Abstract:

This paper will discuss the technological evolution undergone by the ACNielsen household panel based on the integration of different tracking tools with the final objective of gaining a new insight to consumers' behaviour an insight that may combine information based on the observation of consumer behaviour with information based on the evolution of attitudes and opinions. First we will describe the evolution of the household panel its structure and the main implementation problems encountered in evolving from a traditional panel to a technology-intensive one in terms of recruitment panel self-selection and acceptance of the collection mode within recruited households. We will then focus on the advantages of the use of computer aided self- interviewing (CASI) in the panel briefly comparing this method to other existing survey methods.