PreTesting service measures emotional connectedness

Tenafly, N.J., research firm PreTesting is now offering e-Motion, a patent-pending technology that allows clients to measure the intensity of a respondent’s emotional connectedness to television commercials or Web sites. E-Motion can record both visual fixations and saccadic response to these media, measuring respondents’ emotional interest as they watch commercials.

With a target audience’s e-Motions superimposed over a commercial, a second-by-second analysis of a brand’s ability to bond with consumers is produced. “When interested, human eyes are in constant vibration, and those vibrations are known scientifically as saccades,” said Lee Weinblatt, founder and CEO of PreTesting. “However, the speed at which your eyes vibrate depends completely upon your emotional interest in whatever you’re viewing. The vibrations are controlled by the brain’s desire to obtain more visual information. If someone is engaged in a visual, the brain will seek more details and specifics, creating more focus points, and thus, faster vibrations.” For more information visit www.pretesting.com.

Online concept testing from MRSI

Cincinnati-based Marketing Research Services Inc. has introduced Concept Highlighter, an online concept testing solution designed to make it easier for respondents to react to product concepts and for researchers and marketers to understand those attributes that are most important to consumers. Concept Highlighter allows consumers to read a concept online and click on the elements (words, phrases, pictures) that influence their decision on whether to purchase a product. Analysis on concept strengths and weaknesses is then used to determine if the concepts have the characteristics necessary for lasting product success. For more information visit www.prism.mrsi.com/concept_highlighter.html.

New suite from Nielsen Company

New York-based Nielsen Company has debuted a suite of services from its cross-discipline initiative NielsenConnect. NielsenConnect’s initial services include: NielsenCombine, NielsenConnections, NielsenHealth, NielsenTrend, NielsenLinx and Nielsen In-Store.
NielsenCombine is a consumer insight service that connects information from multiple sources - including Nielsen data as well as external research - to capture the dynamics underlying people’s consumption patterns and attitudes.

The primary goal of NielsenConnections is to evaluate the consumer’s activity across media by product usage. The service starts with a core of the National People Meter sample, which will be used to inform data integration across multiple databases.

By utilizing multiple data sources and analytic applications within the Nielsen portfolio, NielsenHealth is designed to help a variety of clients - including OTC and Rx pharmaceutical companies, medical device and food manufacturers, retailers and health care providers - gain insight into the health care value chain while driving efficiency in their marketing related activities.

NielsenTrend is a thought leadership consultancy designed to help clients understand and interpret consumer insights affecting their future and their financial performance. NielsenTrend will deliver a cross-functional approach to data integration through an intelligence network on global trends, consumer attitudes and behavior backed by Nielsen’s information assets. It will interpret data from across Nielsen services to provide analysis of the dynamics between demographics, ethnographic trends and attitudinal shifts. Currently under development, NielsenTrend will be launched in 2008.

NielsenLinx is designed to help marketers, retailers, media and advertising agencies organize and manage their data on brands, locations and media more effectively. It is a master data management solution that will provide a source reference for transaction and reporting systems that drive the business. NielsenLinx will expand its coverage to media, brand and global applications based on TDLinx, the location-information management service. As a metadata infrastructure solution, NielsenLinx will provide a syndicated framework for database maintenance, aggregated reporting, data integration and electronic communication.

Nielsen In-Store is designed to help marketing professionals better understand how to reach and influence consumers in retail environments. In-Store measures consumer exposure to an array of in-store marketing vehicles, including television and radio, at-shelf ads, digital signage and other point-of-purchase displays. The new service builds on a development effort called P.R.I.S.M. (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) conducted in early 2006 by a consortium of retailers, manufacturers and the In-Store Marketing Institute. The P.R.I.S.M. Project created a new approach to in-store research that provides the retail industry with a common language to measure in-store consumer reach. For more information visit www.nielsen.com.

Inquisite launches Human Insight Management solution

New from Austin, Texas, research firm Inquisite is the Human Insight Management (HIM) solution. Formed from the integration of two Inquisite products - Survey System 8.0 and Employee Appraisal Management - it links customer or employee survey results to performance appraisals and other management systems.

HIM integrates customer survey results with the performance appraisal of the employee providing that experience. Managers will know what actions are required to create a great place to work, while customer-facing employees will know what actions are required for better customer service. Employees and managers will be able to check in at any time and see exactly how they are performing against objective criteria. Ultimately, the organization as a whole can be more accountable for its level of success.

HIM takes advantage of new functionality in Survey System 8.0 which includes a respondent management module that allows users to create customized panels by leveraging data from CRM, BI and HRMS databases. Employee Appraisal Management is a new product that automates appraisal cycles, incorporates 360-degree feedback and integrates with other management systems to build employee plans that align with corporate goals. For more information visit www.inquisite.com.

Three new pharma research products from TVG

TVG Marketing Research and Consulting, Dresher, Pa., a unit of Saddle River, N.J., marketing firm PDI, has launched three new decision support products. Unified Market Simulator is TVG’s new approach to choice modeling that offers pharmaceutical companies the ability to make decisions based on an evaluation of potential product use. Message Max was developed to enable clients to identify the best message configuration in the creation of detail aids and journal and direct-to-consumer advertisements. The Brand Character Portrait Analysis provides a picture of the underlying motivations affecting product acceptance and delivers insights into the emotional aspects of products. The results provide input to the framing of promotional communication strategy and tactics, and provide product teams with the ability to build relationships, brand loyalty and advocacy for their brand. For more information visit www.pdi-inc.com.

