Directory of computer industry
Mentor Market Research has published The Computer Industry Directory, which contains information on over 6,400 organizations in the computer industry. The directory lists vendors by type of product, location, and alphabetically by corporate and/or division name. The product listing section classifies each company by 14 major business categories, including application software, systems software, hardware, professional services, maintenance services, processing services, systems integrator, retailer, wholesaler, value added reseller, supplies, and telecommunications. Products are further classified into over 400 more specific categories. The listings also show the type of computer system and industry to which the product is sold. The principal product name and description are provided for most listings.
The geographic listings are arranged by city, state, and country. Companies are sorted alphabetically within each locality and includes type of business. The alphabetical listings have toll free 800 numbers as well as local telephone numbers. Street addresses and P.O. boxes are both listed. Up to three top officers are listed for one-third of the companies. As many as three products, industries, and system types are shown in this section.
New release of StatPac Gold
StatPac Inc. has released StatPac Gold IV, a statistical software package designed for market researchers. The package produces tables and graphics for basic analytical procedures, including frequencies, tabs and banners, open-ended response coding, multiple response, descriptives, breakdowns, correlations and t-tests.
StatPac Gold IV offers batch and interactive processing with a full spectrum of reporting options. It handles surveys containing up to 500 questions and 32,000 respondents. The package also offers extended labeling for page headings, titles, variable labels and value definitions and contains full transformation capabilities including sorting, weighting, receding, and computing new variables. StatPac Gold IV works with Windows and comes with a complete tutorial.
Data now available for use with mapping software
Strategic Mapping, Inc. (SMI), a developer of PC and Macintosh-based mapping software, has obtained the data from some of the world's largest data companies and reformatted and reorganized the data to adapt it for personal computer users. Data sources include Equifax Marketing Decision Systems, National Planning Data Corp., Dun & Bradstreet, CACI, and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Called the Atlas Data series, the files enable users of the company's Atlas mapping software to obtain data market intelligence tailored to their industry, geographic area of interest, and competitive situation. The Atlas Data Series includes three data sets: demographic, business, and vertical markets, each of which Strategic Mapping customizes for the user's geography.
The Business Data set is drawn from a national database with 10.1 million records of company locations, size, sales, products, industry specialty, and other detailed competitive information. A related consumer database tracks purchasing power and lifestyle patterns for the entire country, using geography as fine as census tract or ZIP code level. For companies in virtually any industry, SMI can filter its databases by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes or other criteria in order to target specific markets.
Vertical Market data is available immediately for the health care industry, and sets designed for the financial and retail industries will ship this Fall.
Service measures global herbicide usage
Directed Research, Princeton, NJ, in association with Agricultural Information Services, London, announce the development of a global multi-client non-crop market measurement service for herbicides. The service will measure herbicide usage in twenty countries. It will be provided biennially, rotating with a similar insecticide/fungicide study to be launched in 1992.
According to Lew Knickerbocker, founder of Directed Research on retirement as American Cyanamid's market research manager, "This will be the first study measuring the non-crop segment of the herbicide market which is designed to integrate non-crop market data with crop data. This is important since sales of most herbicides are not restricted only to the crop or non-crop marketplace, just as they are not restricted to national borders." The integration will be provided through arrangements made with Agrobase Ltd., France, which currently provides an integrated crop pesticide database service to many of the agricultural chemical global marketers.
Subscriptions may be purchased either on a global basis or by geographic regions.
Guide to marketing in the EC
Bemis Communications Group has published the 1992 edition of the "European Community Marketing Guide," which offers information to businesses looking at the European Community to export services/products, as well as comprehensive data to firms already expanding there. The five topic sections of the guide are: general information, geographic information, demographic/social data, major daily newspapers and economic/industry data.
Firms develop health care database products
National Planning Data Corporation and Healthcare Knowledge Resources have jointly developed two health care database products, "DRG Demand" and "ICD-9 Demand." Both products have been designed for use by: hospitals, outpatient clinics, other health care providers and consultants, pharmaceutical companies, and medical supply manufacturers and distributors. The information is intended for use in: strategic planning, market analysis and segmentation, site location, allocation of resources, development of new product lines, filing of Certificates of Need, evaluation of acquisitions or facilities expansion, and territory analysis.
