Do qual and quant online with Maritz/Invoke product
St. Louis-based Maritz Research has partnered with Invoke Solutions of Wellesley, Mass., to launch a new Maritz research product called Dynamic Insights, which leverages Invoke’s technology platform to combine both qualitative and quantitative researching techniques in live Internet sessions. Dynamic Insights will be used to capture real-time customer feedback for clients in Maritz’s target industries - automotive, financial services, hospitality, information technology, telecommunications and retail.
Maritz Research examines three dynamics related to a brand’s success: choice, experience and loyalty. The company will use the Invoke-driven Dynamic Insights product to help other clients gain the customer insight needed to make decisions about new product concepts, new marketing initiatives, brand positioning and customer loyalty programs.
A Dynamic Insights session combines the adaptive questioning of a focus group with large samples. It leverages the results from this visual and interactive dialogue to gain insight into the opinions and reactions of session guests with the ability to adapt questioning on-the-fly. For more information visit www.maritzresearch.com.
Biannual report looks at shopping and eating attitudes
St. Petersburg, Fla., research firm HealthFocus International has released its biannual report entitled The 2005 HealthFocus Trend Report: National Study of Public Attitudes and Actions Toward Shopping and Eating. The 2005 HealthFocus Trend Report is the culmination of 16 years of trend data and is designed to help companies and trade organizations identify current and future consumer behaviors toward health, diet, nutrition, buying habits, and perceptions. The study is conducted in the United States as well as 30 countries in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. For more information visit www.healthfocus.com.
Survey tracks mortgage origination process
Ann Arbor, Mich.-based consulting firm CFI Group, Inc., is now offering its Mortgage Origination Satisfaction (MOS) survey, which will measure customer experience with the loan origination process for 10 of the top mortgage lenders in the country.
CFI Group will interview a statistically valid sample of recent customers from each of the mortgage lenders in its survey. MOS program subscribers will then receive company customer satisfaction scores and competitive benchmark scores as well as scores for the key drivers of customer retention and satisfaction. In addition, subscribers will be able to compare their results against those in the industry. All results will be posted on a secure Web site.
The MOS program will identify the drivers of satisfaction and calculate the linkages between aspects of the origination process and the customers’ behavior. Additional analysis includes customer satisfaction with the lender representative and how they handle the lending process, cycle time of closing a loan and documentation of the loan.
MOS asks mortgage lending customers to gauge their satisfaction using the same methodology employed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is managed through the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. For more information contact David Baker at 734-623-1331 or visit www.cfigroup.com.
New reporting suite from Decipher
Decipher, Inc., a Fresno, Calif., research firm, has launched a reporting suite that lets users automate post-field production. The new reporting features automate the post-field production process including clean, labeled SPSS data file generation, open-ended response coding and integration and PowerPoint presentation creation with editable charts/graphs. The process involves parsing data, creating a report, and adding the data to the client’s secure report area. If a report already has been created it will append only new data, e.g., automated updating for tracking studies.
Decipher’s automated reporting provides access to survey data online regardless of the data collection method or supplier. Clean data can be pulled down in any format including column binary, WinCross and labeled SPSS.
With Decipher’s automated PowerPoint presentation builder, report production staff can turn cross-tabs from their portal into PowerPoint presentations with editable charts and graphs.
For more information visit www.decipherinc.com.
NetCollect 3.1 now shipping
Seattle-based Apian Software, Inc. has released NetCollect 3.1, a new version of its online survey software plug-in to SurveyPro. SurveyPro with the NetCollect plug-in gives surveyors a point-and-click program to create surveys and reports for both paper and Web. No programming is required.
This new version offers several new features, including Web server load protection, respondent pause-and-resume functionality, randomization, data preload, support for SQL server, and enhanced design options.
Data from paper, Web, and kiosk surveys can be combined in a single database to produce reports, or can be exported to outside programs like SPSS. Data from Web and paper versions of a survey can also be combined into a single report.
This new version can be used with most Windows Web servers, and is also fully compatible with Apian’s QuestionWeb hosting service. Whether hosting with Apian, or on an internal Web server, survey administrators now have access to a control panel that provides tools to upload surveys, control the start and stop time of surveys, cap the number of respondents, download data, and view online reports 24/7. For more information visit www.apian.com.
