Chapter 08
Shoppers and consumers
45 terms
Practice by level
Terms
01ShopperNgười mua hàng
Definition
The person who selects and pays for the product at the outlet, who is not necessarily the person who uses it.
Examples
- The city has 2.4 million households, and on average 1.4 people per household do the shopping.
- Of the 22 shopping trips a household makes in a month, 19 are made by the same person.
Easy to get wrong
The shopper and the user are often two different people. A household of 3.6 people may send only 1 person to shop, so the pack has to convince that person while the taste has to satisfy all 3.6.
02ConsumerNgười tiêu dùng
Definition
The person who actually drinks, eats or uses the product, whether or not they do the shopping.
Examples
- A household of 3.6 people buys 10.8 litres of brand A a year, about 3 litres per person a year.
- Of 240 people in a blind test, 156 drink this category at least once a week.
Easy to get wrong
Consumers far outnumber shoppers. With 816,000 households buying brand A, about 2.9 million people actually drink it, so household penetration always reads lower than the share of people who have drunk the brand.
03HouseholdHộ gia đình
Definition
A group of people who live together and shop from one budget, the base unit of purchase behaviour data.
Examples
- The territory holds 2.4 million households, with an average size of 3.6 people.
- Households of 1 to 2 people are 27 percent of all households but only 16 percent of category volume.
Easy to get wrong
The household is the buying unit, not yet the using unit. Two households both buying 10.8 litres a year, one with 2 people and one with 6, differ by 3 times in intake per person.
04Purchase decision makerNgười quyết định mua
Definition
The household member who settles which brand and which pack to buy, who can differ from both the shopper and the user.
Examples
- In 100 category purchases, the shopper picks the brand alone 64 times and follows another member's request 36 times.
- For products aimed at children, a child names the brand first in 42 percent of purchases.
Easy to get wrong
The person who names the brand and the person who pays can be two people. A child names the brand in 42 percent of cases, yet the payer still switches brand when the price passes 10 thousand dong a bottle.
05Shopping tripChuyến đi mua sắm
Definition
One visit by a household to an outlet to buy, measured by number of trips, trip value and items in the basket.
Examples
- A household makes 22 trips a month, 3 to supermarkets and 19 to groceries.
- A supermarket trip averages 385 thousand dong across 14 items, a grocery trip 42 thousand dong across 2.4 items.
Easy to get wrong
Trip count and trip value run in opposite directions across the two channels. The 3 supermarket trips carry 1,155 thousand dong against 798 thousand dong from 19 grocery trips, so 14 percent of trips hold 59 percent of spend.
06Consumption occasionDịp sử dụng
Definition
The specific situation in which the product is used, covering the moment, the place and the people present.
Examples
- The category has 8 main occasions, with family meals at 34 percent of volume and drinking on the move at 22 percent.
- Brand A takes 46 percent of its volume at family meals, 12 percentage points above the category norm.
Easy to get wrong
The occasion decides the pack, not only the flavour. The meal occasion buys a 6 bottle multipack once every 2 weeks while the on the move occasion buys 1 loose bottle, so one brand needs two pack formats.
07Household panelBảng theo dõi hộ gia đình
Definition
A fixed group of households that records every purchase over a long period, used to infer buying behaviour for the whole territory.
Examples
- The panel has 3,000 households standing for the 2.4 million households in the city, a ratio of 1 recording household per 800.
- Each household records 22 shopping trips a month, about 264 trips a year.
Easy to get wrong
A household panel measures what is carried home, not what is drunk on the spot. The on the move purchase is 22 percent of category volume, so panel figures always sit below true volume.
08Household penetrationTỷ lệ hộ mua
Definition
The percentage of households in the territory that bought the brand at least once in the period, usually a year.
Examples
- Brand A has 816,000 buying households out of 2.4 million, a penetration of 34 percent.
- The whole category has 1.872 million buying households, a penetration of 78 percent.
Easy to get wrong
Penetration depends on the length of the period. The same brand A reads 9 percent over a month and 34 percent over a year, so two figures compare only over equal periods.
09Purchase frequencyTần suất mua
Definition
How many times a household buys the brand in the period, counted over buying households only, not over all households.
Examples
- Households that buy brand A buy it 7.2 times a year.
- The same households buy the category 22 times a year.
Easy to get wrong
The denominator holds only buying households. Dividing total purchase acts by all 2.4 million households gives 2.4 times, nearly 3 times below the correct 7.2.
