Understanding Consumer Purchase Behavior

What criteria drives consumers to make purchase decisions and how important are these criteria? Market Structure analysis unravels the competitive dynamics of a category by identifying the product attributes that drive consumer purchases. ACNielsen Modeling & Analytics can enhance your understanding of the product attributes consumers value most and the competitive products in their shopping baskets.

Key Questions Addressed

Market Structure analysis can be used to address the following questions:

• Which product attributes do consumers value most and how important is one attribute relative to another?
• With which brands do I most closely compete?
• Are there new product or line extension opportunities in the category?
• What is an appropriate shelf alignment for this category given consumer preferences?

Target Audience

The target audience is Brand Management, Category Management, Retail Merchandising, Sales and Market Research.

• Brand Management Applications: Understand the competitive landscape and identify new product opportunities.
• Category Management, Sales and Retail Management Applications: Understand the hierarchy of product attribute importance for use in developing shelf sets and key determinants of product assortment which appeal to consumers based on their shopping behavior.
• Research Applications: Understand how consumers perceive brands and make product choices and how purchase behaviors align with attitudinal research.

Key Benefits

• Understand how consumers define categories.
• Pinpoint the product attributes consumers value most.
• Determine which competitive products consumers buy.
• Identify sub-categories within the category.
• Locate gaps in product offerings.

Project Content

Market Structure analysis is based on recorded household purchases from consumer panel data (what consumers actually buy). This can be from ACNielsen Homescan, Retail Account Frequent Shopper, or other sources. Modeling techniques allow differentiation across retail accounts, custom regions, consumer groups, or Total US.

Market Structure is frequently accompanied by Preference Segmentation in order to better understand the actual consumers and households that share similar purchase patterns.

Delivery Options

Market Structure delivers a delineated structural tree of the category including importance measures of all significant product attributes. Analyses are accompanied by professional consultation and recommendations.

Modeling & Analytics provides actionable business recommendations founded upon well-supported advanced analytical techniques and modeling. Capitalizing on over 10 years of experience using proven methodologies and fueled by household purchasing data, Market Structure will:

• Identify and quantify the importance of product attributes to the category.
• Evaluate consumer's entire purchase portfolio, not just transaction-to-transaction switching patterns.
• Define the attribute hierarchy that drives household purchases.
• Pinpoint potential duplication and product gap issues by examining consumer purchasing and competitive offerings.

Market Structure

Market Structure analysis provides an appropriate frame of reference for evaluating the competitive marketplace. It can be integrated with other modeling capabilities such as Preference Segmentation, Assortment, Space Management and Merchandising (Spaceman®) and Marketing Mix.

Modeling & Analytics provides a comprehensive view of the current marketplace, from consumer to shelf, with actionable recommendations to make your business more profitable.

What VNU Data Types and Sources Can Be Integrated with this Offering?

Homescan