Kantar Worldpanel
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| Type | Wholly owned subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Market Research |
| Founded | 1997 as part of TNS. Rebranded from TNS Worldpanel in 2010 |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Key people | Josep Monserrat, Tim Kidd, Pascal Avignon, Luis Simoes, Michelle Carter, Sonia Bueno, Marcy Kou, Paul Tong, Andrew Fowler, Ian Dunkley |
Kantar Worldpanel (formerly TNS Worldpanel) is an international company leader in consumer knowledge and insights based on continuous consumer panels. Kantar Worldpanel is part of the Kantar Group the Market Research, Information and Consultancy Division of WPP.
Through market monitoring, advanced analytics and tailored market research solutions, Kantar Worldpanel analyses what people buy, what they consume and the attitudes behind this behaviour. Their clients include brand owners, private label manufacturers, Meat, Fruit and Vegetable suppliers, retailers, market analysts and government organisations.
Kantar Worldpanel has a team of 3.000 and services covering more than 50 countries with direct ownership or through partners. They work in fields such as FMCG, impulse products, beauty and personal care, fashion, baby, telecommunications and entertainment.
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[edit] Consumer Panels
- Consumer Panels are a research technique for measuring markets that use the same sample of respondents on a continuous basis. This research technique benefits from a number of very special features to be the most efficient way to measure markets and behaviours accurately.
- Using large sample sizes with the same respondents over time gives the best possible quality of consumer panel information and data, in both absolute terms and in trend.
- Because the information is collected on an ongoing basis, the panellists do not need to use recall to remember their behaviour.
- As the sample is fixed, any change in behaviour from one period to the next is picked up as precisely as possible.
- A range of information to supplement the fundamentals of purchasing and usage is also picked up from the sample. These allow exploration of the attitudes behind the behaviours measured, and the response to the influences on them from various marketing activities.
- It is possible to measure both the purchasing behaviour and the subsequent usage patterns. The combination of both data provides even greater insights for the users.
The right methodology for the task is vital. Panel members need to be able to accurately collect and record the information required, but in a way which is simple and easy to maintain their motivation on an ongoing basis. Depending on the market, a variety of approaches including in-home bar code scanning, till receipt harvesting, SMS and web-based methods can be used to help the panellist to do their work as conveniently as possible.
Once the data has been collected, it is collated into a database. Each service has a regular set of metrics that are used to monitor the performance of a market and the products within it. These include:
- Sales and shares (in volume and value)
- Price
- Penetration (proportion of people buying)
- Weight of purchase (how much each buyer buys)
- Loyalty (the proportion of brands buyers purchasing that the brand itself accounts for)
- Repeat rate (what proportion of the buyers of a brand buy more than once?)
- Frequency of purchase (how often bought)
Frequently, further analyses that consider a specific element of the information and insights in depth can be developed:
- Brand switching
- Demographic analysis
- Trial and repeat analysis
- Repertoire analysis
- Heavy/Medium/Light buyers
- New/Lost/Repeat buyers
[edit] History
Kantar Worldpanel’s first panels were founded in the 40’s in companies like Attwood Statistics Limited in the UK (1948) and Secodis in France (1969). The latter soon started to expand their coverage, firstly to Spain in 1973 and afterwards to Portugal in 1989.
In the 70’s and the 80’s, other companies also started creating new panels. In 1976 Taylor Nelson launched the first usage panel for food and drinks in the UK. In 1980 NFO created a usage panel for beverages in the United States. And in 1985, IBOPE launched a consumer panel in Brazil (1985).
In the 90’s the consolidation and development of the consumer panels network accelerated. In the UK, AGB and Taylor Nelson merged to create Taylor Nelson AGB in 1991, so bringing purchase and usage panels into the same company. In France, Sofres acquired Secodip in 1992 and soon started planning the development of new consumer panels in Asia and Latin America. Both groups came together in 1997 when Taylor Nelson AGB and Sofres merged to create Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS). All consumer panels were then taken into a specific division that in 2003 started using the TNS Worldpanel brand.
