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Advanced Business Solutions

Efficiency gained through linking analysis

Advanced Business Solutions (ABS) introduces itself

Scarcity of raw materials leads to price augmentation, production and logistics costs are increasing due to the expensive boom of energy and consumers are looking for a way out of the acute wage-price spiral. Given the huge market complexity, the fast and deep structural changes and the complexity of consumers

Advanced Business Solutions (ABS), a division of GfK Panel Services, supports producers of consumer goods to solve the above task with flexible instruments, constant innovations and fact based consultancy.  Surely a high ambition but a must in nowadays: only the linkage of all the business processes from production, sales and marketing to an efficient customer management will assure the creation of value in saturated markets with both, quality oriented and price sensitive consumers.

Target Group Management

Profiling of buyers and user target groups

Globalization and individualization, increasing working flexibility and mobility of consumers have a lasting effect on the target groups of the consumer goods industry. While 20 years ago gender, income and consumer behaviour allowed to predict lifestyle and buying behaviours, today it is essential to combine living circumstances and lifestyle, moral concepts and attitudes to a complex consumer insight in order to identify the drivers of consumer behaviour.

Relevant questions, to which GfK Target Group Management gives answers, are among the others:

• Which relevant target buying groups exist in a market?
• What are the potential target groups of a brand?
• Who buys/consumes/uses a brand?

The above will be answered by the following analysis:

• GfK Market Mapping Analysis (Buying target group)
• GfK Target Group Profiler (Potential target groups)
• GfK Consumption Insight (Link of the buyer- and the user profils as well as consumption patterns
  

Price-Promotion-Management

Optimization of price positioning and POS actions

 How important - and difficult - good price positioning and demand management through promotions are, became clear in the last years; for example with the introduction of the euro, with the increase of the VAT and with the actual price round of the food sector.

How customers and particularly marketing target groups react on, is the aim of Price Promotion Management analysis which gives answers to the following up questions:

• Which is the optimal Marketing Mix scenario in order to maximize the Return of Investment (ROI)?
• How do different target group react on price changes?
• How sustainable are promotions?

The following is an outline of the most important analysis on Price-Promotion-Management:

• Price Performance Planner (Price flexibility and Marketing Mix scenario)
• Promo*Evaluator (Sustainability of promotions)
• Traffic Impact Analysis (Shopper Traffic by promotions)
• Price Image Driver (Brands as drivers for the price image of retailers)

Shopper Management

Potentials at the POS

How does a shopper become a regular customer of an account - that is the key question for retailers. The GfK Shopper Management helps to align assortments of the specific needs of the customers and assists producers and retailers in promotion planning.

Relevant questions, which GfK Shopper Management answers, are among others:

• Where are future potentials for retailers and how can the fulfilment of the demand and the turnover of the actual shoppers be Increased?
• Which promotions create shopper traffic?
• What is the decision process of buyers at the shelf? - Do they find the product they are looking for?

These questions can be answered by the following analysis:

• GfK Shopper@POS (potentials for retailers)
• GfK Discounter Listing Assessment (assessment of brand listing in discounters)
• GfK Cash Bill Analysis (Optimization of (cross) promotions via cash bill composition analysis including regular price share per bill)
• GfK Consumer Decision Hierarchy (Shelf optimization based on buying patterns)

Media Management

Media planning and advertising impact

Reaching consumers through advertisement gets more and more difficult. GfK does not only analyse why, but as well, what can be done. For example, some of the relevant questions are:

• How effective was a Media campaign (TV, Print, Internet)? Which synergy-effects arose as a result of a cross-medial campaign?
• What is the Return on Investment (ROI) from a media campaign?
• Through which media channels the marketing target group can be reached?

Following an outline of the most important analysis:

• Marketing Mix Evaluator (assessment and optimization of the Marketing -Mix including media campaigns)
• Cross Media Selector (media preferences/ strategic media planning for target groups)
• TV Optimizer for Markets (t.o.m.) (tactical TV-planning, compatible with media agency systems)

 

In July 2008 GfK Panel Services started the Web Efficiency Panel (WEP), with the purpose to show for the first time detailed information about the effect of online-promotions. The world-wide unique method of data collection enables advertisers, promoters and agencies, to relate the purchases of Fast Moving Goods with their online-promotion campaigns. Thus the effect of internet promotions will finally get transparent. Moreover the marketing campaigns can be evaluated cross-medially, as additionally to Internet behaviour TV-, Print- and Radio behaviour is also available in the GfK consumer panels.