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Todd Hale
Senior Vice President, Homescan
ACNielsen US
A significant advantage consumer panel data brings to both manufacturers and retailers is the ability to view behavioural and attitudinal measures from the same households. As these measures are combined, they yield consumer insights not possible through standalone customised survey research projects. And they enable us to answer a key question: Do consumers do as they say?
When it comes to shopping choices, it appears that consumers do, in fact, shop as they say they do. In the following table we see that households who like one-stop shopping for their groceries make fewer all-outlet shopping trips. The same is true for households who shop in one or two stores and for households who tell us they don’t have time to shop multiple stores. Conversely, households who say they shop in a wide variety of stores make many all-outlet shopping trips.
We also see that attitudes towards grocery shopping drive differences in the number of grocery banners (ie, Kroger, Safeway, etc) where US households shop. Households who prefer not to shop around shop in a fewer number of grocery banners, while households who enjoy shopping in a wide variety of stores shop in more competing grocery stores.
Finally, we see that consumers who have different attitudes with respect to the importance they place on private label or store/trade deals show much different purchasing patterns. Households who strongly agree that they buy store brands exhibit private label sales that are 33 percent higher than the average for all US households. And, households who strongly agree that they use ads for planning their weekly grocery shopping exhibit store/trade deal sales that are 47 percent higher that the average US household.
In today’s competitive world, retailers and manufacturers are looking to leverage consumer insights to help them build winning strategies. It is no longer acceptable to have a one-sided view of consumer buying or shopping habits and practices. Linking consumer attitudes with actual shopping behaviour not only provides manufacturers and retailers with an understanding of how consumers think and what is important to them, it enables quantification of attitudinal measures with behavioural measures from the same households. So, when qualitative research uncovers an attitudinal shift or trend, the linkage with behaviour provides a quantitative measure to determine whether or not a reaction to the shift or trend is worth the investment.
The above article featured in the January 2005 “Facts Figures & the Future” newsletter, which can be found at www.factsfiguresfuture.com.
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