9. The investigation of markets and the instituos of opinion

If we want to know with major accuracy everything regarding the topic of studies of markets, we will have to mention other methods used also by the institutes of opinion. These methods, which implantation in Spain has taken place in last years, are centred Homely in:

Panels.
Bus.

The information that is facilitated next is obtained of the «Guide of Marketing», edited by the magazine IPMARK.

9.1. Panel

It is an Anglo-Saxon term that indicates the collection of regular information in a certain group of persons or points of sale, on those sectors and products that should want to be analyzed and that, in turn, are representative, like unit muestral, of a universe. The companies that are interested in knowing and receiving regular information about the products in question will have to realize a contact with the persons in charge of the panel.

Studies can be realized, between others, of the following aspects: hours of permanence opposite to the TV set or Internet, acceptance of a certain product, rotation of stocks, tastes, tendencies, places of buy, etc.

The collection of information of the different panels is realized Homely across the new technologies, but also they can be gathered by means of postal, telephone route, personal, Internet visit, etc. All these systems here commented have to be controlled of a form professional and adapted to the last technological advances.

Next, we give a brief reference of the most well-known, some of even very specializing them, although they will always be able to be realized of form ad hoc, or, by order.

THE PANELS

CONSUMERS' PANEL HOMESCAN - NIELSEN COMPANY.

Date of creation: 1999

It replaces the ancient consumers panel based in audit manual with daily support that one had come developing from 1993.

Targets:

To complement the information originated from the retailer's panel across the knowledge of the consumer in the hearth with regard to the different products / marks, as well as to go deep into the mechanisms of the proper consumer.

Studied universes:

Set of Spanish hearths of the Peninsula and Balearics. We understand for hearth the individual person, be a man or woman, or set of persons who live in the same domicile and consume with charge to the same budget.

Sample:

8.000 hearths representative of the entire universe of reference.

Methodology:

Information collection across optical pencil and weekly transmission of the same one by means of telephone communication. The level of collection of the information is at level a code EAN, with the same structure as the retailers' panel scantrack.

Regularity:

The standard regularity Nielsen is the quarterly and annual report, with the possibility of obtaining monthly advances or any other regularity that the client needs.

Given information:

All the variables turn out to be grouped based on the following analyses: tendency of market and participation of the marks. Behavior of the consumer at once of buy (entire buys, percentage of buying hearths, buys average for hearth, frequency of buys, buy comes up for act). Profile of the consumer, according to criteria sociodemográficos. Position in the hearth: importance of the hearths, exclusivity of marks in the same ones. Level of repetition of buy of every mark / variety, being able to be known about direct form the number and/or proportion of hearths that acquire a reference or mark one, two, three, or more times, within a certain period of time. Information for chain. Size of the universe or number of hearths included in each of the differentiated segments of population.

Market breakdowns:

Geographical areas Nielsen. Size of the municipality. Social class. Age of the housewife. Labor situation of the housewife. Number of members of the hearth. Children's presence in the hearth. Of optional form stages of the life. Also there is included in the standard database the information relative to the types of establishment, and of more specific form, to the different distribution networks of independent form.

Analysis methods:

Together with the basic information of the reports that include of standard form all the variables mentioned previously, Homescan offers the possibility of realizing special studies that allow to study in depth the analysis of problematic more concrete. This way the following analyses are realized: Sourcerer offering, Trial&Repeat, New, Lost and retained, combined Buy, Analysis of the shopping basket, Gain&Loss, views Panel, Chice segments, Shopper missions, Fieles-ocasionales-esporádicos, Heavy-medium-light, Stages of the life, Life styles, Trade planner, Shopper óptimizer, Trade category, Analyser. Other consumers' panels: panel of consumption of mobile telephony.

STUDIES OF OBSERVATION IN THE POINT OF SALE - NIELSEN COMPANY.

