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Posits the question: are marketing executives too ready to accept consumer panel data without thinking to question their validity or usefulness? Asks also whether consumer panels are to play an increasingly important role in the future? States that as industry becomes more cost‐benefit conscious, so marketing activities will undoubtedly come under close scrutiny. Maintains that changing information needs will dictate some reorientation of the traditional marketing research functions. Discusses also the problems with regard to operating panels, these are argued and the significant difficulties isolated. Concludes that it seems likely that in the case of panels for recording household goods purchases the move will be towards more involvement of research staff in the information recording processes.

Claims that many supposed disadvantages regarding the inadequacies of consumer panels as research tools may not exist and, in some circumstances, may prove to be superior to the normal interview. Posits further research may aid in supporting panel techniques. Puts forward a framework for classifying panels and explains this in depth. Concludes that the subject requires further research on it, as it is not unlikely that even the present disadvantages of panel operations will greatly diminish in importance.

The paper seeks to examine the role of consumer representation in communications policymaking with a focus on the UK. It aims to review the role of the Communications Consumer Panel and to argue that there is an important role to play for a consumer advocate due to behavioural biases, information overload, and market failure.

The paper is based on analysis of all relevant reports and documentation published by the Ofcom Consumer Panel, as well as participant observation carried out by the author as a member of the panel. It also analyses switching data to make the case that the communications sector may be unique in terms of the low levels of switching between suppliers.

The paper finds that there is an ongoing role for a consumer advocate in media and communications and that this body should be independent of government and the regulatory agency.

The limitation of this research is that it focuses principally on only one sector, though it does reference a literature that covers other sectors, and in a paper of this length full comparison of other sectors would be impossible.

The paper suggests that the communications sector would be well served by its own separate consumer representation body and that this should have close links to, but be independent of, Ofcom.

This paper has relevance to consumer representation in communications regulation and policy in countries beyond the UK. It examines the peculiarity of the communications market and the particular difficulties consumers face in fast moving technically challenging markets.

The paper examines a particularly important sector of consumer representation at a time when policy on a new regulatory structure is being set. It offers the perspective of a researcher who has also been a member of the Consumer panel, and, as such, it provides valuable insight at a crucial time.

This study sets out to explore how consumers evaluate unbranded and unlabelled food products and to what extent they are able to select the products with the highest potential to meet their expectations regarding eating quality.

The study focused on Portuguese consumers and their purchase of bacalhau, i.e. salted and dried cod, which is sold unpacked, unbranded and unlabelled in supermarkets. The collection of data encompassed observations of shoppers in supermarkets, individual interviews and focus groups with consumers, and a consumer panel that conducted quality assessments and rankings of nine different bacalhaus and subsequent taste assessments of the same products following desalting and cooking.

Results indicate that Portuguese consumers – in spite of substantial experience with buying, preparing and consuming bacalhau – are uncertain in their in‐store quality assessment. Shoppers used multiple criteria to assess the quality of the bacalhau, such as the appearance and dryness of the product. Some rather curious quality criteria that were not related to “objective” product quality were also discerned. Touching the dried and salted cod trying to “feel” the quality was common. Some even broke the fish tail to assess the dryness. Findings from the consumer panel showed large discrepancies between how the same products were assessed before and after desalting and cooking.

The study is limited to one food product and one national market. Marketing implications, such as focus on packaging, quality labelling, and branding are discussed, as well as implications for future research.

The paper shows that although unlabelled and unbranded food products are common, relatively little research addressing how consumers assess such products in a wider sense, including which strategies consumers apply and to what extent they are able to select products that meet or exceed their expectations regarding eating quality, has been conducted. The paper also addresses the role cultural rules and rituals may play in the assessment of traditional food products such as bacalhau.

This study evidences the influence that sales promotion has on brand choice behaviour. Establishments wish to influence consumers' buying behaviour, and thus they launch strong promotional campaigns or introduce changes in their price policies, among other actions. However, they are not always capable of achieving their goal, since, although they may reach their objective in the short term, when the longer term is considered there are undesirable consumer actions.

The problem of consumer brand choice can be adequately described with logit models that allow the use of discrete dependent variables. The probability that the consumer chooses a brand depends directly on the capacity of satisfaction that the brand holds for him/her. In this case, the dependent variable is the brand, and the independent variables are price, reference price, losses and gains, and the different types or techniques of sales promotion. With the aim of obtaining the necessary information for the present study, a regional consumer panel was used.

The results show that it is necessary to consider the product's promotional state at the moment of purchase as an explanatory element of the process. Promotion is a tool that can help manufacturers and/or retailers in the achievement of their objectives (try the brand, help to decide what brand to buy, etc.). Immediate price reduction is the technique that exerts greatest influence on the brand choice process. It is possible that the consumer perceives a promotion, for example, coupons or rebates, but does not modify his or her behaviour. In this case, manufacturers and/or retailers will be investing their resources in promotional actions that do not have any effect on the consumer.

