Add one-on-ones to online surveys
Denver online research firm iModerate LLC has introduced its new proprietary technology which allows researchers to incorporate real-time, in-depth, one-on-one interviews with live moderators into an online survey. The technology is suitable for a range of research projects including ad tests, brand, image and message tests, and tracking studies. It is designed to work with other data collection tools, allowing clients to use iModerate while retaining their current survey research provider. For more information contact Adam Rossow at 303-333-7883 or visit www.imoderate.com.
Skip the usual CAPI tools with Bellview Hall
U.K. research software firm Pulse Train has launched Bellview Hall, a system designed to streamline venue-based market research and data collection and reduce associated costs. Bellview Hall is a turnkey solution that combines Pulse Train’s secure Web-based interviewing platform Bellview Web with portable PCs, wireless networking and a variety of devices on which to run Web browsers. This eliminates the need for paper and data entry during venue-based research activities, and allows researchers to dispense with traditional computer-assisted personal interviewing tools. It also removes the need for transferring questionnaires and data to and from a large number of laptops.
Bellview Hall supports all question types (single, multiple, quantity, text and open-end) and various formats, such as grids and drop-down boxes. It also includes full multimedia support, including image, sound and video files. The system incorporates full logic and data checking to ensure data is clean and ready for analysis.
A flexible user interface allows full customization. Support is also provided for creative question design using Flash, JavaScript or Active Server Pages, providing flexibility for screen layout. For research projects requiring real-time data analysis, users can add Pulse Train’s Pulsar Web survey analysis tool. For more information visit www.pulsetrain.com.
MI Pro Research Studio integrates MARSC system
Cincinnati-based research software firm MI Pro USA is now offering a new module for its Research Studio software. Research Studio is an integrated data collection, analysis and data mining software framework for market researchers. The new module allows integration of Research Studio with the MARSC Panel Management system, produced by Centurion Marketing Systems Ltd. The MARSC system facilitates the recruitment and management of respondent panels of any size. The new interface from MI Pro allows Web interviews conducted within the MI Pro Research Studio to send their completion status back automatically to the MARSC panel administration system. This eliminates the need for manual status transfer between the two systems. MI Pro USA is the U.S. operation of MI Pro AS, a Norwegian software and consulting company. For more information visit www.mipro-usa.com.
System serves as tactile reference frame
Car maker Renault and French sensory marketing firm Quinte&sens have introduced the Sensotact tactile reference frame, which aims to serve the same purpose for touch-related sensations as the Pantone system does for colors. The product is designed to develop tactile ID’s for designers and marketers, help classify products in sensory databases for R&D services, and respond to technicians’ or engineers’ objectives and schedules. Sensotact is composed of 10 descriptors and 50 references that interact throughout the conception process of the product, from the design until the market research. Renault has used Sensotact’s reference frame as a communication tool with other countries - particularly with Japan, where its partner Nissan is located - to facilitate exchanges and avoid misunderstandings. For more information visit www.sensotact.com.
Take a survey on marketing intelligence
The Photizo Group, a Lexington, Ky., consulting firm, is conducting a survey regarding executive expectations for marketing intelligence. The survey was developed by the Photizo Group in consultation with Peter Trim, Birkbeck College, University of London. Its purpose is to understand the importance of marketing intelligence in small and large businesses today. The survey is intended for executives, marketing intelligence managers and marketing intelligence vendors. It asks pointed questions on where, how and what types of information are expected from companies’ marketing intelligence functions. Individuals answering the survey can elect to receive a free copy of the results. The survey can be accessed at www.photizogroup.com/surveys/surveys.html.
Feedback software built on .Net platform
NetReflector, Inc., Seattle, has introduced VantagePoint, an online feedback software solution built on Microsoft’s .Net platform. Specifically designed to address the research needs of business owners at medium- to large-sized companies, VantagePoint offers Analyzer, an online analytical module that provides actionable customer intelligence at the click of a mouse. Analyzer capabilities include crosstab tables, line/trend charts, key driver charts, multiple data export formats, text search, interactive analysis and reporting, and calculated fields.
Whether used as self-service or integrated with CRM, contact center, business intelligence, and campaign management applications for ongoing automated programs, VantagePoint features an interface designed for enhanced ease of use. For more information visit www.netreflector.com.
