COMPPARE

COMPPARE is an acronym for the Comparison of Media: Purchase Process Advertising Research Evaluation. It is a research product from ARC created specifically for Yellow Pages publishers although it can be customized to suit your research objectives. COMPPARE determines media usage by business decision-makers for a selected list of industry categories or Yellow Pages headings. The survey methodology involves a combination telephone recruit with a self-administered mail questionnaire to business decision-makers randomly chosen from a given geographic area. Large businesses, which have to make more purchases, are over-sampled for higher representation. The publisher requesting the study determines the media and the categories measured. The key findings are based on two measures:

The Active Market: defined as those businesses, which purchased or considered purchasing a product or service classified under the particular heading in the past year.
Media Usage: defined as the percent of the active market that used a media source in their search for the specified product and service.

Data is reported in formats compatible with the generation of sales aids. Information that can be included in each sales aid is as follows:

• The total number of those who at least considered a purchase in the past year (active market) of each listed product/service category (i.e., heading).
• For each category with a minimum of 100 in the active market:
  
  • Information sources used, including the Yellow Pages
  • Whether actually purchased in the past year
  • Amount spent on the last purchase occasion
  • Profile of users, based on business characteristics

Publishers which have a separate business-to-business Yellow Pages can have this directory profiled separately from their regular or consumer-only product.

The key benefits of this research are:

• A large amount of data can be culled at a moderate cost
• The information can be used as sales aids and they can be updated every few years at an even lower cost.
• The sample quality is high - random selection to business decision-makers at their place of business.

These information tools will allow a sales representative to document the effectiveness of advertising in selected headings or categories and to demonstrate the potential impact of a directory ad on an advertiser's or potential advertiser's revenue.

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