Targets:

The observation studies are part of the whole portfolio of services that Nielsen puts at the disposal of the professionals of the marketing in the point of sale.

They allow to have an exhaustive knowledge of the concrete variables that manage with the modern distribution and establish an advantage diferenciadora on his competitors. This is, to move the concepts of marketing and of mark to the point of sale. Likewise they offer the possibility of obtaining the information in real-time across the alerts system.

Types of studies:

Causal Key account. Pursuit of the Home variables of merchandising and in each of the Home groups / chains / anagrams of the national territory:

The analysis variables are:

– Presence of each of the references.

– He attends of:

- Display.

- Leaflet.

- Extra quantity or bonus pack.

- Promotion of price (manufacturer and retailer).

- Gift.

- Lot.

- He multibuys (3 x 2, 2 x 1 …).

– Space (linear developed in centimeters or number of facings). The space is gathered every three months.

Merchandising monitor. Monthly and nominative pursuit in a selection of the most important establishments of free service of the variables related to the merchandising.

The variables that are analyzed:

– Presence of Europaean Article Number (EAN) in euros.

– Presence of head of gondola.

– Presence of other special exhibitions (tower, islands, tables, exhibitors, etc.).

– Presence of advertizing leaflet.

– Presence of multibuy of the retailer.

– Presence of manufacturer's bonus pack.

– Presence of manufacturer's lots.

– Presence of offer of price.

– Presence of award / gift.

– Space of linear developed: centimeters of linear developed and number of facing.

– Space of linear developed by shelves level.

Price monitor. Fortnightly control of the variable PVP, as well as from the promotions at reference level in the most excellent points of sale of the Spanish geography.

The analysis variables are:

– He attends in shop.

– I boast.

– Presence of head of gondola.

– Other special exhibitions.

– Leaflet.

– Offer of promotion of price.

– Bonus pack or extra quantity.

– Lots 3x2.

– I give.

– Other promotions.

Space monitor. Monthly pursuit of the space so much of the category as of each of the references that form it.

The variables that audit sound:

– Developed linear centimeters.

– Facings.

Spacetrack. It allows by means of the collection of developed linear centimeters and number of facings in the establishments that compose the regular sample of the panel Scantrack, relate the sales to the space, so that there could be realized analyses of profitability and productivity, on having integrated it with the volumetric Scantrack information.

The analysis variables are:

– Sales in value and volume.

– Average price.

– Numerical and exaggerated distribution.

– Considered of promotions.

– Sales according to type of promotion, etc.

– Space (centimeters and facing).

PANEL OF AUDIENCIA-TNS HEARING OF MEANS.

Date of creation:

Companies constitution: I wither, 1985.
It begins of the activity: June, 1986.
Constituted panel: January, 1988.

Targets:

To know to the maximum details the hearing of the different chains of television (at hearth level and individuals).

Number of hearths:

3.845 hearths in which there reside 10.300 individuals of four or more years. Product and/or studied marks: all the announced ones in television.

Sectors: all the announced ones.

Regularity: daily information.

Obtained informations: informations of hearing of television referred to hearing of individuals and for targets of minutes, quarters of an hour, time zones, programs, commercials and advertizing blocks for the different chains.

Universe: Peninsula, Balearics and Canaries of age equal or superior to four years.

Prices: variables, according to grade of required information.

Areas: coverage Peninsula, Balearics and Canaries.

Analysis: for the variable commercials, the information one will be able jerarquizar according to cost for thousand (CPM) or gross rating point (GRPs). Information proceeding from the same sample recounted to:

Configuration of targets specifics.
Hearing to programme, advertizing commercials, periods of 15 minutes for the requested chains and hearings of free periods from a second until 24 hours.
Evaluations of plans of television, for the fixed targets.
Optimizations of plans of television, for the fixed targets.
Advertizing campaigns pursuit, for the fixed targets.
Advertizing investments in television, according to marks.
Profiles of programs and of monthly periods.
Medium month's characteristics hearings and quarterly for any target and day of the week.

