••• health care research
Kantar creates panel of consumers with disabilities
Aims to uncover unmet needs, accessibility challenges
Research company Kantar is partnering with nonprofit research organization disABILITYincites to create a U.S. panel of consumers with disabilities and use results from it to produce a research study on the unmet needs of these consumers. Set up and run by Kantar-owned Lightspeed Research using a sample of 5,000 people with disabilities, the study has two aims: to examine the segment’s consumption behaviors, unmet needs due to ac-cessibility challenges and other areas of focus never measured before that depict the disability journey; and to yield insights that inspire manufacturers and other service providers to create new products and services that enable people with disabilities to live more independently while following their ambitions. At press time, preliminary study results were due to be released this fall. All study results will be made available by mid-2015 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
us.kantar.com
••• qualitative research
New book offers guide to Web-based interviews
Covers tool, costs, planning
Jennifer Dale of Inside Heads, a Virgin Islands research firm, and Susan Abbott of Toronto-based Abbott Re-search and Consulting have co-authored Qual-Online, the Essential Guide, designed to help marketers and re-searchers understand the processes of conducting and moderating Web-based interviews. From learning about the types of tools available to planning an online study, the book is designed to help readers understand the sequence of steps to follow, the timing and the costs involved. It will also help manage the insights gathered, to make the job of sharing information with clients easier and make reports more robust.
www.paramountbooks.com/qual-online-essential-guide
••• customer experience
Clarabridge adds speech analytics component
Analyzes variety of call-based material
Washington, D.C., software company Clarabridge, partnering with Pittsburgh firm Voci Technologies Inc., has expanded its Clarabridge Speech solution by adding a speech analytics component. The change is aimed to provide access to multiple sources of customer feedback, including surveys, agent notes, social media, chat, voice, e-mail and warranty notes. Clarabridge Speech transcribes and automatically analyzes customer call recordings, including service calls, phone-based marketing research or after-call surveys for a holistic view of the customer. The call data is combined with call center agents’ notes and other customer data. The voice and meaning is interpreted and paired with other feedback. Collectively the customer feedback is processed using natural language processing, industry specific categorization and sentiment scoring to analyze the complete voice of the customer, find actionable insights and use them effectively.
www.clarabridge.com
••• hybrid research
AcuPOLL system mixes qual, quant
Uses iPads to enable mobility
Cincinnati research company AcuPOLL has launched AcuPOLL Live Qual/Quant on iPads, a customized sys-tem designed for use in moderated group sessions. The system aims to capture answers to closed-ended quan-titative questions via the iPads. It is also designed to orally gather answers to open-ended qualitative questions along with ratings of the answers, allowing clients to understand the level of agreement across the group, eliminate group bias and know how everyone in the group feels. Researchers can: test in-context in restaurants, bars, laundromats, playgrounds, test kitchens and retail; get insights from Millennials and teens on the platform where they’re comfortable and engaged; and have the flexibility and capacity to test more than a dozen campaign elements in one session.
www.acupoll.com
••• mobile research
Report charts mobile path to purchase
As age rises, tablet demand falls
Tucson, Ariz., researcher Communicus has published its report, The Mobile Device Path to Purchase: Parents & Children, which aims to examine how parents and children purchase and use mobile devices. The study showed that two-thirds of pre-kindergarten-age children use tablets, with one-third owning their own tablet. The report also revealed that demand for cell phones increases as the child gets older but tablet demand decreases once the child reaches tween-age, defined as ages 10 to 12. Between July 7 and July 17, Communicus inter-viewed over 2,000 adults and nearly 1,400 children ages 6-17 for the study. Children were grouped as pre-K (ages 2-5), kids (ages 6-9), tweens (ages 10-12) and teens (ages 13-17).
www.communicus.com
••• health care research
Advisory team will help researchers work with patients
Conditions include lupus, epilepsy and MS
PatientsLikeMe, a Boston health research firm, has formed its first patient-only advisory team comprised of volunteers from medical patients in its member forums. The team is designed to provide feedback to the Pa-tientsLikeMe research team on research initiatives and will develop a guide outlining standards for researchers wanting to engage with patients. The current team members range in age from 32 to 67 years old and include veterans, nurses, social workers, academics and advocates. Their conditions include bipolar disease, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, lupus, depression, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
www.patientslikeme.com
••• health and beauty research
Kline debuts report on the sexual wellness market
A market on the rise?
Kline & Company, a Parsippany, N.J., research firm is offering a new study, Sexual Wellness: U.S. Market Analysis and Opportunities, which assesses the market for personal intimacy and enhancement products. Once the domain of small, dark specialty shops and obscure Web sites, sexual wellness products can now be found in many drug stores and mass merchandisers. Reputable chains like CVS, Walgreens and Target boast larger and more complete intimate health sections which feature not only condoms and pregnancy kits but also playful lubricants, intimate massagers and sexual enhancement supplements from brands like Extenze and Zyrexin.
