MarketPulse is a continuous monthly tracking survey of household purchases in urban

Urban area

An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...

 and rural

Rural

Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. Established in 1974, it is India's only household panel study that collects information about household purchases. Conducted by IMRB International

IMRB International

IMRB International is a multi-country market research, survey and business consultancy firm that offers a range of syndicated data and customized research services...

's Media and Panel Group, it surveys over 70,000 households, 56,000 in urban India, and 14,000 in rural India and collects a variety of information on purchases in FMCG, finance

Finance

"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

 and telecom

Telecom

Telecom refers to:* An abbreviation of telecommunication.* Short for telecommunications company, in general.* A short name for any telecommunications company with "Telecom" specifically in the name, where context allows media or people to commonly exclude the rest of its name without confusion,...

.

One of the largest continuous tracking studies of its kind anywhere in the world, MarketPulse takes over 1200 field staff to administer the survey, and data is collected primarily through journal

Journal

__FORCETOC__A journal has several related meanings:* a daily record of events or business; a private journal is usually referred to as a diary....

 placements. As a cross-sectional study

Cross-sectional study

Cross-sectional studies form a class of research methods that involve observation of all of a population, or a representative subset, at one specific point in time...

 that covers a variety of households across the SEC

SEC Classification (India)

The SEC Classification is a classification of households used by surveyors, market researchers, media and marketing companies in India to categorize consumer behavior...

 spectrum, with specialised panels for more affluent households. It tracks purchase behavior across 60 different categories such as food

Food

Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

s, beverages, personal care

Personal care

Personal care or toiletries is the industry which manufactures consumer products used for beautification and in personal hygiene.-Subsectors:Subsectors of personal care include cosmetics and feminine hygiene....

 products and home care products.

The data from the tracking survey is widely used by companies such as GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline plc is a global pharmaceutical, biologics, vaccines and consumer healthcare company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...

, Reckitt Benckiser

Reckitt Benckiser

Reckitt Benckiser plc is a global consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest producer of household products and a major producer of consumer healthcare and personal products...

, Unilever

Unilever

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

, ITC, Marico

Marico

Marico is a leading Indian group providing consumer products and services in the areas of Health and Beauty based in Mumbai.During 2009-10, the company generated a Turnover of about Rs.26.6 billion , in respect of its food, hair care and skin care related activities...

, and Dabur

Dabur

Dabur derived from Daktar Burman) is India's largest Ayurvedic medicine manufacturer. Dabur's Ayurvedic Specialities Division has over 260 medicines for treating a range of ailments and body conditions-from common cold to chronic paralysis.-Sustainable Development Society:Sustainable Development...

 and serves as an industry-wide benchmark of marketing performance, and helps companies estimate market share

Market share

Market share is the percentage of a market accounted for by a specific entity. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 67 percent responded that they found the "dollar market share" metric very useful, while 61% found "unit market share" very useful.Marketers need to be able to...

 and future trends

Market trend

A market trend is a putative tendency of a financial market to move in a particular direction over time. These trends are classified as secular for long time frames, primary for medium time frames, and secondary for short time frames...

. In 2009, AC Nielsen data on market share varied substantially from MarketPulse's household panel data leading companies such as Unilever

Unilever

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

 and Godrej

Godrej

Godrej may refer to:* Godrej family, a wealthy business family in India* Godrej Group, a group of companies founded by the Godrej family* Godrej Infotech Ltd‎‎, a group company of Godrej Group* Godrej Industries Ltd, a group company of Godrej Group...

 to question the authenticity of Nielsen

Nielsen

Nielsen , is a Danish patronymic surname, literally meaning son of Niels, Niels being the Danish version of the Greek male given name Νικόλαος, Nikolaos . It is the second most common surname in Denmark, shared by about 5% of the population. It is also used in Norway, although the form Nelsen and...

's data on market share.