10Volume per tripLượng mua mỗi lần
Definition
How much a household buys of the brand in one purchase act, in litres, kilograms or units.
Examples
- Brand A buyers take 1.5 litres per trip, about 3 bottles of 500 ml.
- Volume per trip is 3 litres in modern trade and 1 litre in general trade.
Easy to get wrong
Volume per trip moves with the channel rather than sitting fixed to the brand. Shifting volume into modern trade lifts volume per trip while household behaviour has not changed.
11Volume per buyerLượng mua bình quân một hộ
Definition
How much of the brand one buying household takes across the whole period, equal to frequency times volume per trip.
Examples
- 7.2 trips a year times 1.5 litres a trip gives 10.8 litres per household a year.
- Across 816,000 buying households, brand A volume is 8.8 million litres a year.
Easy to get wrong
The same 10.8 litres can come from two different routes. Lifting frequency from 7.2 to 9 trips is much harder than lifting volume per trip from 1.5 to 1.9 litres with a larger pack.
12Spend per buyerChi tiêu bình quân một hộ
Definition
How much a household spends on the brand in the period, equal to volume per buyer times the price actually paid.
Examples
- 10.8 litres a year at 19 thousand dong a litre gives 205 thousand dong per household a year.
- For the category, 35.2 litres at 18 thousand dong a litre gives 634 thousand dong a year.
Easy to get wrong
Rising spend does not prove rising volume. If the price paid moves to 20 thousand dong a litre, spend rises to 216 thousand dong while volume stays at 10.8 litres.
13Purchase cycleChu kỳ mua lại
Definition
The average gap in time between two consecutive purchases by the same household.
Examples
- Brand A has a frequency of 7.2 a year, so the purchase cycle is 51 days.
- The category has a frequency of 22 a year, so the cycle is 17 days.
Easy to get wrong
The purchase cycle limits how often promotions can work. Two events 14 days apart fall inside the same 51 day cycle, so the second one sells to households that have just bought.
14Repeat rateTỷ lệ mua lại
Definition
The percentage of households that bought the brand in one period and buy it again in the next.
Examples
- Of households buying brand A in the first half of the year, 61 percent buy again in the second half.
- Small brand B keeps only 38 percent of its buyers.
Easy to get wrong
A low repeat rate is not always a sign of a weak product. Small brands always repeat lower than large brands in the same category, which is a regularity rather than a product fault.
15New buyerNgười mua mới
Definition
A household that buys the brand this period after not buying it in the previous period.
Examples
- Of 816,000 households buying brand A this year, 289,000 did not buy last year, a share of 35 percent.
- Those 289,000 new households bring 3.1 million litres, about 35 percent of brand volume.
Easy to get wrong
New buyers do not equal growth. This year brought 289,000 new households but lost 263,000 old ones, so the buyer base moved only from 790,000 to 816,000.
16Lapsed buyerNgười mua bỏ đi
Definition
A household that bought the brand in the previous period and does not buy it at all in the current one.
Examples
- Brand A had 790,000 buying households last year and 263,000 of them did not buy this year, a share of 33 percent.
- Those 263,000 lapsed households stand for 2.8 million litres at their former buying rate.
Easy to get wrong
Most lapsed households have not switched away for good. With a 51 day purchase cycle, many simply had no buying occasion inside the measured period and return in the next one.
17Brand awarenessNhận biết thương hiệu
Definition
The share of respondents who know the brand, measured both prompted with the name and unprompted.
Examples
- Brand A reaches 71 percent prompted awareness and 38 percent unprompted.
- Leading brand C reaches 88 percent prompted and 62 percent unprompted.
Easy to get wrong
Prompted awareness runs high and separates brands poorly. The 17 point gap between A and C on prompted awareness widens to 24 points unprompted, so the unprompted figure shows which brand really sits in the shopper mind.
18Top of mind awarenessNhận biết đầu tiên
Definition
The share of respondents who name the brand first when asked about the category with no prompt.
Examples
- Brand A is named first by 14 percent of respondents against 31 percent for brand C.
- Out of 1,200 respondents, 168 name brand A first.
Easy to get wrong
Top of mind tracks brand size closely, so one campaign rarely moves it. Taking brand A to 20 percent means many more people naming it first, and that usually arrives with a penetration gain rather than ahead of one.
19Mental availabilityĐộ sẵn có trong tâm trí
Definition
How readily a brand comes to mind across many buying and using situations, not just one.
Examples
- The category has 8 main situations, and brand A comes to mind in 3.2 of them against 5.4 for brand C.
