Nfo Cm Research Leads Understanding Of Interactive World

NFO CM Research today launched a first-to-New Zealand range of customised interactive research tools designed to help companies understand consumer behaviour on the world wide web.

As a leading market research company NFO CM Research’s online tools will assist in revolutionalising the way companies conduct future business ‘on the net’.

NFO CM Research senior account director and interactive research expert Galina Mitchelhill says the tools measure more than just the number of hits a company’s website receives. The tools also measure the satisfaction, preferences, and decision-making processes of visitors about a company’s website.

“The Internet is spawning new markets; new ways of distributing, marketing and selling products and services and new ways of reaching out to target audiences,” she says.” These innovative research tools will enable companies to better understand attitudes and behaviours of online consumers and thus market more effectively to them.”

Ms Mitchelhill says the online tools will compliment, while also furthering, our understanding of consumers that we already have through 'offline' research.

“These tools have been developed to better understand consumers as a whole, and how the Internet fits into their lives, and how as a result it impacts on brands, attitudes and purchasing,” she says.

A major benefit of NFO CM Research’s online research tools is the ability to get real time results. Marketers can see results to their questions and receive insight into making better decisions just moments after a survey is launched.

NFO CM’s online tools can also target hard-to-reach people, namely early adopters and in particular the youth market, with the medium they prefer to use - the Internet.

“We are also matching the general behaviour of online consumers by interviewing and researching them in an online environment,” Ms Mitchelhill says.

The two prominent tools among the package of five NFO CM Research interactive research methods include a quantitative online survey methodology, known as NFO//net.survey, which is pre-programmed with built-in logic and NFO//net.gauge which profiles visitors to a site, measures visitor satisfaction, and assesses the site itself.

The range of interactive tools are available to NFO CM clients who can use them for a variety of applications including concept tests, web site evaluations, new product tests, package design tests, customer satisfaction, segmentation, purchase tracking and advertising effectiveness.

To date, companies have been limited in assessing the effectiveness of their distribution, marketing, communication and selling strategies on the Internet and the user-friendliness of their websites.

Developed and used in the United States for five years by the NFO group’s dedicated group of internet research professionals, the tools have already been employed in more than 2000 studies by companies such as Proctor and Gamble and Sony.

“The online tools have been tested and validated internationally by the NFO group and have proven to deliver consistently reliable results at speed,“ Ms Mitchelhill says. “This includes the ability for New Zealand companies to be able to benchmark their own sites against ‘best of breed’ sites internationally on many different factors.”

The international NFO group is one of the world’s first research companies to provide insight into the fast emerging Internet market and is leading the world in developing effective interactive research tools to understand the online communities.

NFO Worldwide is a leading provider of research-based, marketing information and counsel to the worldwide business community. With more than 15,000 full and part-time employees and operations in 38 countries, NFO provides clients with trusted insight into the behavior, attitudes and opinions of customers around the globe. NFO is the largest custom marketing research firm in North America and is among the top three in the world, serving 4,000 clients in key sectors such as consumer packaged goods, healthcare, financial services, high-tech/telecommunications, travel & leisure, automotive and business-to-business. Together with its affiliated companies, NFO is the world’s largest provider of Internet-based custom marketing research. NFO is a member of The Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE:IPG). Visit NFO Worldwide on the Web at http://www.nfow.com

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