Launch of Ipsos DietTrends

Ipsos-Insight has announced the launch of Ipsos DietTrends, a syndicated service to complement its established PharmTrends(r) brand by tracking consumer purchase behavior of diet-related products and services.

DietTrends tracks purchase behaviour of nutritional supplements, meal replacements, weight control products, and diet and exercise plans, capturing purchase data through the America Shoppers' Panel: a longitudinal consumer panel of 16,000 representative US households recording all diet-related purchases wherever made (including health food stores, mail order and online). Data collection began in January 2004 and is offered on a syndicated basis.

'The weight-loss and fitness industry is hyper-competitive and trend-sensitive', according to Mike Weisberger, Vice President of Ipsos-Insight. 'With Ipsos DietTrends, manufacturers, service providers, and marketers can optimize their strategies, target incremental opportunities based on consumer purchase behavior, and forecast consumer demand'.

Initial findings show the rapid-drop off in diet involvement post-New Year's resolution: purchasing of weight control products was 36% lower in May 2004 than in January, while diet/exercise plan participation dropped 25%. Summer dieting led to increased activity in June, but purchasing remained far below January levels.

Women represent 56% of the consistent purchasers, and account for 64% of 'lost' diet consumers. Women aged 40 and older were most likely to have abandoned their weight-loss activities, making up 37% of those who left the diet products/services category by May. The attrition rate for women 60 and older was even higher.

Data from DietTrends and PharmTrends can be integrated, for example to show the number of prescriptions filled by household with and without dieters, or with dieters who gave up during the five-month period.

More information is available at www.ipsos-insight.com/analytics/behavior/DietTrends.cfm