GfK Healthcare debuts two new tools
GfK Healthcare, a Blue Bell, Pa., division of Nuremberg, Germany, research company, The GfK Group, has introduced FlashPoints, a custom quantitative mini-study focused on delivering information on physicians’ perceptions and behavior within a short time frame. With survey results delivered in one week, the mini-study is designed to provide clients feedback on various time-sensitive issues. FlashPoints can be used to get a quick pulse following a market event or to obtain basic insights on physicians’ perceptions and prescribing behavior.
FlashPoints is conducted with 100 physicians - including a wide range of specialists and primary care physicians - accessing GfK Healthcare’s physician community or using the client’s target list. The survey allows for up to five closed-ended questions, with the option of using open-ended questions for an additional charge.
Additionally, GfK Healthcare has launched Treatment Tracker, a syndicated research service intended to offer physicians’ brand preferences, current and anticipated future prescribing practices, patient treatment algorithms, unmet market needs and other insights across 30+ disease states. Treatment Tracker aims to allow clients to tailor reports to draw out only the specific data that is most relevant and critical to their particular information needs.
A number of enhancements are planned for GfK’s Treatment Tracker, including more frequent data collection and reporting and an expansion into global syndicated studies. For more information visit www.gfkhc.com.
New panel dives into niche sports and leisure activities
TNS Travel and Tourism, a London division of Horsham, Pa., research company TNS, has launched an activities-based research panel designed to investigate previously-unreachable groups based on their participation in niche sports and leisure activities. Companies and organizations in the tourism and leisure sectors can engage with individuals - filtered by 25 specialist activities - who take part in ethical holidays, enjoy parachuting or scuba diving, visit film locations or go on spa breaks. The Activities’ Panel draws from an online panel of 500,000 adults in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain and profiles respondents through leisure participation, age, gender, vacationing behavior and media preference. For more information visit www.tnsglobal.com.
Researchers collaborate to form VideoDiary panel
Research companies QualVu, Evergreen, Colo.; EasyInsites, Surrey, U.K.; and Cint, Stockholm, Sweden, have partnered to build the VideoDiary research panel, which is geared toward brands seeking access to screened participants for qualitative research. The panel will be built by screening participating panels in the Cint Panel Exchange, which comprises 200+ panels across 30 countries.
VideoDiary utilizes QualVu’s SystemInsite technology for identifying whether a panelist has a Webcam, microphone and other key attributes to determine if a panelist is ready for video creation and collection. QualVu will also provide the technology platform for preparing, collecting and analyzing the video content through the use of their VideoDiary and VuPoint tools.
EasyInsites will be the primary full-service research agency offering this service and has created a product called EasyVideo as a part of its EasyQual product set. EasyVideo is designed to help clients create a qualitative session on video whereby questions are posed by a moderator, chosen by the client or by EasyInsites on behalf of the client. EasyInsites will then ensure the video is targeted and distributed to pre-screened respondents, either sourced from an EasyPanel (a client’s custom panel that will be managed in the exchange) or from another set of respondents outside of a client’s custom panel. Once fielded, EasyInsites will then provide a clip summary by selecting pieces of video content from each respondent and delivering a video report.
Cint’s role in the partnership is to screen participating panels in the Cint Panel Exchange. The screening is intended to be ongoing and available to all users of the Cint Panel Exchange. For more information visit www.qualvu.com/video_diary.
TVG releases forecasting suite
TVG Marketing Research and Consulting, Dresher, Pa., has launched a suite of forecasting services focused on predicting share and forecasting revenue. The TVG Rapid Share Predictor is designed to provide access to patient share and share penetration (uptake) rates without the need to conduct primary marketing research or the use of analogs. The Predictor aims to allow companies to focus on attribute variables rather than identifying and defending analog choices.
In addition, TVG offers the TVG Custom Share Predictor, an evaluation of market share in the context of specific market parameters. This approach is designed to synthesize custom primary and secondary marketing research as input to choice modeling to provide an evaluation of potential product use.
Finally, the TVG Forecaster is a forecasting engine built to deliver revenue projections based on a product’s specifications. TVG’s forecasting experts design and define a modeling approach to reflect the way in which companies plan to market their product. TVG integrates the key inputs (market sizing information, pricing, compliance/persistence and competitive landscape data), and input share data is drawn from a variety of sources. For more information visit www.tvg-inc.com.
