I recently received a request for information about the available data tabbing (cross-tab, table generating) software that is available out there and thought I might share what I know. Personally I was a little surprised that there aren’t more software packages out there that do this kind of work — the ones that are available are fairly expensive.

The idea of this type of software is that you can take a data set (perhaps in SPSS format or some other standard or not so standard format) and almost automatically generate tables for each of the questions in the dataset. Usually each table would feature a number of columns representing different market segments (the "banner") while the various responses to each question would be shown in each row.

Such software is usually capable of automatically doing various statistical tests, sometimes including but not necessarily limited to t-tests, z-test, ANOVA and Chi-Square. Some programs can also weight and sort the data, as well as merge data sets, provide sample balancing, generate charts to go with each table, and provide output into a number of different formats ranging from text files to Excel spreadsheets to Powerpoint templates.

WinCross is perhaps the most well known of the bunch, and has been around a long time (it is presently at version 7). It is entirely compatible with SPSS 15.0, allows for 32,000 data columns and up to 3,000 rows per table; offers a number of different statistical tests; and can important export in a number of formats. My biggest complaint is that the user interface seems like it was developed about 10 years ago, and that it costs $1,995 per copy (the more copies you buy, the less it costs). Learn more at the WinCross web site.

Version 2 of GMI Research Analyzer was recently released by Global Market Insite. It will also take your data set, crosstab it, create reports, and export it into a number of different formats — but it also allows you to do drag-and-drop analysis of you data and has a much friendlier interface. It can be purchased from the GMI web site for $995 per copy.

MarketSight is a completely online tool for analyzing your data and is sold as a subscription service for $995 per year. It offers much of the same data analysis and reporting capabilities as the WinCross or GMI tool, and it has the added advantage of being accessible from anywhere you havea web connection. There are some limits to the size of the files you can upload yourself (only 50,000 records) but if you’re looking for a fairly easy to use program that doesn’t require a lot of effort to learn, visit the MarketSight web site.

SPSS Desktop Reporter was recently released as an integrated member of the SPSS Dimensions suite of products. Based on my limited experience with the program it appears to be a very user-friendly tool that can be used independently of the other Dimensions products. If you’ve ever used mrTables — well, this is like mrTables, except that you have all of the data available on your desktop and there are many more options. SPSS Desktop Reporter has all of the features of the other software packages, plus especially easy integration with other SPSS products. It sells for about $2,800 per copy. More information is available at SPSS.com.

If you are on a "budget" (and I use that term loosely) and already have SPSS, you may be able to get SPSS Tables (a module available for SPSS) to do many of the things you need, albeit with the requirement that you do a lot of it manually. It sells for only $800 a copy and can be found on the SPSS web site.

Another package worth considering if you are on a budget is Memphis Market Intelligence’s Survey Explorer. Different versions of the software are available which offer the ability to work with differently sized datasets — at different prices. So if you are dealing with a medium sized data set (50 questions, with no more than 2500 respondents) you could get the "Personal" edition of the software for only $519, the "Professional" edition for $579, or the "Enterprise" edition for $749. There most advanced version of the software allows for an unlimited number of questions, an unlimited number of waves and up to 20,000 respondents and can be purchased for $1,439. Although I haven’t had a chance to play with it, it appears to offer many of the features of the more expensive packages and is worth looking into at the Memphis Software web site.

If there are any other packages that you would recommend, please don’t hesitate to send them to me.

• WinCross
• GMI Research Analyzer
• MarketSight
• SPSS Desktop Reporter
• SPSS Custom Tables Module for SPSS
• Memphis Software’s Survey Explorer

Danielle Rodgers of Small Business Branding posted an interesting and thoughtful commentary about the potential benefits and pitfalls of using marketing research to make decisions in the new product development process. Her observations, which she follows up on with detailed explanations and suggested countermoves (so you should read her article) are as follows:

• Very few people will really understand the vision of your product when you describe it to them.
• If you ask people to find a problem they will (even if they never would have noticed it in real life)
• Talk is cheap — people don’t always (often? ever?) do what they say are are going to do (such as buy your product).
• Sometimes respondents don’t answer for themselves, but instead try to guess what the market is thinking.
• People don’t always have words to describe what they really want or need.
• Some people may have strong negative reactions to specific elements of your product.
• Just because one type of person doesn’t like your product doesn’t mean that others won’t.

Read Danielle’s full article at Small Business Branding.

eDigitalResearch today released a press release highlighting their relationship with U.K. based department store John Lewis, who is using their system to collect and report on real-time customer satisfaction related issues.

eDigitalResearch’s Satisfaction Suite collects customer purchase information from the John Lewis database and emails surveys out to customers, tying in all the purchase information with customer responses. Monthly reports are produced which can be cross-tabbed and filtered in terms of product groups or particular divisions.