Research pinpoints emotions behind buying nutrition bars
Amid an increasingly healthy food-conscious society, and within a $2 billion per year nutrition bar market, a consumer research report entitled “The experiEmotive Drivers of Purchasing Nutrition Bars” explores the emotions and feelings that drive consumers to buy nutrition bars.
A March 2004 Frost & Sullivan report, The U.S. Sports and Fitness Nutrition Markets, claimed that “most participants in the sports/nutrition industry find themselves struggling to retain customer loyalty. Developing strong brands with distinct identities and clear-cut positioning holds the key to overcome this challenge.”
The study behind the experiEmotive report was conducted by St. Louis-based experiEmotive analytics. Its researchers observed nutrition bar shoppers in a variety of stores and conducted two-hour in-depth interviews with people who had recently purchased a nutrition bar.
The report summarizes five emotional themes (called Key Chains) that nutrition bar manufacturers and marketers can use as foundations for their brands’ positionings. Two of the five emotional themes are control and security, and self-image connectedness.
Related to control and security, when buying nutrition bars some people strive to feel relaxed, trusting, and secure, but often feel helpless, uncertain and insecure. Related to self-image connectedness, when buying nutrition bars some people strive to feel unique, connected and free, but often feel alienated, lost and insecure.
The report also summarizes eight functional goals that people have when they shop for nutrition bars. Two of the eight functional goals are illness management and appetite management. For more information visit www.experiemotive.com.
Tool helps TV networks hit their marks
New York research firm Simmons has developed BehaviorGraphics, a proprietary segmentation system that looks beyond standard viewer demographics and concentrates on the actual consumer behaviors networks and advertisers wish to target. In recent months, FX Networks has signed a multi-year agreement for Simmons’ TV BehaviorGraphics.
Simmons conducted an analysis of Rescue Me, a critically-acclaimed FX drama, by identifying the BehaviorGraphics groups that were most likely to have tuned into the show. Individuals identified as Pop Culturers, one of 32 adult BehaviorGraphics clusters, dominated by young twenty- and thirty-somethings who watch an inordinate amount of MTV, are more than twice as likely as the average adult to tune into a typical episode of Rescue Me. Film Fans, another group defined by their enthusiasm for watching cable networks like HBO and Showtime, are also nearly twice as likely to watch Rescue Me. Other groups that are likely to tune in to Rescue Me include: Sarcastics, Media Heads and News Junkies among others.
Combining the top indexing BehaviorGraphics groups allows users to create a target, which can then be employed to identify distinct consumer and psychographic behaviors of viewers.
TV BehaviorGraphics was developed through an integration process that merges the Nielsen National Television Index (NTI) and the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index (NHTI) with the Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS). It consists of a multi-segment cluster system which classifies consumers into distinct groups based on their television viewing behavior. The system classifies Americans into 32 consumer segments that capture both the U.S. general market and the Hispanic population. For more information visit www.smrb.com.
Protect images in online surveys
Dallas-based Mobile Memoir is now offering ViewProtect, a service that safeguards images published in Web surveys so that they cannot easily be captured or published on Web sites. A secure key and dynamically generated watermark image are placed atop new product concepts and ad tests. The watermark contains each respondent’s unique e-mail address, panel identification code, or other personal identifier and is displayed over an image. The identifier cannot be erased from the image. A survey respondent therefore cannot publish the image from the Web survey without revealing their identity.
In addition to watermarking, ViewProtect includes other methods of protecting an image. An encryption key limits the time period in which the image can download, after which it expires automatically. Secured images fail to display on other computers if the active survey session is not detected or the download period has elapsed. ViewProtect images can be displayed with an optional copyright or other notice. For more information visit www.mobilememoir.com.
Syndicated studies target influencers
Markitecture Syndicated Studies, Cave Creek, Ariz., has launched two separate multi-sponsored studies targeted at bartenders and liquor store managers who recommend beer and spirits. Launched March 1, the studies are designed to enable spirits, beer and wine marketers to develop trade marketing programs aimed at bartenders and liquor store attendants. Optimal programs will encourage the “influencer” to purchase more of the marketer’s brand for his establishment, and make sure the influencer recommends the marketer’s brand to his customers when given the opportunity to do so.
Further studies planned by Markitecture Syndicated Studies include a study for the beauty and specialized hair products industry directed at salon professionals, and a study of veterinarians and pet store owners/managers geared to manufacturers of pet foods and pet supplies. For more information contact Kevin Moran at 480-595-4754 or kmoran@markitecturesyndicatedstudies.com.