- Brand A is recalled in 62 percent of answers about the meal occasion but only 18 percent about the on the move occasion.
Easy to get wrong
Being widely known and being recalled at the right moment are two different things. Brand A has 71 percent awareness yet enters the mind in only 3.2 of 8 situations, so most buying occasions pass without it being considered.
20Category entry pointCửa ngõ vào ngành hàng
Definition
A specific situation that makes a shopper think of the category, such as a meal, guests at home or a long trip.
Examples
- Research identifies 8 entry points, with family meals at 34 percent of volume and guests at home at 11 percent.
- Brand A holds first place in 2 of the 8 entry points.
Easy to get wrong
Entry points get ranked by volume rather than by how winnable they are. Guests at home is only 11 percent of volume, yet no brand holds more than 20 percent there, so a point of share costs far less than at the meal occasion.
21Consideration setBộ thương hiệu cân nhắc
Definition
The small group of brands a shopper is willing to choose from on a given occasion, usually far smaller than the range on shelf.
Examples
- Shoppers carry 2.7 brands in their consideration set while the supermarket shelf holds 9 brands.
- Brand A sits in the consideration set of 41 percent of category shoppers.
Easy to get wrong
Falling out of the set costs far more than losing one purchase. With only 2.7 brands in the set, losing a place means losing every occasion over the next 51 days rather than a single trip.
22Behavioural loyaltyTrung thành theo hành vi
Definition
Attachment measured by what households actually buy rather than by what they say they feel about a brand.
Examples
- Of 816,000 brand A households, only 57,000 buy brand A alone through the year, a share of 7 percent.
- Brand A households give the brand 26 percent of their category volume.
Easy to get wrong
Sole loyalty barely exists in repeat purchase categories. Only 7 percent of households buy one brand alone, so a plan built on turning buyers into sole users has no ground under it.
23Share of requirementsTỷ trọng trong nhu cầu
Definition
The part of a household category volume that goes to one brand, counted only among households that buy that brand.
Examples
- Brand A households buy 41.2 litres of the category a year and give 10.8 litres to brand A, a share of requirements of 26 percent.
- Brand C reaches 36 percent while small brand B reaches 16 percent.
Easy to get wrong
Share of requirements and market share are different numbers. The base is buyers of the brand only, so a very small brand can still show a high figure if its few households buy it concentratedly.
24Brand switchingChuyển nhãn
Definition
A household buying a different brand in the category from the one it bought last time.
Examples
- Across 100 consecutive household purchases, the brand chosen differs from the previous one 41 times.
- Of the moves away from brand A, 44 percent go to brand C and 12 percent to brand B.
Easy to get wrong
Most switching is rotation inside a familiar set rather than a permanent exit. With 2.7 brands in the set the household returns to brand A on a later trip, and the flow out to a rival usually runs close to the flow back in.
25Planned purchaseMua có kế hoạch
Definition
A purchase where the shopper decided the category or the brand before entering the outlet.
Examples
- In 100 category purchases, 62 have the brand settled before the shopper enters the store.
- Within that planned group, 48 have both brand and pack fixed and 14 have only the category fixed.
Easy to get wrong
Planned does not mean secured. Of those 62 planned purchases, about 6 end on another brand because the shelf is empty or the price tag reads above the level the shopper remembered.
26Impulse purchaseMua ngẫu hứng
Definition
A purchase formed inside the store that was not intended before the trip.
Examples
- In a supermarket basket of 14 items, about 3 are impulse, a share of 21 percent.
- In general trade with a basket of 2.4 items, the share falls to 8 percent.
Easy to get wrong
Impulse does not mean without reason. Most of those 3 items sit in categories the household already uses, so the opportunity is a well timed reminder rather than a new need.
27Shopper decision treeCây quyết định của người mua
Definition
The order in which a shopper narrows choices at the shelf, for example occasion first, then pack, then brand, then flavour.
Examples
- Research shows 71 percent of shoppers settle the pack before the brand.
- Only 12 percent settle the flavour first.
Easy to get wrong
The decision tree drives shelf layout, not only shopper understanding. If 71 percent settle pack first while the shelf is arranged by brand, shoppers walk back and forth and some give up after 12 seconds.
28Dwell timeThời gian dừng trước kệ
Definition
How long a shopper stands at the category bay before taking a product or walking away.
Examples
- Average dwell time is 12 seconds, with 76 percent of shoppers under 15 seconds.