SPSS updates several products

Chicago-based SPSS released new versions of its data mining, text mining, survey research and Predictive Enterprise Services products. Predictive Enterprise Services 3.0 includes new automation options for refreshing and evaluating models for better model accuracy; integrated reporting to help measure and monitor results; more automation options for manual, labor-intensive processes; enhanced asset management with more flexibility to customize metadata; and improved notification services for keeping business end users up-to-date on latest analytic results. For more information visit www.spss.com/predictive_enterprise_services/new.htm.

Release 11.1 of data mining product Clementine builds on the recent release of Clementine 11.0, which provided automatic evaluation of simultaneous models and performance increases with more parallel processing. Enhancements in this release include the addition of self-learning response models to increase model building speed and productivity; anonymization of data to help protect privacy of individual data records; and better integration with a broader enterprise platform to ease the deployment of production models. For more information visit www.spss.com/clementine/whats_new.htm.

Version 4.5 of survey research platform Dimensions offers simplified survey design and enhanced data integration in combining feedback data with other customer relationship management sources, increasing the scope and speed with which feedback can be collected and acted upon. For more information visit www.spss.com/Dimensions/whats_new.htm.

Text Mining for Clementine 5.0 is designed to offer faster modeling of unstructured data, including new sources such as RSS feeds (blogs and news feeds) and new graphics for instant, on-the-fly data analysis. Text Mining for Clementine 5.0 now also supports native multilingual text in seven languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Italian and Portuguese. For more information visit www.spss.com/text_mining_for_clementine/whats_new.

New wireless response products from Fleetwood

Holland, Mich., manufacturing firm Fleetwood Group Inc. is now offering Reply Model CRS960X, a handheld wireless base station that communicates with Reply Model CRS5200 wireless audience response keypads. The CRS960X is designed to poll keypads and display results without using a PC. External video displays are not necessary since this handheld base station has a large LCD to display session questions, individual responses, results graphs and other system parameters to the operator. However, a video port is included on the handheld base station to permit connection to a television, projector or other display device when one is available (and if such use is desired). Additionally, by using a standard USB memory stick, data from a polling session can be downloaded to a PC for further analysis, charting and reporting using typical spreadsheet programs or select Reply software applications.

Together the CRS960X handheld base station and CRS 5200 keypads comprise a portable two-way wireless interactive system that can serve a variety of simple group response applications. For more information visit www.replysystems.com.

Free Scarborough report on integrated newspaper audience

New York-based Scarborough Research has issued a free report highlighting newspaper ratings for 135 papers in 74 local markets across the United States. The Scarborough Newspaper Audience Ratings Report provides single-source print, Web site and integrated newspaper audience (the combined print and online weekly audiences) ratings for newspapers in local markets (DMAs) measured by Scarborough.

The Scarborough Newspaper Audience Ratings Report is organized by market and each market is ranked in the report according to its DMA adult population. Each newspaper’s weekly print audience, weekly Web site audience and integrated newspaper audience are published in the report. All data is derived from Scarborough’s Local Market Studies, Release 2 2006 (fieldwork dates: August 2005 to September 2006). The report can be downloaded (free of charge) at www.scarborough.com/freestudies.php.

Briefly

The new Research>iMpact line of products from Denver-based iModerate all use the firm’s proprietary technology and methodology to help clients add qualitative insight to standard online quantitative surveys. Each solution works within virtually any online survey and centers around iModerate’s moderated one-on-one interview sessions. The line consists of Ad>iMpact, C-Sat>iMpact, Idea>iMpact, Tracking>iMpact, Messaging>iMpact, Placement>iMpact, Name>iMpact, Package>iMpact and Survey>iMpact. For more information visit www.imoderate.com.

Stamford, Conn., research firm Rti has rolled out its Mature Market Omnibus, which conducts monthly or custom-date shared-cost surveys online among a national sample of 1,000 respondents aged 50+. Surveys are completed over a weekend with results e-mailed within the same week. Clients purchase by the question. For more information visit www.mmo.rtiresearch.com.

India-based research and analysis firm Dexterity offers Survey Helpline, a service to meet the ad hoc needs of researchers for survey scripting, hosting and invitations. For more information visit www.mrkpo.com.

Dallas-based Common Knowledge Research Services has put together a health care consumer panel targeting health conditions and past and present prescription and over-the-counter brand usage and other details. For more information visit www.commonknowledge.com.

New York research firm TNS has created TNS Complete, an outsourcing solution designed to meet the needs of market research firms. Staffed by project management professionals, it is designed to provide a quick-turnaround service to research firms using all modalities - mail, phone, online or qualitative research. Further, TNS’ 6thdimension online panel members are available to participate in surveys hosted on the servers of other market research companies. Offline panel members are available for research studies through TNS as well. For more information visit www.tnscomplete.com.

The online focus group platform from Saskatoon-based Itracks is now available in French, Spanish and German. Additional languages are coming soon. For more information visit www.itracks.com.

Research firm Artafact LLC, Fremont, Calif., has partnered with Web collaboration firm WebEx, Santa Clara, Calif., to create the Artafact Online Focus Groups product, which combines Artafact research services with an on-demand collaboration application from WebEx to create a turnkey research service. With Artafact Online Focus Groups, expensive software is no longer a barrier to conducting in-depth qualitative research online. For more information visit www.artafact.com.

Keynote Competitive Research, San Mateo, Calif., is now offering a series of competitive research studies examining the online travel industry, including studies of airline, hotel and rental car Web sites. Collectively, the studies examine the online customer experience and service levels (site responsiveness and reliability) of more than 25+ leading airline, hotel and rental car Web sites. The data are compiled using the company’s commercially available Web performance and customer experience test and measurement products. For more information visit www.keynote.com.