ASSIGNMENT 7.1 – RETAIL AUDIT & CONSUMER PANELTuan Duong

Ngan Tran

DIFINITION

Consumer research are methods to collect CONSUMER information and

measure effectiveness of marketing strategy on CONSUMER. So, all

methods to answer 3 questions of CUSTOMER:

WHAT CUSTOMER THINK?

WHAT CUSTOMER WATCH?

WHAT CUSTOMER BUY?

3 key angles of CONSUMER

Consumer understanding: study what consumer think, through interviewing, making focus group

regarding to behavior and attitude (sometime it included what consumer buy)

Consumer panel: study what consumer buy,

through specific research questions relating to

product testing, taste testing, ad testing or

other areas

Media rating: study what customer watch, through recording their

channels to aware products or brand message

Retail audit: study what retailer sell, which be equal to what

consumer buy, through gathering information on a brand’s sales

volume, sales trends, stock levels, effectiveness of in-store display

and promotion efforts, and other associated aspects.

WHAT IS OBJECTIVE OF METHODS?

Retail audit

Measure Definition

Consumer Volume Sale • Sales to consumer• Expressed in units or a converted volume

basis (.g. litres, kilograms, …)

Consumer Value Sales • The value of sales to the consumer• Expressed as Doing turnover to the retailer

Volume/Value Share • An individual brand or SKU share of either its total market or a specific market segment

Consumer Panel

• Purchase panel : is useful to study the purchasing habits and trends of consumers The selected consumers are asked to record their purchases in the diaries provided to them. Example of purchase panel -- housewives--- to record purchase behavior of items like washing powder, toothpaste, soaps,…

• Audience panel : Many channels want to know hoe their programs are fairing . An audience panel records the viewership/listening patterns (TV/RADIO). The panel records on a diary or automatically (people meter) the channels they watched in the previous week. This helps the companies in media planning.

• Product testing Panel: before launching a product , its tested among the product testing panel. Their views on features, packaging are recorded. This information can be used for future productupgradations.

• Dealer panel : companies collect information from certain dealers on a regular basis . Information likecompetitor product and pricing etc are recorded

WHAT IS OBJECTIVE OF METHODS?

Purchase

Consumer

SupportPrice

Stock

DistributionVolume/

Value

Numeric/ Weighted distribution

Numeric/ Weighted out of stock

• Stock share

• Forward/reserve stock

• Stock to sales ratio

• Stock cover day

• Price per pack

• Average price per unit

• Volume/ Value sales

• Volume/ Value share

• Volume/ Value share of trade

• Purchases

• Purchase share

• Average SPPD

Retail Audit standard report

Consumer Panelcontinuous tracking of product

movement through retail outlets.

Volume movement plus in-store

activities providing the opportunity

to measure at one source

Retail Audit standard report

• Consumer Volume & Value Sales/Shares–enabling you to identify market trends and determine your brands relative performance

vs. your competitive set

• Retailer Purchases/Shares–does your brand have retailer support, are supply problems hindering performance ?

• Average Retail Selling Price/Price Per Pack–which price segments are driving category growth ?

• Retail Stock Levels (Share on Shelf)–does your brand have adequate stock levels and share of shelf ?

• Sales Per Point of Distribution (SPPD)–does consumer off-take per store match my competitors ?

• Distribution (% of Outlets & Importance to the Category)–how many outlets handle your brand, distribution opportunities, what levels of

distribution have your competitors achieved ?

• Out of Stock–are out of stocks hindering your performance, what’s the cost ?

Retail Audit

standard report sample

Consumer Panelcontinuous tracking of product

movement through retail outlets.

Volume movement plus in-store

activities providing the opportunity

to measure at one source

Consumer panel standard report

Years Available and Panel Size: The Consumer Panel data tracks purchases of a panel of

households. The data describes when, where, and what the panelists purchase, and at

what price

Panelist Demographic and Geographic Data: Demographic variables include

household size, income, age, presence and age of children, employment, education,

marital status, occupation, type of residence, and race.

Trips and Purchase Transactions: For each shopping trip, summary information is

provided about the trip (e.g. household, date, retailer code, store code, store zip code,

and total dollars spent). Store code and store zip are provided only for a subset of trips

Retailers: Data collection is performed for products purchased in many different retail

channels

Products: Consumer Panel product data are organized into Departments, Product Groups,

Product Modules, and UPC Codes

Magnet data: include products that do not use standard UPC codes -- items such as fruits,

vegetables, meats, and in-store baked-goods

Overview of File Types: Seven types of files can be found in the Consumer Panel data:

Panelists, Trips, Purchases, Retailers, Products, Product Extra Attributes, and Brand Variations

Consumer panel

standard report sample

• Biased information : Over a period of time , the panel members may

give biased answers

• Absence of representative character: the small panel can never

represent the entire class of consumers. Drawing conclusions based

on panel readings can lead to wrong judgements.

• Panel members drop out : over a period of time , some panel

members drop out. In such a scenario, identifying new consumers

with similar characteristics is not easy.

• Limited cooperation: initially the panel members are

very cooperative. As time goes by, their cooperation level/

enthusiasm falls

Obstacles for Doing a Customer Panel

Obstacles for Doing a Retail Audit

• An audit may be costly

• It may be quite time consuming

• Performance measures may be inaccurate

• Employees may feel threatened and not cooperate as much as desired

• Incorrect data may be collected

• Management may not be responsive to the findings