John Lewis’s particular satisfaction solution uses elements of both eDigitalResearch’s eMystery Shopper program and their eCustomerOpinion program. eMysteryShopper specializes in the in-depth and structured studfy of website usablity, functionality, and customer service using a eDigitalResearch’s panel. eCustomerOpinions also provides feedback, but from directly from randomly selected web site visitors.

View the press release at PRWeb.
Learn more about John Lewis.
Learn more about eMystery Shopper.
Learn more about eCustomer Opinions.

MarketTools has introduced Zoomerang Online Focus, a full-service online focus group service that provides participant recruitment, moderation and reporting. The service looks fairly easy to use and similar in process to traditional focus groups: First Zoomerang creates a discussion guide for you to review and approve based on the objectives and parameters you provide. Next, Zoomerang will recruit respondents either from your in-house database or from the "Zoomerang Sample" of 2.5 million consumers — note that respondents will be selected to match the needs of your study.

Next, a live Zoomerang moderator conducts your focus group online using their own proprietary focus group/chat software. You can watch the focus group as it proceeds from your own computer. Note that the Zoomerang Online Focus interface is fairly interactive and allows participants to write, type and draw on a white board that everyone can see and further allows them to participate in exercises devised by the moderator.

Shortly after the focus groups are over, Zoomerang sends you a final report with recommendations and conclusions, as well as a transcript of all chat discussions, recording of online comments and full audio feedback.

Pricing for Zoomerang Focus Groups is as follows: one group costs $5900 plus incentive ($240 - $800). If you want to use members from Zoomerang’s panel, the cost is around $1200. For two sets of focus groups, the price drops to $11k + incentive ($240-$800) + optional Zoomerang panel ($1.6k).

MarketTools is certainly not the first company to offer online focus groups — other companies include e-Focusgroups, iTracks, GMI, and others.

For those of you tired of simple multiple choice radio box, check box kind of online survey questions, RelevantView has created a new online survey tool that offers the ability to have users participate in an online card sort much like what they would experience if they were participating in a real-life exercise.

Although I can’t tell from the image precisely what technology is being used to power the sort, it does have a very Web 2.0 feel to it that hopefully gives a sense of the types of fancy new user-friendly online survey technologies we can expect to see in the future.

Read the press release.

David Tebbut of IWRBlog (Information World Review) recently posted some interesting observations about Confirmit’s dashboard application, in which an online survey system is used to track customer attitudes in real time and report the results in an automatically updated "dashboard" application. The idea is to be able to provide useful research results instantly — as soon as they are relevant — instead of having to wait hours, weeks or days for results.

In my own experience, the greatest challenge to this type of a dashboard — which in some ways speaks to the potential to integrate customer satisfaction directly into a balanced scorecard type system in a meaningful way — is the ability to collect enough data on a regular basis to cause the "dials" on the dashboard to reflect something meaningful. 10 or 15 responses a day are simply not enough for a system that is meant  to be continuously updated.

On the other hand, there are applications where such a system might be somewhat useful and relatively easy to "keep fed." For example, if on the way out of the store there was a single question that customers could answer — either as they walked out the door or as they checked out — and if there were enough registers in the store — it might be possible to collect enough data to make the dashboard meaningful. Or maybe if there were a way to ask the question on customer cell phones as they walk out of the store (perhaps a little less realistic).

Read more about this article at IWRBlog.

Last week 30 of the top executives in market research met for a rountable at the Research Industry Summit for Improving Respondent Cooperation. It would appear that response rates of less than 10 percent are becoming more common, with reports from NOP Research indicating that just 0.25% of the population is supplying 32% of the responses to online surveys, and another report from Cambiar citing a recent ComScore Networks study indicating that 50% of all survey responses come from less than 5% of the population.

"It’s like the holein the ozone layer," said Shari Morwood, VP-worldwide market research at IBM. "Everyone knows it’s a growing problem. But they just ignore it and go on to the next project."

Although online research wasn’t particularly blamed for the problem, it was noted that while the internet channel makes it easier for respondents to complete surveys, there are now so many surveys out there that more and more consumers are tuning them out.

Read the full article at AdvertisingAge.

Mario Menti of msurveys.com recently posted a note on his blog describing how easy it was to create a survey, solicit responses, and then compensate the respondents in SecondLife. A very interesting, unique and possibily even useful experiment to be sure.

Second Life is a virtual community much like a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) such as World of Warcraft, Everquest or Star Wars Galaxies except that instead of fighting monsters and completing quests your objective is…well…there isn’t really one. You buy property, meet people, simply fly around or create things. In fact, using the basic building blocks provided by the software you can create just about anything if you have enough patience and skill.

While most people build digital representations of physical things (like buildings, sculptures or stargates). Mario used his time and skill to create an online survey. In fact, he even set it up so that individuals who finish the survey are rewarded with in-game money.

