Apian releases SurveyPro 4.0
Seattle-based Apian Software is now offering SurveyPro 4.0, the newest version of its professional survey software. The software includes several new capabilities, including an integrated respondent e-mailer. SurveyPro 4.0 sends and manages respondent e-mail invitations, reminders and thank-you messages at survey completion.
SurveyPro 4.0 includes multimedia deployment methods (Web, paper, scannable, and kiosk surveys) in one package. No plug-ins or per-respondent/per-survey fees.
With SurveyPro 4.0’s improved server application, businesses are provided with quick response times and low server overhead for larger questionnaires.
The SurveyPro 4.0 package includes Apian technical support and multiple training options, and also supports the full Windows ANSI character set so surveys can be translated into multiple languages. Apian also provides custom hosting of SurveyPro 4.0 surveys. For more information visit www.apian.com.
Itracks tool lets respondents add markings to stimuli
Saskatoon-based Itracks has introduced iMarkIt, a new tool that lets both qualitative participants and survey respondents mark up stimuli from video, Web sites, images and text with emoticons, arrows, color and text boxes. Researchers can highlight key findings for their client with visuals created by the respondent themselves.
Designed in partnership with SharpStyle Labs Inc., iMarkIt integrates with the company’s online focus group and bulletin-board facilities as well as its online surveys. Stimuli are displayed and respondents can drag and drop elements and text boxes on top of the image. Smiley faces highlight what they like, frowns highlight what they don’t, lines cross out text or arrows point to specifics. All the while, respondents can add their text commentary explaining their rationale. The tool is suitable for concept and advertising testing, Web site feedback, copy testing and logo development. For more information visit www.itracks.com.
Bruzzone pairs with SSI for Super Bowl ad measure
Bruzzone Research, Alameda, Calif., has announced that for its annual tracking of Super Bowl advertising, it will collaborate with Survey Sampling International (SSI), Fairfield, Conn., to run parallel studies to compare results from three different sources: brand-new panelists, panelists identified by SSI as frequent survey takers, and respondents not invited from a panel. Bruzzone hopes to be able to determine how a reduction of frequent survey takers affects the performance of Super Bowl ads based on the diagnostic measures that the firm obtains for the ads. For more information visit www.bruzzone-research.com.
Research Now adds Flash toolkit
London-based Research Now has launched its Flash Survey Toolkit - providing standardized Flash-enabled survey questions to integrate to online surveys. Research Now’s approach to Flash has been to invest in producing standard Flash programming that can be “taken off the shelf” and inserted into surveys with no additional cost or time.
The Flash Survey Toolkit has been developed in response to client demand and follows research-on-research conducted by Research Now. The firm’s studies found that Flash programming improves respondent engagement and can also improve the quality and completeness of the data collected. The Flash Survey Toolkit includes: card sort; custom slider; drag-and-drop; scattered words; magnifying glass; page flip and zoom; and hot spots. For more information visit www.researchnow.co.uk.
ComScore product expands view of Web search universe
Reston, Va., research firm comScore Inc. has launched search measurement product comScore qSearch 2.0. With search becoming a more ubiquitous activity across the Web, comScore is expanding the market view of the search universe to encompass other searches that occur on the Internet. ComScore’s qSearch 2.0 interface will provide clients with a view of the search universe in the U.S. and worldwide that encompasses: core search engines - the five major U.S. search engines (i.e., Google sites, Yahoo! sites, Microsoft sites, Ask Network and Time Warner Network); the top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, which includes sites such as MySpace, Baidu and Naver; major “vertical” search locations such as eBay and Amazon in retail and Expedia in travel; partner search - searches initiated at partner sites that redirect the visitor to a search engine site; cross-channel search - which counts multiple searches when employing more than one search tab (e.g., Web, images, news) for a single search term; local search; and worldwide search.
The comScore qSearch 2.0 service lets clients discern whether the search originates from a text box on a search engine portal, an auto-search typed in the browser’s URL line, a search from a text box on a downloaded search toolbar, local search or a partner site. The expanded search universe will progressively add the ability to view search within a collection of vertical sites such as shopping, travel or careers. For more information visit www.comscore.com.
Gongos service is a community of communities
Gongos Research, Auburn Hills, Mich., has unveiled Gongos metaCommunity, a service that blends the dynamics of online social networking with large-scale quantitative research to create a hybrid of two Internet-based research approaches: private online communities and custom Internet panels. With a metaCommunity, companies can engage thousands of consumers in a long-term exchange of ideas. In this “community of communities,” members become a resource from which to conduct quantitative surveys and qualify for smaller, targeted communities for more in-depth qualitative initiatives. For more information visit www.gongos.com.
Ziment rolls out discrete choice product for pharma compounds
New York research firm Ziment has launched Benchmark Discrete Choice, which is designed to help brand teams determine the market potential of pharmaceutical compounds in early- and late-stage development.
Ziment’s approach aims to overcome the long-standing industry dilemma of quantitatively measuring large numbers of a compound’s potential attributes to determine top-tier and secondary product attributes and the importance of each one, set clinical trial endpoints and provide preference share.
Benchmark Discrete Choice can quantitatively test up to 50 potential attributes and 200 levels of each attribute’s importance, as well as measure preference share, to determine what drives physicians’ prescribing decisions. For marketers who have many questions about their compound or competitors’ compounds, the technique is designed to answer the most common, as well as complex, prelaunch marketing questions, such as: Which attributes will drive market share? How important is each attribute that will drive share? Two competitors are launching products - how much of a competitive threat will they be? For more information visit www.ziment.com.
