This paper describes how consumer panels in Great Britain have been developed in recent years to provide a wide range of services that are of specific relevance to grocery retailers. The paper will go on to describe in more detail three new services that further enhance the retailers understanding of their consumers buying behaviour. The first of these looks at catchment areas, or the distance that consumers travel to their chosen retailer and the ways that this affects their purchasing. The second analyses the classification of a retailers stores into clusters and examines the ways that these can then be employed to maximise their sales with particular reference to Category Management. The third segments consumers by the ways in which they shop and using this to identify areas of strength and weakness.
The needs of FMCG manufacturers and retailers require that suppliers of information for marketing decision support take an integrative perspective to what to offer to their market. After discussing the different ways that can be used in looking at a more integrated analysis of marketing data, two new information services will be defined and illustrated. These two new services are both based on analysis of aggregated information in independent sources. Special attention will be paid to the developed model for integration of information coming from internal sources ConsumerScan and InfoScan by looking at the strengths and weaknesses of both instruments and taking into account the differences in market definitions used in these instruments.
This paper will discuss how procedures and techniques employed in the United States and Western Europe were adapted successfully in setting up retail audit services in Venezuela. First, the paper will include an historical assessment of the initialisation and development of retail audit in Venezuela. This will be followed by a review of the fundamental issues to be considered when analysing the feasibility of marketing research tools and techniques to be used in launching a retail audit service.
This study provides insight into an area of new product development that has not received much attention: service marketing. Yet service industries, similar to their counterparts in the physical goods industries, are facing increasing pressure to develop new products in order to be profitable. The view is presented that service companies can benefit from applying many of the traditional practices used for developing new products for tangible goods, but at the same time the intangible nature of the service requires the development process to be modified and in particular the need for a more qualitative type of market research. A comprehensive case study approach is used to trace the development process from the initial idea to the final post-launch review stage. The product is a new service developed and launched by National & Provincial Building Society (N&P). "MAX", a card-based transaction account, is seen as the most successful new product ever developed and launched by N&P. It also holds the record for the highest development budget to date for a new product within the company.
It has been five years now since the foreign banks had tried "to break" the traditional relationship between customers and Spanish banks with a product banking approach. They launched new products with innovative features like the house mortgage loan, and the "citicuenta" of Citibank or the "Cuenta Azul" of Barclays. As in the case of the house mortgage loan of Citibank, it took only 15 days to grant the loan meanwhile in the other banks it took longer (2 months or more). Barclays and Citibank were also the first to pay interest on the balance of the current account. Innovations like these facilitated a change in the financial scene and affected the traditional relationship with the Spanish banks. So the competition was centered on price and product features advantages.
The opening of the European market in 1992 induces a lot of companies to wonder about the opportunities it would imply for them. Yet, in the assumption that these opportunities actually exist, they would be really available not only for them but also for others, for national but chiefly international competitors. In the financial sector and more particularly in the private individuaIs' market, one of the first segment to consider is the "up-scale" one ... because it is, globally speaking, more open to changes, innovations and as a result it is likely to be more open to foreign cultures. By conducting various surveys in different European countries (in the INRA-framework) , we tried to give an outline of the upscale. Who are they? What are their characteristics? How are they now reacting to the idea of a broader presence of financial institutions at European level?
This paper seeks to describe the conditions which have led to the emergence of various business omnibus services in the UK. It describes the change in British industrial activity which has led to new product development which in turn has led to new technique development to research the new markets. It goes on to describe the current status of business omnibus services and also briefly examines other syndicated services currently available to suppliers of business products and services. A brief review of European services is then undertaken which was as up-to-date as possible at the time of writing. The final section of the paper looks to the future and does not attempt to predict what will happen but merely to put forward some ideas for potential new services which hopefully will promote even more activity in what for the UK is a growing market.
In the most recent years demand for services to business enterprises has significantly grown because of various factors. Market research and management consultancy have both profited by this growth but the link between these two services still remains a question mark and is hard to define. If we compare consultancy services offered by research institutes or by single researchers with traditional consultancy, we realize there are some differences which should be evidenced. A market researcher when acting as a consultant is working under very special conditions which must be clearly identified to avoid any possible ambiguity or any dangerous conflicts. lip to the present the demand for market research/consultancy and the offer of this service have been rather limited because of some problems existing for the enterprises and also for the institutes. In this respect three main limiting factors were identified: (a) the type of methodological approach applied to market research, static and restrictive (b) resistance made to this service by residual corporate bureaucracies (c) the researchers' lack of training and experience With these definitions clearly in mind, we can say that the activity of market research tends progressively to incorporate values and operative modalities typical of consultancy. This evolution is desirable for it goes to the advantage of those researchers who find their own strategy and positioning on the market through this process.There are opportunities for developing standard services and opportunities for developing consultancy activities. In fact, the majority of market research business managements are still in an intermediate position. To quit this ungratifying position a considerable amount of money will have to be invested, no matter which direction one takes.
This paper has the appearance of a check list. It might well serve that purpose for a market research agency when composing a more or less standardised offering to the parties in a given marketplace. In the context of this seminar it is meant to make the audience aware of the complex environment in which business decisions have to be taken: the information needed, and the transformation into intelligence. Particularly this function of transformation is the area where the agency can present itself as a consultant. There is a definite need for this type of service, but let there be no misunderstanding, becoming a respected consultant will not be achieved over night. It will cost a lot of time, effort and money. The investment though will be rewarding.
This paper describes a large-scale investment in a new business telephone exchange service, called Centrex, under consideration by British Telecom pic in the UK, and the work undertaken to forecast the effect of introducing the product.
With my European colleagues in RISC, we conducted in 1981-1983 the initial cycle of an ongoing program called "Anticipating Change in Europe" (ACE). In this program, we have compared all the information available to us on change in society and among consumers in Europe. We have drawn certain conclusions from this. One particularly clearcut conclusion is that we are on the brink of a tremendous surge of innovations, that there is a powerful call for innovation, but that innovations are finding it difficult to break through.