Marketing research faces two challenges and a world of opportunity with long-term panel data

There have been frequent calls in the literature for a more comprehensive understanding of marketing impact on long-term firm performance (Dawes, Meyer-Waarden, & Driesener, 2015; Hanssens & Pauwels, 2016; Lodish & Mela, 2007; Webster & Lusch, 2013). Retail scanner data has been the principal source of empirical evidence in this strategic domain, but it cannot explain the behavioural shifts that underpin sales dynamics. Now that far larger extended household panels are available, there is, for the first time, a valuable behavioural lens with which to observe long-term brand and category buying. In this paper we outline theoretical and methodological challenges to this new type of panel research. The first concerns an approach to extending established marketing theory to long-run repeat buying; the second relates to the inherent constraints of long-term panels. We present a new research agenda to progress explanatory theories of long-run brand building and category growth in this new but largely untapped resource.