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2001 Market Research Bears Fruit Online Attracted by promises of speed, reach, and significant savings, businesses and corporations are increasingly turning Web-wards to collect consumer opinions and responses. The accuracy of Web-based market research is no longer in question. "Of all the areas of business that have been changed by the Web, marketing research may have been changed the most," noted Rich Nadler, CEO of Perseus Development, which runs Web-based marketing research for MSN. Of late, Microsoft has relied on extensive Web surveys - up to 50 a month - to gauge user attitudes about its MSN site. "Our goal is continuous improvement, not point-in-time improvement," said Deepak Agrawal, vice president of MSN. "To do that, we need the ability to collect and analyse data quickly." According to Nadler the Internet has made it possible for businesses of every size to conduct meaningful and speedy market research. In addition, he believes that the dynamics of the Net has brought marketing and research closer together. Experts all seem to agree that the Web is less costly and faster than traditional marketing research methodologies (such as mail and telephone surveys). "Online market research is a burgeoning field and there are numerous advances still to come," promises Nadler. - in eCRMGuide.com, December 2001 Market Research: A Gold Mine for the Web? Fast and Faster Microsoft's MSN (Nasdaq: MSFT) has used Web surveys to gauge user attitudes about its site. Many of its surveys -- at times MSN has conducted up to 50 a month -- last only two days and draw as many as 3,000 answers in that time, the company said. "Our goal is continuous improvement, not point-in-time improvement," said Deepak Agrawal, vice president of MSN. "To do that, we need the ability to collect and analyze data quickly." Changing Face "Of all the areas of business that have been changed by the Web, marketing research may have been changed the most," Nadler told the E-Commerce Times. "And there is a lot more to come." - in E-Commerce Times, December 2001 Test It - The Sweet Sound of Feedback Perseus SurveySolutions Enterprise ($2,495): Wiretap your customers' minds and improve your product with online feedback... These online tools will take your customers' temperature... Weather.com uses Perseus to get a real-time take from visitors on its revised website design. - in SmartBusiness, October 2001 MobileForms Perseus Development Corporation announced at PC Expo a new survey application for Palm OS based handheld computers. MobileForms allows for the creation of surveys that can be deployed on a handheld computer. Once the surveys are completed, the survey administrator can compile and analyze the results and display them in tables or graphs. - in PalmPowerEnterprise.com, July 2001 Big Ideas for Small Businesses -- Do it yourself If market research packages are too pricey, there are other ways you can mine information online. Perseus Development Corp.'s SurveySolutions for the Web allows you to distribute market research surveys via e-mail. They offer a downloadable free trial copy that automates the process of collecting and analyzing poll results. - in SmallOffice.com, July 2001 Web-based Surveys When John Gallup trudged door-to-door conducting opinion polls, Web-based surveys never crossed his mind. Now the tedious task of collecting data occurs at the click of a mouse. It's no surprise that online surveys are popping up all over the Net. Compared with traditional market research vehicles, they're a fast, cost-effective way to collect information. Perseus Development Corp., a company that specializes in electronic research services and survey software development, says a five-minute survey to 100 people would cost $550 conducted by phone (including telephone costs, interviewers and data entry), $500 by mail (including printing and postage and data entry) and a mere $55 by Internet (including creation, delivery and conversion of data). 'In the past six months, we've seen Internet surveys go from being a source of information to evaluate Web sites and Internet commerce business decisions, to a broad range of consumer-oriented market research decisions,' says Rich Nadler, president and CEO of Perseus Development. - in Financial Post, July 2001 Perseus Adds Unprecedented MS Office Compatibility to Web Survey Software Yesterday, here at PC Expo, Perseus Development Corporation announced Version 4.0 of SurveySolutions, the popular software used to conduct web surveys with instant results. An integrated knowledge-feedback system, SurveySolutions 4.0 helps organizations easily capture critical information using Web surveys, e-mail surveys and Palm-powered surveys, as well as traditional telephone, fax and paper surveys. Version 4.0 features enterprise-wide data storage and mobile access. 'SurveySolutions 4.0 allows users to capture information from Web site visitors, customers, and employees and integrates it into an organization's systems,' said Jeffrey Henning, Chief Marketing Officer for Perseus. There are many new features in SurveySolutions 4.0, most notably its unprecedented Microsoft Office compatibility (including compatibility with the new Office XP and backward compatibility to MS Office 97 and Office 2000). SurveySolutions 4.0 allows users to save data directly in PowerPoint and offers a suite of tools for office links. In addition to SurveySolutions for the Web 4.0 (for Web and e-mail surveys), SurveySolutions Professional 4.0 (for conducting complex, multiple-page surveys) and SurveySolutions Enterprise 4.0 (for enterprise-wide survey management), the suite now features:
