Abstract:

A frequent problem in marketing research is how to collect information on the consumers of a product, which has a small market share. If a product is used by 5 out of 100 housewives one will need 4.000 interviews to reach a sample of 200 users. Many products have a market share which is still smaller which makes it even more economically unrealistic to do research by traditional sampling methods. This problem is especially acute when a new product is launched and information is needed on the consumer reactions. The problem of reaching such small segments of the market for research purposes can be solved by abandoning the traditional sampling methods and using instead the flow of distribution. This is done by sampling products instead of respondents and letting the products localise the consumers. The method is to select a systematic random sample of products before they are distributed and attach questionnaires to the products. The questionnaires are to be answered by the consumers and sent to the research institute. We call this type of research: product-sampling or distribution-radar.