Ipsos-Insight Tracks Gas Station Bubble Gum Explosion

Ipsos-Insight has announced a new consumer panel tracking tool in the US, called the On-the-Go Purchase Panel. The panel captures unplanned and incidental purchases across alternative sales channels for beverage, snack, gum, snack bar and candy manufacturers, according to Ipsos filling a gap left by over-concentration on traditional channels.

The service is exclusive to outlets like convenience stores, gas stations, vending machines, dollar stores and video outlets, which over the last few years have been the scene of an 'explosion' in eat-on-the-run consumer products, and now account for a significant proportion of total brand sales, says Ipsos-Insight.

Robust reporting details cover outlet names and types, date of purchase, product type, brand, weight and size, price paid, and where the product was consumed, and are based on monthly paper diaries from a continuous consumer panel of 5,000 individuals - adults and children over ten years of age. The Panel is offered on a syndicated basis.

'Data that gives precedence to traditional channels like grocery stores can miss a manufacturer's most important consumer' explains Dana Leo, Vice President of Ipsos-Insight. 'Small packages sold through numerous channels represent a substantial portion of sales for many brands. And because these purchasers are typically very different from those who buy larger sizes in bigger outlets, many manufacturers don't know who is buying what and where. The opportunities they are missing could be the key to sustained brand growth'.

According to Karl Shafer-Junger, Business Development for Ipsos-Insight, buyers in these alternative channels make very different brand choices to the primary household shopper who forms the mainstay of traditional panels. 'The impulse/incidental buyer is more likely to make the trial purchase of a new product and they are less price sensitive, often paying more for a single can or smaller pack... Before the On-the-Go Purchase Panel, these buyers and purchase occasions were being missed'.

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

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