Management Science Associates Inc. (MSA) and Paradigm Sample have launched Convenience Consumer Insights Panel (cci Panel), the consumer research field’s first mobile panel designed to capture sales information from hard-to-reach younger shoppers within the convenience-store channel.
The cci Panel employs cutting-edge Smartphone technology in breakthrough applications, as a means to both recruit c-store shoppers as panel participants and link them to Web-enabled questionnaires for recording their purchases and insights over time. The majority of c-store shoppers fall within the desirable, but elusive and less understood, 18-34 demographic. Historically, this age group has been unreceptive to the more time-intensive traditional diary panels to track their shopping habits.
“This is one of the most difficult audiences to reach and understand,” noted Sima Vasa, CEO of Paradigm Sample. “The new cci Panel provides critical insight into the changing consumer within the c-store environment. Because we reach consumers with a technology they like, it drives higher completion rates and a very responsive panel. Our panel approach, combined with MSA’s panel analytical applications, will provide world-class solutions for consumer packaged goods’ marketers.”
The cci Panel marries Paradigm Sample’s thought leadership and innovation in market research data collection with the demand-chain shipments data MSA manages for CPG manufacturers, as well as with MSA’s panel analytics. The channel data will give MSA clients a leg up in identifying optimal stores for respondent targeting and in tying geographic differences in behavior and attitude to volumetric impacts.
Independent of sales performance data, MSA will bring to the panel targeted analyses regarding, among other topics, in-store experiences; advertising awareness; trial and repeat likelihoods; brand switching rationale; product and/or retailer satisfaction; verification of product/displays in stores.
“The Convenience Consumer Insights mobile panel is the newest technique to gather the consumer information that marketers and product developers need to drive their strategic planning and decision making for convenience and other immediate consumption channels,” said Suzy Silliman, managing director of MSA’s Information Management Solutions Division. “For 15 years, MSA’s Reseller Information System, our business-performance measurement service, has supported critical business processes and satisfied information needs for manufacturers, distributors and retailers operating in these channels. Now, the cci Panel will enhance our understanding of the c-store consumer.”
She added, “As the industry continues to focus on efficient assortment aligned to consumer needs, it is essential to better understand c-store consumers. Only then can manufacturers develop programs tied to consumer needs so the industry can achieve maximum efficiency and growth.”