Multinational consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser has taken a front seat in the sexual wellbeing cate-gory following its acquisitions of Durex condoms in 2010 and K-Y personal lubricants in 2014. The Durex product lineup has since exploded to now offer an array of intimate lubricants and massagers. “We believe that intimate well-being is an essential category that, although often burdened with some social stigmas, offers a lot of oppor-tunities as well,” says Aurore Trepo, a spokesperson from Reckitt Benckiser. “We are excited to see the results of this new study from Kline to help us better understand how to best respond to consumer and market needs.”
www.klinegroup.com
••• shopper insights
20|20 adds virtual reality tool
Can change depending on user demographics, behaviors
20|20 Research, Nashville, Tenn., has launched its 20|20 virtual reality (VR) program, which is designed to allow respondents with VR headsets to experience a computer-simulated environment. The program aims to replicate a variety of in-store environments, locations or events and to use eye-tracking to determine which items attract the most attention. The tool is designed to change the store settings, conditions, pricing and product configurations instantly, depending on the user’s demographics and behaviors.
www.2020research.com
••• data analysis
IBM offers help tackling big data
Watson wants to work for you
IBM, New York, has launched a B2B analytics tool, Watson Analytics, designed to provide a full range of self-service analytics, geared toward making the acquisition and preparation of data for analysis and visualization easier for business users. The new service has been designed to automate areas such as data preparation, predictive analysis and visual storytelling. Available as free and premium services, Watson Analytics is a natural language-based cognitive service that offers access to predictive and visual analytic tools for companies. Companies can upload their data and start querying it and start discovering patterns, trends and perform predictive analytics on their data.
www.ibm.com
••• Briefly
London research firm E-Tabs has launched a data visualization design blog, aimed at addressing good design examples, interactive dashboards, design theories and innovations, focusing on application within the market research industry. Both original and referenced content will be included.
www.e-tabs.com
Chennai, India, researcher Krea has launched a specialist diabetes panel, DIAB+, with opinion leaders, en-docrinologists, diabetologists and clinicians as members. A second database includes nurses and patients.
http://krea.in/panels
McLean, Va., software firm Logi Analytics has updated its Vision data discovery software to Logi Vision 1.3, adding social activity streaming, mapping and binning capabilities.
www.logianalytics.com/vision
Pennington, N.J., researcher G&R has added Mobile Tip-In to its toolkit of in-context copy testing and pre-testing methodologies.
www.gandrllc.com
EyeSee, a Ghent, Belgium, researcher, has partnered with the Smurfit Kappa packaging company, Dublin, to create an online tool to allow brand owners to test the impact of packaging in a virtual store environment before the product is launched. The tool is designed to depict packages on a virtual supermarket shelf and to monitor eye-tracking results through a Webcam. Analysis of the results reports how the item stood out, was remembered and drew shopper interest in the product.
www.eyesee.be/about.php
NetBase, a Mountain View, Calif., researcher, has launched its targeting tool, Audience Marketing with micro@scale advertising. The tool is designed to create a detailed segmentation of an audience by examining customer gender, geography, lifestyle and interests. The micro@scale advertising component then aims to target the individuals who match the desired social profiles. The tool is now available as in beta mode to selected customers.
www.netbase.com
Boston technology firm BlueConic has launched a mobile app listening tool, designed to track customer behavior and purchases within a mobile app. The activity is then synced with the user’s profile from prior e-mail, Web or in-store interactions with the brand.
www.blueconic.com
ComScore Inc. has expanded the release of its Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix products to five additional countries including Canada. It was launched in the U.S. and U.K. last year.
www.comscore.com/products/
audience-analytics
Krux, a Skelleftea, Sweden, marketing firm, has integrated the NetAcuity Edge ad targeting software of Digital Element, a Norcross, Ga., technology firm, into its services. The addition is designed to allow clients to segment audiences, geographically target advertising and localize Web site content.
www.digitalelement.com/netacuity
Bangalore, India, research firm Borderless Access has launched a proprietary community and panel man-agement platform, Communisense, designed to ensure higher response rates and to help clients understand and predict panelist behavior across recruitment, engagement, sampling and incentive management.
communisense.borderlessaccess.com
In London, the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB) has added a measurement technique to include panelists using iPads and tablets. The addition, developed by Kantar Media, will first be used in BARB panel homes that currently have a software meter installed for tracking desktop and laptop computer viewing.
