The In-Store Marketing Institute and The Nielsen Company Mark Key Milestones on Path Towards a Global Ratings Metric on In-Store Marketing

Data Will Make Stores a Measurable Medium Alongside TV, the Internet and Other Platforms, Revolutionizing How the Retail Industry Serves Consumers

Early Findings Show Heavy Traffic Does Not Equate to Highest Sales; Shoppers who Bring the Kids to The Grocery Store Buy More, including Shampoo and Drinking Water

September 27, 2007- New York, NY –  The Nielsen Company and the In-Store Marketing Institute, in collaboration with the P.R.I.S.M. Consortium of leading retailers, manufacturers and media agencies, today announced substantial progress in a breakthrough project that will make stores a measurable marketing medium. After reaching key research milestones, Nielsen In-Store will syndicate the data in 2008, giving retailers and manufacturers exhaustive intelligence that will help them rethink in-store marketing to improve the shopper experience.

The P.R.I.S.M. Project: Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric is the retail industry’s most significant initiative to establish a global metric for evaluating the in-store environment as a marketing medium along the lines of Nielsen’s TV, Internet, Box Office and other audience metrics. Understanding the store environment is critical as seventy percent of all final purchase decisions are made at the shelf.  For the first time, the P.R.I.S.M. Project allows in-store traffic to be measured by product category, such as in the cereal aisle of a food retailer or in the hair care aisle of a drug store.

In addition to The Nielsen Company and the In-Store Marketing Institute, the Consortium is comprised of the following companies: A&P, Ahold USA, Catapult Marketing, Clorox, Coca-Cola, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Group M, Hewlett-Packard, Hy-Vee, Integer, Kraft, Kroger, MARS Advertising, Mars Snackfood, Mattel, Meijer, Miller Brewing, Nintendo, OMD, Procter & Gamble, Pathmark, Price Chopper, Rite Aid, Safeway, Schnucks, Sears/Kmart, Starcom MediaVest, Stop & Shop, Supervalu, Target, Unilever, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie.

The current nationwide trial was initiated by Nielsen In-Store on April 29, 2007, and counts traffic in store aisles both digitally and manually.  By the time the trial ends in late December, Nielsen In-Store will have studied more than 160 stores, capturing over 60% of the All Commodity Volume (ACV) of products in food, drug and mass retailers. An international pilot is expected to begin in Europe next year.

One year after announcing the results of a successful pilot, a panel of Consortium members will address more detailed findings in “Changing the Game: The Impact of P.R.I.S.M. on the Future of Retail.”  The discussion is scheduled for today at 2:45 pm (CST) during the In-Store Marketing Expo at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center in Chicago. The findings include:

• Traffic and Sales – P.R.I.S.M. shows that category transactions alone are not a reliable indicator of category traffic, counter to conventional wisdom. Two-thirds of shoppers who visit the salty snacks section in a food store make a purchase. Traffic is far heavier past the dairy case but the “closure rate,” or number of shoppers who make a purchase, is much lower for dairy products.
  
• Demographics – Only 13 percent of food shopping trips are with kids, but P.R.I.S.M. data shows shoppers put more in their baskets overall when children are with them. This dynamic is constant throughout the week and across most top product categories, including hair care and water. Seasonal items are two and a half times more likely to be purchased when kids are present.  Interestingly, the presence of kids on the shopping trip has little impact on candy sales.
  

• Marketing Influences – Shoppers are communicated with frequently in stores: the average number of individual pieces of marketing stimuli in a grocery store is about 3,500 and larger store formats, such as mass merchandisers, have over 5,000 stimuli.  A typical drug store has roughly 2,300 individual pieces of marketing stimuli.

 

David Calhoun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Nielsen Company and one of today’s panelists, said: “Industry-accepted metrics typically emerge because of need. It’s how Nielsen’s television ratings became indispensable to understanding viewership and it’s how the Internet has gone from an undefined medium to a measured platform  … There’s too much money at stake for the in-store experience to be left to intuition.”

Steve Bratspies, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., also a panelist, added: “The richness of P.R.I.S.M. data will complement our years of expertise to help us better understand what is working and what isn’t for our customers. It can dramatically change the way we as retailers create a more compelling in-store environment by helping us to truly anticipate the needs of our customers. I believe the greatest benefit of this project will be fundamentally improving the shopping experience.”

Sandy Douglas, President and Chief Operating Officer, Coca-Cola North America, also a panelist, said: “While we use a wide variety of marketing vehicles, we know that the vast majority of shopping decisions are made at the shelf.  P.R.I.S.M. will create more insightful analytical tools to help us connect with shoppers in a more effective way.”

Bob McDonald, Chief Operating Officer, The Procter & Gamble Co., also a panelist, said: “Winning at the shelf is about truly understanding what shoppers need to know and how they like to shop. Ultimately, nothing matters unless we can delight the shopper and P.R.I.S.M. is going to help us deliver that experience every time.”

Renetta McCann, Chief Executive Officer, Starcom MediaVest Group, also a panelist, said: 
“By mapping store traffic and enhancing it with consumer feedback and compliance measures, we will have a much clearer, more measurable and predictable grasp of what the consumer is going to do inside a store. That absolutely changes the conversations we will be able to have with our clients as we map out the touchpoints that propel a consumer from intent to response.”

Peter Hoyt, Executive Director of the In-Store Marketing Institute, will introduce the panelists and moderate today’s discussion. He said: “The P.R.I.S.M. findings will change the way manufacturers, retailers and agencies view the in-store environment. It confirms that in-store consumer reach can be measured and predicted with great reliability, which will enable marketers to enhance the efficiency and quality of the shopper’s experience.”

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com

About The In-Store Marketing Institute

The In-Store Marketing Institute, producer of the In-Store Marketing Expo, is a global organization of brand marketers, retailers, agencies and manufacturers focused on improving retail marketing strategy worldwide.  Based outside of Chicago, the Institute serves the needs of its membership by providing information, research, education and training, networking opportunities, trade publications and trade shows designed to further the understanding, acceptance and effectiveness of in-store marketing.  For more information, go to www.instoremarketer.org.

About the P.R.I.S.M. Consortium

The P.R.I.S.M. Consortium is an unprecedented coalition of leading manufacturers, retailers and agencies led by the In-Store Marketing Institute and Nielsen In-Store, formed to support the P.R.I.S.M. Project (Pioneering Research for an In-Store Metric) through joint funding, the pooling of world class talent and sharing best practices in research, media and other resources. The Consortium is comprised of the following companies: A&P, Ahold USA, Catapult Marketing, Clorox, Coca-Cola, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Group M, Hewlett-Packard, Hy-Vee, Integer, Kraft, Kroger, MARS Advertising, Mars Snackfood, Mattel, Meijer, Miller Brewing, Nintendo, OMD, Procter & Gamble, Pathmark, Price Chopper, Rite Aid, Safeway, Schnucks, Sears/Kmart, Starcom MediaVest, Stop & Shop, Supervalu, Target, Unilever, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie.

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