Qual/quant combo tool to aid ad research
Ipsos ASI, a Norwalk, Conn., division of Paris research company Ipsos, has designed Next*Adlab, an advertising research tool to help marketers refine and optimize the creative content of their advertising early on and in real time. Next*Adlab is intended to provide marketers with a combination of qualitative insights and quantitative measures to help guide the creative process before having to commit to media and production costs.
A Next*Adlab session begins with a quantitative phase, where up to 50 respondents evaluate ads by using wireless touchpads. The collected data is viewed in real time by the marketing team, and findings are used to inform the subsequent qualitative phase, where a smaller group of respondents dig deeper into the emotional impact of the ad and explore how to optimize it. Depending on how many ads are to be tested, the Next*Adlab quantitative/qualitative process typically unfolds in a central location over one to two days, with some data available immediately.
Next*Adlab is available to Ipsos ASI clients across North America and South America, as well as in Europe and Asia. For more information visit www.ipsosasi.com.
Ipsos Reid panel examines needs of ethnic and new Canadians
Ipsos Reid, a Toronto division of Paris research company Ipsos, has launched Multicultural Connection, an online panel of 3,000 ethnic and new Canadians designed to tap into this segment of the population at a lower cost than that of traditional ethnic research.
The panel was created with the goal of helping marketers understand the thoughts, behaviors and attitudes of ethnic and new Canadians, and the panel is housed in Ipsos Reid’s Interactive Forum software, which is a custom panel platform that includes the panelist database (sample), survey scripting and research results data.
Multicultural Connection allows participants to respond in the written languages they are most comfortable with. It is currently available in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese, Punjabi, Hindi and English, with opportunities to expand language capabilities as the panel grows. For more information visit www.ipsos.ca.
New product combines celebrity and brand scores
E-Poll Market Research, Encino, Calif., has introduced a research tool called MediaSYNC, an online interface that aims to provide subscribers with access to, and control of, data from E-Poll’s suite of E-Score research products. MediaSYNC combines brand and celebrity evaluation tools, allowing comparison of brands and endorsers or other talent. Along with the release of MediaSYNC, E-Poll will provide clients with an upgrade in capabilities for E-Score Celebrity, its celebrity evaluation product.
MediaSYNC is an online interface that presents data in a visual format and includes graphing, ranking, sorting, filtering and comparison tools. MediaSYNC houses E-Poll’s E-Score Brand and E-Score Celebrity products and will also be the future home for E-Score Character, E-Score Music and FastTrack Television.
E-Score Celebrity subscribers will receive all new features as a no-charge upgrade to their service package. For more information visit www.epollresearch.com.
Harris and Clarabridge partner for Text Analytics
Harris Interactive, a Rochester, N.Y., research company, has released Text Analytics, a service that integrates the text mining technology from Reston, Va., research company Clarabridge and Harris’s analytics to map market trends. The solution is intended for companies looking to integrate several sources of information available about their market to improve investment in market research dollars and produce better trend forecasting.
Features of the solution include: classifying and categorizing large volumes of text without manual coding; building interlocking connections and roadmaps between structured and unstructured data; enabling more accurate validation of emerging trends and customer sentiment; using social media, Web and other market intelligence to predict and pursue time-sensitive issues; allowing more open survey design; and utilizing business intelligence platforms to integrate reporting and data exploration tools in enterprise applications.
Text Analytics also incorporates market intelligence from surveys, structured Web content and customer relationship management; mines Web content and extracts insight from online social media and other qualitative sources; is a scalable and systematic method of linking unstructured data with more traditional data sources that use numeric formats; gives structure to unstructured information through the combination of human content expertise, natural-language-based analysis and machine-learning analysis; attaches measures of sentiment (positive and negative dispositions); and allows online reporting of results. For more information visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
NVivo expands multilingual offerings
French and German versions of qualitative data analysis software NVivo 8 have been launched globally. The releases, developed by QSR International, a Doncaster, Australia, research company, are designed to allows users to import and analyze video, audio, images and documents side-by-side; test theories; identify trends; and cross-examine information. Professional models and charts can be created, and NVivo project files and results can be shared via mini Web sites - even with those who don’t have NVivo. The software can also identify the work of individual team members even after separate projects are merged. For more information visit www.qsrinternational.com.
