Text Your Sandwich to TNS

TNS has released market size figures for British consumption of sandwiches, based on innovative methodology. Panellists text the bar codes of their purchases to the company, allowing it to track their snacking in real-time.

TNS Worldpanel says the British 'on the go' sandwich market (only those sandwiches bought and consumed outside the home) is worth £2.8 billion. TNS says this is the first time a 'true value' has been put on this market, looking at individual prices of sandwiches as well as the number bought. In the last year, 1.69 billion sandwiches were bought on the go at an average price of £1.66. Previous market measures were based on an estimated average price for a sandwich.

The measurement uses TNS Worldpanel's Impulse Food on the Go service, which it describes as the first in the UK to combine the text messaging approach with traditional methods. It covers soft drinks, sandwiches & savouries, confectionery, snacks & nuts, and crisps.

Tim Nancholas, Strategic Insight Director, TNS Worldpanel, says the out of home snacking market is 'notoriously difficult to measure accurately, as people tend to buy on impulse and can forget the details of their purchases' - so the new method provides much more realistic results. 'We are monitoring consumer snack spending across a wide range of outlets from grocery, bakeries and garages to vending machines and canteens' adds Nancholas.

Figures are based on TNS Worldpanel data for the 52 weeks to 26 March 2006, with data from 5,000 demographically representative British individuals, captured via text message and CATI. The group is online at www.tns-global.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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