- In those 12 seconds a shopper looks at about 3.4 items out of the 9 on display.
Easy to get wrong
Longer dwell is not always better. Dwell rising from 12 to 20 seconds usually means shoppers cannot find the item they know, and the walk away rate rises with it.
29Out of stock responsePhản ứng khi hết hàng
Definition
What a shopper does when the item they intended to buy is missing from the shelf.
Examples
- In 100 out of stock encounters, 31 move to another pack of the same brand and 38 buy a different brand.
- 18 postpone or go to another outlet and 13 drop the purchase for that occasion.
Easy to get wrong
Only 13 in 100 are lost to the category, but 38 are lost to the brand. A shopper who tries a rival during a gap may keep that brand next time, so the damage runs past the occasion in question.
30Internal reference priceGiá tham chiếu trong tâm trí
Definition
The price a shopper remembers and uses as the benchmark for judging whether the price on display is cheap or expensive.
Examples
- Brand A shoppers remember 9.5 thousand dong for a 500 ml bottle.
- Shown a tag of 10.5 thousand dong, 44 percent of shoppers call it expensive.
Easy to get wrong
The reference forms from the price most recently seen. A 2 week cut to 8.5 thousand dong pulls the benchmark down, so the return to 9.5 thousand dong is read as a price increase.
31Price knowledgeMức nhận biết giá
Definition
The share of shoppers who can state the correct price of the item they have just bought, within a given tolerance.
Examples
- 41 percent of shoppers state a price within 10 percent of the 9.5 thousand dong level.
- 23 percent cannot give any figure at all.
Easy to get wrong
Weak price knowledge does not mean price does not matter. Shoppers still react sharply once the price passes the 10 thousand dong mark, because what they hold is the familiar threshold rather than the exact figure.
32Shopping basketGiỏ hàng
Definition
The set of items a shopper brings to the checkout on one trip, measured by item count and value.
Examples
- A supermarket basket averages 14 items and 385 thousand dong, about 27.5 thousand dong an item.
- A grocery basket averages 2.4 items and 42 thousand dong, about 17.5 thousand dong an item.
Easy to get wrong
This category is a small part of the basket. At 9.5 thousand dong a bottle and 3 bottles a trip, brand A is 7.4 percent of supermarket basket value, so shoppers decide fast and compare little.
33Qualitative researchNghiên cứu định tính
Definition
Research with a small number of people to understand reasons and thinking, with results that do not generalise to the whole market.
Examples
- One wave runs 6 group discussions of 8 people each, 48 people in total, at a cost of 240 million dong.
- The wave takes 3 weeks, about 3 weeks shorter than a quantitative wave.
Easy to get wrong
Qualitative results must not be read as percentages. Saying 6 of 48 people liked the new pack and calling it 12.5 percent of the market is wrong, since 48 people do not stand for 2.4 million households.
34Quantitative researchNghiên cứu định lượng
Definition
Research on a sample large enough and drawn by rule, which allows results to be generalised to the population with a stated error.
Examples
- A wave of 1,200 interviews gives a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points at 95 percent confidence.
- The wave runs 6 weeks at a cost of 420 million dong.
Easy to get wrong
A large sample does not fix a biased one. Interviewing 1,200 people only outside supermarkets misses most of the 19 grocery trips a household makes each month, and the reported margin of error says nothing about that bias.
35Focus groupThảo luận nhóm
Definition
A moderated discussion among a small group of consumers to hear how they talk about the category and the product.
Examples
- Each group has 8 people for 90 minutes, with 2 groups per city across 3 cities.
- One group costs 40 million dong including recruitment and a 500 thousand dong thank you gift per person.
Easy to get wrong
In a group of 8, one or two vocal people can pull the rest along. The moderator has to ask each person separately at the key points, otherwise the output reflects 2 people rather than 8.
36Usage and attitude studyKhảo sát thói quen và thái độ
Definition
A large quantitative survey describing what consumers use, how they use it and what they think about the category.
Examples
- One wave interviews 1,500 people with a 45 minute questionnaire.
- The study runs every 2 to 3 years because habits move slowly.
Easy to get wrong
What people say and what they do pull apart. In the survey, 68 percent say they would buy the 1.5 litre pack, while household data shows only 22 percent actually bought it during the year.
37Blind testThử mù
Definition
A product test where participants do not see the brand, used to separate perceived quality from the pull of the name.
Examples
- Among 240 blind testers, 54 percent prefer the brand A product and 46 percent prefer brand C.
