Retail distribution audits
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
PERSONAL INTERVIEW
An interviewer asking questions generally face-to-face to other persons conductspersonal interview. This sort of interview may be in the form of direct personalinvestigation or it may be an indirect oral investigation. This method is particularlysuitable for intensive investigations.
Advantages
1.More information and that too in greater depth can be obtained.2.Interviewer can overcome any resistance, if any, of the respondents; thisinterview can be made to yield an almost perfect sample of he population.3.There is greater flexibility as questions can be restructured as when needed,especially in the unstructured interviews.4.Observation method can supplement verbal recording of answers.5.Personal information can be obtained easily in this method.6.Sample control can be maintained, as non-response generally remains low.7.Unlike mailed questionnaire, the interviewer can usually control which personswill answer the questions.8.The interviewer can catch the respondent off-guard and thus record thespontaneous reactions.9.The language of the interview can be changed according to the educationlevel of the respondent.10.The interviewer can collect supplementary information about respondent'spersonal characteristics and environment, which helps while interpreting,results.
Disadvantages
1.It can be quite expensive method, especially when large and widespreadgeographical sample is taken.2.Possibility of bias of interviewer and respondent is maximum.3.Certain respondents such as important officials cannot be approachableunder this method.4.It is time-consuming especially when sample is large and re-calls orespondents are to be made.5.Sometimes the presence of he interview can over-stimulate he respondentand he may give imaginary answers to make the interview interesting.6.Under the interview method the organization required for selection, trainingand supervising the field-staff is more complex with formidable problems.7.Interviewing at times may introduce systematic errors.
8.Interview presupposes a proper rapport with respondents for free and frankresponses, which is not always possible.
TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS
This method of collecting information consists contacting information consistscontacting respondents on telephone itself. It is not a very widely used method, butplays important role in industrial surveys in developed regions.
Advantages
1.It is more flexible in comparison to mail method.2.It is faster in obtaining information than other methods.3.It is cheaper compared to personal interviews; here the cost per response isvery low.4.Recall is easy; callbacks are economic and simple.5.There is higher rate of response than mailing method6.Replies can be recorded without causing embarrassment to respondents.7.Interviewer can explain requirements more easily.8.Access can be gained to respondents who otherwise cannot be contacted for one reason to other.9.No field staff is required.10.Wider distribution of sample is possible.
Disadvantages
1.Little time is given to respondents to answer, as these types of interviews donot last for more than 5 minutes.2.Survey is restricted to people who have telephones.3.Cost plays a major part in extensive geographical coverage.4.It is not suitable for interviews having comprehensive answers to variousquestions.5.Some extent of interviewer's bias exists.6.Questions have to be short and probes are difficult to handle.
COMMERCIAL SURVEYS
Commercial surveys can be divided into three types: Periodic, Panel and Sharedsurveys. Each of them are discussed below
Periodic surveys
Periodic surveys
are conducted at regular intervals, ranging from weekly to annuallyheld surveys. They use a new sample of respondents for each survey, focusing onthe same topic and allowing the analysis of trends over a period. Periodic surveysare conducted by mail, personal interview and telephone.The disadvantage here could be that when periodic surveys are conducted at knownintervals, they might affect the behavior being measured.
An example of this kind of surveys could be TRPs.
Panel surveys
Panel surveys
, sometimes called
interval panels
, are conducted among a group of respondents who have agreed to respond to a number of mail, telephone or occasionally personal interviews over time. These need not occur regularly. But a
continuous panel
or
panel data
(explained more in panels) refers to a group of individuals who agree to report specified behaviors over time.The advantages of this method areThe research firm initially collects all the personal information about the respondentsand does not waste time again in collecting this information during interviews. Thisincreases the quality of the research data.The response rate can be as high as 70% - 90%.
Shared surveys
Shared surveys
, sometimes referred to as
omnibus surveys
, are administered by aresearch firm and consist of questions supplied by multiple clients. Such surveys caninvolve mail, telephone, or personal interviews. The respondents may be drawn fromeither an interval panel or random selection.The main advantage here is the cost factor.
AUDITS
Audits involve the physical inspection of inventories, sales receipts, shelf facing andother aspects of marketing mix to determine sales, market share, relative price,distribution and other relevant information. The different types of audits are storeaudits, product audits and retail distribution audits.
Store audits
The basis for the
store audit
of retail stores sales is the simple accounting arithmeticof Opening inventory+ Net purchases (receipts-transfers out-returned inventory +transfers in)- Closing inventory= SalesThese audits provide sales data on packaged products. The clients receive report onthe sales of their own brand and of competitor's brands, the resulting market shares,prices, shelf facing and other important information.
Product audits
Product audits
are similar to store audits but focuses on products rather than storesamples. Although they provide similar information as of store audits it differs as in ittries to cover all the types of retail outlets that handle a product category.
Retail distribution audits
Retail distribution audits are similar to store audits however these audits do notmeasure inventory sales: instead they are observational studies at the retail level.Field agents enter stores unannounced and without permission. They observe andrecord the brands present, price, shelf facings and other relevant data for selectedproduct categories.
PANELS
A
panel
is a group of individuals or organizations that have agreed to provideinformation to researcher over a period of time. A
continuous panel
, the focus of thissection, has agreed to report specified behaviors on regular basis. There are 2 typesof panels: retail and consumer, consumer further divided into diary panels andelectronic panels.
Retail panel
In this method data is collected from the checkout scanner tapes of a sample of supermarkets and other retailers that use electronic scanning systems. For this tohappen the product should carry the Universal Product Code (UPC) often referred toas bar code.The
Advantages
of this method are1.Greater frequency2.Elimination of breakage and pilferage being counted as sales3.More accurate price informationThe
Disadvantages
are1.Only big supermarkets have scanners2.The quality of scanner data is dependent on checkout clerk. For e.g. if aperson is buying 5 packets of packaged milk. In that case the clerk may putonly 1 in the scanner and then multiply it by 5. So the rest 4 wont come in thescanner's data.