Companies team to offer mobile consumer surveys
Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI), a New York research division of Stamford, Conn., document management company Pitney Bowes, has partnered with LandPoint Systems Inc., a GIS consulting firm, to provide a mobile consumer survey service called FACES (fast, accurate, current economical surveys). FACES, offered through LandPoint’s KnowYourFaces division, is designed to provide retailers and restaurants with customizable surveys to capture customer data at the point of experience. The service utilizes digital technology equipped with FACES software and PBBI location intelligence solutions. For more information visit www.pbbusinessinsight.com.
Maktoob adds Web-based ad campaign measurement tool
Maktoob Research, a Dubai, United Arab Emirates, research company, has released a product designed to provide insights into the impact of online and offline advertising campaigns. While a company has an online ad campaign running on a Web site, visitors are selected randomly on the site to take a questionnaire by using overlay banners. At the same time, panel members are receiving an invitation e-mail that includes a link to this same questionnaire.
The questionnaire contains about 30 questions and covers topics such as brand awareness and usage, ad awareness, liking, understanding, image and purchase intent. Responses are broken out into four different target groups (i.e., those who are not exposed to the ad, exposed to the ad but not online, exposed to the online ad only, and exposed to the online and offline ad). For more information visit www.maktoob-research.com.
Briefly
PluggedIN, a Rochester, N.Y., research company, has released version 1.5 of its proprietary online community platform. The PluggedIN Platform, which combines social networking and community features with market research capabilities, is designed for running extended qualitative research studies, including online communities, virtual ethnography and diary research. The update to the PluggedIN Platform is intended to enhance the existing discussion forum functionality and includes upgrades to the comment notification system. Existing customers will be upgraded automatically to version 1.5 as part of the software-as-a-service offering. For more information visit www.pluggedinco.com.
Reportlinker.com, a New York online market research report database, has added a new report, titled World Dynamic Signature Verification Market, to its catalog. The report analyzes the worldwide markets for dynamic signature verification by application and by end-use verticals (financial, health care, government, etc.). Annual forecasts and a three-year historical analysis are provided for each region for the period of 2006 through 2015. The report profiles 31 companies. For more information visit www.reportlinker.com.
Leeds, U.K., research company Quaestor has launched Live It!, a toolkit aimed to enable clients to interact more directly with their audiences. Quaestor encourages stepping in front of the two-way mirror and allowing researchers to have a face and name during the research process. Live It! includes techniques named quasi ethnography, immersion sessions, gallery walks, quiz dating, debating panels and carousel sessions, all of which are designed to be customizable. For more information visit www.quaestor.co.uk.
Cross-Tab, a Mumbai, India, research company, has launched Borderless Access, an online panel services company specializing in providing online panels in Brazil, Russia, India and China comprising approximately half a million panelists (250,000 in India; 75,000 in Brazil; 75,000 in China; 50,000 in Russia). The panels represent key demographics of overall Internet population in each country. For more information visit www.cross-tab.com.
InterfaceASIA, a Tokyo research company, has launched online panels in India, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The panels add three Asia-Pacific countries to the company’s geographical coverage. For more information visit www.interfaceasia.com.
Invoke Solutions, a Waltham, Mass., research company, has released Engage iBus, an updated addition to its Engage family of products. Engage iBus is designed to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches in real time to allow clients to see the results while the survey is still in the field and to react to the data by inserting new questions or editing existing questions. Within 24-48 hours of the survey closing, clients will receive a PowerPoint presentation with their results. For more information visit www.invoke.com.
Epsilon, an Irving, Texas, research company, has launched Epsilon Targeting, a business division that joins Epsilon Data Service, a compiler of U.S. new-mover data; Abacus, a cooperative database of U.S. multichannel-buyer data; and ICOM Information & Communications, a manager of a direct-response consumer survey database.
The offering includes: Abacus transactional data; consumer-responder database TargetSource; data and delivery vehicle TargetMail; lifestyle data in Target NewMovers and Target NewParents; North America customer composite list offering TargetPlus; and Canadian consumer database TargetIntel. For more information visit www.epsilon.com.
Revelation, a Portland, Ore., research company, has enhanced its software offerings to include Latin American Spanish, continental French and German languages. For more information visit www.revelationglobal.com.