MATHEWS RESEARCH Staff Letter of Response March 11, 1976

MATHEWS RESEARCH
Staff Letter of Response
March 11, 1976
Dear Mr. Wilcox:

We are in receipt of your letter of February 16 requesting an advisory opinion relating to a proposed marketing research service, the “Full Range Market Monitor.”

The matter you raise appears to satisfy the requirements of Section 1.1 of the Commission’s Rules of Practice. The staff intends

sea vane We tea ae ne to submit this matter of the Commission for issuance of an advisory opinion. However, the final decision as to whether to issue an opinion is made by the Commission in the course of its substantive consideration of the issues. I, of course, cannot inform you what action the Commission will ultimately take. The legality of the plan is dependent on factual assessments of the market involved, the parameters of the plan and its probable effect on price competition. To respond to your inquiry, the following supplementary information is needed:

1) State how often price information will be collected (weekly, twice a month, monthly, every other month) and how often the Market Monitor reports will be published. How soon after the price information is obtained will the Market Monitor report be available? 2) Identify the effective dates of the prices reported: whether the reported prices will be effective on a specified date in the future; whether they are effective presently and will remain in effect during some or all of the reporting period; whether they are the most recently effective, current prices; or whether some other kind of price information is to be reported.

3) Submit a sample of each Market Monitor report as to which an opinion is desired.

4) For each report form provided in response to Item 8, identify all potential purchasers that have indicated an interest in purchasing such report (specifying whether retailer or product supplier) and indicate whether the report will be available to anyone willing to purchase it.

_ 5) For each report form identified in response to Item 8, identify or describe in detail the retailers or classes of retailers that will participate or will be asked to participate, by providing price information.

6) Describe the geographical areas to be covered by the above reports.

7) Submit a sample of each type of inquiry form that will be used to collect price information from retailers, together with any explanatory material which would accompany or describe the price data to be so provided.

8) Will. participating food store firms provide more than one comprehensive price list for a given report? If'so, describe what will be provided.

9) Describe fully and in detail what you as marketer of this information view as the benefit(s) and/or usefulness of the reports identified in Item 3 to participating retail food stores. (In response to this item, specify the extent to which current price information is

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needed and the extent to which such benefits and/or usefulness would be diminished if the price information reported were one month old or six months old.) 10) Have representatives of food stores indicated to you their views as to the benefit(s) and/or desirability of the price information which would be available through the Market Monitor? Have product suppliers so indicated their views? If so, describe separately in detail. 11) Have representatives of food store firms indicated to you various facets of this or similar programs which they like or dislike or favor or disfavor? Have product suppliers so indicated? If so, describe in each instance in detail the positions and reasons suggested.

I would anticipate that once the Commission is in receipt of the information necessary for full consideration of this matter, your inquiry would be submitted to the Commission by the staff for issuance of an advisory opinion within 60 days.

Sincerely,
Margaret A. Cotter
Attorney

Office of General Counsel
Letter of Request
February 16, 1976
Dear Sir:

It is the desire of Mathews Research that the Federal Trade Commission issue an Industry Guide in accordance with { 9801 of Volume III, Trade Regulations Reports, Pages 17,562, and 17,563. Mathews Research, a marketing research firm located in Youngstown, Ohio, desires to provide a new marketing research service, primarily to food merchandisers. The service is to be called the “Full Range Market Monitor”. It is a new service which Mathews is not now providing. Furthermore, this proposed service is not the subject of a pending investigation or other proceeding by the Federal Trade Commission or any other government agency. A complete description of the proposed “Full Range Market Monitor” is attached for your examination. The first section describes the basic reporting system. The second section deals with