsen Company has debuted NielsenHealth, a service intended to provide transparency, effectiveness and efficiency for clients seeking a better understanding of the health care consumer. NielsenHealth is designed to provide clients with consumer-centric analytical tools to understand and address the attitudes, behaviors and needs of patients and physicians.
NielsenHealth is designed to help clients, like pharmaceutical and over-the-counter manufacturers, improve how they target, reach and communicate with patients, consumers and physicians. NielsenHealth provides capabilities in areas like trendspotting, segmentation, physician messaging and advertising effectiveness. In addition, NielsenHealth will address other needs of the health care industry, including understanding of how patients treat their conditions and manage their lifestyles, and how best to reach them; optimizing resource allocation among physician detailing and direct-to-consumer channels; new product-launch forecasting; improved television and online media targeting; tracking real-time disease outbreak in the U.S.; and measuring the impact of in-store clinics for drug retailers. For more information visit www.nielsen.com.
NCPDP launches pharmacy data tool
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP), Scottsdale, Ariz., has launched dataQ, a pharmacy data tool that provides health care stakeholders with current pharmacy information. DataQ is designed to enable pharmacies, health plans and other stakeholders to improve pharmacy database accuracy and electronic claims processing for faster reimbursement of prescription drug claims. It can also be used for pharmacy network development and credentialing, data validation, drug utilization monitoring and product recalls, along with market research and analysis.
Available with varying subscription and administrative levels, dataQ includes optional real-time Web access to pharmacy data, custom reporting and file download capabilities. DataQ relies on the NCPDP’s data validation, verification and documentation processes. The launch reflects an evolution of the Standard Pharmacy Database version 2.1, which will continue to be available. For more information visit www.ncpdp.org.
Shopper Waypoints a relay for what’s hot in retail
Atlanta marketing consulting firm The Capre Group has debuted Shopper Waypoints, a strategic insights exploration designed to help marketers get inside the mind of shoppers. Distributed as an insights magazine, Shopper Waypoints is designed to explore what impacts shoppers most in the areas of external influencers, money, value, time and what’s hot and what’s not in retail.
Using a quarterly online survey of 1,200 nationally representative consumers, Shopper Waypoints presents articles based on probing, open-ended questions to identify the latest trends and quantitative measures to help track shopper confidence, perspectives and behavior.
Shopper Waypoints is sold by subscription only. Subscribers receive four quarterly reports and four quarterly conference calls with Capre Group analysts. For more information visit www.capregroup.com.
TNS debuts two new products
The Sri Lankan branch of New York research company TNS has introduced two research products: Employee Pulse and Brand Power. Brand Power is a tool designed to measure the commitment of consumers toward the brand/organization and thereby identify the strength of the brand-consumer relationship. The tool is designed to measure the consumer commitment and loyalty toward the brand.
Employee Pulse is a tool targeting human resource practitioners, which may be helpful in measuring and monitoring the satisfaction of employees within the organization. The fundamental theory driving the Employee Pulse model is higher motivational levels of employees leading to better productivity and higher employee retention. For more information visit www.tnsglobal.com.
KOLOR brightens key opinion leader identification
San Mateo, Calif., research company AlphaDetail Inc. has debuted KOLOR, a Web-based key opinion leader report system designed to enhance product deliverables. KOLOR augments AlphaDetail’s key opinion leader identification process with faster results, customizable data presentation configurations, advanced search filters, integration of primary and secondary research and key opinion leader profiles. Users are able to configure aspects of data presentation, including column display names, order and format. The Web-based system provides 24-hour access and multiple users are able to generate, share and export custom reports. For more information visit www.alphadetail.com/kol.
Briefly
London research agency YouGov has launched YourGeneration, a tracking service to connect with Baby Boomers. Through the YouGov panel, YourGeneration can access around 60,000 Boomers available to answer client questions on topics such as attitudes to life, ethical consumerism, marketing categories and brands. The quarterly tracker will contain core topics for each survey, as well as additional modules such as marketing and communications, technology and health, financial services and retail, and media and leisure. For more information visit www.yougov.com.
Seattle research company Survey Analytics has released the public beta of IdeaScale, a community-based portal designed to enable companies to gather real-time customer feedback on their own Web sites using a crowd-sourcing model. Pricing for IdeaScale will be free for the initial beta period and will continue to be free for individual Web sites and bloggers following the conclusion of the public beta. For more information visit www.ideascale.com.
Montreal research software company Voxco has launched Voxco Command Center 3.0. The updated release of Voxco Command Center includes a new data collection mode: CAMI (for surveys on mobile phone). Voxco Command Center 3.0 offers the opportunity to execute survey projects using CATI, CAWI, Web-CATI, CAPI, CAMI and IVR modes. For more information visit www.voxco.com.
Synergy International Limited Inc., an Akron, Ohio, research firm, has opened its 3,600-square-foot focus group facility in Fairlawn, Ohio. For more information visit www.synergycem.com.