In a letter to clients, including top consumer goods firms, Nielsen said it expects an impact on data granularity and delivery schedule and will initiate syndicated surveys, including a specific study on the influence of Covid-19 on consumer behaviour in many markets, including India.
“In line with the government enforced lockdown in over 548 districts, effective from March 23, and in line with the curfew, we are stopping face-to-face field work till March 31,” said Nielsen’s letter to companies, adding they will resume work when some degree of normalcy sets in. “We are aligned with other market research companies on this action. On a case-by-case basis, Nielsen India will be in touch with each client to suggest next steps towards migration or adoption of online or computer-assisted telephone interviewing methodologies.”
Email query sent to Nielsen India remained unanswered till as of press time.
The US-headquartered market researcher collects electronic point of sale (POS) data from stores through checkout scanners. It also uses field auditors to collect sales data through in-store inventory and price checks in some markets and channels, especially kirana stores. For the consumer goods sector, there is still a gap between their actual sales performance and Nielsen’s estimates.