9.2. Bus

It is at the beginning of the 70s when this marketing skill begins in Spain; he consists of gathering the information demanded by different companies and on different topics at the same time. There follows the system of the personal interview, with questionnaires structured according to the content that wants to be known.

Some groups support the idea of that the use of the bus is determined by a minor cost of achievement (since the expenses are distributed between the different companies that entrust the questionnaire); the defenders of the same one support that the determinant motive for deciding on this system is based on the following technical characteristics:

Universe to which the investigation is directed.
Extension of the sample.
Dates of achievement of field works.
Future possibilities of obtaining the same information in similar epochs, facing the comparative studies.

The graphic expression with which this type of studies is represented in almost the whole world are the collective public transports (buses, trains, etc.), and it is like that because it defines with many precision the concept and the characteristics that the bus endures:

The questionnaire is a collective vehicle in investigation.
Accessible for different clients at the same time.
Electric cord along the trajectory, with different stops according to the information needs of every client.
It has fixed days of exit and of arrival.
It has a destination marked in advance, that in investigation is the universe to which it is directed.
It is paid according to the trajectory, that is to say, of his use.

These ambivalent characteristics have done of the bus a study that has reached big fame, being for many companies his first contact with the markets investigation.

The studies bus are, nowadays, one of the important instruments in the markets investigation; his big versatility allows that to be able to be used by any company, independently of the size of the same one, but, up to the date, almost always for products of big consumption.

In these moments, in Spain they exist sufficient bus as to be able to answer to the requirements of those who should want to use them; although in the future, and analyzing the environment of the countries that surround us, it is possible to make sure that the studies bus will be more and more frequent; a major types diversification will be created and they will turn out to be different new directed to more concrete or specific universes.

In any case, the Home characteristics that define the bus are:

A minor cost.
Big achievement rapidity.
Minor number of questions and answers for questionnaire.

Of the approximate 30 institutions of investigation that realize bus in Spain, I will indicate next two of them that serve as example as for the content of the same ones, without it meaning some classification.

CLAU CONSULTORS	Type of bus	Consulted group	Type of interview	Size of sample	It dates of achievement	Approximate price for type of question
	Type of bus	Consulted group	Type of interview	Size of sample	It dates of achievement	Dicotómica	Closed	Opened
	Major persons	Major than 55 ó 65 years	Telephone	500	3 waves a year	470 €	600 €	840?
	Major persons	Major than 55 ó 65 years	Personnel	1.000	3 waves a year	700 €	900 €	1.250?
	Doctor / pharmacist in Madrid and Barcelona	Medical general practitioners	Telephone	100	Quarterly	300 €	450 €	600 €
			Personnel	100		360 €	540 €	720 €
			Telephone	200		510 €	780 €	1.020 €
			Personnel	200		630 €	960 €	1.260 €
		Pharmacists	Telephone	100	Quarterly	360 €	540 €	720 €
			Personnel	100		420 €	630 €	840 €
			Telephone	200		630 €	960	1.260 €
			Personnel	200		750 €	1.080 €	1.440 €

IPSOS	Type of bus	Consulted group	Size of the sample	Date of achievement	Approximate price for type of question
	Type of bus	Consulted group	Size of the sample	Date of achievement	Dicotómica	Closed	Opened
	CAPIBUS National Survey by means of system CAPI (personal interview assisted by computer)	Hearths / individuals	1.000	Weekly	555 €	825 €	1.335 €
		Men / women / housewives	500	Weekly	330 €	495 €	800?
	BUS EXPRESS (national Survey in system CATI) Includes Peninsula, Balearics and Canaries	Hearths / individuals (15 to 79 years)	1.045	Weekly (in weekend)	410 €	645 €	820 €
		Men / women / housewives (15 to 79 years)	525	Weekly (in weekend)	305 €	480 €	665 €