The two databases provide current year estimates and five-year projections on occurrences of disorders, diseases, and procedures. DRG Demand contains information on 470 Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs). ICD-9 Demand includes data on over 15,000 ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification) categories and their groupings. Statistics on the numbers of cases, cases per thousand, patient days, and average length of stay are available from each data product.
As with most NPDC products, the health care information is available online via NPDC's MAX3D system, in printed reports through the company's MAXpress express order service, and on magnetic tape or diskette. The data can be provided for geographies as small as census tracts or in rings or polygons for custom defined market areas.
Firm distributes product samples to Hispanics
Sampling En Espanol is a new firm devoted to offering marketers the chance to put their products directly into the hands of the Hispanic population. The New York-based firm will distribute the products nationally using controlled distribution and its own fulfillment department. Sampling will take place at major Hispanic events, street fairs and other events with an Hispanic theme. Everyone who receives a sample product will first be required to fill out a sample request card, which is presented in Spanish.
Consumer Expenditure Survey data now available on CD
The latest (1989-90) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Consumer Expenditure Survey is now available on CD-ROM for IBM PCs and compatibles from Hopkins Technology. The CD-ROM contains all the tape data provided by BLS as well as the summary data nor-mally obtainable on diskette from BLS. In addition, selected statistics from the Federal Reserve Bank are also included. The Consumer Expenditure Survey program provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the buying habits of American consumers. The CES is made up of two separate components: 1) a Quarterly Interview panel survey in which each consumer unit in the sample (5,000 units) is interviewed every three months over five consecutive quarters and 2) a Diary or record-keeping survey completed by the sample consumer units for two consecutive one-week periods with the sample spread across a 12 month period.
Product and Service Update-In Depth
Survey method uses fax to boost response rates
Editor's note: Scott Davis is senior date with Kuczmarski & Associates, a Chicago-based management consulting firm.
Kuczmarski & Associates (K&A) has developed and sue cessfully used a surveying process, the Phone-Phax©, to help achieve high response rates, provide our clients with results in a month or less and secure higher quality information relative to mail surveys.
The Phone-Phax incorporates a number of research techniques including: conducting up-front research to help design the survey; developing a "user-friendly " survey; calling respondents in advance to explain the nature of the study; administering the survey through the fax machine, and; following up as necessary.
We have successfully used the Phone-Phax for research projects ranging from gathering client performance feedback and securing product specification information to designing a new customer service program. The success of each project was due, in large part, to the increased control over and enhanced quality of information afforded by the Phone-Phax.
We believe three reasons attribute to the success of Phone-Phax:
1. It's immediate - Sending the survey in a timely manner helps precondition respondents to the importance and relative urgency of the study.
2. The fax mystique - The impact of receiving a fax is still enormous. Managers agree they look at a fax before anything else on their desk (including mail which usually goes to the bottom of the pile, if it hasn't been screened by a secretary).
3. Respondent impact- Respondents are continuously reminded their responses will directly influence project results. Once the benefits are understood, respondents are more likely to take the time to fill the survey out.
K&A recently completed a project for a major ground transportation carrier. Our client hired us to identify the primary decision making criteria their customers use when evaluating various modes of transportation.
Specifically, our client wanted to gain a better understanding of:
- the performance attributes most important to their top customers;
- customers' performance expectations verses the current level of service provided;
- the satisfaction level of our client's performance relative to these expectations, and;
- the effectiveness of competitors at meeting these same expectations.
In short, our job was to help our client leverage their strengths, "fix" their short-comings and develop customer segments and customer service criteria based upon performance characteristics.
Successful implementation requires four steps:
Step 1: Conduct Interviews To Shape An Effective Phone-Phax Survey
To start, we conducted forty in-depth interviews with customers across industries to uncover key attributes and issues as they related to the project. The objective of this step was to gather enough customer-driven information to help design an effective Phone-Phax survey.
