Trade Panels

In most common literature panels are referred to be as a part of primary observant tracking methods which describe aspects of market development in a complex way. Panels observe a constant circumstance over a longer period of time within a constant circle of testing units, e.g. households, stores, persons, companies, etc. in the same manner. Because of these repeated single researches it is possible to show market changes over time and gain a growing basis for prognoses 3. Furthermore panels try to continue researches with possibly the same sample because an identical replacement of one sample is as a cause of the collected data’s high multiplicity almost impossible. 4

According to different demands by companies or other bodies, marketing research institutes have developed different types of panels over time.

Basically panels can be divided into the following main categories: Trade panels (wholesale - and retail – panels)5, consumer panels (household -, individual- and bulk buyer – panel), scannerpanels (which are mostly connected to trade or consumer panels), advertisement panels, integrated panels (Panel System Research, Nielsen Single Source), TV – panels, micro test markets (Telerim, GfK – BehaviorScan, etc.), pharma panels, special panels (MM – industry panel), international panels and other panels (Doctors – panel, packaging – panel, etc.). 6