- With brands revealed, the same group splits 39 percent for A and 61 percent for C.
Easy to get wrong
Winning blind does not turn into volume on its own. The move from 54 to 39 percent shows the name is driving choice, so the work is brand building rather than another reformulation.
38Sample sizeCỡ mẫu
Definition
The number of people or households questioned in a wave, which sets how precise the result can be.
Examples
- A sample of 1,200 gives a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points, while 300 gives 5.7 points.
- Halving the margin of error requires 4 times the sample.
Easy to get wrong
The sample has to be large enough for every group read separately, not only for the total. Splitting 1,200 people into 4 age groups leaves 300 each and lifts the group error to 5.7 percentage points.
39Margin of errorSai số chọn mẫu
Definition
The range around a measured figure that comes from questioning a sample instead of the whole population.
Examples
- With 3,000 households, penetration of 34 percent carries a margin of error of 1.7 percentage points, a range of 32.3 to 35.7 percent.
- The next period reads 35.2 percent, which still sits inside that range.
Easy to get wrong
Two figures inside the same error range are not yet a real change. Reporting a move from 34 to 35.2 percent as growth is reading sampling noise as a result.
40Double jeopardy lawQuy luật thiệt kép
Definition
The regularity by which a smaller brand has both fewer buying households and lower purchase frequency from each of them, losing twice.
Examples
- Brand C has 52 percent penetration and 9.4 purchases a year, brand A has 34 percent and 7.2, brand B has 11 percent and 4.6.
- Share of requirements follows the same order at 36, 26 and 16 percent.
Easy to get wrong
The low frequency of a small brand is not a fault of the product or of its buyers. The pattern repeats across every repeat purchase category, so the only route to higher frequency is a larger brand first.
41Light buyerNgười mua nhẹ
Definition
Households that buy the brand very few times in the period, often only once or twice a year.
Examples
- 408,000 households are light buyers, 50 percent of brand A buyers, at 3.2 litres each a year.
- The group contributes 1.3 million litres, about 15 percent of brand volume.
Easy to get wrong
Light buyers get overlooked because each one buys little, yet they are the largest group and the source of penetration gains. Dropping them means giving up 15 percent of current volume and most of the room to grow.
42Heavy buyerNgười mua nặng
Definition
Households that buy the brand most often and in the largest volume during the period.
Examples
- 163,000 households are heavy buyers, 20 percent of brand A buyers, at 28.1 litres each a year.
- The group contributes 4.6 million litres, about 52 percent of brand volume.
Easy to get wrong
Heavy buyers sit close to their ceiling and are hard to grow. Lifting 28.1 litres to 33 asks a household to use more than it needs, while moving light buyers from 3.2 to 4.5 litres is far easier and that group is 2.5 times larger.
43Buyer skewPhân bố lệch của người mua
Definition
The uneven way brand volume spreads across buying households, with a large part sitting in a small heavy group.
Examples
- The heaviest 20 percent of households hold 52 percent of volume, the next 30 percent hold 33 percent and the remaining 50 percent hold 15 percent.
- The three groups buy 28.1, 11.9 and 3.2 litres per household a year.
Easy to get wrong
The skew is often repeated as 20 percent of households making 80 percent of volume. The measured figure is 52 percent, so a plan aimed only at heavy buyers ignores nearly half of current volume.
44Regression to the meanHồi quy về mức trung bình
Definition
The tendency for households that bought unusually much in one period to buy less in the next, and for the lightest to buy more, with no action taken.
Examples
- Of the 163,000 heavy households this year, only 92,000 remain heavy next year, a rate of 56 percent.
- Average volume for this year heavy group falls from 28.1 to 22.4 litres, while the light group rises from 3.2 to 4.6 litres.
Easy to get wrong
The effect distorts the evaluation of any programme aimed at one group. Measuring light buyers before and after shows a rise from 3.2 to 4.6 litres, and most of that appears with no programme at all.
45Penetration led growthTăng trưởng nhờ mở rộng người mua
Definition
Growing volume by adding buying households rather than pushing existing households to buy more.
Examples
- Moving volume from 8.8 to 9.7 million litres needs about 83,000 more buying households, taking penetration from 34 to 37.5 percent.
- The other route is lifting frequency from 7.2 to 7.9 a year across all 816,000 households.
Easy to get wrong
Both routes reach the same number and differ in difficulty. Frequency is held down by double jeopardy and by the 51 day cycle, while the 1.056 million households buying the category without buying brand A remain untouched.