Abstract:

The use of consumer panels by manufacturers in Europe as a marketing tool has increased dramatically over the past few years and now seriously competes with the more traditional forms of store audit service. This trend is contrary to that experienced in the United States where the emphasis for tracking markets is mainly derived from store-based information services, using conventional store audit methods or by analysis of computerised records of warehouse withdrawals, like SAMI. The role of consumer panels in the USA would appear to be restricted to performing a mainly diagnostic function. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to try and examine the underlying technical and marketing reasons for this trend and to describe some of the ways panel data is now used in Europe, set against the background of the conference theme, "It Won't Work Here".