Background

Methodology

Subscriber Benefits

Reports

Costs

Genres-Adults

Genres-Children

BACKGROUND

Books and the Consumer is the key monitor of consumer book purchasing in Great Britain.  For details on how to subscribe to the survey and information on the Books and the Consumer Annual Conference, click here

METHODOLOGY

Originally launched in 1989, the survey has been developed to provide detailed continuous purchasing information using data from a Taylor Nelson Sofres’ (TNS) panel of 10,000 individuals aged 12 to 74, demographically and regionally representative of the population of Great Britain.   Every two weeks, panel members are phoned to establish their purchasing of books, books on tape, multimedia, maps and other book-type products.  The interview is conducted using CATI (computer aided telephone interview) and the information captured includes:

• the ISBN of the product purchased
• the price paid, and whether this was at discount
• the method of payment
• the name and type of source
• the age/sex/social grade, presence of children, working status, marital status and TV region of the buyer
• the age/sex of recipient
• the purchase prompt (review, recommendation, tv/radio, read other author/series, saw in shop, etc.)
• the purchase use (whether bought for xmas/birthday/other gift; if personal for family, travel, work, educational use)

The ISBN is linked to a bibliographic database to provide publisher/imprint, genre and format details.    This allows BML to link every book purchased to the demographic details of the purchaser and the user, as well as to the source, the imprint, the genre, and the price paid.

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SUBSCRIBER BENEFITS

• detailed coverage of the total consumer book market, from any source
• purchasing by and for both children and adults
• trend data from 1997
• information on c. 50 main genres (as classified by publisher & TNS) with more detailed genre breakdowns available
• detailed market segmentation by publisher, named source, genre, type of consumer, price, etc.
• analyses by both value and volume

• penetration (number of buyers)
• average spend per buyer and average weight of purchase
• frequency of purchase
• purchasing repertoire/cross purchasing
• customer loyalty/residual purchasing
• possibility of recontacting members of the panel for further research

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REPORTS

A subscription to the survey ensures access to all data collected via written reports, e-mail bulletins and BML’s website.  Retainer days can be used for ad hoc enquiries and information requests.  The following are provided:

a) standard full year and interim reports on adult book purchases showing market segmentation by category/format, genre, publisher, source, price paid, discounting, purchase prompt/use, main user and buyer demographics, buying period.  Segmentation within all books for adults, and within paperback and hardback fiction and paperback and hardback non-fiction

b) as above, for children’s books

c) customised annual report or presentation, showing the analyses of particular interest and importance to subscriber

d) quarterly e-mail bulletins highlighting key trends for that period, and for the year to date

e) regular e-mail bulletins highlighting key facts and figures on a particular market sector

f) access to all main two-way analyses from the survey (source within buyer, reasons for purchase within buyer, buyer within publisher, etc) via BML’s website

g) an annual presentation of the main trends in consumer book purchasing for the preceding year, usually at the BML Conference

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COSTS

Books and the Consumer client rates for a standard annual subscription to 2005 data:

Books and the Consumer non-client rates for a standard annual subscription to 2005 data:

Access to continuous panel data is in addition to the prices quoted above and are available on request.  Subscription prices are adjusted each year in line with any changes in RPI

GENRES COVERED - ADULT

Since 2002 these main genres have been further classified into c. 200 sub-genres.

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