Abstract:

The paper is divided into three parts. The first one describes the retail structure pre- 1989 and the rapid developments in the last 3 years in terms of the numbers and profile of retail outlets. The sources are official statistics and a retail census carried out by AMER Hungary. The second part describes the process of setting up a retail panel and the composition of the panel. It then examines the importance in sales of different types of outlets and regions. It shows trends in stock cover and distribution of major brands. It moves on to show how recently launched international brands have gained share at the cost of the old local brands. The share in value as well as volume is depicted. The third part describes the Media Expenditure Monitor of AMER and the total amount spent in 1992 by medium and brand category. It shows the top ten f.m.c.g. brands as well as the top ten services in terms of advertising expenditure. It then moves on to the product categories that were examined in the retail audit in terms of brand shares and analyses their advertising expenditure by brand and "local" versus "international" origin.