E-Tabs offers Enterprise Lite
U.K.-based research software firm E-Tabs has released E-Tabs Enterprise Lite, an entry-level version of its automated reporting and charting software, E-Tabs Enterprise. The Enterprise system can be used to auto-generate an entire presentation based a library of preferred slide templates. Previously, most clients used Enterprise for repetitive-type projects such as continuous tracking studies or multi-segment reports, but with the introduction of this new capability, automation can be applied to save time and enable researchers to focus on finding insights rather than typing numbers and worrying about formatting. For more information visit www.e-tabs.com.
Survey Europe with the OmniTaxi
London research firm Research Now has debuted an online research service, the OmniTaxi. The Research Now OmniTaxi has been designed to provide clients with an alternative to omnibus research. Unlike standard omnibus surveys, the new service is not conducted according to a set weekly or monthly timetable. By dispensing with the pooling of multi-client questions associated with traditional omnibus surveys, the new service allows individual clients to focus on their chosen target sample sourced from Research Now’s Valued Opinions family of online panels across Europe, which has more than 600,000 panelists. In addition to the U.K., a fully translated OmniTaxi service will be available in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Key benefits of OmniTaxi include: the ability to choose sample size (500, 1,000 or 2,000); the ability to choose the target sample, (e.g., principal grocery shoppers, Vodafone customers, online gamblers); and the ability to commence research whenever the client chooses. For more information visit www.researchnow.co.uk.
Inquisite creates Partner Program
Inquisite, Inc., Austin, Texas, has created the Inquisite Partner Program, a network of “subject matter expert” companies who are dedicated to best practices in survey research, business intelligence and technology application. These partnerships are designed to help Inquisite customers maximize their technology investment and create an enterprise feedback culture.
The Inquisite Partner Program brings together four types of Inquisite partnerships and their specific values under one program. Current partnerships with distribution partners, which are based on the reselling or licensing of Inquisite software, will be included. Three new programs for content partners, consulting partners and technology partners have been added to provide additional data sources, intellectual content, services and complementary technology.
Inquisite has also enhanced its centralized partner support, including access to software and support, a variety of new training options, enhanced co-marketing programs and improved partner communications.
Among the organizations that have joined the program are consulting companies Applied Skills & Knowledge, Gelb Consulting, ReRez and Sentient Services. Technology partners Catapult Systems, Talkingpoint, and Motion Computing help expand the technology platforms available to Inquisite customers. For more information visit www.inquisite.com/partners.
Alliance lets firms network their call centers
Itracks, a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, research firm, and New York-based Digisoft Computers, Inc. announced a strategic alliance and the release of Itracks’ Virtual Call Center Network (VCN) utilizing Digisoft’s Web-based call center software product, eTelescript. Itracks’ VCN is an ASP-based data collection solution which will enable companies to network global call centers and agents. Working with Itracks on this custom solution, Digisoft will provide the call center software for VCN, and Itracks, the hosted environment. The agreement makes Itracks the exclusive ASP provider of Digisoft’s eTelescript to the market research industry.
VCN is designed to enhance productivity by enabling call centers to share resources, locate agents globally, balance workloads, and access overflow capabilities on an as-needed basis. VCN will connect call centers over the Internet using a shared platform on a project-by-project basis while storing the data in a central location. For more information visit www.itracks.com.
Outdoor media planning tool debuts
New York-based Interactive Market Systems (IMS), a provider of information systems for the advertising industry, and Arbitron Inc. will work together to market IMS’ new outdoor media planning tool, Outdoor Navigator, a media planning tool designed to help agencies and advertisers plan outdoor advertising using the same tools and terminology they use to evaluate other media.
IMS Outdoor Navigator features an industry-accepted U.S. reach-and-frequency model that produces both national and local schedule metrics. Agency media planners and outdoor operators can use IMS Outdoor Navigator to evaluate market-level outdoor schedule delivery for over 480 demographic breaks across Nielsen’s 210 television markets and Arbitron’s 287 radio markets. Clients can also export schedules into MediaMix, the IMS application that calculates using random duplication, multimedia reach in conjunction with television, print, radio, Internet, cinema and other media.
