The consumer survey is a survey questionnaire administered to 3,000 individuals during the simulated period. It gives product awareness, purchase intentions and shopping habit data for each consumer segment in the market.
The product awareness figures represent the proportion of individuals who have unaided recall of a product name. This is obtained by asking respondents a question such as: “What Sonite products do you know?” and allowing them to list several products. The report gives the information for each product currently on the market in total and by consumer segment. See Figure 16 for a sample graph showing average awareness figures.
Figure 16 – Market Research – Consumer Survey – Average Awareness
The purchase intentions figures represent the proportion of individuals who would select a product as their first choice, if they were buying within a year. This is obtained by asking respondents a question such as: “Do you intend to purchase a Vodite product this period?” If the response is yes, then respondents are asked to indicate the product of their choice. The report gives the information for each product currently on the market in total and by consumer segment. See Figure 17 for a sample chart. Please note that these figures correspond to the period when the study is done and does not necessarily represent purchase intentions for the following year.
Two points require additional explanations. First, awareness is factored in purchase intentions. Indeed, if respondents are not aware of a specific product they will not list this product as the product of their first choice. Second, purchase intentions are normalized to sum up to 100%. This facilitates the comparison between purchase intentions and market shares but it may produce purchase intentions figures that are higher than awareness figures. A typical example is the launch of the first Vodite product: even if this product is known by only a few passionate innovators it will have 100% purchase intentions if it is the only one on the market.
Figure 17 – Market Research – Consumer Survey – Purchase intentions by segment
The shopping habit data represent, for each of the three channels, the proportion of individuals who would choose that channel when shopping for a Sonite or a Vodite product. See Figure 18 for a sample graph.
Figure 18 – Market Research – Consumer Survey – Shopping habits