Nielsen looks at consumer behavior; SCANTRACK data released

Drug Store News, March 5, 1990

Nielsen looks at consumer behavior

Nielsen Marketing Research in January marked the first anniversary of its SCANTRACK National Household Electronic Panel, a service that electronically measures consumer purchasing behavior across the country.

The Nielsen panel encompasses 15,000 households in 1,140 counties. The size of the sample means the information gathered is projectable on both a national and regional basis.

In the first year of data collection the Nielsen research service recorded information on more than 1 million shopping trips, 41 percent of which took place in nonfoods outlets, such as drug stores.

The information on purchasing behavior is recorded by household panel members themselves. After every shopping trip, the person who made the purchases uses a handheld electronic device with a wand scanner to record information such as the name of the store, items purchased, price of the items, age and sex of the shopper, and other variables. The identity of each purchase is recorded by passing the wand over the UPC bar code on the package. Once a week the information is transmitted electronically via telephone to Nielsen.

Of the 15,000 households, 5,000 in 23 major markets are metered for television viewing, which allows Nielsen to measure the impact of TV advertising on brand choice.

The charts on this page are drawn from a year's worth of data from its SCANTRACK service.

Table : Drug store shopping for selected product categories

                 % of            % of
            shopping trips   dollars spent
Monday           14.0%           13.7%
Tuesday          13.7            13.1
Wednesday        14.1            13.8
Thursday         15.1            14.6
Friday           15.1            15.1
Saturday         16.8            17.8
Sunday            11.1           11.8

Source: Nielsen Marketing Research

Table : Percentage of dollars spent

                    All       Drug
                    outlets   stores   Index

Occupation

Professional         32.9%     32.8%     100
White collar         11.8      13.4      114
Blue collar          31.2      24.6       79
Not in work force    24.1      29.2      121

Female employment

Employed             53.8%     52.0%      97
Full-time            37.3      38.3      103
Part-time            16.6      13.6       82
Not employed         40.2      40.7      101

Source: Nielsen Marketing Research

Table : Regional: Drug store customers & dollars spent

Census    % of U.S.    % of drug store       Index
region    households   Buyers   Dollars   Buyers     $
North       21.1%      21.8%    21.0%     103      100
Central     24.7       23.3     24.3       94       98
South       34.3        34.7     28.1      101       82
West        19.8       20.2     26.6      102      134

Source: Nielsen Marketing Research

Table : Percentage of dollars spent

                        All      Drug
                      outlets   stores    Index
All buyers             100.0%    100.0%

Household size

1                       15.5%     20.9%     139
2                       30.4      36.2      119
3-4                     39.6      33.3       84
5+                      14.9       9.6       64

Income

> $2K                   15.9%     17.3%     109
$12-25                  26.4      27.7      105
$25-40                  23.9      22.7       95
$40K+                   33.7      32.3       96

Age of homemaker

> 35                    30.1%     24.9%      83
35-44                   25.6      24.0       94
45-54                   15.9      15.1       95
55-64                   13.9      16.8      121
65+                      8.5      11.9      140

Presence of children

None > 18               54.4%     65.6%     121
Any > 18                45.6      34.4       75
Any > 6                 20.0      13.8       69
Any 6-12                25.7      18.2       71
Any 13-17               17.9      14.1       79

Source: Nielsen Marketing Research

Table : Items and dollars per shopping trip

                  Items* per   Dollars per
                  shopping     Dollars per   shopping
                  trip         item          trip
All outlets       12.1         $1.55         $18.70
Drug stores        4.9          2.12          10.40
Grocery stores    15.9          1.29          20.50
Discount stores    7.1         2.58           18.30

(*)UPC-coded items only Source: Nielsen Marketing Research

Table : Distribution of drug store dollars spent: Selected product categories

               Total            Census region
                U.S.   North   Central   South   West
Dry grocery     13%     12%      14%      11%     16%
Frozen foods     1       *        1        1       1
Dairy            1       *        1        1       1
Beverages       15       6       17       16      18
Household       13      11       13       12      15
H&BAs           57      70       54       59      48
Pet foods        1       1        1        *       3

(*)less than 1 percent Source: Nielsen Marketing Research