The new service uses Scarborough data as a primary input. In addition, IMS Outdoor Navigator incorporates newly audited Daily Effective Circulation (DEC) data from the Traffic Audit Bureau (TAB). For more information visit www.arbitron.com.
New GIS, data products from ESRI
Redlands, Calif.-based GIS firm ESRI is shipping ArcGIS 9.1 Publisher and ArcReader 9.1. ArcGIS Publisher allows users to publish maps and GIS data that can be viewed with ArcReader. New for version 9.1 is the ability to publish and display 3D maps and data.
ArcGIS Publisher is an extension to the ArcGIS Desktop products (ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo) that lets users create published map files that can be shared and viewed by anyone with ArcReader. ArcReader is a free mapping application that allows users to view, explore and print maps and globes. For more information visit www.esri.com.
ESRI is also now offering its 2005/2010 data in demographic reports and maps on Business Analyst Online at www.esri.com/bao. These data updates reveal changes and trends in regional growth, household wealth and employment and include: 2005/2010 demographic data updates and forecasts from ESRI; 2005 consumer expenditure data from ESRI; 2005 data from ESRI’s segmentation system, Community Tapestry; 2005 market potential data from Mediamark Research Inc. and ESRI; and January 2005 business data from infoUSA. Geographic changes include: updated boundaries for designated market areas; boundaries for the 109th Congressional District; November 2004 zip code boundaries; and updated core based statistical area (CBSA) boundaries.
Service monitors Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
Synovate Healthcare has launched the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Monitor in both the U.S. and Europe. The Synovate Healthcare IBD Monitor is based on a representative panel of physicians who regularly report on their treatment of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis patients across the U.S. and Europe so that changes over time can be tracked. The Monitor collects physician perceptions of the market and the disease, as well as patient record information, so this can be compared and validated with the “actual patient” data. Doctor and patient segmentation models can also be developed using data from the monitors, enabling tracking on how the disease is perceived, managed and treated over time. For more information visit www.synovate.com/healthcare.
Revised edition of Tomlinson GIS book
A revised and updated second edition of Roger Tomlinson’s book Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers, which provides guidance for implementing a geographic information system, is now available from ESRI Press. This paperback edition adds 2004-2005 computer performance numbers, cost-benefit analysis, data handling loads, and more. Tomlinson uses planning methodology that focuses on the simple concept that managers must think first and decide what they want from a GIS. Tomlinson developed the methodology described in Thinking About GIS for senior managers who oversee GIS and other information technologies and for more technical managers who implement these systems. Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers (ISBN 1-58948-119-4, 328 pages, $19.95) is available at bookstores and online retailers or can be purchased at www.esri.com/esripress.
Two new products from Simmons
Simmons, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has launched SCOR (Simmons Consumer Opportunity Rating), which merges consumer products and behaviors measured by Simmons in over 200 U.S. markets with Experian’s direct marketing database. With SCOR, users can identify Experian consumer prospects that have a propensity for any of the consumer variables measured by Simmons, including: demographics, media usage, shopping behaviors, brand usage and preference, product usage, lifestyles and attitudes or opinions. For more information contact Mark Fauntleroy at 954-427-4104 or visit www.smrb.com.
Separately, Simmons has released the 2005-2006 edition of TV BehaviorGraphics, its behavioral targeting system that identifies consumers of products and services based on their television viewing behavior. The system, which was introduced in 2002, classifies Americans into 32 consumer segments that capture both the U.S. general market and the Hispanic population. The latest edition features enhanced program and lifestyle data as well as six new consumer behavioral clusters to reflect the increasing diversity of American television.
With versions available for adults, teenagers and children, TV BehaviorGraphics is based on consumer preferences for broadcast, cable and syndicated television programming. It was developed through an integration process that merges the Nielsen National Television Index and National Hispanic Television Index with the Simmons National Consumer Survey. Adults from both datasets are then clustered together based on common television viewing patterns. The result is a single system of behavioral segments that reflect the media and marketplace preferences of both general market and Hispanic consumers.
The newest edition features 32 behavioral segments (including a non-clustered group) falling into three classifications to help clients better reach their targeted consumers: 15 BehaviorGraphics segments that are common to both Hispanic and general market adults; nine segments that are exclusive to general market adults alone; eight segments that are exclusive to the Hispanic population.