Presents a regional consumer panel that has been elaborated and planned by the authors. Because of this, the information collected is just what was necessary for this study. On the other hand, the paper shows that is very important to know the consumer's preferences and the actions that influence his or her behaviour. Considering the results, it seems that promotions based on price have the greatest effectiveness.

There is an apparent lack of research investigating how different test conditions influence or bias consumer sensory evaluation of food. The aim of the present pilot study was to determine if testing conditions had any effect on responses of an untrained panel to a novel chicken product. Assessments of flavour, texture and overall liking of corn‐fed chicken were made across three different testing conditions (laboratory‐based under normal lighting; laboratory‐based under controlled lighting; and, home testing). Least favourable evaluations occurred under laboratory‐based conditions irrespective of what lighting was used. Consumers perceived the product more favourably in terms of flavour (p < 0.001), texture (p < 0.001) and overall preference (p < 0.001) when evaluated in the familiar setting of the home. Home testing produced more consistent assessments than under either of the two laboratory‐based test conditions. The results imply that home evaluation should be undertaken routinely in new food product development.

Describes the sensory evaluation techniques which have been developed and their historical perspective. Outlines the uses to which the different sensory tests can be put together with some of the limitations and practical advantages of each technique.

There is a range around reference prices, the so-called latitude of price acceptance, where consumers seem insensitive to changes into prices, with these ranges being wider for buyers of private brands. This paper analyses objective price gap between two product alternatives as a main driver of consumer behaviour. Therefore, the authors shed light on whether the price gap conditions consumer-switching behaviour and at what point the price gap triggers a switching pattern.

Shopping data on two product alternatives of olive oil were obtained from a household scanner panel of Spanish consumers (607 households) with weekly price tracking, and multilevel regression models were performed.

The results suggest that the price gap has a fundamental effect on the consumers' choice. In this case, up to 1 euro/litre the demand seems almost inelastic; beyond that price gap, the demand for the finer product plummets.

This study focussed on olive oil products. The research needs to be extended other food products.

The authors contribute to the literature by documenting how the price context measured in terms of a price gap is a relevant stimulus in consumer choices, with a focus on the change in price sensitivity between product alternatives when competing brands are not involved but private brands are.

Presents further empirical results on the convergent and predictive ability of a selection of consumer based brand equity measures. An underlying assumption in this study was that choice was an indicator of brand equity. It is a replication and extension of work carried out by Agarwal and Rao in 1996. Their work is the only study that has attempted to consolidate existing research on consumer based brand equity. Overall, the results generally concurred with those of Agarwal and Rao. Most of the measures were found to be convergent, and to estimate choice. The results mean that managers should now have more confidence in selecting from a range of brand equity measures, many of which can be collected easily and at minimal cost. More empirical studies, however, need to be carried out in a range of different markets to assess the wider performance of these brand equity measures.

This study investigates the relation of bank loan delinquencies to Fed Survey delinquency data from 2003 to 2017. Bank-generated loans have lower delinquencies than all Fed Survey loan types. Survey mortgage and auto loan delinquencies are positively related to bank loan delinquencies indicating complimentary delinquency decisions for borrowers. Conversely, student loans delinquencies are negatively related to bank loans, consistent with borrowers substituting student loan payments for bank debt for the entire sample period. Student loan delinquencies are negatively related to per-capita bankruptcy, and all other types of debt have a positive relation. The relation between Fed Survey loan delinquencies and bank-generated loan delinquencies is time varying and changed after the financial crisis in 2008.

Seemingly Unrelated Regression is used to study delinquencies for three bank loan types and whether or not they are related to Fed Survey loan delinquencies. The sample is split into pre-financial crisis before 2008 and post-crisis after 2008.

Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) results show that bank delinquencies for second mortgages and “Other” loan types are consistently complementary to Fed Survey mortgage loan delinquencies. Fed Survey auto loans delinquencies are also consistent with a complimentary relation, and these results are largely driven by the relation after the financial crisis of 2008 since pre-crisis regression results are not significant for every dependent variable. Credit card loan delinquencies have a negative and substitute relation with bank-generated first mortgage loan delinquencies prior to the crisis in 2008, and with bank-generated second mortgages after the crisis. Conversely, student loan delinquencies from the Fed Survey are negatively and significantly related to bank mortgages for the entire sample period, but only with bank-generated first mortgages after 2008. The student loan delinquency results are consistent with income smoothing, on average, although this is not explicitly tested at the micro level since this study uses macro-level data and not borrower-specific data. These findings are also consistent with conventional wisdom that student loans provide “financial slack” and borrower flexibility.

A limiting factor is this study uses macro-level data and not borrower-specific data.

Empirical findings are consistent with prior research that student loans provide income smoothing and “financial slack,” and borrowers with payment challenges will pay other debt before student loans.

Borrowers in financial trouble tend to be delinquent for all debt, and more so for student debt.

To investigate whether Fed Survey delinquencies of auto loans, first mortgages, student loans and credit card loans from all sources have complementary or substitution effects with bank debt at a macro level. The study investigates whether bank debt follows “market trends” as a complementary effect, or if bank debt has a negative relation to other debt indicating a substitution effect.