Drake Business Service Inc., New York, a database marketing consulting firm, recently introduced a new software program designed to help direct marketers analyze and plan direct marketing tests.
The program, called Plan-alyzer, is especially suited for direct marketers who are uncomfortable with statistics and who may not understand them.
“A significant proportion of direct marketing tests are read with too few observations to be meaningful,” said Perry D. Drake, vice president , Drake Business Services Inc., who created the software based on his consulting experience and teaching experience at New York University in the Direct Marketing Master's Degree program. “Those who base their marketing decisions on such tests are literally gambling with their company's bottom line.”
Plan-alyzer, however, presents statistics in an easy-to-understand way, thereby allowing marketers to become more comfortable with statistics and ultimately maximizing the value and benefits of the proper test design and analysis.
According to Drake, the software easily determines appropriate sample sizes for test panels to ensure results can be read with confidence; gauges the reliability of a test estimate by placing bounds around the test response rate; and determines if one test panel is significantly better than another with a certain level of confidence.
The Plan-Alyzer can be downloaded free-of-charge form the Drake Business Services Inc.'s Web site at www.drakebusiness.com.