Step 2: Design The Survey
In this step, we used all the typical surveying design techniques including having the instructions be self-explanatory, keeping it short and simple, having a strong introduction, and so forth. Since we were using the fax, we also added some new design steps. This included making sure the font size was large enough to prevent smudging (we use 14 point, Helvetica), placing our fax number on every page, and numbering pages since fax transmissions are not always perfect. In addition, each survey included a hand written, fax cover sheet.
Once written, we tested the survey with our clients to identify sensitivity areas or content "holes" and then with customers to check logic, wording and question ordering. Ultimately, we ended up with a comprehensive, "user-friendly" survey that was ready to administer.
Step 3: Administer The Survey
Early on, we determined our sample size should include our client's top 250 customers (they accounted for over 80% of revenues), as well as a few potential and previous customers.
To administer the fax, we called potential respondents to either introduce ourselves and the nature of the project for the first time or reintroduced ourselves to those we spoke with in step 1. We then explained the purpose of the survey and asked if they would take ten minutes to complete it. A typical "sell" conversation may go like this:
"Hi Dale, my name is ScottDavis and I work for a management consulting firm in Chicago called Kuczmarski and Associates. We have been hired by Company X to work with their customers on ways to improve their quality of service. The ultimate goal of this research is to provide you with a higher level of service than you are receiving today. What I would like to do is fax you a survey, have you complete it and fax it back to me at your earliest convenience. Would it be all right if I send it out now?"
Immediately faxing the survey after your phone conversation is key to Phone-Phax success. Immediacy helps stress the survey's urgency and maintain the momentum started with your phone conversation.
The fax cover sheet allows you to personalize and hand write the same message you just delivered on the phone. A typical Phone-Phax cover sheet message may look like this:
"Hi Dale - Thank you in advance for filling out this survey. Once again, the purpose of the survey is to identify those attributes most important to you when selecting a carrier. Please call me with any questions - Scott."
Communicating this same message again, in the survey instructions, helps reinforce the importance of the survey. While this much "presell" may seem tedious, we believe it helps respondents truly understand the purpose and end benefits of the faxed survey.
In addition, communicating the importance and benefits of the survey three times, possibly within one hour, helps respondents better understand their role in the study and what is in it for them. Further, this "relentlessness" helps us achieve 50-75% response rates and minimizes the chance the survey will be thrown into the garbage pile instead of the immediate attention pile.
On average, we achieve a 30% response rate in the first week of testing, 50% in week two and up to 60-75% by week three. To help increase these percentages, we follow up on "delinquent" surveys one week after being sent out to encourage respondents to reply.
Step 4: Follow-Up Interviews
After receiving respondents' com¬pleted surveys, we follow up, by tele-phone, in order to: (1) fill in any data "holes" or answers that are unclear, and; (2) gather additional information for a project. In our ground transportation carrier example, we used follow up information to get an understanding of how a new customer service program should be designed and ultimately implemented.
Beyond excellent response rates, additional benefits can be realized by using a Phone-Phax.
1. Fast results - Unfortunately, the Post Office does not always cooperate with our time constraints and it often takes six to eight weeks to mail and receive completed surveys. In contrast, the expediency of the fax machine has allowed us to complete project surveying with four weeks.
2. Quality results - High response rates enable us to minimize the effects of non-response and maximize the qual¬ity of information secured.
3. Cost savings - High response rates means fewer surveys are sent out. Consequently, out-of-pocket savings can be as high as 20-30% relative to mail surveying (this includes the up-front phone call, fax transmission and thermal fax paper costs versus the cost of sending the survey via mail, with a postage paid return envelope).
4. Intangible benefits - In the above ground transportation carrier example, customers appreciated a carrier taking the time to ask their opinion. Consequently, our client received many phone calls from their top customers praising their efforts. This, in turn, built goodwill and P.R. which our client is still benefiting from today.
Conclusion
In summary, we believe the Phone-Phax, as a high-tech surveying technique, should challenge the way researchers traditionally approach their data collection process. The four step process provides a cost effective way to secure high quality data in a relatively short amount of time and helps alleviate the frustrations realized from receiving low survey response rates.