Ipsos Launches Online Package Testing Product

Ipsos-Insight, the Ipsos Group's main MR division in the US, has launched a new, cutting-edge package-testing product called 'Pack Evolution' that enables manufacturers to take advantage of the speed, efficiency and technology of the Internet to test package designs using digital shelf displays.

According to Ipsos-Insight, more than 30,000 different products line the shelves, freezers and aisles of American supermarkets and other outlets, and tens of thousands of new items are introduced each year, at an estimated annual cost of more than $1 billion.

'Shelf space competition in today's marketplace is fierce-consumers are inundated with a multitude of brands, flavors, varieties, and sizes', said Lauren Demar, President of the Consumer Products division at Ipsos-Insight. 'Retailers are constantly monitoring the situation - determining what should stay, and what should go. On-shelf factors such as packaging are a product's last chance to influence a consumer's decision to buy and the stakes are huge. Pack Evolution's true-to-life testing reflects real phases of shopping behavior: as part of the online survey, respondents emulate approaching the store shelf (i.e., digital shelf) and then move in for a closer look at the packages on the shelf'.

'Pack Evolution is the first in our Package Testing Solutions platform', according to Lynn Rosen, Product Manager for Pack Evolution. 'Clients like the speed of the online data collection and how easy it is to test new package designs with digital images'.

The product offers robust sample sizes allowing for quantitative, rather than qualitative, analysis, and is as a standardized, multi-country tool suitable for global research needs. Its assessment of the link between package design and brand name goes beyond traditional eye-tracking or T-scope measures, and enhancements including a normative database and ongoing in-market validation are planned.

More information on Pack Evolution is available at www.ipsos-insight.com/analytics/packevolution.cfm

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

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