Quality Manager adds a new dimension to MM4XL software
With the release of Marketing Manager for Excel 6.6 (MM4XL), Switzerland-based MarketingStat has added QualityManager, a quality analysis tool that lets users perform quality analysis of many different kinds of business processes, such as traffic at call centers, the quality of ongoing marketing surveys, tendencies in sales or profits, hits at Web sites, contacts made by sales reps, results of direct marketing campaigns, etc. It can generate all of the most common quality control charts, run acceptance sampling, and perform process capability analysis. And Quality Manager analyses can be previewed online before printing a hardcopy chart.
Statistical quality control can involve two types of analytical methods. The first is statistical process control, a decision-making tool useful to ensure that processes perform within limits. When a process goes beyond limits, statistical process control helps to identify when the change occurs, and whether the change is good or bad. If the change is bad, action should be taken to remove the cause. If the change is good, the occurrence of the cause should be made common practice. The second is acceptance sampling, which helps to ensure that the material a company receives and the product it delivers are acceptable in terms of quality. Functional trial copies of MM4XL can be downloaded and used for up to 21 days. For more information visit www.marketingstat.com.
New reports in AutoVIBES series
Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive and Kelley Blue Book, Irvine, Calif., have teamed to produce the Generations series of reports from their monthly AutoVIBES study. Four new reports provide a look at the purchasing dynamics and decision-making factors of U.S. vehicle buyers based on their generation. Each Generation report summarizes the attitudes, opinions and behaviors of in-market vehicle buyers who are within 12 months of purchasing or leasing a new vehicle. Reports within the series include a Generation Y Report, Generation X Report, Baby Boomers Report and Pre-Boomers Report, and are based on more than 16,000 interviews conducted over nearly a full year.
Findings within each Generation report include: the respondents’ financial outlook for upcoming year; key factors influencing vehicle purchase decisions; the effect of incentives on purchase decisions; the effect of gas prices on purchase decisions; safety considerations; make and model ownership, consideration and loyalty; vehicle country of origin attitudes; and reaction to new model launches.
Also available is the AutoVIBES Lifestyle Series, which includes an Affluent Buyer Report as well as a Gender Report, which focuses on the different purchase dynamics of men and women. Also included in the Lifestyle series will be a group of reports focusing on shoppers who are married, single and those with and without children. In addition, the AutoVIBES Ethnicity Series will soon be released, focusing on how different ethnicities approach and react to the vehicle buying process. Reports planned for the Ethnicity Series include an African-American Report, Hispanic American Report and an Asian-American Report. For more information contact Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research at 949-268-3074 or Harris Interactive at 877-919-4765 or visit www.harrisinteractive.com.
ESRI enhances support for OGC WMS
ESRI, Redlands, Calif., has released the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC) Web Mapping Service (WMS) client and server support with the Service Pack 2 release of ArcGIS 9. In addition, an enhanced WMS connector is now included with ArcIMS.
The OGC WMS is an Open GIS standard specification for interactive mapping based on requesting map images from a server over the Internet. OGC WMS client support in ArcGIS Desktop allows users to access these services over the Internet and add them to their maps as layers. ESRI offers both a WMS provider/server and a WMS client/consumer solution.
With Service Pack 2, users can access OGC WMS with the ArcGIS Desktop products (ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo). No other software is required.
Services complying with versions 1.0.0, 1.1.0, and 1.1.1 of the OGC WMS specification are supported. OGC WMS services work in a similar way to ArcIMS image services. Also, developers working with ArcObjects can build solutions based on the WMS specification using the ArcObjects application program interface.
ArcIMS 9 Service Pack 2 includes an enhanced WMS connector. The connector now includes a Web-based administration tool to easily create a WMS service from an ArcIMS service. The WMS server-side solution has also been tested for compliance against the OGC test suite for WMS 1.1.1. For more information visit www.esri.com/standards.
Briefly
All Global Viewing, a London focus group facility, now offers FocusVision videostreaming in three of its five studios. For more information visit www.allglobalviewing.com.
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based research firm Itracks is now making its software development team available to other research firms, who can commission customized software solutions to meet their research challenges and business needs. For more information visit www.itracks.com.
Businesslink, a Des Moines-based call center firm specializing in outbound phone contact solutions for business-to-business and research companies, is growing its calling capacity 50 percent in response to current and projected business growth. For more information visit www.marketlinkinc.com.