Among the more new clusters:
Makeover Mavens: Represent well-off consumers who watch home-makeover programs on cable networks. They pursue a lifestyle that’s centered on the home and are passionate about decorating and home improvement.
Investigators: Traditional, family-centered adults who enjoy watching crime dramas on network TV as well as following real-life criminal cases in the newspaper, TV news and news.
Curiosos: Both committed to family and home, and cosmopolitan in their interest in world affairs and the latest developments in technology and fashion, this group of Hispanic adults enjoys Spanish-language morning programs and loves to watch telenovelas. For more information contact Eileen Merken at 954-427-4104 x120 or visit www.smrb.com.
Track movie perceptions with Movie BehaviorGraphics
Simmons Market Research Bureau, New York, and Culver City, Calif., online research firm OTX have joined forces to create a new way to track consumer behavior in the movie business. The new service, called Movie BehaviorGraphics, creates a link between OTX’s Movie Dailies, a motion picture awareness and interest tracker, and the Simmons National Consumer Study (NCS), which includes everything from the products people buy and the brands they prefer to their lifestyles, attitudes and media preferences.
Movie BehaviorGraphics is a behavioral targeting system used to identify the best prospects for a motion picture based on consumers’ “Have Seen” movie-going behavior over a recent six-month period. The system integrates the database of OTX’s Movie Dailies, which has been developed over the past three years and includes over 500 movie titles, with the Simmons NCS, which is conducted semi-annually among a total sample of 25,000 consumers ages 18 years and over. The linkage allows for the creation of a multi-segment cluster system that classifies consumers into distinct groups based upon their movie viewing behavior. For more information contact Evan Goldfarb at 269-857-1335 or Bruce Friend at 310-736-3456.
Service helps mine store-level data
ACNielsen Canada has introduced “what’s in store,” a global solution for the management of store-by-store census data. The “what’s in store” application showcases the ability to turn a retailer’s weekly point-of-sale data into actionable information for manufacturers to collaborate with their retail partners at the store address level. By providing manufacturers with weekly item-level information through a thin client, Web-based tool and user-friendly interactive access, ACNielsen helps users assess new item presence and sales rates by store; optimize assortment at the store level; understand success drivers for user-defined store groups; and measure the effects of promotional program execution. For more information visit www.acnielsen.ca.
Briefly
U.K. research firm RSM has released data from the fifth wave of its online survey of research professionals. Researchers on the client side and the research company side were asked to give their views on trends and issues affecting the market research industry. For more information visit www.rsm1.com.
Pittsburgh research firm Direct Feedback has added video streaming capabilities using ActiveGroup. For more information visit www.dfresearch.com.
Sydney-based research firm Pulse Group has launched Planet Pulse, its proprietary online community portal. Planet Pulse will initially offer both B2C as well as B2B panels, as it explores the potential of specialty panels in the near future. For more information visit www.planet-pulse.com.
New York-based Ipsos has added a new weekly online omnibus polling tool to its twice-weekly national telephone omnibus. Data for the Ipsos U.S. Express Online Omnibus is collected through random sampling of the company’s 800,000+ member online panel. The Ipsos U.S. Express Telephone Omnibus is fielded twice weekly among a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults. For more information visit www.ipsos.com.
Arlington, Texas-based research firm Decision Analyst has created a Database Analytic Services Group designed to help companies improve marketing through more effective use of their databases. Along with traditional database marketing services - including database design, data cleansing, modeling and lead selection - the Database Analytic Services Group will offer direct marketers the range of Decision Analyst’s marketing research services. For more information visit www.decisionanalyst.com.
Scarborough Research, New York, has formed a newspaper advisory board. The board will bring together research, sales and marketing executives from newspapers across the country and will provide guidance to Scarborough as the company evolves its services to meet the changing research needs of the newspaper industry. The first meeting was scheduled for September 13-15, 2005. For more information contact Gary Meo at 512-250-2206 or gmeo@scarborough.com.
New York-based AARP Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Association for Retired Persons, and research firm The Kantar Group have formed a joint venture agreement to provide research and advisory services focused on the 50+ consumer. The new company will leverage the capabilities of AARP Services and Kantar to develop products and services to meet client and industry needs. For more information visit www.kantargroup.com.