Confirmit announces Pulse Train product integration roadmap
Following its merger with U.K. research software firm Pulse Train in July, Norway-based research software firm Confirmit announced its long-term product vision, as well as the integration roadmap for the combined Confirmit and Pulse Train product lines.
Confirmit plans to deliver a combined vision by 2010, with a series of interim releases designed to integrate the existing product lines. The first releases, in Q4 2007 and Q2 2008, focus on the Data Central product as the glue to provide universal import and export between the two product platforms. Following this, toward the end of 2008, the company will deliver an enhanced single authoring environment to include full support for CAWI, CATI and CAPI requirements. Pulsar Web will sit alongside the Reportal product as a native reporting tool for data derived in the integrated platform.
By the end of 2008, the company aims to deliver a multimode platform with integrated dialer support available on a software-as-a-service basis. For more information visit www.confirmit.com.
Separately, the company has launched Confirmit Marketplace (www.confirmit-marketplace.com), a platform for vendors to offer their products and services across the following categories: technologies related to or integrated with Confirmit; services, including Confirmit authoring, scripting, integration, coding and translation; respondents provided by panel/sample providers; applications such as standardized survey products with or without benchmarks; and consulting, including customized research and performance measurement.
BIGresearch partners with Hispanic marketing firm
BIGresearch, Columbus, Ohio, has joined forces with Televisa Publishing to provide ongoing consumer insights on the Hispanic market. As part of this effort, BIGresearch will produce Spanish translations of its Simultaneous Media (SIMM) and Consumer Intentions & Actions (CIA) surveys.
Televisa Publishing will post links on most of its Web sites allowing visitors the opportunity to participate in BIGresearch surveys. This will provide BIGresearch with direct access to a database of Hispanics with various degrees of acculturation.
These surveys will help advertisers and others who have an interest in the Hispanic market understand more about the Hispanic community. The SIMM and CIA surveys will feature questions on basic demographics, attitudes toward the economy, retail shopping preferences, future purchase plans and media consumption. For more information visit www.bigresearch.com.
2005 Business Census data now available
The new Business Demographics 2007 Version 3.0 from the Demographic Data Center has the just-released 2005 Business Census data. With Business Demographics 2007 Version 3.0, users also get the most recent 2007 and 2012 population data, coupled with simplified exports and built-in mapping software for mapping trends and business markets.
The data in Business Demographics 2007 is from sources such as the 2005 Business Census, 2007 Population Estimates, 2012 Population Projections, 2007 and 2012 Consumer Expenditures, and the Census 2000 Population Demographics.
Data is available for the nation, state, county and zip code. It is exportable for use in spreadsheets, statistical programs or mapping software.
The 2005 Business data is the most up-to-date data from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s 2005 County and Zip Code Business Patterns database. Industries include: forestry, fishing, hunting, agriculture, mining, utilities, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, transportation and warehousing, information, finance and insurance; real estate, rental and leasing; and professional, scientific and technical services.
The 2007 Estimates and 2012 Projections are the most current demographic data available. The data includes variables such as age, race, sex, household type and size, income, housing information and more. The 2007 and 2012 Consumer Expenditures provide household spending patterns based on the Consumer Expenditure Survey. For more information visit www.demographic-information.com.
Briefly
Minneapolis research firm Market Resource Associates Inc. is now offering Express Tests, which draw from the firm’s list of over 18,000 tradespeople (such as builders, remodeling contractors, painters, electricians, plumbers) for online or outbound telephone research. For more information visit www.mraonline.com.
A new medical marketing research field agency, KeyQuest Health, has launched. Founding directors are Carol Faverger, Ruby Nanda and Rosalyn Twite. For more information visit www.keyquesthealthltd.com.
Arbitron Inc., New York, has added Wenatchee, Wash., to its fall 2007 Radio Ratings Survey. With an estimated 220,700 persons who are age 12 and older, Wenatchee ranks at 177 in the markets Arbitron is surveying this fall as part of its Qualitative Diary Service. For more information visit www.arbitron.com.
London-based Synovate Healthcare has launched its India Oncology Monitor, which will track drug-prescribing behavior in major oncology treatment centers across India, covering an estimated 80 percent of the country’s oncology drug market. For more information visit www.synovate.com/healthcare.
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) has launched an ongoing series of podcasts on its Web site, designed to complement the content of the organization’s QRCA Views magazine. Each podcast is an interview with the author or subject of a key article from each edition of the magazine. For more information visit www.qrca.org.
Greenfield Online Inc., Wilton, Conn., has partnered with SharpStyle Labs Inc. to create Visual Concept Evaluator and Visual Copy Evaluator, online tools that enable the gathering of feedback on a variety of visual stimuli. Survey respondents evaluate product or advertising concepts such as print ads or package designs and mark them using visual tools such as callouts, highlights, arrows, etc. For more information visit www.greenfieldonline.com.
Lightspeed Research, Basking Ridge, N.J., now offers a mobile research service that delivers consumer surveys via mobile devices in Great Britain and Australia. The service lets marketers capture consumer responses to surveys and user-generated images from mobile camera phones, to receive feedback on time-sensitive or event-based research questions. For more information visit www.lightspeedresearch.com.
Simmons Research, New York, has enhanced its National Consumer Study (NCS), adding the deployment of a continuous measurement system, which expands Simmons’ data collection operation from nine months to a continuous 12-month period, and a quarterly delivery process that increases the publication rate for its studies from two to four times a year. The changes impact all studies that are produced from Simmons’ core NCS. For more information visit www.smrb.com.