What are purchase panels and media panels? Develop examples of marketing situations where you would use each. Be sure to explain the type of information you would collect and the makeup of the panel respondents

What will be an ideal response?

In purchase panels respondents record their purchases online or in a diary. Media panels comprise samples of respondents whose television viewing behavior is automatically recorded by electronic devices supplementing the purchase information recorded online or in a diary.

Students should give their own examples. Completer information on the NPD Group and Nielsen Media Research examples given here are in the text.

NPD uses purchase panels to gather information on consumer behaviors on a wide range of product categories including food, fashion, fun, house and home, tech, and auto. Detailed information is gathered on the brand, amount purchased, price paid, intended use, and more. The composition of the panel is representative of the U.S. population as a whole. A 2005 study identified the top 5 women's accessory purchases.

Nielsen Media Research uses People Meters to measure audiences for local television 4 times a year in the 210 TV markets in the country. Viewers write in diaries who watched, what channel they watched, and what program they watched. Five thousand households are randomly selected by Nielsen so as to be representative of the U.S. population. Using these data, Nielsen estimates the number and percentage of all TV household viewing a given show. The information is disaggregated by 10 demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The Nielsen Index is useful to firms in selecting specific TV programs on which to air their commercials.