Think about this in context with the recent findings of the Pew Internet & American Life project, where 52% of a broad-based, national sample agreed with the following:

"By the year 2020, virtual reality on the internet will come to allow more productivity from most people in technologically-savvy communities than working in the "real world." But the attractive nature of virtual-reality worlds will also lead to serious addiction problems for many, as we lose people to alternative realities."

The entire report (entitled "The Future of the Internet II") is fascinating and contains a number of interesting predictions for the future (along with what people thinking of them). Definitely worth a read.

I love Mario’s experiment. And while it is probably true that it is just a little too early to jump on this technological bandwagon (unless you’re trying to do a survey about virtual communities and the people who use them, it is probably going to be difficult to come up with a sample that is relevant to your research questions) I think the time won’t be so far off when data collected in environments such as Second Life is the norm.

Read about Mario’s Second Life survey experience on his blog.
Watch a video of someone completing the Second Life survey.

Roy Poynter of The Future Place has posted a fascinating, thoughtful note about a session he led at a recent meeting of the World Association of Research Professionals (ESOMAR) in which the topic of discussion was the degree to which marketing research is being changed by the Internet. I won’t rehash the entire post here (it is eloquently written and worth the few minutes it will take to read) but I think it is worth identifying a few highlights.

First point: the fact that surveys are easier to conduct and that people are participating in more surveys doesn’t necessarily mean that the resulting data is less valid. I agree. In my experience, while it is of course necessary to think about the questions you are asking in the context of the respondent base you are using (whether a rented panel or your own in-house list), there is no reason to think that the results you get from an online survey will be any more biased than the results you get from calling those same people on the phone or visiting them at their homes.

Second point: Shorter time lines caused to some degree by the availability of quick data collection capabilities, easy to use tools, and smaller research budgets may be leading to less time spent on thoughtful analysis. While this is certainly possible in some environments, I would argue that this doesn’t always have to be the case and that the same tools that are making things so quick and easy may be eliminating much of the grunt work and leaving more time for analysis. Plus, as we move forward, better analysis tools will do even more of the work leaving more time for thinking.

There is more: such as a discussion about the role of online panels, the growth of outsourcing and what marketing research will look like in the "Web 2.0 era" (Research 2.0).

One last point that I thought was especially thought-provoking:

"A key conclusion of the session was that Research 2.0 will need new skills and a greater understanding of how people are taking over the Internet. It was also clearly understood that any researcher who wishes to be competent at Research 2.0 will need to master conventional research."

Read Ray’s full post and view the slide show.

Read a summary of the event at mrweb.com

Jared Heyman, president of Infosurv, recently published a white paper to Knowledgestorm.com entitled "The Benefits of Hiring a Full-Service Online Research Firm — Software vs. Online Research Firms," in which he pretty much "proves" that survey software should only be used for very simple, unimportant polls that don’t require a thoughtful methodology or unbiased execution. He says:

Online survey software is well-suited for "quick and dirty" type surveys where  directional quantitative or qualitative is needed. These surveys often run very short, with 20 or less items, and do not require the statistical accuracy that a full-service research firm can assure. An example may include a survey of twenty PTA parents to see what they would like the school to accomplish that year for their children, where only a rough tally of program preferences is required. Such surveys also do not require complex response validation, piping, or branching logic.

Although I agree with Jared on some points, I do think some of his assumptions don’t necessarily reflect the reality of today’s online survey software (many packages make it quite easy to validate responses or branch from question to question) and doesn’t take into consideration the access that many companies now have to thousands if not hundreds of thousands of customer e-mail addresses, along with the demographic data necessary to pull a meaningful, relevant sample. Sure — if you have no idea what to ask or if you don’t feel comfortable formulating questions — or even if you don’t have access to a good respondent pool — then it definitely makes sense to work with a professional agency.

I wonder if there isn’t some middle ground for companies and organizations who have the in-house know-how to write acceptable questions but need some help analyzing the data; or maybe the analytical capabilities are in-house but a broad-based response panel is still needed because the in-house list isn’t adequate. In other words, given the current economic environment where companies can’t afford to do a lot of research if there isn’t a sizable market out there for research firms that are willing so sell their surveys a-la-carte at reasonable prices…as far as I know there are a few companies who will do this, and then there is always www.guru.com.

Jared’s article is an interesting (albeit a little biased) read and covers many of the issues that you will have to think about when you conduct research yourself instead of hiring a firm.

Read the white paper at KnowledgeStorm (registration required). 

MarketTools announced today the introduction of MarketTools Mobile, an integrated solution that allows researchers to use mobile phones as a live data collection tool. The system includes everything needed to recruit mobile panelists, deploy surveys, and monitor collected results via a web-based portal. The MarketTools "ZoomPanel" is specifically optimized for collecting data related to shopping, in-home usage, mobile phones, TV viewing opinion, movies, event satisfaction and travel.

Learn more at the MarketTools web site.