The AiMark community.

Within the AiMark community three professional groups are working closely together on these academic research projects:

• Academics (individuals or groups)
• Individuals from market research companies (Europanel members and associates like GfK, TNS, Information Resources Inc, Intage, PARC and MetrixLab, with access to marketing and consumer data in up to 39 countries on 4 continents)
• Individuals from the FMCG industry (Global Brand Manufactures and Global Retailers)

How to become an academic member? Get your Research Proposal (incl. request for data support) accepted.

We are an informal community, a network, working together on a project-by-project basis. Academics automatically become part of our network the moment their research proposal is accepted, and during the period of the project.

Our support to academics: Access to Unique Data, Unique Insights and Feedback from business and research practitioners.

Access To Unique Data
AiMark could support academic research proposals with the 'data slices' from Type 1 and Type 2 data bases (commercial value usually between Euros 50,000 - 2,000,000.-).

Data base Type 1 (basic data, What happens in the market)
The Europanel network operates in up to 39 countries' consumer household panels (samples from n = 2,000 up to > 50,000 per country), tracking the consumer purchase behaviour of FMCG products. In the main markets these continuous panels are based on scanning technology (e.g. ConsumerScan, Superpanel, etc.) For more information, please visit www.europanel.com >> methodology.

This data provides insights in to the performance of brands, categories and markets in terms of e.g. volumes, values, pricing, penetration, buying frequency and loyalty. Because "profiles" of the panel members are known, 'socio demographics' profiles on age, income, region, lifecycle, etc are also available . Based on the specification of your proposal we will create tailor made data bases.

Data base Type 2 (Reason Why)
To understand the key drivers of consumer purchase behavior we collect from different sources and add these to data base Type 1...

• promotional data (retail scanning panels, including pricing)
• advertising data - attitudinal and "ad hoc" data (e.g. our Global Brand Assessment Center, evaluating up to 100 categories and thousands of Brands)
• trading zone data
• country characteristics (like trade structure, culture, economics, etc.)
• data of top 16 international retailers

By adding and combining these data sets we are able to create powerful databases for testing new consumer and marketing theories and exiting new insights.

Access to Unique (unpublished) Insights.
Members of our community have developed many analytical tools and guidelines to help academics analyzing these data. Furthermore, our members have developed many frameworks, insights and guidelines to help business practitioners implement our leading-edge knowledge into their businesses. You will have access to these insights, most of them in the 'pipe-line of the publishing process'.

Access to Feedback from business and research practitioners.
Members of our community are willing to help you and give feedback and new inputs on your research findings and views.

Every Quarter the AiMark Program Committee will review and grant new research initiatives.

The "operating principles" for granting support to academic projects are the following.
(a) You issue a well documented pre- or proposal, including the required level of data support, to the AiMark Program Committee, p/a Alfred M. Dijs, Director Knowledge Management and Transfer alfred@dijs.net. We advise you to consult Alfred before you issue your proposal, especially on the expected levels of data support. Send him an email, and he will line up a conference call. Click here to learn more.

(b) Every Quarter (March, June, September and December) 4 Members of our Program Committee will review all new proposals (2 academics, 1 individual from Europanel and 1 from a brand manufacturer).

(c) This group of 4 members will review your Proposal based on a set of criteria. Click here lo learn more.

(d) The outcome of this review will be a Rejection of your request, an Acceptance or an Invitation to Discuss (in this case your request may still be accepted, but needs further clarification, etc. ).

(e) If your Proposal is accepted, we will send you a "Support Agreement" containing details as the level of data support, planning, confidentiality and your obligations towards the AiMark community. Click here to learn more.

(f) Please note that given the capacity of the AiMark network and the time-intensive nature of data provision, only a limited number of proposals can be accepted each year.

Why should you as an academic apply for support?

You could have several good reasons. You will have access to unique and very powerful data to make your academic work more challenging. You will increase your chances of get ting your work published in journals of high standing, because you are using our impressive data in terms of size, richness and actual consumer behaviour (no Lab experiments!). You could discuss your pre-findings with marketing practitioners in our community, which helps you to improve the impact of your work in the business area. Last but not least, you will expand your network of academics.

Submitting your proposal.