At the same time that all these corporate movements were taking place, the network expanded across different regions. In Asia, between 1997 and 2002, six new consumer panels were developed and launched successfully using the Frank Small Associates’ network that Secodip had bought in 1995. The first launch took place in Taiwan in 1997. Two years after, in 1999, Korea and Thailand were added to the network, and Philippines and Malaysia then joined in 2000 followed by Vietnam in 2002. Meanwhile, In China, TNS began a partnership in 1999 with local research company CVSC, who had started a panel two years earlier. In 2001, TNS and the parent company of CVSC formed a new joint venture company called CTR (CVSC TNS Research) and the consumer panel in China joined the Worldpanel network.
In Latin America, after the first Secodip panel launch in Argentina in 1996, a partnership between IBOPE and NDP launched another new panel in Chile in 1998. In 2000, IBOPE, NPD and TNS created the LatinPanel joint venture, a name given to represent the existing Brazil, Argentina and Chile operations. The acquisition of Samimp adds the existing panels in Peru and Bolivia to LatinPanel in 2002. In 2004 TNS acquired two additional companies, Data in Central America and CIMA in Colombia and Venezuela bringing their consumer panels into the regional network. Finally, Ecuador and Mexico panels are also built and launched in 2004 and 2005 respectively, consolidating LatinPanel business in the region. In 2007 TNS became owner of LatinPanel to bring together the Latin American network with Worldpanel in other regions.
In North America, as a result of the Taylor Nelson Sofres acquisition of NFO in 2003, the beverages usage panel is incorporated to the group. In 2006, TNS Worldpanel reinforced its presence in the US with a new personal care usage panel.
In 2008 TNS is bought by WPP, which resulted in the strategic decision to create a stand alone company 100% focused on consumer panels and branded Kantar Worldpanel.
At the same time that the company built its international coverage, other kinds of developments were deployed through the network. The initial focus in FMCG is soon widened to increase the number of sectors covered. Now Kantar Worldpanel measures fashion, telecommunications, entertainment and fuel among other products. The range of methodologies has also been transformed form traditional mail questionnaires to a wider range to meet the demands for every market including bar-code scanners, internet and SMS. And recently, the company has developed its first international panel (Worldpanel Comtech in 2006) and the new leading edge delivery tool Worldpanel Online (2010).
[edit] Around the World
Kantar Worldpanel offers consumer panels services in more than 50 countries through its own offices and partnerships such as Europanel. Kantar Worldpanel is able to monitor and to analyse markets covering 96% coverage of GDP in Latin America, 92% in Europe and 78% in Asia Pacific.
[edit] Market sectors
Kantar Worldpanel offer consumer panels in a wide range of market sectors
- FMCG & Beauty– Categories sold by a typical grocer, including ambient, chilled, frozen and fresh food, household products, health and personal items, soft and alcoholic drinks and confectionery. Specialist panels increase focus on delivering insight in baby care markets.
- Fashion – Women’s, men’s and children’s clothes now represent a substantial part of any home’s expenditure.
- Telecommunications – Handsets and airtime are one of the most dynamic and fastest growing categories, with the continued and accelerating convergence of phone, web and media applications.
- Entertainment – Video (DVD and Blu-ray) sale and rental, computer games, music (digital and physical), cinema, books, and digital downloading and pay per view of films.
- Fuel – Using samples of motorists, Kantar Worldpanel measures fuel and other categories sold by petrol retailers.
[edit] Taking decisions using Consumer Panels information
- Although the tracking data types are essential, consumer panel clients put as much emphasis on the deeper insights that can come from it. And consumer Panel insights can help the market players strategically and tactically in several ways:
- Segmentation – Build a detailed picture of the segments that will drive greatest success and how to motivate them, based on what people do and think.
- Price elasticity – Understand how far the brand can stretch the pricing and the tipping point for more sales.
- Promotional effectiveness – Do all of the mechanics used work? What combination is best?
- Brand equity and advertising – There are many steps from first becoming aware of a product to ultimately becoming a loyal brand buyer and user. Consumer Panels can provide deeper understanding of the brand equity and communications, to give you more chance of success at each and every step of the customers’ journey.
- Attitudes – Understand the why behind the what, by engaging with the very same respondents who have actually bought and used the products in question to continuously measure both behaviour and attitudes.
- Decision hierarchies – Explore precisely the factors the consumers consider when making their purchase decisions and how influence them by giving them the best product mix to choose from.
- Shopper and Retail tools – to improve the category management, by understanding the reason for a shopping trip, and the shopping basket context of what is being bought.
