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MARKETERS BUILDING GRANULAR CPG DATA

SAN DIEGO -- Retailers are being introduced to new tracking techniques that allow them and manufacturers to better realize who is buying their products, and when and how these goods are consumed.As a result, the supply chain will get a cleaner glimpse of such hard-to-reach, but high-value, segments as unacculturated Hispanics, teenagers, pregnant women and individual users within a household."We have

SAN DIEGO -- Retailers are being introduced to new tracking techniques that allow them and manufacturers to better realize who is buying their products, and when and how these goods are consumed.

As a result, the supply chain will get a cleaner glimpse of such hard-to-reach, but high-value, segments as unacculturated Hispanics, teenagers, pregnant women and individual users within a household.

"We have new research techniques, new approaches to panel and data collection that are flexible, scalable and most important, actionable," said Timothy Ressmeyer, senior vice president of panel product management for Information Resources Inc., Chicago. He outlined the programs at IRI's Reinventing CPG Summit 2004.

Two new sampling tools developed by IRI have just emerged from pilot evaluations and are ready for use. Both will provide supply chain partners with granular data in both categories or groups.

For example, the category program can determine which products are subject to immediate consumption -- such as beverages or snack foods. Until now, this type of information often had been shielded because of technical limitations. Today, the task of registering consumption of products "on the go" has been simplified for the panelist by the development of a keychain-friendly scanner.

"There have been huge gaps for certain categories," such as candy, snack chips and beverages, Ressmeyer said.

Group studies can better profile consumption patterns shared by certain consumer clusters, revealing statistics that remained hidden under the larger panel umbrella.

"Traditional panels historically have not offered the granularity required to dig into a specific group," he said. "The specialty panel approach allows us to do that."

Execution of the programs has the potential for consumer packaged goods manufacturers like Plano, Texas-based Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, to discover more about their product usage, which in turn can help retailers. Tim Pascoe, the snack food company's senior group manager of consumer strategy and insights, recalled how he got a preview of the new capabilities several months ago and believes they will help him provide better coverage for his retail partners in his areas of responsibility: customer insights, multi-cultural marketing and immediate consumption.

"Whenever you talk about targeting Hispanics, the question always comes up: 'Well, what's your definition of Hispanic?"' Pascoe noted. "That's a primary concern I live with day-to-day."

Using more sophisticated panels would allow Pascoe to pinpoint who is eating Frito-Lay products, at what time of day, and where they are being eaten. For example, one hunch executives want to confirm is what times of day Hispanics eat salty snacks.

"There's a feeling that there are more salty snacks consumed before lunchtime in the Hispanic market than there [are] in the general population," he said. "We need to find that out somehow. We've always thought that, but we've never been able to actually find that out."

In practical applications, Frito-Lay could see how Lay's Cool Guacamole chips are doing with Hispanics. Pascoe said the product enjoys $50 million in sales, and an 8.8% penetration of the general market. They have a 20% repeat-sale threshold on a 55-day cycle.

Tracking programs like those developed by IRI may not be able to totally illuminate who's buying the product, but "some information is better than absolutely none," Pascoe said.