We prefer to receive pre-proposals first. The pre-proposal is a letter that outlines the topics to be studied and the researchers' preliminary research questions and approach. It is intended to elicit AiMark's reaction to the topic and research concept before the researcher invests substantial time in writing a full proposal. Nevertheless, the more complete the thinking in the pre-proposal, the more likely it is to receive encouragement and constructive comments. If there is any question about whether a project fits the AiMark priorities, or about the researchability of the topic, a pre-proposal should be the first step in applying for AiMark support. In such cases, academics are also encouraged to contact Alfred Dijs, alfred@dijs.net.

There is no required standard format for full pre- and proposals, although clarity and brevity are appreciated. Proposals of 8-12 pages are usually the most effective. Proposals should include:

• A one-page summary
• A background section giving a brief review of the relevant literature and a statement of why the proposed research is expected to contribute to knowledge and improve business practice
• A list of research questions, models, or hypotheses describing the issues to be studied, the researchers' initial insights or beliefs, and what should be learned from the study
• A description of research design and methodology
• A timetable, including key milestones as well as an expected completion date
• Support needs (Note: AiMark will not grant cash requests).
• A statement of expected outcomes or new knowledge, such as a new definition or framework, a new methodology, a better understanding of how key variables affect the marketing process, or new information to assist managers in making better marketing decisions
• A statement of acceptance to our terms of support.
• Vita(e) of the researcher(s)

What are our criteria for Accepting your proposal for data support?

a) Ambition: your research project should demonstrate the potential to generate one or more articles in leading academic journals (IJRM, JCR, JM, JMR, Mgmt Science, Marketing Science)

b) Added Value: the results of your project should create significant value to both the academic and business world. Hence any project should create new academic knowledge as well as managerially relevant insight, as judged by the Committee.

c) Academic qualifications: the leading investigator must demonstrate a minimum of 5 years of post doc experience and an excellent publication record. Your project must be endorsed by at least one full professor of a University of reputation.

d) Professionalism: the community will invest in you and your project with data and resources usually at commercial value between 50k to more than 2 million Euros. Your proposal should demonstrate that you and your resources are capable managing research projects using large data bases and show an attitude of "we deliver, on time".

e) Accept the terms of AiMark Support Agreement: This agreement covers issues like confidentiality, expected output and timing. Click here to learn more. Your proposal should state that you are willing to accept our terms.

What are the Terms of the AiMark Support Agreement?

Our terms vary by project, and will be tailor made based on the level of support. Basically the Agreement will cover the following:

i. Expected output

• At least one academic publication in a leading journal magazine , in which the support of AiMark is acknowledged . Participation (by email) in a network of members of our community working on related topics.
• Sharing your Working paper(s), one of them covering the technical specifications of your models used
• A data slice, containing new variables, based on new learnings of your research
• At least 2 key note speeches / contributions, one to Academic audience and one to an Executive Management audience, the latter being given by the leading investigator.
• AiMark is involved in Executive Training Programs. T he leading investigator could be invited to contribute to our training programs (2x trainings for manufacture r s and 1x for staff of the key data partners in the network like GfK, TNS and IRI). We will reimburse travel costs, based on industry standards ( ~ economy rates).

ii. Ownership and usage of Output

The intellectual property of the output will remain yours, the academic. However, you will allow all members of our community to implement - free of charge - your results, findings, models, etc. in their research and services.

iii. Quality Guidance

We know from the past that analyzing the databases Type 1 and Type 2 is complex. Support of experienced researchers in our community will speed up your project, reduces the risk of your project failing and increases the chances of reviewers of leading magazines accepting your article. Our member-professors will help you in 2 critical phases in your project: (1) the moment you receive the data and plan to start analyzing (beginning of the project) and (2) the moment you produce your preliminary findings. We expect you to accept their guidance.

iv. Research Planning

Part of our professionalism is that the AiMark community reviews - in a 6 month cycle - the planning and progress of all our projects. We expect you to commit your project to this planning process.

v. Confidentiality.

You are allowed to use the data for the requested project only. Because our data identifies brands of leading manufacturers like Unilever, P&G, Nestlé, etc. and retailers like Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco, Ahold, etc. you will protect their interests by taking care that no one has access to the data but other than yourself and you will never publish or share "named" results outside the AiMark community.

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