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Customer in the Edeka sample supermarket
Photo: Uwe Anspach / picture alliance / dpa
Do you still know Erika Mustermann, who had to use her name and her data as an example German on templates for identity cards?
For decades, Haßloch was a place full of Erika Mustermanns for consumer researchers - so typical that they tried to draw conclusions about the taste and shopping habits of Germans from it.
On January 1st, the story of Haßloch for German consumer research came to an end - after 35 years.
The Palatinate community with around 20,000 inhabitants has been an important test market for the market research institute GfK since 1986.
Thousands of people decided with top or flop purchases and helped determine which chocolate bars or deodorants come onto the market.
What was not bought in Haßloch often did not reach stores in the country.
Apps and online surveys are becoming more important
The Nuremberg data and market researcher GfK had previously determined that the local retail landscape and the structure of households, for example the proportions of children, pensioners and families, in Haßloch correspond almost exactly to that of the entire Federal Republic of Germany.
That made the place attractive for test and market decisions.
In the future, GfK will increasingly rely on survey methods such as smartphone apps and online surveys instead of one location.
In Haßloch, on the other hand, plastic cards were used to document what was bought.
"We recently launched a software platform based on artificial intelligence," said GfK spokesman Kai Hummel most recently.
You answer questions from customers around the world in real time, such as: What was bought where and at what price?
Who bought it and why?
The retail expert Gerrit Heinemann from the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences said it was about a reinvention of market research, so to speak.
"As a field test, Haßloch only shows a part of how people shop today."
In Haßloch, the decision caused mixed feelings: "You can say that an era is coming to an end," said community spokesman Marcel Roßmann.
However, the administration understands that consumer research is changing the measurement method in order to meet the demands of its customers.
We are proud of our 35 years as an »average village« and the nationwide awareness that goes with it.
apr / dpa-AFX
