Books provide demographic information by ZIP code, county
CACI Marketing Systems has released two new demographic sourcebooks: The Sourcebook of ZIP Code Demographics (seventh edition), and The Sourcebook of County Demographics (fifth edition).
Encompassing the entire U.S., the ZIP Code Sourcebook provides demographic and market potential information formore than 34,000 ZIP Codes. Over 80 different characteristics are examined: 1990 and 1995 estimates for key demographic variables, market potential indices for major consumer goods and services; 1980 census information, business information statistics by ZIP Code and more.
The County Sourcebook covers all 3,100 counties in the U.S. and details age, population, housing, income, race, education, employment and market potential indices for each, featuring 1990 and 1995 estimates and 1980 census information. Comparison data for MSAs, DMAs, ADIs, and states are also included, along with county maps for each state.
New copytesting system
Decision Analyst, Inc., Arlington, TX, has added a diagnostic advertising pre-testing system to its line of marketing rese,arch services. The system, called CopyTest, is designed to help companies understand and predict the effectiveness of their advertising before it is aired.
CopyTest evaluates television commercials, animatics or photomatics, story-boards, radio commercials, and print and outdoor advertisements. The system measures comprehension and recall, determines what messages are being communicated (unaided and aided) and measures commercials on 10 advertising evaluation factors that include attention, stimulation, and clarity and credibility. Through the system, advertising effectiveness is measured with: composite persuasion - a model-weighted pre-post shift in planned brand purchase; a derived purchase motivation factor; and a derived brand reinforcement factor.
CopyTest is executed in consumer homes using a telephone/mail methodology, or through a recruit-to-central location interview. Results are interpreted by comparison to normative scores from adatabase of more than 1000 advertising pretests.
PINMAP update available
Hawthorne Software Co. Inc. announces an update to their mapping product PINMAP. PINMAP displays any geographic data on a push-pin style map of the U.S., which emphasizes the data and helps reveal patterns in the data. The new Version 1.1 includes up-to-date 1990 ZIP codes, and allows the user to change the shape of the map pins to triangles, circles, or rectangles and expands the number of pin colors from three to six.
Pins of very high or very low values can be emphasized or eliminated to aid in the visual analysis of the data. Where are the highest sales? Which shipments are the most expensive? Where is the lowest market penetration?
PINMAP' s AREAS module allows the user to define and name up to 300 custom areas. Areas are created by adding together whole states, 3-digit ZIPs, and 5-digit ZIP Codes while watching the area being created on a map. Areas may be added together to firm regions. While mapping data at any of the six resolutions, the SHOW function can be used to view any area and its summary statistics. Map images can be saved for slide shows or transparencies, printed on a black and white or color printer, or maps can be produced on a plotter. PINMAP files can be imported into WordPerfect forreports.
Requirements: IBM AT or PS/2 and compatibles running EGA and VGA color graphics boards, a hard disk with at least 5 MB of free memory, and a mouse.
FIND/SVP offers consulting for hi-tech industry
The Strategic Research Division of FIND/SVP has formed a new Telecommunications Group specializing in marketing consulting for high-technology manufacturing and services businesses. The group will assist in business strategy formulation, new venture development, acquisition screening, market needs assessment, new product idea generation, concept formulation and market analysis. The group will utilize in-depth primary and secondary research as well as advanced analytical techniques.
Study examines supermarket customer buying habits
A new study points the way for matching the types of customers who shop in a particular supermarket to the types of products they like to buy there. In a story in the March issue of Supermarket Business, "Targeting Your Trading Area," marketing and retailing decision makers are shown a new method for projecting performance of individual product categories based on the geodemographic characteristics that define an individual supermarket's trading area.
The study is based on the combine resources of two databases. It links the consumer database of Mediamark Research, Inc., which projects product usage data, with that of ClusterPLUS, a geodemographic targeting system offered by Donnelley Marketing Information Services.
Any given supermarket draws its customer base from the trading area that surrounds it. People living within such an area tend to share similar geodemographic characteristics, such as income level, age, type of household and lifestyle. At the same time, influenced by these similarities, they also share similar patterns of buying behavior for various product categories. Therefore, based on the identification of the geodemographics of an area, it is possible to predict consumption levels (versus the national average) on a category-by-category basis.
The report identifies 10 major geodemographic groups and details their relative usage of over 300 product categories sold in supermarkets. By identifying which of the 10 groups best describes the trading area of an individual store, its management can then assess the sales potential (above or below average) of every product category. This can aid in making decisions on allocation of shelf space, participation in promotions, in-store display, etc.
Here are some examples of how the system works:
- Almost every Baked Goods category (including bread, cookies, crackers, snack cakes) shows wide swings in consumption across the 10 groups. Overall, however, stores operating in locations whose trading area is populated by the younger, higher income types should show the best overall reception for Baked Goods."
- The weakest market for the Breakfast category (including breakfast cereals, jams & jellies, pancake/waffle mix, toaster products) is the upper income, well-educated urban professionals. With relatively few children and a residence in the central city, they show below average usage of all breakfast categories, including convenience products such as toaster products."
- Blue-collar families with an above-average incidence of children in the household show the highest rate of usage for powdered fruit/soft drinks."
New graphical data analysis program for PCs
ECHO Data has released DataVision, a graphical data analysis package for IBM compatible PCs that uses three-dimensional graphics to display multi-dimensional data. DataVision accepts summary level matrix data, similar to data commonly used in spreadsheet software.
DataVision displays the data in a MultiGraf, a graphical display of the data using multi-dimensional imagery. The data is represented in terms of entities and attributes. The entities are data points represented in the MultiGraf as dots or small spheres. Attributes are characteristics of the entities and are represented by axis lines. These lines pass through the MultiGraf and are positioned according to their correlation to the other attributes.
As an example, DataVision could be used to see which of an automaker's new car models is the best buy in terms of price, safety features, customer satisfaction, miles per gallon, and horsepower. The new car models would be entities while the criteria (price, safety, etc.) would be attributes.
Firms will joint-market Compass and PRIZM
The Arbitron Co. and Claritas Corp. announce a joint marketing agreement to sell the latter's Compass system, a PC-driven desktop database marketing system that will be used as a platform for the delivery of the PRIZM encoded ratings data.
The agreement allows Arbitron to offer Compass to advertising agencies, advertisers, television and radio stations, broadcast rep companies, and cable systems. Compass combines demographic, cartographic, primary client data, and syndicated third-party data to enable marketers to produce reports, analyses, and full-color maps of any market area or ADI in the United States.
The agreement also provides for Arbitron's marketing of PRIZM coded Arbitron data. PRIZM is Claritas Corp.'s lifestyle segmentation system that defines each neighborhood in the U.S. in terms of 40 distinct "clusters." Using PRIZM coded Arbitron data, clients will be able to analyze viewers or listeners by lifestyle cluster.
Together, the two companies will also produce a variety of reports and publications that include PRIZM segmentation information and demographics. This information will be available in Arbitron's online systems and PC products.
Research firms join video focus group network
In a joint announcement, Heakin Research, Inc., Quality Controlled Services, and Quick Test Opinion Centers, stated they will provide the initial 15 sites for a nationwide network of focus groups facilities installed with Focus Vision Network equipment for live video transmission of in-progess focus groups direct to client offices. Commencing in October 1990, the new service will allow clients to view and interact with their live, geographically dispersed focus group sessions through in-office Focus Vision reception consoles.