Success Case: Latin America Media Tracker

From computer prices to anticipating the IT Market Trend

Download

Background, registering information

Media Tracker was developed for “Multinational Company of designing and manufacturing microprocessors” by Market and Business Intelligence (MBI), Marco Argentina, in mid 2002.

The main objective was to “record information on computer prices, through the weekly advertisement that appeared in Buenos Aires papers, such as Clarín and La Nación”.

Media Tracker, a report based on an excel format, was a system that allowed to know the “real price” of personal computers in the Home and Small Medium Business segments. This was done by following up an advertising sample from the most representative IT companies.

Based on the analysis carry our by Marco Argentina, it was detected that the price variable was not enough to account for the complexity of the market. It was introduced a new category called “processor component”. This way, it was not only show computer price of electronics corporation, but also those of their competitor brand.

After, new categories were added, like Motherboard, memory Ram, Hard Disk, Floppy and CD-ROM and even Monitor, among others. At last, through Media Tracker, the client obtained the computer final price, detailed by component.

Report in Argentina case, calibrating the tool

Starting from the continuous market analysis and good relationship to precise requirements of Chip maker Company, MBI area of Marco Argentina established that was not enough to cover “tracking of computer prices”, by doing covering ads that appeared in Newspapers. This was because besides ads, Retailers published their own fortnightly and monthly Catalogues.

The solution to the problem has been to include the main Retail Catalogue of Capital Federal. Between the most representative Retail companies: Coto and Carrefour (Supermarket), Garbarino and Fravega (Electronics devises Chains) Compumundo and Depot (Computer Retailers) Falabella (Mega Store) and Musimundo (Electronics and Entertainment devises Chains).

It extended to informatics' supplements of newspapers also.

This double increase on publication covering, involved growth of managed information as Excel statistics files. In order to resolve this situation has been developed a Data house with available on line information at a web site, through this the client can consult the data without intermediaries and at any time.

Also two new categories have been implemented: "Personal Computers or Desktops" and "Mobile Computers or Notebooks". This way, Media Tracker allowed knowing which computers at the moment in the street were sold".

The entire solution: LATIN AMERICA MEDIA TRACKER.

Thanks to continuous generation of market updated information, the Report analyses has become "an effective tool for taking decisions at management level”. Since it allowed "to obtain a market whole panorama and to show IT market distribution or market share.

These good results have been reflected in project extension to Latin America region.

At first place, it has been extended to Brazil and then to another countries where Marco had presence, like Mexico and Chile. It was also applied methodology of collecting the main Newspapers and Retailer Catalogues publications.

At second place, necessities of PC Microprocessor Company required to include new areas as Central America region - denominated by them like "North Cone"- . This area was conformed by Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

It was added the most representative newspapers and Retailer publications of those countries.

In order to carry out regional Report, a complex process has been made: “After collection and country-level cross-checks, data is electronically sent to regional level (based in Argentina) where it is validated and consolidated. Data validation process includes a number of pre-programmed reports that identify data that appears to deviate of be mistaken. These exceptions are then validated at country level. After correction process, data is consolidated in a regional database”.

The main feature of LAR Systems Media Tracker has been to “respond to tracking necessities for client strategic market, providing a detailed and precise weekly vision about specific changes and IT Market Trends through advertising indicators”.

This way, the client does not only access to a trustworthy analysis and manage of information detailed by country, but it also reaches a detailed panorama by Latin America region.

The future: to keep growing

Latin America Media Tracker is going for three years at the present time. From Marco Argentina is pointed out “the project is not closed, is changing constantly" and "new categories are added for the analysis".

Today, Latin America Media Tracker is made up of two weekly Reports (even Catalogues are updated monthly), and a DataBase.

LAR Tracker Report includes graphs and charts information of the current quarter. It covers a weekly analysis about evolution of prices, Desktops and Notebooks market, Retailers segments, market share and IT market consumption trends detailed by country- region.

It follows LAR Tracker Executive Summary, a report based in Excel format that contains: in depth market analysis to and a description detailed from collected information. LAR Tracker General Database represents a powerful data base that is loaded at Marco Intranet with restricted access to client staff.

Finally, Latin America Media Tracker is a tool that offers support more than one hundred people at Company's staff.