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IMRB to Revamp Household Panel
In India, WPP-owned IMRB has expanded its household consumer panel to reflect changes taking place across the country.
 Launched in 1981, the panel serves as a barometer of changing purchase behaviour and habits in India. Since then, IMRB says consumers have evolved and become more sophisticated; new products and consumers have entered the market; and the information requirements of marketers have become more complex.
In response, the company is planning to add 10,000 households to the existing 75,000-strong panel, cover new states such as Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh (where it will add 3,000 households), and include wealthy households (adding 3,000 of what the agency terms 'super elite' households - those that own a car and a laptop, and where at least one person has travelled abroad in the past year). It will also include sales from modern format retail stores, and will switch from using Census 2001 to Census 2011 data.
Lastly, IMRB will start using the consumer classification known as the socio-economic category (SEC) released by MRSI in 2011. The earlier version of SEC focused on the education and occupation of the chief wage earner, whereas the current system classifies Indian households using two parameters - educational qualifications of the chief wage earner in the household, and the number of assets owned, out of a pre-specified list of eleven items.
SVP Hemant Mehta (pictured) comments: 'We know that so much more of India is urban now. Nearly 2,800 new census towns have been added. Any research needs to recognize that.'
Web site: www.imrbint.com .
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