SurveySolutions 4.0 allows users to deepen their understanding of site visitors by collecting information from site-feedback surveys, suggestion boxes, exit interviews, sign-up forms and lost business reports. It helps companies broaden awareness of customer behavior through customer-satisfaction surveys, customer-service monitoring, and customer-requirement studies. SurveySolutions 4.0 can also be a critical tool for expanding employee productivity, enhancing performance and improving retention through employee-satisfaction surveys, training-evaluation surveys and Web-based employee-feedback systems. - in PC EXPO Daily, June 2001 Time-Sensitive Data - Are Your Surveys Current Or Just Yesterday's News? There are literally thousands of different reasons for conducting market research over the Internet. As with most new technologies, the first applications were used to replace slower, more expensive methods, such as telephone and paper surveys. However it has quickly blossomed into the method of choice for even the hardiest of market research professionals. The reason? Yes, it saves time and money. However, what it really means is it allows you to utilize your data before it becomes obsolete and it allows you to conduct ongoing research, so that you are able to keep a finger on the pulse of what's happening in the marketplace. There are several other key benefits to using the Internet. Response rates are typically higher on the Web because surveys are easier to fill out and respondents can complete them at their convenience. Survey response options are controlled and validated while the survey is being completed, eliminating data entry errors and ensuring a higher quality response. Web-based surveys also save analysis time because the data is collected automatically, and the results can be immediately analyzed and charted. Up until now, creating a Web survey has been a fairly difficult process for most people. The rather recent introduction of inexpensive and easy-to-use Web survey tools (like Perseus' SurveySolutions for the Web), has made it much easier to create Web surveys, collect responses and analyze the results. First, the latest Windows-based survey tools make creating the survey almost as easy as writing a letter in a word processor. Therefore, managers can create the survey on their own without getting their IT staff involved. Secondly, survey software has automated the process of gathering, analyzing and reporting the results. These new tools automatically collect each response, store it in a database table and offer predefined reports for presenting the results. The bottom line is that it has become as easy and inexpensive to execute market research on the Web as it is to provide product information to customers. Web-based surveys let you keep your finger on the pulse of your business at minimal expense. - in President & CEO Magazine, June 2001 National Survey Will Find 100 Best Communities for Music Education in America The second annual nationwide '100 Best Communities for Music Education in America' Internet survey, spearheaded by the American Music Conference (AMC), is now under way. The objective is not only to identify communities that excel in music education but also to gather information that will help communities everywhere address this vital need. Educators, school administrators, parents, students, and community members at large can participate now, then check back in May to see the results online. The survey includes detailed questions about funding, enrollment, student-teacher ratios, participation in music classes, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, participation in private music lessons, and other factors in the community's quality of music education. The Music Teachers National Association , the National School Boards Association, and the International Music Products Association are once again joining AMC as partners in the undertaking. Perseus Development Corporation, Yamaha Corporation of America, and the VH1 Save the Music Foundation are lending support to the survey as well. - in Education World, March 2001 Weather Channel Finds Interactive Audience on Web In honor of the 21st Century, executives at The Weather Channel cable network wanted to implement a promotion for viewers which looked back at the weather of the past century. The challenge was to develop a promotion that tied in the television programming group with its online counterpart, the Weather Channel Website at weather.com. The project manager decided to do a survey, asking viewers to vote for their top 10 storms of the century. He contacted Perseus Development Corp., Braintree, Mass., with the goal of developing and implementing an easy-to-use, easy-to-track survey for viewers. Using Perseus' free Web tool, ExpressPoll.com, the survey was launched on weather.com. Weather.com invited users to visit its Storms of the Century section and vote for the storms they felt had the greatest impact from a list of 60 of the most memorable storms of this century. Upon submission of their selections, visitors were able to view up-to-the-second results to see how their opinions compared to those of others. Perseus offers ExpressPoll.com as a complement to its line of survey software, which includes SurveySolutions for the Web. SurveySolutions for the Web enables users to create and modify questionnaires in a word-processing environment without any scripting, programming or complicated dialogue sequences to master. Users can create professional surveys, post them to the Web or distribute them via e-mail, automatically collect responses, analyze the results and instantly produce effective presentations. Weather.com felt that the survey for the top 10 storms of the century allowed for tremendous interactivity, which led to increased traffic to its site. Weather.com received more than 60,000 responses to its survey in one month. Based on the success of its first survey, The Weather Channel decided to implement additional survey promotions - the second one on the worst tornados and the third one on the worst hurricanes. - in President's Strategies & News, March 2001 Customer Survey Value 'The Internet has made conducting customer satisfaction surveys so valuable and easy to do that organizations NOT implementing them as part of their CRM process, are leaving knowledge on the table.' -Jeffrey Henning, CMO of Perseus Development Corp. - in Software Business Magazine, February 2001 Training Program Expectations Surveys 'Many organizations (conducting a training course) give a survey before an event to examine expectations. They are often given a survey at the event, sometimes through a kiosk, to see how the training is going. Afterwards a survey measures everything from the quality of the course, the content, the instructor or leader if it's a distance-learning event, and the ways in which the training could be improved...With online surveys, feedback is received within hours and the training can be modified quickly.' -Richard Nadler, CEO of Perseus Development Corp. on 'Rating E-Training with Online Surveys' - in Workforce Magazine, January 2001
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