This paper will describe how the Shopper Insights function inside a globally active FMCG company has gained and accumulated relevant shopper-marketing knowledge from diverse sources of information and expertise, and how this knowledge has since been successfully disseminated in a company-wide communication effort using a new web-based knowledge-sharing video service.
This presentation describes recent attempts to use virtual reality components for studying market effects of new category management-driven initiatives in retail settings. Virtual shopping systems today offer intriguing opportunities for a flexible generation and realistic presentation of shelf and store concept, and the rapid collection of relevant consumer feedback. These advantages are all the more critical if and when time and budget constraints, logistics, and non-available research alternatives severely reduce pre-testing of category management concepts. A recently completed research study of consumer purchases of wound-care products in pharmacies is used to demonstrate the advantages of a 'virtual' approach.
This paper describes recent attempts to use virtual reality components for improving the generation and presentation of experimentally varied tasks in discrete choice analyses. These tasks, particularly in consumer purchase situations, have historically shown a notorious lack of realism for the consumer, with obvious disadvantages for an accurate understanding of purchase behavior. Virtual shopping systems, on the other hand, offer intriguing opportunities for a flexible generation and realistic presentation of consumer choices within typical retail environments and product categories. A recently completed research study of consumer purchases of baby napkins is used to demonstrate the advantages of this approach.