www.barb.co.uk
Adknowledge, Kansas City, Mo., is partnering with Realeyes, a London technology firm, to incorporate emo-tional analytics in its online video campaigns. The analytics platform uses Webcams on participant devices to measure how the audience members react to video content and is designed to provide advertisers feedback on how audiences respond emotionally to video campaigns.
www.adknowledge.com
Adaptive Insights, a Palo Alto, Calif., software company, has released its Suite 2014.2 software. The software includes an Adaptive Integration feature, designed to provide data integration, transformation, data staging and scheduling as a cloud service. Also released is the Adaptive OfficeConnect software, designed to blend cloud-based reports with Excel, PowerPoint and Word reporting sheets.
www.adaptiveinsights.com
Oslo, Norway, researcher Confirmit has launched its Confirmit Panel App, designed to allow researchers to provide an easy mobile experience to their panel participants. The app provides participants with functionality for registration, profile management, tracking reward points and the ability to pause and resume surveys. It is availa-ble through the Apple App Store and Googleplay.
www.confirmit.com
New York researcher Gazelle Global has launched GoSample!, a standalone online sample solution de-signed to provide multiple engagement points to reach potential sample candidates. It is geared toward users with their own survey capability.
www.gazelleglobal.com
Philadelphia researcher Neustar has launched AK Media Insights Pro, a media intelligence service designed to allow marketers to experiment with custom marketing attribution models, using their existing business intelli-gence to test what-if scenarios.
www.neustar.biz
Passenger has integrated the social platform of LoginRadius, Edmonton, Canada, into the Passenger FUEL Community Engine. The move is designed to provide more power to brand managers and marketers working to create social media interest to support brand messaging, promotions or new products.
www.thinkpassenger.com/fuelcommunity
New York researcher Nielsen has launched the Nielsen Store – Europe, a Web site offering reports for pur-chase and immediate download. They include data reports on FMCG products as well as manufacturer reports.
http://store.nielsen.com
The designers at Palo Alto, Calif., technology firm Speaktoit, who created the virtual assistant Android app of the same name, have now launched Api.ai, a natural language-understanding software designed to allow developers to voice-enable apps and devices. The Api.ai handles requests in plain text as well as voice files and provides an iOS and Android SDK.
www.speaktoit.com
Montreal researcher iPerceptions has released the iPerceptions Marketing Effectiveness Solution, a digital research solution. It is designed to evaluate how paid search, display and social media and e-mail marketing influence attitudes toward the brand. The solution aims to leverage the iPerceptions Active Research Platform, which engages customers at the moment they interact with the brand.
www.iperceptions.com
Phoenix researcher iCrossing has introduced Responsive Audience Intelligence, an online tool designed to match online visitors with a marketer’s targeted consumer segment by the visitor's age, gender, income, ed-ucation and interests. The tool then aims to provide contextual site copy and landing page content in real time.
www.icrossing.com
Vancouver researcher Insights West has launched an online community, YourInsights Multicultural Panel, composed of 2,100 British Columbian residents of Chinese and South Asian ethnic descent. The panel is designed to handle online surveys in English, traditional and simplified Chinese and to accommodate specifications for various demographics, including length of time in Canada, country of origin and language.
www.insightswest.com
New York software company Neuromatters has released Cognitive Capture, a tool using electroencephalog-raphy to take a new measure, inter-subject correlation, which is designed to measure and predict audience atten-tion. The technology is also geared to analyze peaks and valleys of attention within an ad.
www.neuromatters.com/cognitive-capture
New York researcher Nielsen will launch its Nielsen Social solutions in Mexico in the first half of 2015. Nielsen Social solutions include Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings and are designed to identify, capture and analyze Twitter conversations in real-time.
www.nielsensocial.com
Australian airline Qantas has launched a data marketing business, Red Planet, which will analyze data from its 10.1 million Frequent Flyer loyalty program members and offer targeted advertising and research to other companies. It will also utilize data from the Qantas Shop division, credit cards and employee rewards programs. Quantas will move its digital media spending to Red Planet, which will also handle media campaigns for some clients. The Red Planet staff includes members of the Frequent Flyer analytics team as well as new hires with media background.
Research Partnership, London, has launched an “innovation institute” program across its six offices, designed to encourage employees to examine its research methodologies, output delivery and internal processes and to create innovations and improvements.
www.researchpartnership.com
Detroit research firm Gongos Inc. has launched its third business unit, Arti|fact, aimed at providing “insight curation,” described as preserving, sharing and positioning the knowledge inside an organization.
www.gongos.com
Netherlands-based software firm Nebu has launched a new Web site (nebu.com), designed to provide re-sources to clients, sales prospects and partners with case studies, articles and a single point access.